The Annunciation

BnF MS Latin 17325; Gospels for various feast days; 11th century; f.7v @gallicabnf.bsky.social

#TombTuesday

Loughcrew Cairns is a passage tomb cemetery located near the village of Oldcastle in County Meath. The most striking features of the #archaeological landscape of Loughcrew are the three large cairns that dominate the summit of three steep hills. #Ireland #Archaeology

Decorated cist lid from Nether Largie North Cairn at Kilmartin Glen in Argyll. The cairn dates to the Bronze Age. 📸 My own. #TombTuesday #Prehistory #Archaeology #Kilmartin #Argyll

Medieval border tile from the Cistercian convent at North Berwick in East Lothian. The nunnery was founded by Duncan, Earl of Fife, between 1147 and 1153. The tile is on display at the Wardlaw Museum in St. Andrews. 📸 My own. #TilesOnTuesday #NorthBerwick #WardlawMuseum

Printed 3D copy of a tombstone to Ammonius, Centurion of the First Cohort of Spaniards who served for 27 years. The tombstone was found at Ardoch Roman Fort in Perthshire. Now part of the collections at Perth Museum. 📸 My own. #EpigraphyTuesday #RomanScotland #PerthMuseum

Mosaic with blue/red/white guilloche borders top and bottom. Silenus caped in panther skin cloak behind a panther on the left, following Dionysus holding a wine vessel on the right, his arm around a young satyr.

#MosaicMonday
How to make an entrance: bring a panther to the party. Dionysiac scene of Silenus, a panther, Dionysus and Ampelos, a young satyr.
One of impressive #Roman mosaics at Musée départemental Arles antique, excavated 1914 in Trinquetaille area of Arles, thriving port area C1 BC-C3 AD. 🏺

Mosaic of a lion in a rocky landscape clutching a leopard in it’s front paws. The lion has a fierce expression while the leopard looks fearful for what comes next. Now held in the MAN Napoli, inv. no. 114282.

✨Lion versus Leopard✨

This mosaic immediately captures your attention - the direct gaze of the lion forcing the leopard into submission is hard to miss. The mosaic has suffered some damage from subsistence over the years but feels acutely compelling even with the rough edges.

#MosaicMonday

A monochrome geometric #Roman floor mosaic, still in its original ancient position in the city of Italica (Spain), where it has lain for some 1700+ years

#Archaeology #MosaicMonday #AncientBlueSky

Roman mosaic showing Neptune in his chariot and brandishing his trident, from the East Baths of Thamugad now in the Musée de Timgad, Algeria; courtesy of Carole Raddato. #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology #MosaicMonday

Part of a colourful Roman mosaic floor depicting doves drinking from a vase from a townhouse that dates AD 1-50. The house is now below the Caseggiato delle Taberne in #OstiaAntica.
📷 my own.
#MosaicMonday #Archaeology #AncientRome

Stone slab inscribed with ‘A prayer for the soul of Flann’ and a Celtic cross.

Apr 20: Feast of Flann mac Maíle Dúin (†891), abbot of Iona. In early 17thC sources he was speculatively identified with the Flann commemorated #OTD. One 9thC stone from Iona reads: ‘A prayer for the soul of Flann’. Máel Brigte mac Tornáin succeeded him. 📸HES

The picture shows a pair of Egyptian sandals made of woven reed and palm leaves, the sole with bound edges and pointed toe. One sandal is completely preserved with ankle strap and toe strap.

#Egyptian flip flops: a pair of sandals made of woven reed and palm leaves. Dating around 1500-1400BC

On display at Museum of the University of Tübingen

📷me

🏺

Stone circle

Good morning from the Merry Maidens

First to Second Century AD floor mosaic from Rome with the head of Medusa at the centre. Now part of the collections at the Terme di Diocleziano in Rome. 📸 My own. #MosaicMonday #Rome

Prehistoric funerary or accessory cup which was found at Keighly Road in Skipton. Now part of the collections at Craven Museum in Skipton, Yorkshire. 📸 My own. #Prehistory #Skipton #CravenMuseum

A view through the C12th west doorway of the monastic church at Jedburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders. Initially founded as a priory in 1138 by David I, it became an abbey in 1154. 📸 My own. #MedievalMonday #JedburghAbbey

My photo shows a Hellenistic era hemispherical mosaic glass bowl viewed from above. The glass has a floral pattern made up of tiny, many-petalled blue, white, and yellowy-green flowers against a dark purple background (looks black in my photo). The bowl has an alternating diagonal-striped black and white glass rim. The bowl has been reconstructed from fragments and the plain light blue areas are where missing glass fragments have been replaced during reconstruction. It measures 13.2 cm in diameter and 7.5 cm in height. It was made in the eastern Mediterranean about 200-100 BC.

This Hellenistic mosaic glass bowl looks so modern, yet it was made over 2,000 years ago!

Ancient glassmakers created the tiny flower pattern using a technique now known as ‘millefiori’ (thousand flowers). A timeless design still made by glassmakers today!

British Museum 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic An interdisciplinary study of the uses, meanings, and social impact of Viking Age textiles.

New in paperback.
Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic: Analysis, Interpretation, Re-creation. Edited by Alexandra Lester-Makin, Gale R Owen-Crocker boydellandbrewer.com/book/textile...

Central panel from a Roman mosaic featuring two naked male characters, one seated playing a lyre, the dancing with pan pipes

Here's one of our favourite #Dorset #Roman floors for #MosaicMonday

The lively depiction of a music battle between Apollo (with lyre) and Marsyas (pipes)

[Spoiler alert: things end badly for Marsyas]

Found 1834 and moved to Sherborne Castle

Painting by David Neal for @antiquaries.bsky.social

This mosaic depicts Jupiter in the guise of an eagle making off with Ganymede. Ganymede wears a Parthian cap to indicate his easternness (and perhaps also his effeminacy).

🏛️Bignor Roman Villa
📷 my own
#MosaicMonday

The arched top of a Roman mosaic, with partial damage, showing the head of Oceanus with fish, dolphins and (possibly lobster claws?) in a demi-lune surrounded by three lines of patterns

Oceanus giving some splendid side eye in the fabulous Fordington High Street Mosaic, 2nd century CE, now on the wall of the Dorset Museum
#MosaicMonday

Historiated initial 'h'(ebreos) at the beginning of book 4
#JosephusAntiquities
Trinity Hall Library, MS 4; Josephus, Flavius, Historiae Antiquitatis Judaice; 12th century; Herefordshire, England; f.36r @camdiglib.bsky.social

A display of a well preserved object resembling a bucket, with a triangular handle and rough, decayed texture. The object is mounted upright in a glass case within a modern museum setting.

A Neolithic well bucket made of lime bast and a willow handle, dating back some 7000 years ago.
Lime bast fibre is a strong and flexible inner bark of a lime (linden) tree that was, for example, used to make textiles or ropes.
Found in a well in Eythra, dating 5100-5000 BC. 🧵1/2

📷 me

Close-up of the Escrick Ring against a black background.

The early medieval gold Escrick Ring was found by detectorist Michael Greenhorn in a field near York #OTD in 2009. The sapphire seems to have originally been surrounded by a red glass cloisonné. 📸York Museums Trust

A chambered tomb in a green field in North Pembrokeshire, Wales

Llech Y Dribedd, nr Moylegrove, Pembrokeshire.

📷 05.04.22

#StandingStoneSunday
#Stunday #LandscapePhotography

A standing stone 2.3m high and about 0.5m square in a grazing field.

Windhill, one of two stones of the same name nr Muir of Ord separated by the A862 at the western end of the Black Isle #StandingStoneSunday

More pics of both stones on @megalithic.bsky.social here www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?...

Flat slab like standing stone, wider face toward us, will small patch of windblown snow clinging on its surface. The inscribed shape of a simple cross still visible. It stands in moorland, with Heather covered ground , and distant snow patched hills beyond.

And how,
shall we now,
mark what matters ...

Learable Hill, Caithness, is part of a larger monument group, including stone row and cairn. On one face, a simple cross has since been incised, over 2000 years after the stone was first erected.

#StandingStoneSunday #Archaeology #Scotland

Megalithic tomb in Galicia in Baiñas, Spain. The Neolithic Atlantic funerary culture stretched from southern Sweden via Britain and Normandy to coastal Spain and Portugal. #StandingStoneSunday

Nine Ladies stone circle, Stanton Moor

Nine Ladies of Stanton Moor #standingstonesunday

From darkness to light … #StandingStoneSunday