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Claire Heywood

@claireheywood.bsky.social

1.3K followers 900 following 69 posts

Author | DAUGHTERS OF SPARTA (2021), THE SHADOW OF PERSEUS (2023), THE WANDERING QUEEN (coming 2026) | Only Connect alumna and quiz enthusiast | Interested in classics, archaeology, mythology, writing, books, films, games Website: claireheywood.info

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jul 7

I have a new book coming out next year! THE WANDERING QUEEN is a historical fiction retelling of the legendary Queen Dido. Cover reveal for the UK hardback edition:

'The Wandering Queen' by Claire Heywood, March 2026. The cover is deep purple with gold flowers and leaves around the edge. In the centre a woman's face radiates like a sun and beneath her waves crash against each other.

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Reposted by Claire Heywood

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 5d

Was prehistory a feminist paradise?

Visions of matriarchal utopia may be wishful thinking, but there’s growing evidence of women wielding power

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Claire Heywood

Bettina Joy de Guzman @ancientlyric.bsky.social · 15d

Friends in UK/ those with friends in UK, please share widely! 🤗 @corabeth.bsky.social @lucianixon.bsky.social @armanddangour.bsky.social @gregwoolf.bsky.social @lejenksbrown.bsky.social @emilylhauser.bsky.social

Bettina Joy de Guzman @ancientlyric.bsky.social · 15d

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-gr...
Oxford University, Nov 24 Monday, 5- 6:30 pm, Kendrew Barn.
Ancient Greek Choir Workshop:
Come & sing the melodious hymns & lyrics written by Mesomedes, Athenaios, & Seikilos! Led by Bettina Joy de Guzman 🤗

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Reposted by Claire Heywood

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · Jul 30

A marvellous scene of daily life for #ReliefWednesday: A #Roman funerary relief depicting the transport of two (wine?) barrels on a four wheeled cart pulled by two oxen. A #dog, probably the driver's beloved companion, is sitting on the barrels. 🧵1/2

🏺 #archaeology

A detail of a stone relief depicting a barrel on cart, on top of which a dog is lying.

The image depicts a stone relief carving showing an ox-drawn cart. The cart has large wooden wheels and carries a barrel, on top of which a dog is lying. A person sits on the cart holding the reins and guiding the ox.

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · 17d

Today I'm researching Ancient Greek riddles, but can you solve the riddle that, according to one account, caused Homer to die from vexation?

Posed to him by some boys on the island of Cos:
'What we caught, we threw away. What we did not catch, we kept.'

Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · 20d

There's a giveaway running over on Goodreads for advance copies of my new novel, THE WANDERING QUEEN! If you're based in the US you can enter for a chance to win 1 of 10 copies. Open until 29th September. Good luck! 🤞

www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · 22d

Working on a new Greek myth retelling where sooo many of the the characters have names beginning with A. And I just know this is going to be confusing for readers but also... those are their names? Sorry in advance, I guess! #amwriting

Reposted by Claire Heywood

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · Aug 3

There are so many amazing finds from prehistoric pile dwellings settlements: 3,500-year-old wooden whisks found in settlements at the Lake Carera/Italy.
By rotating the shaft, it’s possible to whip cream until it turns into butter. Larger whisks were presumably used for.... 🧵 1/2

#archaeology 🏺

Two wooden whisks, each with a central handle and multiple short, evenly spaced prongs radiating outward from one end. The prongs appear to be natural offshoots of the wood.

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jul 19

Aw thank you Baily! 🥰

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jul 19

There's a replica Spanish galleon in Bristol harbour? Say no more.

The front of a large wooden galleon taken from the dock.

Me stood on the deck with my hand on the mast and the wheel behind me.

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Reposted by Claire Heywood

Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · Jul 13

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Every British person on the internet is complaining about you

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jul 10

Looks and sounds fab Laura! Happy Publication Day 🎉🎉🎉

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jul 7

Thanks for sharing Vic! 🫶

Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jul 7

I have a new book coming out next year! THE WANDERING QUEEN is a historical fiction retelling of the legendary Queen Dido. Cover reveal for the UK hardback edition:

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jun 12

Happy publication day! 🎉

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jun 10

Ooh thank you Hannah!

Reposted by Claire Heywood

Hannah Okon @han-okon.bsky.social · Jun 9

A Dido and Aeneas #MosaicMonday. The Low Ham #Roman mosaic shows the tragic love story. A 4th century AD piece found in the bath block, the oldest object in Britiain that tells a complete story. shorturl.at/3QrPK
📷 The Museum of Somerset
#AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky #archaeology

4.3 metres square; can be seen in the Great Hall of Taunton. The story is told in a cartoon like way in a series of 5 panels, comprised of 120,000 tesserae.

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Jun 6

Spending my afternoon researching prehistoric beekeeping 🐝

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Reposted by Claire Heywood

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · May 31

A more than 3000-year-old Egyptian basket of coiled palm fibre with a lid.
Baskets served as household containers and were frequently placed in tombs, containing grave goods such as jewelry or food offerings.
The basket has been remarkably preserved because of Egypt's arid desert climate. 1/2

📷me
🏺

A coiled, round lidded basket made of tightly woven natural fibers, displayed on a gray surface. The basket has a flat, circular lid that fits snugly over the bowl shaped basket.

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · May 5

Some definite resemblance!

Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · May 5

The museum labels for further info:

'Grave offerings of the Early Cycladic II period from Chalandriani, on Syros, 2800-2300 BC'

'Unique zoomorphic clay vase, hollow inside. It has been characterised as 'bear', but judging from the painted decoration on its back it is probably a hedgehog. It holds a bowl with opening towards the body of the animal.'

Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · May 5

Every museum had a perfect little zoomorphic guy, and this is the one from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. A hedgehog? 2800-2300 BC 🏺

A small terracotta pot, with black line decoration, in the shape of an animal sitting and holding a bowl. Photos by me.

A side view of the same pot, where we can see the hatched patterning on the back of the animal, possibly representing the spines of a hedgehog.

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · May 2

Ten years in the making and I finally made it to Mycenae! I set half of my first novel, DAUGHTERS OF SPARTA, here and have been desperate to see the site with my own eyes ever since. Surreal and special experience 🏺

Me stood in front on the so called 'Treasury of Atreus', a Bronze Age 'beehive' tomb outside the citadel of Mycenae

Me at the northern/postern gate of Mycenae, with an impressive hilly landscape behind

Reposted by Claire Heywood

Moudhy Al-Rashid (she/her) @moudhy.bsky.social · Apr 10

"Stop procrastinating" in cuneiform:

"Why don't you write your tablet and do your homework? If you don't, they will say: "Is *this* the sister of Sheru'a-eṭirat, eldest daughter of the Succession Palace of Ashur-etel-ilani-mukinni, the great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria?"

Moudhy Al-Rashid (she/her) @moudhy.bsky.social · Apr 9

Queen Liballi-sharrat, the wife of king Ashurbanipal, and his sister Sherua-etirat were both literate.

In fact, Sherua-etirat once scolded her sister, then the crown princess, for not doing her homework. Literacy, it seemed, was an expectation of these Assyrian queens.

Photo of an oblong cuneiform tablet in landscape mode with about 7 lines of cuneiform text

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Claire Heywood @claireheywood.bsky.social · Apr 8

Gorgeous object 😍 You'll find this game featured in my new novel, out next year

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · Apr 8

Anyone for a board game?

This ancient Egyptian game of ‘Hounds and Jackals’ is almost 4,000 years old!

Also known as the ‘Game of 58 holes’, it’s thought it was played in a similar way to ‘Snakes and Ladders’.

📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology

Met Museum photo of an ancient Egyptian board game known as Hounds and Jackals. Met description: “The board rests on four bulls' legs; one is completely restored and another only partially. There is a drawer with a bolt to store the playing pieces: five pins with hounds' heads and five with jackals' heads. The board is shaped like an axe-blade, and there are 58 holes in the upper surface with an incised palm tree topped by a shen sign in the center”

Carved from ivory and ebony.
Dimensions of board: H. 6.8 cm W. 10.1 cm D. 15.6 cm
Jackal pins: H. 7 cm to 8.5 cm Hound pins: H. 6 cm to 6.8 cm

It was found in 1910 in the tomb of an official named Reniseneb at Thebes, dated Dynasty 12, c. 1814–1805 BC.

Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon reconstructed the game as follows in their publication of the find (Five Years of Explorations at Thebes, A Record of Work Done 1907-1911, London, Oxford, New York, 1912, p. 58): "Presuming the 'Shen' sign ... to be the goal, we find on either side twenty-nine holes, or including the goal, thirty aside. Among these holes, on either side, two are marked ..nefer, 'good'; and four others are linked together by curved lines. Assuming that the holes marked 'good' incur a gain, it would appear that the others, connected by lines, incur a loss. Now the moves themselves could easily have been denoted by the chance cast of knuckle-bones or dice....and if so we have before us a simple, but exciting, game of chance."

Reposted by Claire Heywood

Satan’s Niece @krissychula.bsky.social · Apr 6

This is high art

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