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Chapps

@chapps.bsky.social

3.4K followers 350 following 4.4K posts

Former tech drone, living in L.A. I now create digital reconstructions of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. No, really. 🏳️‍🌈 Flickr account (museum photos, mainly, free to use and high res): https://www.flickr.com/photos/125386285@N02/

www.flickr.com

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · Nov 11

FYI, to anyone interested, I upload all of my high res photos to my Flickr account where they’re organized into albums and tagged with keywords, so they’re easy to search. All free to use, with credit. www.flickr.com/photos/chapp...

I’ll eventually upload my reconstructions! 🏺

Screen cap of my Flickr Photostream. Labeled ‘Stephen Chappell (aka Chapps)’, at the moment I took the pic, it included things like a terracotta figurine of two girls playing ephedrismos, a bronze Roman cavalry parade helmet, a gold Ptolemaic coin, an Egyptian faience vase, etc.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 6h

Ah, I saw that guy's little cousin at the Art Institute of Chicago. Must read that article ... flic.kr/p/2r7APWZ

Bronze statuette of an archer or warrior from Sardinia

This and the statuette of a gift giver (see other upload) were created on the island of Sardinia, located off the west coast of Italy. While the figures' intended purpose is unclear, each one's unique...

flic.kr

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 6h

And everybody says that archaeology is glamorous ...

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 6h

Little Flavius went home with this souvenir to remind him of the wonderfully gruesome death of the gladiator Maximus that he witnessed that day ... Truly the best of all worlds. 😳

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 6h

Oh, without a doubt.

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 6h

I'm not touching that with a ...

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 10h

I mean, I know I’m about to bring up something laughable, but … doesn’t Congress have to vote on this? I’m not sure a president can unilaterally make this decision. Just like he shouldn’t be able to build a giant ego-extension onto the White House, or a Trump victory arch next to the Potomac.

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 10h

Look harder! 😂

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 11h

What a view! Lucky guy.

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 11h

This terracotta figurine group has a deep olive-green glaze, much pitted with time, with fantastic details: a scutum, visored and plumed helmet, a sica (short sword), and full-leg greaves (!).

Possibly a souvenir from a day at the amphitheater. 🏺/2

flic.kr/p/2ryqhSF

Lead-glazed terracotta group of two gladiators (one missing)

Terracotta gladiator group, with an olive-green enamel glaze. Two gladiators once opposed each other on the long base, one now missing, save his left foot. The remaining gladiator stands with his righ...

flic.kr

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 11h

I imagine this guy shouting at museum patrons with a squeaky little voice, ‘C’mon, you think you can take me? Look what I did with the last guy!’.

This green-glazed terracotta gladiator is ready to rumble, but only his competitor’s foot remains. 🏺 1/

Roman, 1st c. CE, #BritishMuseum
📸 me

Terracotta gladiator group, with an olive-green enamel glaze. Two gladiators once opposed each other on the long base, one now missing, save his left foot. The remaining gladiator stands with his right leg advanced, his scutum (shield) held before him in his right hand. He holds a sica (short curved sword) in his left hand and wears a crested visored helmet and extra long greaves which cover his entire legs.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 12h

In the Age of Trump, I’d consider that a startling win. A lot of companies and people are just saying ‘Suck it’. Sighhhh.

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 12h

Tra-la!

📸 me

Greek, Sicilian, ca. 225-175 BCE.
Getty Villa (73.AD.151)

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 12h

Not re-carved, but entirely new. Paste-on faces. You can even see the ‘glue’. 😂

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 12h

Wow, they have some stones, don’t they? Not an unknown practice in book and movie reviews (I once had a job to cherry pick phrases that could be printed on VHS tape covers). It seems a far worse practice in academic books.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 12h

Judging by the two cyclist/pedestrian smash-ups that I saw in London a couple of weeks ago, perhaps maiming should be the important measurement here. Huge difference in the last five or so years - loads of cyclists going top speed and not obeying lights, pedestrian walkways, etc.

Reposted by Chapps

Dr Alan Montgomery @classicalalan.bsky.social · 22h

Here are three wonderfully preserved Roman shoes that were discovered at Bar Hill Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in Scotland in the early 1900s. Shoes made for men, women and children have been found there, reminding us that frontier zones were not an exclusively military environment. #FindsFriday

Three ancient roman shoes with pierced decoration displayed on dummy feet.

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Reposted by Chapps

Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · 22h

A #Roman copper alloy plaque with Victory carrying a trophy including shields and two trumpets (carnyxes)

Probably commemorating triumph over the poor Silures in the late 1st century AD

From Caerleon © Amgueddfa Cymru — Museum Wales CC BY-SA 4.0

For more see
images.museumwales.ac.uk

#FindsFriday

Bronze plaque with a relief image of a winged female personification of Victory carrying a trophy of armour, shields, trumpets and a helmet fixed to a pole slung over her right shoulder

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 12h

This is gorgeous!

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 16h

I did come across this one at the Met, which has Eros on one side (perhaps alluding to how knucklebones could divine one’s future love), and it has a handle, indicating carrying it was part of its function. But other than that … 🤷‍♂️

www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

Attributed to an artist recalling the Painter of London D 12 - Terracotta vase in the form of an astragal (knucklebone) - Greek, Attic - Classical - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1941. "An Athenian Astragalos." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 36(5): pp. 122–23. Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection

www.metmuseum.org

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 16h

It would certainly be an amazing prize - so it’s always a possibility. I still can’t understand how Aeolus and the floating ladies relate to the knucklebone theme, if they do at all. I was trying to find the other large pottery knucklebone I’d seen before, but came up with nothing.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 1d

No, let’s not tell him.

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, Nero made the big mistake of scooping up homes and land and razing it all to build his luxury palace in the middle of the city. If he had been like Hadrian, and built it well awy from Romans' eyes, it wouldn't have been so hated. Vespasian built something for the people.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 1d

So would I!

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 1d

Gems like this - set into finger rings and other jewelry - were often given by the imperial household as gifts to political supporters. Classier than 'MRGA' (Make Rome Great Again) hats. 🏺 2/

Dated to 69-79 CE, the years Vespasian ruled as a solo emperor. #BritishMuseum

flic.kr/p/2rxZE3k

Sard engraved with a portrait head of the Roman emperor Vespasian wearing a laurel wreath

A sard gem engraved with a portrait head of the Roman Emperor Vaspasian in profile, wearing a laurel wreath. Set into a gold finger ring. Vespasian was the last emperor to reign in the Year of the Fo...

flic.kr

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 1d

A lovely colored engraved sard gem, with the laureate portrait head of a Roman emperor. Which one? With a face only a mother could love and that thick neck, there's really only one choice: Vespasian. The last man standing from the Year of the Four Emperor, founder of the Flavian dynasty. 🏺 1/

📸 me

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