Alison Fisk
@alisonfisk.bsky.social
11K followers 3.5K following 1.5K posts
Recent Masters degree in Archaeological Practice at Birkbeck, University of London. Here to share my love of archaeology.
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Reposted by Alison Fisk
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Pot of gold!

Rare Roman gold coin hoard uncovered near Didcot, Oxfordshire, by a metal detectorist in 1995. The pot contained 126 gold aurei, struck between AD 54-160. It would have taken a legionary soldier over ten years to earn this large sum!

Ashmolean Museum 📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a pile of shiny Roman gold coins below five fragments from a grey pot
Reposted by Alison Fisk
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#FindsFriday This bronze helmet was found in a field near Falaise in northern France in the 1820s

It dates to the late Bronze Age, around 1100-900BC, and was part of a cache of 10 helmets!

What could have prompted someone to bury all these? 👀

#archaeology #ancientbluesky #museums
A dark greenish corroded metal helmet with a large point at the top sitting on a glass museum shelf
Reposted by Alison Fisk
yorym-flo.bsky.social
This amazing object is a Bronze Age palstave axehead c.1500-1250 BC. The axe would be hafted to a forked wooden handle held in place by high flanges & deep stop ridge. It is decorated with a trident-like shield design. #FindsFriday finds.org.uk/database/art...
Reposted by Alison Fisk
scoupland.bsky.social
For #FindsFriday some of the lovely objects in the Ilanz hoard from Switzerland, buried during Charlemagne's reign, in the early 790s. Gold Lombard and Carolingian coins, silver Carolingian, Anglo-Saxon and Arabic coins, as well as gold jewellery. See more here: raetischesmuseum.app/extras/highl...
Reposted by Alison Fisk
tonydivey.bsky.social
Here are two Romano British triskele brooches from Verulamium (left) and Wroxeter (right) that I have recently been comparing for an EH article. The design was as old when they were made as the brooches are now. #FindsFriday
Reposted by Alison Fisk
orkat3.bsky.social
#FindsFriday This unique carving of a woman was discovered in 1880 in a peat bog in Ballachulish near Loch Leven, #Scotland in 1880. Carved from a single piece of alder, the Ballachulish women stands 1.5m tall, has quartz pebbles for eyes and dates to about 600AD. Her purpose is unknown. #IronAge
Reposted by Alison Fisk
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
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
Reposted by Alison Fisk
archaeohawke.bsky.social
Glasswares ,1st century. #Roman painted pitcher showing gladiatorial scenes.
Found in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. 👀
#Glass #Art #History #artwork
#FindsFriday
alisonfisk.bsky.social
The metal detectorist, a Mr William Darley, reported his find to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).

PAS records on these two links:

Coin record: finds.org.uk/database/hoa...

Grey ware pot record: finds.org.uk/database/art...
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Pot of gold!

Rare Roman gold coin hoard uncovered near Didcot, Oxfordshire, by a metal detectorist in 1995. The pot contained 126 gold aurei, struck between AD 54-160. It would have taken a legionary soldier over ten years to earn this large sum!

Ashmolean Museum 📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a pile of shiny Roman gold coins below five fragments from a grey pot
Reposted by Alison Fisk
drrjwarren.bsky.social
#FindsFriday
Chalcolithic/Bronze Age 'beaker' pot from Argyll - dating from c2300-2000 BCE.

Someone took such care to make this vessel look beautiful.

(Kilmartin Museum)
Reposted by Alison Fisk
kpw1453.bsky.social
A 7th century Pictish symbol stone discovered in 1936 during excavations at the Knowe of Burrian - a broch at Netherbrough in the Orkney Isles. Now part of the collections at Orkney Museum in Kirkwall. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #Picts #Orkney
Reposted by Alison Fisk
drnwillburger.bsky.social
#FindsFriday! A Roman brush found in Bregenz.

Roman brush fragments are sometimes difficult to interpret; in this case, their function may relate to textile production, as suggested for similar finds in Eschenz.The bristled surface is suitable for carding or teasing wool fibers. 🧵1/2

📷 me

🏺
A photo of a well-preserved fragment of a Roman brush in a show case. The object consists of a rectangular base with rounded and scalloped edges, formed from wood into which hundreds of stiff rushes have been densely embedded.
Reposted by Alison Fisk
classicalalan.bsky.social
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.
Reposted by Alison Fisk
alisonfisk.bsky.social
The Royal Game of Ur is the world’s oldest playable boardgame!

Played by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia about 4,500 years ago!

It is a two-player race game, the rules of which have been deciphered from a cuneiform tablet.

Game from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. 📷 British Museum

#Archaeology
British Museum photo showing a two-player board game with gaming counters known as the Royal Game of Ur. Dated c. 2,500 BC.

The game board is composed of a hollow box made of wood adorned with shell plaques. There is a drawer at one end for storing game pieces and dice. The top of the board is covered with twenty square-shaped off-white shell plaques, each bordered with dark-blue lapis lazuli. The shell squares are intricately decorated with blue inlaid patterns including dots inside circles and eye-shapes. Five squares are inlaid with flower-shaped rosettes with red limestone and blue lapis lazuli petals.

The game board is roughly rectangular in shape. Viewed from above in the photo, on the  left side of the board is a block of 12 squares made up of 4 across by 3 down. On the right side of the board is a block of 6 squares made up of 2 across by 3 down. The two blocks are joined by two squares extending between the second square down on the end row of the left block and the second square down on the first row of the second block.  

Dimensions H: 2.40 cm,  L: 30.10 cm, W: 11 cm, (W 5.70 cm at narrowest part)

Beneath the board are 14 disc-shaped gaming counters. On the left are 7 white pieces, inlaid with 5 spots of blue lapis lazuli. On the right are 7 black pieces inlaid with five white spots.

Between the game pieces are three tetrahedron-shaped dice. L to R: Dark blue, brown, cream.
Reposted by Alison Fisk
theduncanmackay.bsky.social
Carrawburgh Mithraeum, Hadrian’s Wall; the shyest member of the contu-baaa-nium
#RomanFortThursday
A sheep pokes its head out around a Roman altar in the ruins of a Roman temple.
Reposted by Alison Fisk
ullamr.bsky.social
The Aalen Roman Fort, a World Heritage Site, was on the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes in Germany. It was built in the 2nd century AD and was the largest cavalry garrison north of the Alps. The garrison was home to 1,000 soldiers of the Ala II Flavia Miliaria. #RomanFortThursday
Reposted by Alison Fisk
stelingard.bsky.social
The stout stone remains of the strongroom in the headquarters building of Legio II Augusta, at #Corbridge, #Northumberland. Pictured on a glorious day last August.
#RomanFortThursday #RomanBritain
The remains of an underground strongroom, reached by a short staircase. Little survives above ground level, but the stonework set into the ground looks very robust.
Reposted by Alison Fisk
archaeohawke.bsky.social
#RomanFortThursday

Lauriacum was an important legionary #Roman town on the Danube Limes in #Austria.Where a Roman settlement was located at a ford over the Enns, the Legio II Italica built a legion camp around 200AD, after the abandonment of an older site in Albing,
#Archaeology
Reposted by Alison Fisk
nattrustarch.bsky.social
*NEWS* #AttinghamUnearthed🏺
Recent excavations have uncovered remarkable insights into life on the fringes of #Wroxeter: archaeologists worked alongside volunteers & members of the public revealing an Iron Age roundhouse, a #Roman industrial complex & a shrine.
#archaeology @nationaltrust.org.uk
A ring key, a clever combination of a piece of jewellery with a working key, often used to secure small boxes or personal items. (NT/ Jayne Gough)
Reposted by Alison Fisk
drnwillburger.bsky.social
Fishing some 5,300 years ago: a Neolithic fishhook made of wild boar tusk, wrapped with a fishing line.
The size of the fishhook is 6.5 cm. It was used to catch pikes.
Found in the lake-dwelling settlement of Arbon Bleiche 3, Switzerland.

On display at Archäologisches Museum Frauenfeld

📷me

🏺
The picture shows a fishhook made of wild boar tusk. Only the curved, pointed end and the upper part are visible. The rest is wrapped in fishing line. The fishing line is made of twisted bast.
Reposted by Alison Fisk
bassetwrangler.bsky.social
It's a really fun race game, fortunes can change on the roll of a die. I made my own copy of the board in the BM 😁
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Fantastic that it’s still being played all these years later!
Reposted by Alison Fisk
katiemcenaney.bsky.social
My 5th graders played The Royal Game of Ur last week! They were blown away by the idea that people had been playing this 1000s of years ago - and that the rules seem a lot like Trouble. 🤔😆

#archaeology4kids 🏺
alisonfisk.bsky.social
The Royal Game of Ur is the world’s oldest playable boardgame!

Played by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia about 4,500 years ago!

It is a two-player race game, the rules of which have been deciphered from a cuneiform tablet.

Game from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. 📷 British Museum

#Archaeology
British Museum photo showing a two-player board game with gaming counters known as the Royal Game of Ur. Dated c. 2,500 BC.

The game board is composed of a hollow box made of wood adorned with shell plaques. There is a drawer at one end for storing game pieces and dice. The top of the board is covered with twenty square-shaped off-white shell plaques, each bordered with dark-blue lapis lazuli. The shell squares are intricately decorated with blue inlaid patterns including dots inside circles and eye-shapes. Five squares are inlaid with flower-shaped rosettes with red limestone and blue lapis lazuli petals.

The game board is roughly rectangular in shape. Viewed from above in the photo, on the  left side of the board is a block of 12 squares made up of 4 across by 3 down. On the right side of the board is a block of 6 squares made up of 2 across by 3 down. The two blocks are joined by two squares extending between the second square down on the end row of the left block and the second square down on the first row of the second block.  

Dimensions H: 2.40 cm,  L: 30.10 cm, W: 11 cm, (W 5.70 cm at narrowest part)

Beneath the board are 14 disc-shaped gaming counters. On the left are 7 white pieces, inlaid with 5 spots of blue lapis lazuli. On the right are 7 black pieces inlaid with five white spots.

Between the game pieces are three tetrahedron-shaped dice. L to R: Dark blue, brown, cream.