Annemarieke Willemsen

Kerry James Marshall (b.1955), painter and prof, "The Histories", retrospective with new work at Royal Acadrmy, London. Black, bright, bold, clever as hell, food for thought 🤩 Until Jan 18, 2026

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

The Beetles crossing Abbey Road

Flat illustration of a Wood Pigeon, Magpie, and Robin in a parade-line stride holding autumn leaves up high with their beaks! (UK birds as I am there right now on vacation!)

Found: 650-year-old shoe, in vulture nest Many unexpected human artifacts have been preserved, for centuries, in vulture nests.

#archaeobirds 🪶

Sheer beauty 🤩 stone lintels from Yaxchilan, Maya culture, 450-550 (with pictograms, that list rulers) and c.725 CE (large scenes, that show them performing rituals). Now in British Museum, London, gallery 27 🏛 Yaxchilan, on border between Mexico and Guatemala, was an extraordinary place to visit 🦋

NEW: Extraordinary scenes in Amsterdam this afternoon (Sunday, Oct 5).

An estimated 250,000 bring the city to a standstill; people all wearing red to show solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸

(🎥 Ahmed Zantac)

My photo shows a Roman-era wooden toy sword made from oak. It is dark brown in colour, displayed against a cream and pale green background. It is carved to look like an adult sword, with a semi-circular handle, a blade with pointed tip, and a semi-circular guard embellished with a centrally-set oval polished stone. The wood is remarkably well-preserved except for a break across the hilt. Excavated in 2017 from the cavalry barracks at Vindolanda, a fort on the Roman Empire’s northern frontier. Dated c. AD 120.

At almost 2,000 years old, this child’s wooden toy sword is a remarkable survival from Roman times!

Found in the living quarters of the cavalry barracks at Vindolanda fort in 2017. Dated c.120 AD. Chesterholm Museum 📷 by me

#RomanFortThursday
#Archaeology

A flier with a woodcock saying "psst". The text says "Did you know that I have a store? posters, tshirts, mugs & more" and there's an image of the digital storefront on Topatoco for Bird and Moon comics, including posters and a mug and tshirt.

Did you know I have a store? topatoco.com/collections/...
I sell prints of some of my most popular comics, plus tshirts, mugs, and more.

Ever wondered what students at medieval universitites got up to? Wonder no more and learn all about this from @amwillemsen.bsky.social next Tuesday at 1pm for a free lunchtime lecture! www.sal.org.uk/event/back-i...

Today is the feast day of St Jerome. I used to have a copy of this Durer print above my desk. I love the quiet stillness of his study and the light streaming in through the windows.

Stylised carving of a wolf on a piece of stone

"Whoever carved the Ardross wolf has seen the real thing" 🐺

Now on display in Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, the famous Ardross Wolf Stone was probably created over 1,000 years before these animals were persecuted to extinction in Britain around 1760: www.digitscotland.com/the-archaeol...

Images of the cisterns of La Malga, the Zaghouan Aqueduct, and the sacred springs at Zaghouan

Images of the cisterns of La Malga, the Zaghouan Aqueduct, and the sacred springs at Zaghouan

Images of the cisterns of La Malga, the Zaghouan Aqueduct, and the sacred springs at Zaghouan

The #Antonine Baths of #Carthage powered by the mighty #Zaghouan #aqueduct (built under #Hadrian ) & the vast La Malga cisterns - 15 vaulted chambers holding up to 60,000 m³ each. One of Rome’s greatest feats of engineering in Africa, it supplied water until damaged in the 5th and 11th centuries.💧🏛️

Just open: 'Beato Angelico" in #Florence, unique overview exhibition in Palazzo Strozzi featuring re-assembled golden altarpieces & in Museo di San Marco featuring manuscripts & serene context of frescoed cells. Surprise bonus: Van Eyck's "St Jerome in Study" from Detroit 🦁 worth the trip! < 25 Jan

For #InternationalRabbitDay a frolicking bunny on a maiolica dish from Faenza, early 16thC, now at extensive & lively International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza (Italy) 🐇

blue porcelain rabbit figure on white background, front view - bunny is looking at us head on with a smirking expression on its face

For #InternationalRabbitDay 🐰🐇:
Love the facial expression on this blue bunny, it just keeps getting funnier the longer you stare back at it😂
China, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1654-1722), porcelain w/ blue glaze, Newfields collection: collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/23070/

Female American Kestrel portrait

Female American Kestrel strikes a pose 🪶☀️🌵

#FlintFriday! Stunning 🤩 Mesolithic scraper from submerged #Doggerland 🌊 found on the beach by Maurits a couple of weeks ago.

This only happens to you once

Sigrid Leijonhufvud, Rosa Norström, Märta Leijonhufvud and Fanny von Haartman sitting on an 11th century bench, discovered in 1906, still being used in Kungsåra church, Sweden.
Currently at the Historiska museet in Stockholm, no sitting allowed.
historiska.se/upptack-hist...

Still Here A: Hey! Just saw your message. Sorry for the delay—got swallowed by a glacier that migrated south. I’m inside the ice now. Surprisingly roomy. Hope...

"Hey! Just saw your message. Sorry for the delay—got swallowed by a glacier that migrated south. I’m inside the ice now. Surprisingly roomy. Hope you’re well."

Lindholm Høje, Trelleborg, Ribe, Oslo for the ships

They all are

Our Enduring Fascination With Ancient Roman Baths From a mosaic of flip-flops in Sicily to Cicero's possible sauna, new discoveries prove that bathing has always been about more than getting clean.

Our Enduring Fascination With Ancient Roman Baths
hyperallergic.com/1043102/our-...

Sardinia and Corsica

Impressed by how my sharp-eyed students spotted today how the Vatican Vat. 6018 map (c. 770) includes size estimates for some Mediterranean islands, taken from Orosius.

4-year funded PhD in Old Norse-Viking Studies at UCC, working on the Literature & Art strand of the NorseMap Project. www.ucc.ie/en/hr/vacanc...

Italy has moved me to tears for 3 days straight. Bravo ❤️

Amulets were meant to protect the owner from evil. This amulet takes the form of the head of Hercules, 3/4 view, one of the most famous heroes of Classical mythology. In Egypt during the Roman period (30 BC-AD 639), Hercules was a symbol of power as well as of protection during times of war. The turquoise glaze on this amulet was popular in the pre-Islamic Middle East. In Egypt, turquoise was associated with good fortune as the colour of the life-giving River Nile. Under Islam, the lucky associations of the blue-green colour persisted in an informal way. Romano-Egyptian, ca. 2nd-3rd century CE. From Karanis, Egypt. Molded faience ware. V&A Museum, London (486-1891)

This blue-green Egyptian faience amulet was meant to protect its owner (apotropaic) and bring good luck. It was in the form of the head of the hero Hercules, identifiable by his beard and the Nemean lionskin - a symbol of power.

2nd-3rd c. CE, Karanis, Egypt. V&A Museum. #ancientbluesky
📸 me