Nina Willburger
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drnwillburger.bsky.social
Nina Willburger
@drnwillburger.bsky.social
19K followers 3.5K following 3.4K posts
Archaeologist | Permanent Representative of the Director, Archäologisches Landesmuseum Baden-Württemberg | Adjunct lecturer State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart | Private account, views are mine 🖖
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drnwillburger.bsky.social
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · Nov 9
Hello new followers and welcome! My focus is on #archaeology, you can expect posts from me covering a wide range of topics, e.g. objects, exhibitions, and latest discoveries, primarily from the European Paleolithic to the early medieval period.
I may also share posts about nature and Star Trek.

🏺
Reposted by Nina Willburger
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #ReliefWednesday a representation of Minerva, the #Roman goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, and warfare. She's carrying the helmet, a lance and a shield. The deity is accompanied by an #owl, her sacred animal.
Found in Burgstall an der Murr.

📷 Landesmuseum Württemnberg

🏺 #archaeology
Rectangular sandstone relief with a standing figure of Minerva in high relief. She wears a long garment and helmet, she's holding a lance in her right hand and an oval shield at her left side. On her right sight an owl is visible.
February 4, 2026 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
msur.bsky.social
#Römer in Württemberg ! 🏺 #archaeology
(auch im kleinen Burgstall an der Murr!)
- und nur ein paar römische Meilen entfernt:
die vor Ort zu besichtigende Römerstraße in Benningen am Neckar - streckenweise direkt unter dem heutigen Asphalt
: links: 📷me, rechts LDA Esslingen
neben einem modernen Gebäude die frei liegende römische Straßen, mit Pflaster- u.a.-Steinen, grün bewachsen schnurgerade asphaltierte Landstraße, vorne aufgegraben, darunter ist der Schichtenaufbau der Römerstraße (Stein- und Schotterlagen) auf Erde sichtbar)
February 4, 2026 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
isabellemarie.bsky.social
Medieval Burial Found in Croatian Bronze Age Burial Mound.
archaeology.org/news/2026/02...
News - Medieval Burial Found in Croatian Bronze Age Mound - Archaeology Magazine
PULA, CROATIA—Croatia Week reports that researchers from Juraj Dobrila University of Pula conducted an excavation […]
archaeology.org
February 3, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
From the NE, the ramparts of Flowers Barrow Iron Age hillfort, atop a cliff at the seaward end of a ridge overlooking Worbarrow Bay, give a great idea of how the enclosure originally dominated the land 🤩

It's one of our favourite #Dorset hillforts (just don't tell the others)

#HillfortsWednesday
A green grass and yellow gorse and heather covered hills rises above the sea in the distance with a white track way in the foreground and to the left
February 4, 2026 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
drtobydriver.bsky.social
This is such exciting news for the prehistory & early history of western Britain & the wider European seaways, providing further firm evidence for the tin trade documented by classical authors 👇
February 4, 2026 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Vendel Helmet 1. Iron helmet with bronze fittings from a boat grave in Vendel, Uppland, Sweden, c. 550–793 AD.

📷 Swedish History Museum samlingar.shm.se/object/F0DD4...

#Archaeology
This Swedish History Museum photo shows a frontal view of a helmet known as Vendel Helmet I. It is a rounded iron helmet with cast bronze fittings riveted into the iron and a face guard. The iron is rusty brown in colour and the bronze decoration is now greenish in colour, displayed against a black background. The helmet has a raised crest (ridge) running from front to back which combines with the two curved bronze eyebrows which are textured with fine lines and terminating in stylised animal heads, to form a mythical beast. Below the eyebrows, are two large almond-shaped eye holes in a rusty face guard. Between the eye holes is a small beared human face which stares at the viewer. From here, a long rusty noseguard runs downward.
February 4, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
kpw1453.bsky.social
One of the surviving ramparts of Burghead Fort - a Pictish promontory fort in Moray. The fort was occupied between 6th and 10th centuries AD, and was a major centre of Pictish power. 📸 My own. #HillfortsWednesday #Burghead #Picts
February 4, 2026 at 7:01 AM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #ReliefWednesday a representation of Minerva, the #Roman goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, and warfare. She's carrying the helmet, a lance and a shield. The deity is accompanied by an #owl, her sacred animal.
Found in Burgstall an der Murr.

📷 Landesmuseum Württemnberg

🏺 #archaeology
Rectangular sandstone relief with a standing figure of Minerva in high relief. She wears a long garment and helmet, she's holding a lance in her right hand and an oval shield at her left side. On her right sight an owl is visible.
February 4, 2026 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
drjeball.bsky.social
A #Roman glass bowl in cobalt blue with white irregular swirls; it was made about 2000 years ago, probably in Italy, but ended up in a C1st AD grave in Roman Britain

#AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientRome
February 3, 2026 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
roaringmeg.bsky.social
February 3 is the day in 700 when St Werburga, 4th Abbess of Ely died.

Originally buried in Hanbury, Staffordshire her remains were translated in 975 to the Church of SS Peter and Paul in Chester which later became the Cathedral.

She is the Patron Saint of Chester.

📸c/o Chester Cathedral
February 3, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
alisonfisk.bsky.social
2,000 year-old Roman ‘Beware of the Dog’ mosaic.

This good boy looks ready for walkies! 😍🐾

Chained black guard dog from the entry passage of the House of Orpheus, Pompeii.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples 📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a Roman tile mosaic of a black dog in profile facing right, on an off-white background and set within a black rectangular border. The dog wears a white collar, and a red chain or lead around its neck which rises diagonally upward. Its ears are pointed and upright, the insides highlighted with white. The dog's red tongue protrudes from its open mouth. It has a round white eye with black centre. Its claws are picked out in white. The dog lowers the front of its body, its rear end up, and its tail curves upwards. A pose which looks somewhat similar to the universal ‘Play Bow’ position of dogs which communicates ‘come play with me’. This somewhat belies its role as a guard dog. However, guard dog mosaics were a popular feature at the entrance of houses in Pompeii. The most famous being the chained dog with the inscription ‘Cave Canem’ (beware of the dog) from the House of the Tragic Poet. This mosaic comes from the entry passage of the House of Orpheus in Pompeii.
February 2, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #EpigraphyTuesday a Roman infantery helmet (Weisenau type) with an owner’s inscription formed by punched dots on the neck guard: the helmet belonged to Lucius Lucretius Celer, legionary in the centuria of Gaius Mummius Lolianus of the legio I adiutrix. 🧵1/2

📷me

🏺 #archaeology
Side profile view of a helmet displayed in a museum case. It's mounted on a metal stand.The patinated helmet features a rounded dome-shaped skull cap, a broad flared neck guard extending downward. The punched inscripton is visible.
February 3, 2026 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Central Exchange Building,
Newcastle, Tyne and Wear

Built 1837-8. At times, an art gallery, concert hall & vaudeville theatre. But interior destroyed by fire in 1900.

Reopened 1906 as Central Arcade with Burmantofts tiles & Rust’s mosaics.
(See ALT text)

#TilesOnTuesday
#MosaicMonday
“It has beautiful Renaissance decoration in yellow and brown faience by Burmantofts of Leeds, possibly their last interior, the fine floor by Rust's Vitreous Mosaics of Battersea renewed rather garishly in 1990 in American Olean mosaics.” Pevsner architecture guidebook. Burmantofts tiles with columns & floral designs. Central Arcade name. Burmantofts tiles with column & date crest of 1906.
February 3, 2026 at 7:50 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Artists have always loved to sketch!

Sketch of a sparrow from Egypt dated c. 1479–1458 BC.

Some 3,500 years ago in Egypt, artists used flakes of limestone as sketchpads!

MMA excavations 1922-23, Deir el-Bahri. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology
Met Museum photo of an Ancient Egyptian artist’s painting of a swallow on a flake of limestone, dated to the New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, c. 1479-1458 BC. The sparrow stands in profile with head to the right. It is delicately painted with a pinkish body. The outline and details are highlighted in a reddish/brown pigment. Its legs, eye, and beak are painted black. Limestone flake dimensions Height 6.6 cm x Width 10.6 cm. This may have been a practice drawing of the sparrow hieroglyph which was used for words meaning ‘small’, ‘poor’, or ‘bad’. Egyptian artisans who decorated tombs and temples made practice sketches on flakes of limestone which are known by egyptologists as ostraca (singular: ostracon). Sometimes the drawings were used as a template when transferring an image to the wall of a tomb or a temple. Limestone flakes were readily available for this purpose as by-products of the construction of temples and rock-cut tombs. A number of ostraca were recovered at Deir el-Bahri during the 1922-23 MMA excavations.
February 3, 2026 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
greciangirl.bsky.social
#HappyHedgehogDay !!! 🦔 Check out this little guy!! A small model of a hedgehog that is about 4,500 years old! from Chalandriani, Syros, Greece. Early Cycladic II period (2800-2300 BCE). National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece. 📷 My own.
February 2, 2026 at 9:46 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
kpw1453.bsky.social
The restored entrance to Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire - a Neolithic chambered long barrow close to the Uffington White Horse. The barrow was built over an earlier burial structure which held the remains of at least 14 individuals. 📸 My own. #TombTuesday #WaylandsSmithy
February 3, 2026 at 7:38 AM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #EpigraphyTuesday a Roman infantery helmet (Weisenau type) with an owner’s inscription formed by punched dots on the neck guard: the helmet belonged to Lucius Lucretius Celer, legionary in the centuria of Gaius Mummius Lolianus of the legio I adiutrix. 🧵1/2

📷me

🏺 #archaeology
Side profile view of a helmet displayed in a museum case. It's mounted on a metal stand.The patinated helmet features a rounded dome-shaped skull cap, a broad flared neck guard extending downward. The punched inscripton is visible.
February 3, 2026 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #MosaicMonday a #Roman mosaic showing the labyrinth of the Minotaur on Crete. The monster’s head is depicted in the centre. The simple depiction is alluding to the myth of Theseus, in which the Greek hero slays the Minotaur in the labyrinth with the help ... 🧵1/2

📷🏺

#Archaeology
A Roman floor mosaic showing a square, geometric labyrinth made of thin, brown-colored lines on a neutral background, with a small central panel depicting a stylized Minotaur head.
February 2, 2026 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
drnwillburger.bsky.social
💯
Quote on white background: "If Bohemian Rhapsody starts playing and the person you’re with doesn’t sing along and try the different voices, you don’t need that kind of negativity in your life."
February 2, 2026 at 8:05 PM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
💯
Quote on white background: "If Bohemian Rhapsody starts playing and the person you’re with doesn’t sing along and try the different voices, you don’t need that kind of negativity in your life."
February 2, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
benpaites.bsky.social
*Types “Colchester” into the British Museum’s collection database* 👀

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'incredible' Roman mosaic returns home after 200 years
The mosaic discovered in Gloucestershire in 1811 is on display in Cirencester.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 2, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
St Peter’s Church, Sheringham, #Norfolk

Floor mosaics in the chancel. The church was built between 1895 & 1897.

#MosaicMonday
A pattern of circles - sunlike. A pattern of squares with leaf design in centres.
February 2, 2026 at 7:31 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
kpw1453.bsky.social
The remains of a geometric mosaic from Roman Cirencester. It was discovered in 1947 in Victoria Road, and possibly dates to the 2nd century AD. The mosaic is on display at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester. 📷 My own. #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain #Cirencester
February 2, 2026 at 7:07 AM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #MosaicMonday a #Roman mosaic showing the labyrinth of the Minotaur on Crete. The monster’s head is depicted in the centre. The simple depiction is alluding to the myth of Theseus, in which the Greek hero slays the Minotaur in the labyrinth with the help ... 🧵1/2

📷🏺

#Archaeology
A Roman floor mosaic showing a square, geometric labyrinth made of thin, brown-colored lines on a neutral background, with a small central panel depicting a stylized Minotaur head.
February 2, 2026 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
ideasroadshow.bsky.social
Love this! 🏺
drnwillburger.bsky.social Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 3d
This one never gets old.

We all need a good laugh these days.
A cartoon in a forest shows two beavers facing each other. The beaver on the left has chewed the middle of a tree trunk into a narrow, faceted point. The beaver on the right has chewed a classical-style statue. The left beaver looks annoyed and says, “JUST STOP IT.
February 1, 2026 at 12:58 PM