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romanarchaeouk.bsky.social
Association for Roman Archaeology
@romanarchaeouk.bsky.social
The ARA is a UK charity that supports & promotes Roman history & archaeology. Members get magazines & go on tours. Interested in joining? Visit our website
http://www.associationromanarchaeology.org
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Want to explore Roman cemeteries closer to home? Join our Trimontium Talk this Thursday at 7:30 pm (UK): “Till death us do part: Roman Cemeteries and the mystery of the missing Trimontium mausolea.” — Online and in person, book through our website or link tree.
December 10, 2025 at 10:34 AM
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#Bartlow Hills, Cambridgeshire — the largest #Roman barrow cemetery in #Britain and home to the tallest Roman burial mound in the country.
December 10, 2025 at 10:33 AM
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Pic of the year 10!!! An honour to film in the Roman Bath House in York with ace @historyhits.bsky.social ! Do go and visit! Show about IXth legion out in Jan! @romanarchaeouk.bsky.social @davidebb.bsky.social @alexharvv.bsky.social @romanscotland.bsky.social @maltonmuseum.bsky.social
December 10, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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Roman marble urn that contained the ashes of Lucius Torquatus and was found in Tomb 19 of the Necropolis on the Isola Sacra, #OstiaAntica.
Tomb 19 is a large tomb that was built to commemorate the deceased members of a household.
Dated 2nd C AD.
#TombTuesday #EpigraphyTuesday #Archaeology
📸 my own.
December 9, 2025 at 8:25 AM
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Portable altar from Roman Cirencester (Corinium). The figure may represent ‘Mars Lenus’ - a Romano-Celtic deity. Now part of the collections at Corinium Museum at Cirencester. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #Cirencester #RomanBritain
December 10, 2025 at 7:05 AM
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Archaeologists working in the ancient city of Amastris in the district of Amasra in Bartin have brought to light a rare smiling depiction of Medusa on the ceiling blocks of a monumental Roman stoa, a columned gallery.

www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/rare...
Rare smiling Medusa unearthed in Türkiye's ancient city founded by Queen Amastris - Türkiye Today
A rare smiling Medusa on a Roman stoa in Amasra’s ancient city of Amastris gives archaeologists fresh hope for revealing the city’s peaceful and prosperous past
www.turkiyetoday.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:22 PM
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Every 9th Dec. emperors would lay down their 'tribunician powers' only to be granted them again the next day: a nice legal fiction that harked back to the #Roman Republic.

But also handy for dating. The abbreviation TRIB POT XIIII in this 😍 dedication dates it neatly to 129/130.
#EpigraphyTuesday
December 9, 2025 at 8:11 AM
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For #TrimontiumTuesday we have this well preserved #amphora handle found at the fort site. Amphorae were used to carry food & drink in bulk across the #Roman Empire. This particular example came from southern Spain & would have carried olive oil.

On loan from #HistoricEnvironmentScotland.
December 9, 2025 at 1:31 PM
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The Myster-E Box is back! Throughout December, a series of limited-time themed Myster-E Boxes will be available, each containing five PDF eBooks carefully selected around a different subject area.
Today's theme: Ancient Rome
Link: tinyurl.com/yc7taksw
December 9, 2025 at 11:04 AM
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#MosaicMonday - Central panel of a mosaic floor with the head of Medusa. From Rome, via Ardeatina. Dated to the 1st-2nd century AD.

National Museum of Rome, Baths of Diocletian, Rome.
December 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
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This beautiful #Roman fibula, made in the SW of England & found near the #AntonineWall dates to AD80–165. Bronze, inlaid with silver - @nationalmuseumsscotland

✨ Want more Roman Scotland? Our Romans in #Scotland 12-week online course starts 6 January — details on our website!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
December 8, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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It's #MosaicMonday and miserable in the UK so here's an early Winter personification from Bignor Roman villa. It's from a room that had underfloor heating and was probably a dining room.

www.romansociety.org/Imago/Image-...
December 8, 2025 at 6:09 PM
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This mosaic portrait of a Roman woman from #Pompeii is a real rarity. The tesserae are quite small, allowing for a painterly effect - we can even see that her pearl necklace and pearl and gold earrings are Julio-Claudian in design. 🏺 1/

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN)
📸 me
December 8, 2025 at 9:35 PM
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Ancient Egyptian pleasure boat found by archaeologists off Alexandria coast 🤿⛏️🇪🇬 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Ancient Egyptian pleasure boat found by archaeologists off Alexandria coast
First-century luxury vessel matches description by the Greek historian Strabo, who visited city around 29-25BC
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:53 PM
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What better way to start the week than with a lovely Roman face pot - this one was found in York and dates from the early third century. It's features resembles those of the empress Julia Domna and it may have been made to commemorate her time spent there in 208-211 CE.
December 8, 2025 at 7:55 AM
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For this #MosaicMonday in the run-up to Christmas, the next in a short series of attractive geometric mosaics. Although we often focus on the figured floors - which tell us so much - patterns of varying complexity were by far the most numerous. 1/2
#AncientBlueSky 🏺
December 8, 2025 at 12:57 PM
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Fascinating pattern in #Roman 5th C #MosaicMonday floor:
Central cross w clessidra motif, from which 3D perspective parallelepipeds (love that word) project w geometric patterns.
Below, intersecting circles above large lozenge w 4 petal flower + shields at edges.
in MArTA Arch Museum Taranto 🏺
December 8, 2025 at 12:52 PM
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#MosaicMonday the elegant patterns of Tripolis.
December 8, 2025 at 10:05 AM
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Mosaic of a gorgon's head from the bathhouse at Bignor Roman Villa in Sussex. This strategically placed emblem averted the evil eye when bathers were naked in the changing room, vulnerable to malign influence. Her snaky hair has been writhing since the early C.4th.
📸 mygf
#MosaicMonday #RomanBritain
December 8, 2025 at 7:56 AM
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#MosaicMonday

Mosaic of the 9 #Muses - from the entrance to a #Roman villa in Torre de Palma, Monforte, Portalegre - 4th C AD - Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, #Lisbon, #Portugal.

At the base of the mosaic there is a legend: SCO [pa a] SPRA TESSELLAM LEDERE NOLI VTERI F [elix]
December 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
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#MosaicMonday from Winchester City Museum!

This section of a mosaic with a dophlin was discovered in the city in the 19th Century.

Winchester was known as Venta Belgarum in the Roman period.

#AncientBlueSky🏺
December 8, 2025 at 9:31 AM
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Second century AD mosaic floor panel from Roman Daphne, near Antioch. The female figure may be the personification of ‘abundance’ and ‘good living’. The mosaic is now part of the collections at the Met in New York. 📷 My own. #MosaicMonday
December 8, 2025 at 7:28 AM
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Between 1828-9 Samuel Hasell excavated a villa at Pitney #Somerset

Sheds were built to protect the villa but sadly they had gone by 1836 and so had the mosaics 😞

All we have left are lithographs like this one by Hasell of Cadmus thrashing a python*

*don't Google this 😬

Happy #MosaicMonday
December 8, 2025 at 8:48 AM
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Serious Pac Man vibes...
#MosaicMonday
December 8, 2025 at 8:47 AM