Simon Bralee
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simonbralee.com
Simon Bralee
@simonbralee.com
3.4K followers 870 following 520 posts
Advocate for arts and humanities. I believe in the importance of sharing the stories of research to create impact outside of universities. Comms professional and history postgrad researching Anubis in the Roman World. 🏛️🐍
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simonbralee.com
A bronze figurine of Isis-Tyche-Fortuna holding a steering oar and not one but two cornucopias for double the blessings. Don’t settle for anything less this year.

Roman, 2nd Century CE. British Museum. 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology
A small bronze unpainted figurine of a standing woman. On her head an elaborate crown consisting of a horned solar headdress topped with two (ostrich) feathers. In her right hand she holds a steering oar, symbolising her patronage of sailors and her role as a guide over humans. In her left hand she holds two cornucopias or possibly torches.
January 1, 2026 at 6:46 PM
simonbralee.com
This may be how the shepherds appeared at the manger in Bethlehem, those many years ago.

A small statuette of a satyr carrying a goat, Egyptian, 1 or 2 century CE. Held in the British Museum.

🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology
A small terracotta figurine of a naked buff man carrying a large furry creature on his shoulders. It is held on a wooden plaque which states ‘SATYR CARRYING A GOAT. Presented by Rev GJ Chester, 1878’. The object is similar to other images from antiquity of figures carrying a ram on their shoulders (criophoroi).
December 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
simonbralee.com
Highlights from Boxing Day walk around Rainham, initially the site of a Thames ferry (part of a pilgrim route) and later ‘Havering Riviera’ with pleasure trips from London before a fish manure works put stop to it all. A fascinating area with Georgian houses, industry and a bird sanctuary #history
RIBA award winning Rainham Riverside picnic shelter in front of a large factory. View east over the River Thames towards Erith on the South bank. 18th century Georgian building Rainham Hall. The gates and walls are decorated with Christmas wreaths. A yellow Robin Reliant three wheel van with the name ‘Keebles Independent Traders: New York, Paris and Rainham’ on the side. This is inspired by an iconic van from the popular British sitcom Only Fools and Horses, which is shown a lot at Christmas time.
December 27, 2025 at 9:55 AM
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As I wait for festivities to begin, I am thinking of my favourite Christmas mornings in literature. Nothing beats Oscar and Lucinda when the hero tries a Christmas Pudding against the wishes of his puritanical father who has strong feelings towards “Satan's fruit”.
What’s your favourite? 📚💙
Goodreads quote from Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda “Theophilus Hopkins was a moderately famous man. You can look him up in the 1860 Britannica. There are three full columns about his corals and his corallines, his anemones and starfish. It does not have anything very useful about the man. It does not tell you what he was like. You can read it three times over and never guess that he had any particular attitude to Christmas pudding.”
December 25, 2025 at 11:06 AM
simonbralee.com
For unto us a child is born. Ceramic images of mothers and children from Cyprus, possibly goddesses c. 700-300 BCE. Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates. 🎄 🏺 #AncientBluesky
Two terracotta figurines in the British Museum. At the back, a woman is sat on a seat, possibly a throne. She holds a child in her lap, who wears a large cone hat. At the front, a smaller figurine of a standing woman who holds a simplified baby to her body.
December 24, 2025 at 12:23 PM
simonbralee.com
On this day in 1792, Lieutenant Hugh Monro was seized by a tiger while hunting in India, later dying of his wounds. This rather elegant and bizarre Staffordshire figurine commemorates this grim event. Fitzwilliam Museum. #otd #history
A lead-glazed Staffordshire ceramic painted in enamels depicting a tiger mauling the head of a man. While his body is cat-like, the tigers stripes are very stylised and his head is similar to contemporary depictions of bears. The man wears an officers red coat. His pose recalls scenes of the “good death” of classical art. Flowers have been painted on the base of the object.
December 22, 2025 at 8:33 AM
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Catching up with an old friend over the holidays.

In his autobiography, full of old scandals, some still remembered, EF Benson recalls showing William Gladstone new epigraphic evidence from Roman Chester. Gladstone was “fiery [in] his advice about making squeezes” and a bit of a know it all.
As We Were by EF Benson. Book cover has a coloured illustration of a large rambunctious episcopal Victorian family.
December 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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An exquisite delft shaving basin from the 17th century. The decoration features a plethora of shaving accoutrements. The semi-circular gap fits the neck of the shavee, allowing the bowl to collect hair and cream. The two small holes to the side suggest it was hung up on display.
A delft bowl with a large rim which had a large semi circular cut. It is decorated in blue with images of scissors, combs and various other items and the words ‘Myn iaer is om’, my hair is over?
December 19, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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A weary look that says he’s seen it all. I have a similar energy, as I head into my Saturnalia and Christmas holidays.
Small marble statuette of Thoth sitting on a pillar from the Roman period Egypt. Now held in the Allard Pierson🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky
A marble statue of a baboon. On his head a round lunar crown containing a snake. He gives a weary look. He holds a scroll in his hand.
December 17, 2025 at 4:47 PM
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Classically-inspired sleigh. It’s kid-size, so I wonder if it was meant to be pulled by smaller animals like dogs, sheep or even geese or swans(?). From a shop window in Amsterdam, so don’t have any more information. 🗃️ #ClassicsBluesky
An ornately decorated small sled. At the front, a mermaid wearing classical armour with fish tail. Two swans decorate the front of the seating area.
December 14, 2025 at 10:42 AM
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Since he is trending in the news, I thought I’d share this lovely object which may depict the funerary temple dedicated to Amenemhat III (aka the labyrinth) and the nearby town of Crocodeilonpolis with its tame crocodile, both described by Strabo (17.1.37-38) 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology
A stone relief from the Allard Pierson Museum depicting a labyrinthine shale surrounding a central pool of water, full of fish and a large crocodile.
December 8, 2025 at 8:32 PM
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The Egyptian God Heryshaf portrayed as a Roman Emperor, possibly as a symbol of his power against evil spirits or in providing benefices. We have examples of other animal gods portrayed in this way including Apis, Anubis and Horus. From Heracleopolis, now Allard Pierson 🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky
Bronze statuette of a ram headed humanoid wearing Roman cuirass and tunic. On his head is a traditional Egyptian feathered atef crown. His right hand is stretched out. His clothes and pose recalls the Augustus of Prima Porta statue.
December 7, 2025 at 8:16 AM
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A gorgeously pagan aquamanilia, ewer, used to wash hands before dining or celebrating the mass(!?), c. 1220-1230, Hildesheim, now in Rijksmuseum. Recalling depictions of Rhea or Cybele. #ClassicsBluesky
A copper alloy ewer in the shape of a lion with well defined mane. On his back there’s a crescent shape on which a female figure sits. She is tiny compared to the lion.
December 6, 2025 at 9:30 AM
simonbralee.com
Could Anubis be the original Santa Claus, he who judges the naughty and the nice?
On this stele from Kom Abu Billo a deceased woman sits in a shrine and makes an offering to the god to thank him or keep him happy. (c. 150-200CE). Now in Fitzwilliam. 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptilogy
A relief carved on a rectangular stele in an Roman-period Egyptian style. It depicts a woman making an offering of a pine corn to a small altar above which sits a canid, identified as Anubis. She holds a feather or wheat sheaf, a symbol of justification or immortality.
December 4, 2025 at 8:07 PM
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My top band this year, the American all female rock trailblazers, Fanny. I am in good company. David Bowie called them “one of the finest rock bands of their time … They were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody’s ever mentioned them.”
Spotify Wrapped with my top artist, Fanny.
December 3, 2025 at 8:46 PM
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Embroidery of HMS Serapis from the 19th century, showing the complex and enduring legacy of ancient Egypt. This could be a stylised depiction of the iron-hulled ship launched in 1866, rather than the more famous ship captured during the War of Independence. Folk Art Collection, Compton Verney
Wool and silk embroidered depicting a ship with garage rig and sail. Smaller ships surround her.
December 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM
simonbralee.com
Heavy metal rock nativity: a Roman period silver token found at St Albans depicting the god Mithras being born, leaping fully formed from a rock. 🏺 #AncientBluesky
A metal token engraved with an image of top half of a man leaping from a pile of rocks
December 1, 2025 at 6:17 PM
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Replica of a 17th century carved figure holding out his hat over the poor box in St Albans Cathedral (and next to sign about charity being an important tenet of Christianity). He looks like a right character.
A painted figurine of a man chained to a stone wall. He is wearing very smart seventeenth century clothes: white collar, brown jacket, black hose and boots. He is smiling but the effect is balanced by wide open quizzical eyes and pronounced stubble, giving him a sarcastic mien. In his right hand he holds out a black tricorn hat.
November 30, 2025 at 10:30 AM
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12 powerful, challenging, painful and joyous artworks responding to UCL’s history of eugenics at the university’s Stratford site, including Dog Whistle, a video installation by Veronica McKenzie partly inspired by Galton’s trip to Egypt. I recommend a visit
#Egyptology www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-east/pub...
A screen showing the artist in front of the pyramids in Giza.
November 25, 2025 at 8:46 PM
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Bronze figurine of the goddess Venus from St Albans, holding an apple to entice Paris. Likely from a Roman period domestic shrine in the town. Verulamium Museum 🏺 #AncientBluesky
A bronze figurine of a woman wearing a skirt blowing open and no top. In her right hand she holds a round object, identified as an apple.
November 18, 2025 at 1:04 PM
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Two jackals on a stele, dedicated to the cult of the Emperor Nero, showing a combination of Egyptian iconography and a Greek inscription. From Asyut (Greek - Lycopolis, Wolf city), home to a major temple dedicated to Wepwawet, a canine god. 🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky
A stele from Egypt. At the top a winged solar disk hovers above two crouching jackals whose snouts almost touch over an ankh symbol. At the bottom, Greek text.
November 15, 2025 at 8:05 PM
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Osiris Ptah Sokar statuette giving Monday morning vibes (Made in Ancient Egypt, Fitzwilliam)
🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky
Gilded face from a wooden statue of the god Osiris Ptah Sokar. The nose and mouth are carved but the eyes are painted in black in an ancient Egyptian style. It looks fed up.
November 10, 2025 at 11:41 AM
simonbralee.com
Pilgrim badge of St Leonard, looking like a medieval yoda

🏛️ Kings Chapel Museum, Cambridge
A thin metal badge depicting a monk wearing robes and holding a staff. He looks like he has pointed ears.
November 5, 2025 at 4:16 PM
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Londoners have always been grumpy as can been proved by this fossil of brychaetus muelleri found in London Clay (Island of Sheppey, so technically not London). They were large fish with armour-covered bodies and sharp teeth, 50-55 million years ago.
🏛️Sedgwick Museum.
Fossil of Brychaetus muelleri
November 4, 2025 at 9:51 PM
simonbralee.com
Classical bust (of Antoninus Pius?) covered in shells in the window of Sinai & Sons, Kensington Church Street 🏺 #AncientBluesky
A black Roman bust covered in various shells.
November 3, 2025 at 9:25 PM