ChesterArchSoc
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chesterarchsoc.bsky.social
ChesterArchSoc
@chesterarchsoc.bsky.social
690 followers 160 following 560 posts
Our interests cover archaeology, history & conservation in Cheshire & surrounding areas. Founded 1849. Website www.chesterarchaeolsoc.org.uk
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chesterarchsoc.bsky.social
ChesterArchSoc @chesterarchsoc.bsky.social · 5d
As it's December, it's time to review what we shall have done by the end of 2025 - some simple numbers. Many thanks to members of the Society who have made this happen!
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
lemoustier.bsky.social
🧪🏺🦣 Strong case for *oldest fire-starting* 🔥 capacity, before 400 Ka, suggested by multi-stranded analysis: geochem, magnetic, sedimentary evidence of anthropogenic burning, + heated lithics + remains of iron pyrite.
Behaviourally heading towards #Neanderthals.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Photosgraphs showing refitting lithic pieces of flint objects. CAPTION: Extended Data Fig. 2: Heat shattered handaxes from Barnham.a. Central part of heat-shattered handaxe with 25 refitting pieces excavated from within a small zone (35 cm across) in Area I East. b. Top part of heat-shattered handaxe from Area I East. c. Heat-altered handaxe from Area I East. Images showing two pyrite pseudomorphs analysed with various methods. CAPTION: Figure 2.2. Pyrite pseudomorph specimen 3818. (a–e) Photographs and (f–g) focus variation microscope images of fracture surfaces; (h–k) textural features of the oxidised pyrite fragment observed under the scanning electron microscope. Photos of heat-altered handaxe and two pieces of altered pyrite. CAPTION: a, Heat-altered handaxe from palaeosol in Area I East with close-up of fractured surface caused by fire. b, Fragment of pyrite found on the surface of palaeosol in Area IV(6). c, Fragment of pyrite from palaeosol in Area VI, found in association with concentrations of heated flint. Photos showing excavation in Area 1 East, from different angles including a close-up of section. Reddened sediment layer is visible. CAPTION: a, Before excavation in 2022 from north–west, showing truncation by commercial excavation of RCS within palaeosol complex. Sections A–A′, B–B′ and position of sampling column are indicated. b, Adjacent area from north under excavation in 2024. c, Partly excavated RCS within palaeosol complex in 2023 from north-west showing sampling locations and column.
December 10, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW Did the #Romans harm our health? Analysis of skeletal remains from England before and during Roman occupation confirms theories that the population’s health declined under Roman occupation, but only in the urban centres.

#AntiquityThread 1/13 🧵

TW: human remains

🏺 #Archaeology
Reconstruction of Roman Londinium. Aerial view of a miniature city. Buildings have white walls and red-orange, sloped, tiled roofs.
December 11, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 Chemical analysis of concrete from a perfectly preserved Roman concrete workshop at Pompeii finally reveals how the Romans made their famously durable, self-repairing concrete

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @newscientist.com

institutions.newscientist.com/article/2507...
Pompeii building site reveals how the Romans made concrete
Excavations of a workshop that was buried in Pompeii almost 2000 years ago have given archaeologists unique insights into Roman construction techniques and the longevity of the empire’s concrete
institutions.newscientist.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
chapps.bsky.social
The jaw-dropping Minerva Bowl from the Hildesheim Treasure, a hoard of Roman silver unearthed in 1868 in Germany. In high relief, Athena-Minerva sits on a rock, holding a cane or pedum, wearing her magnificent helmet. Note her little owl on the left. 🦉 🏺 1/

1st c. CE, #AntikensammlungBerlin
📸 me
This gilded silver bowl features a detailed sculptural relief of Minerva (the Roman version of the Greek goddess Athena), who sits on a rock throne and holds a cane in her right hand and a shield in her left hand. The goddess is wearing her battle headgear and flowing robe, and to the left of Minerva's right hand is her symbol, the owl (look closely). The bowl has two handles, each measuring 3.4 centimetres (1.3 in) in length. The bowl itself weighs 2.388 kilograms (5.26 lb), having a 25-centimetre (9.8 in) diameter and 7.1 centimetres (2.8 in) in depth. Her foot is completely sculpted in the round and sticks out over the edge of the inner ring of the bowl, over the broad interior margin, which is decorated in a pattern of engraved palmettes.
December 10, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
jpwarchaeology.bsky.social
The algorithms are making it a lot harder to spread the word about these online talks. Although numbers are still reasonable, it would be a great help if folk were able to give the 30 December event a quick share 🙂

Booking available here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...
December 11, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Wow, “French marine archaeologists have discovered a massive undersea wall off the coast of Brittany, dating from around 5,000 BC”.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Huge undersea wall dating from 5000 BC found in France
The 120 metre wall was either a fish-trap or a dyke for protection against rising sea-levels, archeologists believe.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 11, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
drnwillburger.bsky.social
The Roman shipwreck at Comacchio, Italy, is over 21 m long and 5.62 m wide. It was discovered in 1980 during the maintenance of a drainage canal. The vessel was loaded with amphorae, lead ingots, and boxwood logs. It dates to the 1st c. BC.

📷Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici Emilia Romagna

🏺
A photo of a partially excavated remains of an old wooden shipwreck embedded in dry, sandy ground. The ribs and planks of the ship are visible, with some sections more intact than others.
December 11, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
shadowdogdesigns.bsky.social
40,000 #Roman - era #coins discovered in #French village. The town was important to the #Celtic #Mediomatrici tribe before it was conquered by Julius Caesar. #Senon #France

Link for more info and one more photo: www.popsci.com/science/roma...
40,000 #Roman - era #coins discovered in #French village. The town was important to the #Celtic #Mediomatrici tribe before it was conquered by Julius Caesar. #Senon #France
December 9, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
drtobydriver.bsky.social
#HillfortsWednesday A cracking day for field survey at St David's Head coastal promontory fort in #Pembrokeshire for @rcahmwales.bsky.social - there are more secrets to uncover at this major Iron Age & Romano-British site 👌
December 10, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
clairemillington.bsky.social
'Country diary: An unlikely job for a farmer – preserving a roman fort'

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Country diary: An unlikely job for a farmer – preserving a roman fort | Andrea Meanwell
Tebay, Cumbria: We have 30 acres of Roman remains underground here, but thanks to recent storms and a redirected river, I fear they’re not safe
www.theguardian.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
drnwillburger.bsky.social
Fascinating world of ancient glass: The skill of ancient glassmakers never ceases to amaze me.

This a magnificent #Roman striped mosaic bowl was made of preformed rods and canes fused on or in a mold.
Dating late 1st c. BC/early 1st c AD.

Timeless beauty!

📷 Corning Museums of Glass

🏺
Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath. Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath.
December 10, 2025 at 11:22 AM
chesterarchsoc.bsky.social
JCAS vol 96 - Invitation for Papers
Vol 95 of our journal will be published in January, and we are now inviting papers for vol 96 for 2026. Our remit is the archaeology, historical architecture and history of pre-1974 Cheshire.
December 9, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
clairemillington.bsky.social
Nice news coverage of this rather interesting research

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic
More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
colmuseums.bsky.social
Some objects are coy, but these ones wink. A Roman charm that really takes off, a medieval figure with nothing to hide, a pot that makes a race rather racy, and the Castle’s finest seat in the house, all after a loving adopter. From £10: colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/adoptanobject
Promotional graphic for Colchester Museums’ “Adopt an Object” campaign. The design features large black and gold text reading “Adopt an Object” in the centre, surrounded by images of historical artefacts. These include a framed photograph of a person in medieval-style armour inside a stone chamber, a textured ceramic vessel, a bronze object with a looped end, and a sculpted relief showing a seated figure. At the bottom, the website address “colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/adoptanobject” appears in black text.
December 8, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
northages.bsky.social
The Annals of Ulster records the onset of a three-month snowfall #OTD in 1047, leading to the deaths of many people and animals. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a winter ‘more severe than any living man could remember’. 📸Rosa-Maria Rinkl #medievalsky
A snow-filled forest.
December 8, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW Peatlands are incredibly valuable for archaeologists, preserving organic materials that usually do not survive. However, this heritage is under threat and the latest #AntiquityDebate argues action must be taken now to save the #archaeology 🏺

@royvanbeek.bsky.social

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Archaeologist in a yellow high-vis jacket and pink cap excavating a wooden trackway in a peatland. A diagonal cut runs through the trackway, made during peat extraction.
December 8, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
archaeohawke.bsky.social
#StandingStoneSunday
Stood at Cwrt Dafydd farm, south of Margam, where they were found reused to form a footbridge across a stream. They are known as 'cart-wheel' crosses, and so named from the radial form of the cross head, like the wheels of a cart. 10thC.
📸My own #History
December 7, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
kpw1453.bsky.social
Micklegate Bar - one of York’s four main medieval gateways. The lower sections date to the C12th, while the upper stories are C14th in date. 📸 My own. #MedievalMonday #York
December 8, 2025 at 7:31 AM
chesterarchsoc.bsky.social
As it's December, it's time to review what we shall have done by the end of 2025 - some simple numbers. Many thanks to members of the Society who have made this happen!
December 7, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
angleseyhistory.bsky.social
Give the gift of Anglesey History for Christmas! Order signed copies of my books from www.anglesey-history.co.uk/shop/warren-...
Covers of books by Warren Kovach
December 7, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Exquisite Roman glass cup signed by master glassmaker ‘Ennion’. AD 30-70.

Ennion was the first glassmaker to ‘brand’ his work by incorporating his name into the mould’s design, some 2000 years ago!

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria 📷 Leonardo.disimone

#Archaeology
Photo of an intact Roman two-handled translucent cobalt blue glass cup dated AD 30-70. The cup has a cylindrical body with vertical sides and two narrow strap handles attached to each side as ear-shaped loops. The cup is mould-blown with relief decoration on the body which incorporates two inscriptions in Greek, one on each side of the cup. One side reads ‘ENNIWN/ENOIH/CEN’ (‘Ennion made [it]'). The other side reads ‘MNHOH/O AOPA/ZNW translated as ‘May the buyer be remembered’. Dimensions: Height 2½ in. (6.4 cm), diameter (rim): 3% in. (9.5 cm) Collection Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria, Italy. Incredibly this is one of two matching cups blown from the same mould, found together in a Roman tomb at Cuora, near Adria, Italy, in the early 1900s. The matching cup is now part of the collections at the Corning Museum of Glass
December 7, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
chapps.bsky.social
This small bronze figurine of a naked Gaulish woman projects great vulnerability - which was certainly the point, but not in a good way. She's identified by her torc and represents the eroticization of a conquered people. 🏺

Found in the River Seine, Paris. Roman, 100-200 CE. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
Small bronze figurine of a naked woman - a girl, really - sitting on the ground, mostly on her left thigh, as her legs are pulled back. She has her right hand on her right ankle, and her head is turned to her left and slightly upwards; her left hand is on the ground. This pose creates a great tension in the work. She wears a large torc around her neck, with bulbous terminals, and a bracelet on each wrist (which may have been gilded, as well as the torc). The bronze surface is heavily corroded from centuries in the river. A very affecting portrait of a conquered Gaulish woman. British Museum, London (1867,0508.748)
December 5, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by ChesterArchSoc
tessmachling.bsky.social
This is not true.

These are the figures for England and Wales (where the 1996 Treasure Act and subsequent amendments apply).

It's a complete mess.

#Archaeology 🏺 #Detecting #Treasure
less than 5-10% of detectorists are reporting their finds, Treasure case numbers are rising by at least 10% a year, numbers of non-Treasure finds are rising by thousands each year, only c.4% of detected Treasure finds are donated to museums, c.50% of Treasure finds are disclaimed, only c.25% of Treasure finds are being bought by museums, Treasure is costing us £7 million a year, c.6% of Treasure finds are being exported, c.80,000 non-Treasure finds a year are being handed back to finders and landowners to do with as they wish, 30% of finds are being exported overseas each year.
December 6, 2025 at 12:37 PM
chesterarchsoc.bsky.social
Archaeologists unlock secrets of ‘remarkable’ Rutland mosaic
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Archaeologists unlock secrets of ‘remarkable’ Rutland mosaic
Archaeologists have revealed the ‘long-lost’ story behind the famous Ketton mosaic
www.independent.co.uk
December 5, 2025 at 6:34 PM
chesterarchsoc.bsky.social
We are delighted to see History & Archaeology at University of Chester launch its MA in Public Archaeology. You can find out more about it on their website chester.ac.uk/study/course... and in this podcast creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/....
Public Archaeology MA | University of Chester
chester.ac.uk
December 3, 2025 at 12:09 PM