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
chapps.bsky.social
A Corinthian delight: three examples of ancient caricatures. The pyxis at the top shows a child-like Herakles drawing water from a fountain. On the lower left, a kylix depicting a woman playing the usually all-male drinking game kottabos. On the lower right, Artemis and her curious dog. 🏺 1/

📸 me
February 5, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
sokolowskilukasz.bsky.social
📘 New volume out! 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭: 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 (@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social)
Co-edited with F. Mazzilli & R. Montoya Gonzáles.
My chapter: Roman Syria, #Palmyra & glocal visual culture
🔗 link in comments
#RomanArchaeology #Glocalization #VisualCulture
February 5, 2026 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
drnwillburger.bsky.social
#RomanFortThursday: a #Roman dagger and and two dagger sheaths, both elaborately decorated with inlays (silver, brass, enamel).
Found in the Roman fort at Ehingen-Risstissen, dating 1st century AD.

On display at our branch museum Limesmuseum Aalen

🏺 #archaeology
A close-up of three objects on a black background: a plain iron dagger blade without a handle, next to two richly decorated metal dagger sheaths, both elaborately decorated with inlays made of silver, brass, enamel (geometric and circular patterns). There is also a small heavily rusted fragment in the lower left visible.
February 5, 2026 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
isabellemarie.bsky.social
Small Bone from Possible War Elephant Identified in Spain.
archaeology.org/news/2026/02...
News - Small Bone from Possible War Elephant Identified in Spain - Archaeology Magazine
CÓRDOBA, SPAIN—According to a Live Science report, a 2,250-year-old bone unearthed in 2019 during excavations […]
archaeology.org
February 5, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
isabellemarie.bsky.social
Breathing in the past: How museums can use biomolecular archaeology to bring ancient scents to life.
phys.org/news/2026-02...
Breathing in the past: How museums can use biomolecular archaeology to bring ancient scents to life
Recent advances in biomolecular archaeology have revealed that ancient objects can retain the molecular fingerprints of past aromatic practices. These molecules provide unprecedented insight into anci...
phys.org
February 5, 2026 at 11:26 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
kpw1453.bsky.social
The northern defences of Birrens Roman Fort (Blatobulgium) in Dumfriesshire - an outpost fort for Hadrian’s Wall. 📸 My own. #RomanFortThursday #RomanBritain #Birrens
February 5, 2026 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Central Station, Newcastle

Porte cochère, covered entrance way for vehicles, of 1862

Still with original iron gates, with pierced upper panels.

Passengers pass them daily to enter the station, but vehicles no longer use the porte cochère.

#MetalworkThursday
#IronworkThursday
#AdoorableThursday
Iron gates with pierced upper panels & closed square designs below.
February 5, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
chapps.bsky.social
First night in #NYC, and it’s crazy that this is the view from my room, 22 stories above the city. Tomorrow, the #MetMuseum.
February 5, 2026 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Nina Willburger
sokolowskilukasz.bsky.social
🔗 www.bloomsbury.com/uk/global-th...
bsky.app
February 5, 2026 at 1:20 PM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
#RomanFortThursday: a #Roman dagger and and two dagger sheaths, both elaborately decorated with inlays (silver, brass, enamel).
Found in the Roman fort at Ehingen-Risstissen, dating 1st century AD.

On display at our branch museum Limesmuseum Aalen

🏺 #archaeology
A close-up of three objects on a black background: a plain iron dagger blade without a handle, next to two richly decorated metal dagger sheaths, both elaborately decorated with inlays made of silver, brass, enamel (geometric and circular patterns). There is also a small heavily rusted fragment in the lower left visible.
February 5, 2026 at 9:54 AM
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