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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

@jonaschlegel.com

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founder • archaeology science comm • (conceptual) illustration x programming • Amsterdam https://jonaschlegel.com/ https://www.archaeoink.com/

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · Nov 11

Hi, I’m Jona Schlegel 👋
Archaeologist, web developer, and founder of archaeoINK

I focus on science communication, engaging visuals and digital tools to make archaeology accessible. Skilled in web solutions, scientific and conceptual illustration

Based in Amsterdam, looking for connections in NL

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 11h

Day 9 of #archInk: Ivory
A bit of meditation practices: drawing one curved line after the other.

Cross-section of a tusk, which forms a dense network of intersecting lines known as Schreger lines. They tell growth, material, and history at once.

#archaeology

Digital illustration of an ivory cross-section in warm beige tones. A fine network of dark intersecting lines radiates from the centre, forming geometric Schreger patterns characteristic of ivory

Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Rob Hedge @robhedge.bsky.social · 1d

#ArchInk 2: shell; 3: residue; 6: horn; 7: textile; 8: stratigraphy
#inktober #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺🏛️🗃️
Combining a few prompts to tell the story of Worcester Cathedral’s Cockleshell Pilgrim.

#ArchInk
Ink and graphite sketch of a grave. Accompanying text labels read:

The Cockleshell Pilgrim
In 1986-7, Excavations within Worcester Cathedral uncovered the body of a man wearing woollen clothing and leather boots, and artefacts suggesting an association with pilgrimage. Research by Katherine lack points to his identity: Robert Sutton, c15th Worcester dyer

6: horn
Decayed remnants of a horn tip were found at the top of a 1.55m wooden staff buried next to the body.

8:stratigraphy
The burial post-dates construction of the choir wall in 1374. The head and neck were missing: cut by a brick wall that truncated the west end of the grave.

3: residue
Remnants of soft tissue, skin, spinal cord, ligaments and muscle were found on the spine and pelvis.

2: Shell
Next to the Staff, and a bronze lace end, was a 5cm cockle shell, pierced at the top. Shells were a common Symbol of
pilgrimage, but usually Scallop Shells
associated with St James'Shrine at Santago de Compostela.
The cockle is therefore odd - it may have been intended as a general SymboLof pilgrimage

7: textile
He was buried wearing an undershirt and a fine cloak made from a type of woollen cloth called 'worsted'
They were of good quality, but plain and undyed -Befitting a pilgrim.

Sutton's 1454 will contained a wish to be buried “before the image of StJames in the cathedral.”
The man was in his sixties, at least - but had been fit and active before arthritis set in.

After anillustration by Helen Lubin, 1990

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 1d

day 8 of #archInk: stratigraphy

I reworked an older drawing from when the prompt was “written”. And here the trowel still “writes” the site’s stratigraphy in a way: layer by layer, deposit by deposit and interface by interface.

#archaeology

Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Nicola Scheyhing M.A. @prehistoryteller.bsky.social · 1d

Me (to The Internet, everybody listening, or just looking my way for more than 5 sec): „Look what we did!“
I received the prints of our #RepresentationMatters publication yesterday evening. It’s not only a collection of papers on the way we reproduce and communicate our knowledge towards audience.

A middle aged white Woman with an red updo and big glasses holding a large book, title says diversity in visual representations of the past. Representation matters.

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Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Rob Hedge @robhedge.bsky.social · 2d

#ArchInk 1: pigment
#inktober #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺🏛️🗃️

Not sure how much I’ll be able to contribute this year, but I’ll try to chip in when I can.

Ink and graphite sketch showing a woman in medieval dress, holding writing implements in each hand and an expression of intense focus, sat in front of a writing desk with an open manuscript.
Text reads:

# archink I: pigment
Medieval writers and artists used a huge range of compounds & colours - you can find out more abort their techniques at fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/illuminated. The staple of the medieval manuscript was the deep purple-black of iron gall ink, made by mixing iron sulfate with tannic acid, usually sourced from fermented oak galls.

MARIE DE FRANCE, LATE CI2th WRITER
After a late c13th illustration of her from BnF Arsenal Library, MS 3142 fol 256

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 2d

day 7: textiles

They rarely survive, but their traces do: loom weights, needles, fragments stuck to metal.

This piece looks at those fragments and the ancient depictions of weaving/fabric creation on vessels that still show these practices.

#archInk #archaeology

orange and black. The vase shows two women holding spindles beside a central triangular weaving pattern. Decorative motifs run around the upper section, and loom weights are depicted on the lower part

Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Scarry HAGerty @lrshagerty.bsky.social · 8d

Doodle Day 1: archaeological evidence suggests that women were the majority of the world's first artists. #Art #Doodle web.archive.org/web/20131008...

Pen and ink sketch of a woman squatting in front of a cave wall as she finishes painting a prehistoric horse.

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 3d

Oh yes! And so functionally designed as well!

Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Colleen Morgan @clmorgan.bsky.social · 3d

A horn core is:

A) a ska band
B) the bony part under the keratin sheath on bovids
C) a source of terrible puns and innuendos on an archaeological site

“Horn” #archink #inktober #archink2025

An ink drawing on a piece of paper of a horn core with a scale.

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 3d

day 6 of #archInk2025: horn

I did a kind of archaeology journaling page, where I focused on exploring the texture of the horn, noting down functions and anatomy.

#archInk

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 4d

This is beautiful!
Just shows also how complex a reconstruction drawing can become.

Dr Sophie Hay @pompei79.bsky.social · 4d

Surprisingly yet pleasingly complex - the tile elements required to reconstruct a Roman roof over the House of the Faun, #Pompeii. Beautiful watercolour, pencil, and ink illustrations by Pasquale Maria Veneri dating to 1843 on display in the National Archaeological Museum
In Naples.

Watercolour showing different tile elements both flat (tegulae) and curved (imbrices) and antifixes and water spouts needed for a Roman roof

Plan of the House of the Faun in watercolour showing the reconstructed rooflines.

Reconstruction of a roofline in plan and section

Full image of the three elements as one watercolour illustration

Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Colleen Morgan @clmorgan.bsky.social · 5d

“Bronze is brilliant!” #archink #inktober - bronze & flint
youtu.be/nyu4u3VZYaQ

Drawing of a skeuomorphic spear head made of flint. It says, “bronze bronze bronze bronze…what’s wrong with stone?” And hashtags in the tweet.

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 4d

For day three of #archInk prompt: flint
I created a digital collage of tools used during flint knapping and the by products spreading around the production zone: flakes and blades.

#archaeology #archInk2025

Digital collage showing hands reaching upward among flintknapping tools such as antler tines, hammers, and scrapers. Flint flakes are scattered across circular green and ochre shapes. The word “FLINT” appears in cut-out letters near the bottom right

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Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

DAH Lab @dah-lab.bsky.social · 9d

We have a new series of "Digital Lunch"- free, hybrid talks hosted by the Digital Archaeology and Heritage Lab at the University of York. Don't be fooled by the name, we've asked experts on the very cutting edge of the field to talk to us about their research.

Sign up:

forms.gle/qeRcHHe5z3Kf...

26 September James, Colleen, Peter, Guy Current digital research at York
3 October Ahmed El Antably Nubian Chronicles: You've been talking to the wrong people
10 October Stephanie Döpper Co-creating smartphone tours at archaeological sites with the ArchaeoTrail App
17 October Mariana Lopez Sound Heritage: methods and considerations
24 October Maki Wardle Moonlighting at ESA: A Postcard from a Digital Archaeologist in Space
31 October off off
7 November Despoina Sampatakou Cultural objects in reality and virtuality: a comparative study in XR
14 November Florence Smith Nicholls (Not) Dying of Anticipation: Video Game Archaeologies of Contemporary Play
21 November ADS What's new at ADS/HSDS
28 November Mark Altaweel AI for palaeoclimate research
5 December Marta Diaz-Guardamino TBA

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 5d

day 4 of #archInk2025: bronze. tin meets copper, and new colours are created based on the mixture, from gold, green, brown, red.

i drew them circling between two hands, an acknowledgement of how innovative humans are and bronze meant exchange and shared skill

#archInk #archaeology

A digital illustration showing two hands reaching toward a circle of bronze artefacts, including swords, spearheads, and axes. Each object has a different shade of bronze — from golden yellow to deep reddish-brown — representing the varied colours of Bronze Age metalwork

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 5d

day 3 of #archink2025: residue. what's left inside a pot can say a lot. grains, fats, traces of meals long gone.
drew that chain in a kind of comic style: pot in use, pot buried/excavated, pot in the lab.

Small remains lead to past recipes.

#archInk #archaeology

A three-panel digital illustration showing the archaeological process of residue analysis.
In the first panel, a clay pot sits over a small fire surrounded by stones.
In the second, a broken pot is uncovered in the ground with a trowel nearby.
In the third, gloved hands hold a sherd and take a sample with a small tool. Two circles highlight what residue analysis can reveal: plant grains and a goat

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 6d

#archInk is not only drawing but can also be a haiku!

LeftPeggers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇵🇸 @leftpeggers.bsky.social · 7d

#Archlink2025
#Haiku
#Shell

Around fish or fowl,
Dumped in middens when done,
Still contains, stories.

archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · Sep 9

Here's the official #archInk2025 prompt list - 31 days of archaeological (illustration) prompts for October.

From pigment and bronze to provenance and afterlife, each prompt open to be explored through drawing or other techniques and mediums.

Ready to join in?
#archInk

archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 6d

day 2 of #archInk: #shell.
a watercolour scallop in the centre, with digital pen sketches of shell artefacts and tools around it. shells are versatile in archaeology, and this page is also a mix of drawing techniques, from watercolour to digital.

#archaeology #archInk2025

day two of archInk 2025: shell.

the central piece today is a scallop shell painted in watercolour. around it i sketched different shell artefacts — scrapers, spoons, containers, ornaments. it shows how versatile shells are as archaeological finds, and how many uses they once had.

this page is also a small experiment in drawing itself. mixing digital work with watercolour and pen sketches makes it feel layered, like different notes on the same theme.

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 6d

They are also always welcome!

Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Colleen Morgan @clmorgan.bsky.social · 7d

Quick one today after the pub.

So we’d find these spots covered in tiny white shells in the desert on survey. The only problem was that this also a contemporary practice so you couldn’t always easily tell if the shell floor was archaeology or last week’s family campsite #archink #inktober “shell”

Drawing of a tiny white shell with the text, “in Qatar you could find sites where there wasn’t much left besides a surface of the tiniest white shells used as a floor” with tags that are in the tweet.

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ama @amasugiru.bsky.social · 7d

#archInk2025 Day 2: Shell
During prep, the Conch of Teleportation reminded me of oracle bones, divinatory records from the Shang. They feature some of the earliest writing in China. I thought dragon turtles, taken from Chinese mythological creatures, would help expand a focus on Chinese archaeology.

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archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel @jonaschlegel.com · 6d

Turns out the Palaeolithic had a splash of blue already too.
Guess pigment isn’t only red and yellow after all.
And I just love how the timing of this news actually matches with the first #archInk2025 prompt "pigment"

Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 10d

NEW Archaeologists find the earliest evidence for blue pigment use in Europe, dating back ~13,000 years and questioning the long-held belief that Palaeolithic artists only used red or black.

Strap in for a colourful #AntiquityThread 1/10 🧵

🏺 #Archaeology

Close-up image of a stone with traces of blue pigment on its surface.

Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Colleen Morgan @clmorgan.bsky.social · 8d

Super cool to learn that I was huffing cinnabar while laboriously excavating paintings at Çatalhöyük. #archink #pigment #inktober

A drawing with a finger held up and red pigment on the fingertip. Next to it is written “cinnabar, treasured world-wide for its fiery red hue, is toxic and poisoned those who sought its beauty.” Hashtags are in the tweet.

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Reposted by archaeoINK - Jona Schlegel

Louise Bedford | Archaeology @louisearchaeology.bsky.social · 8d

Day 1 #ArchInk2025 - Pigment. Bison cave art from the Cave of Altamira.

Trying to use this challenge to improve my illustration skills on Photoshop. I double brushed areas to show cracks in the cave walls and added an aged paper texture background.

#ArchInk @jonaschlegel.com #Archaeology

A watercolour illustration of a cave art bison inspired by the cave of altamira,

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ama @amasugiru.bsky.social · 8d

#archInk2025 Day 1: Pigment
Back at it with a D&D bend. Today’s piece is Nolzur’s Marvelous Pigments. The item text says you can dip a brush right in, but pigments are technically the colorant. You can use them dry, but painting needs a binder. So I imagined some natural sources and the medium.

An illustration of a box of pigments and a bottle of binder. It reads from top to bottom: ArchInk Day 1. Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments. Includes: Fire beetle, Sussur Bark, Merrow Coral, Residuum, Glowcap Phospher, Infernal Iron Soot.

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