I agree. Too long.

PDF of the Call for Papers for the Prehistoric Society’s Europa conference in honour of Professor Penny Spikins at the University of York on 6 June. The theme is “What can we learn from Neanderthals?” Abstract submission date 5 April. Email abstracts to Meetings@PrehistoricSociety.org

📣 Call for Papers: Europa 2026❗️
@prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

🧐 Theme: What can we learn from Neanderthals?
📍 Location: University of York
🗓️ Date: Saturday 6 June
🚨 Abstract deadline: Sunday 5 April

We’d love to highlight ECR research!

Please share with any Neanderthal fans in your networks!

Metal detectorists find 2,000-year-old treasure in field The find - the first of its kind in west Wales - is incredibly rare and has been described as one of 'historical significance'

Huge news for Ceredigion & west Wales.

Imperial #Roman lead mines on Cardigan Bay were under the control of Domitian by AD 87 as confirmed by the discovery of these lead pigs

Only the 5th & 6th ingots ever found in Wales 😮

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-n...

6th century mosaic of a child playing chariot racing from the Great Palace at Constantinople. Pushing wheels on sticks represents the chariot and four horses. Part of the collections at the Great Palace Mosaic Museum in Istanbul. 📸 My own. #MosaicMonday

Ahhh well it’s a lovely made up thing! Thanks for checking sweet friend ❤️

Is the figure based on a figurine or anything?? We had a little head terminal thingy that was in for recording yonks ago and we couldn’t find a parallel for circular eyes (they tend to be lenticular in the south, anyway), rectangular nose and straight grooved hair that looked like a bowl cut 🧐

Black and white line illustration of a wide eyed figurine wearing a grotesque style gold torc.

Beautiful line drawing of a Scottish gold torc (Netherurd, @tessmachling.bsky.social ??) by Keith Henderson in Piggott’s 1958 Scotland Before History (thanks to @gjmichaelson.bsky.social for reminding me of this book!)
#FindsFriday

#HillfortsWednesday

Pen-y-crug is a large, oval, multivallate #hillfort which encloses the summit of a prominent, isolated hill about 2km north-west of the confluence of the rivers Usk and Honddu at #Brecon #Wales

📸 @drtobydriver.bsky.social
#Archaeology #History #Cymru

The grass covered ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort looking out at the sea and sky

The grass covered ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort looking out at the sea and sky

Some Iron Age ramparty goodness from Abbotsbury Castle hillfort, high above the villages of West #Dorset

Here looking NW along the coast to West Bay and Bridport and SW along Chesil Beach to Weymouth and Portland

We love it here

📷 Feb 2023

Happy #HillfortsWednesday !

Toby & Tori in high Vis at the edge of a coastal blow hole

Filming for #DiggingForBritain with the brilliant @toriherridge.bsky.social on the very edge of Buckspool promontory fort, Pembrokeshire, in the heat of August last year 🌞🔥

Perfect viewing tonight for #HillfortsWednesday 🛖🥳

👉 www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

A golden mask of a face of a man with a moustache

#findsfriday - the ‘Face of Agamemnon’. A gold funerary mask from Mycenae - probably 16th C BCE. Sadly not the face of the king though. One of those wow moments when you finally see the object that has become incredibly familiar to you from books & stories #archaeology #greekmyths #trojanwar #gold

A fragment of terracotta tile with the footprint of a dog towards the lower edge and another to the right.

A fragment of Roman terracotta tile with the imprints of a dog's paw that was discovered at Rochester in Kent. #FindsFriday

Yep!

I certainly don’t see why not! Shields aren’t my area of specialism but I would think that’s a strong possibility. The handle is quite small, so could be used to secure to the side of a chariot or something, while still being deployable 🛡️

The handle is indeed bronze, integral to the boss I think.The shield part of this replica is made of thick leather.

I do often wonder if certain things were props in performances or ceremonies rather than actually used in combat. But as my fav professor used to say, “I don’t know, I wasn’t there!”

Allegedly it’s just over 8 kg but it feels a lot heavier when holding it with one hand by a tiny little handle at the back!! I swear! 🤪😂

Iron Age copper alloy shield boss (electrotype) - Collections Online | Museum Wales Thin, sheet, copper alloy ornamental covering for a spindle shaped shield boss. The central expanded...

The replica is based on a shield boss and plate fittings / mounts from Moel Hiraddug, Denbighshire - link to an electrotype: museum.wales/collections/...

The Iron Age folks 🛖

Shields like this would apparently be used with a long spear-headed weapon and the shield would even double as a weapon itself. I can’t imagine how strong people would have to be to wield this beast in battle because idk if I mentioned this but it is HEAVY!

Me holding a pill-shaped hide shield with bronze plate decoration and a lenticular central boss. I am looking down at the shield.

Me standing behind the shield looking at the camera. It is about 4 feet long.

I have worked in Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales for over six years, yet I learn something new about our collections every day 🤩

Today I got to hold a replica Iron Age - Early Roman (c. 1st century AD) shield! It’s heavy! It’s SO heavy!

A stylised copper alloy image of a sad looking bull with elongated horns

For #FindsFriday

A copper alloy late Iron Age 15cm high bulls head *fitting* with elongated horns and horn-caps

Looking mournfully at us, wanting to be understood

Findspot unknown, function sadly unknown

Donated to the BM by Salisbury Museum in 1946

© Trustees of the British Museum 1946,1010.1

Io, Saturnalia everybody!

The 15th century ‘Angel Roof’ of St Helen’s Church at Brant Broughton in Lincolnshire. While restored in the later 19th century, the colours are based on extensive traces of the original paintwork. 📸 My own. #Woodensday #BrantBroughton #Lincolnshire #AdventAngels

Beth and I sat at a long skinny table with paperwork and artefacts on a black tablecloth. Three adults and a child sit at the table opposite, two kids play in the back, their faces covered by emojis.

Me posing with a replica gold torc.

A stone spindle whorl and a cream-colored flint arrowhead in my hand.

Another successful PAS Cymru Finds Day in Aberystwyth yesterday, this time hosted at the @librarywales.bsky.social! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The history of Ceredigion is enriched with every Finds Day and it’s such a privilege to play a part 🥰

Big thanks to @drtobydriver.bsky.social for his help on the day!

Yayyy it’s not often we get to record stone tools!!

For #FindsWednesday A nice surface find of a pebble tool - with percussion damage at both ends - typical of prehistoric finds from other hillforts & promontory forts.

One to document through #PAS on Saturday with @archaedelle.bsky.social & then properly record for this scheduled site

Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath.

Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath.

Fascinating world of ancient glass: The skill of ancient glassmakers never ceases to amaze me.

This a magnificent #Roman striped mosaic bowl was made of preformed rods and canes fused on or in a mold.
Dating late 1st c. BC/early 1st c AD.

Timeless beauty!

📷 Corning Museums of Glass

🏺

A pile of archaeological books about the Iron Age, Druids, hillforts and Boudicca. On the right is the. Ok on the finds from Llyn Cerrig Bach by Sir Cyril Fox.

Really looking forward to giving the Cambrian Archaeological Association Christmas lecture tonight. There may be Druids! Am doing some last minute cramming with the help of some of the usual suspects. Thus I can blame them for any errors! #celts #ironage #veterans #archaeology #wellbeing

Sussex Ice Age Map - Google My Maps Mapping Pleistocene Sites and Neanderthal Artefacts in Sussex

Appros of nothing, The Sussex mammoth Map www.google.com/maps/d/edit?... 🦣🏺