Dan Herbert

Saturday and yesterday didn't make for easy listening.
Don't see a straightforward way out of this hole

The Snettisham Hoards book discussion of the Newark torc

Our paper from Historical Metallurgy, showing detailed xrays of the Newark torc

Case in point - discussion of the Newark torc in the Snettisham books (left).

The BM used a really poor 150kV xray they had done in 2008, but entirely neglected to mention our 2018 paper, in journal Historical Metallurgy, which included detailed 450kV xrays (right) we had done of the Newark torc...

Whats interesting here is that the horse is showing very obvious distress,likely from the shit ironmongery in its mouth. This is still something unfortunately we see in showing at high levels.
Moral of the past 3000 years? If you need lousy bits to control a horse, go back to school.

A view over a ploughed field towards an ancient barn topped with snow. There is a hard hoar frost tracing cobwebs and making the going hard for the corvids in the field

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar
Window 7
‘Frost’
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

Grey upright sarsen stones, grey clouds and green green grass with mud

A damp day at Avebury today as the liquid sunshine gets heavier and heavier

📷 Dec 2025 #StandingStoneSunday

#StandingStoneSunday
The stone circle surrounding the southwest cairn at the Cairns of Balnuaran of Clava, on a misty moisty morning!
#BronzeAge #Scotland

Ditto

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,"
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

Oliver Herford

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

This sounds incredible: @aberuni.bsky.social leading the way for ancient #Celtic languages again 👏🏺

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A vivid #Roman carving to start the week; from a tombstone depicting a hound straining on a lead as it chases a hare, circa AD 90

On display in the museum of the Roman baths, Bath

📷 My own

Rare mosaic in Rutland reveals forgotten Trojan War tale - BBC News A paper by experts at the University of Leicester has been described as a "fascinating development".

This is such brilliant archaeology. There's a bit of a persistent story that Britain was somehow culturally separate from europe in the Roman empire when it was so intertwined and connected by people and goods travelling.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A church spire silhouetted by the moon.

For anyone starting to feel a bit MR James-ey for Christmas…
Christchurch, Norwich.

I've still never seen Nottingham in the daylight though

I really liked it. A lot of really good beers and ciders.
We went for the evening slot which was really crowded when we first got there. This was mostly due to it being changeover time (and the space restrictions due to the building works).
Once that had calmed down it was great.

The Snettisham torcs and the British Museum by Tess Machling [A download/print PDF version can be found at the end of the paper] Introduction The recently published Snettisham hoard volumes are long awaited, and contain much that is of use a…

Saddened, but not surprised, to see Snettisham books nominated for 'Research Project of the Year'. Yes, there's good in those books, but there's much wrong when it comes to torcs themselves & our research was largely ignored...

#Archaeology 🏺 #Gold #Torcs

bigbookoftorcs.com/2024/12/11/t...

Not laying down like the Monty Python Australian Table Wine then.

A 1950s comic strip about the Bronze Age featuring Stonehenge

For this chilly #StandingStoneSunday I'll let Stanley Herbert's brilliant drawings tell the story of #Stonehenge 🧐 from Oldham's 1950s standard for school pupils - 'British History in Strip Pictures' 👌

Hopefully this book is in all Archaeologist's stockings this Christmas? 🎄

I like Elsie Mo but can give the rest of Castle Rock a miss. Went to the Beer Festival at Trent Bridge and I thought Nottingham Brewery beers were the best of the lot

Painful.
Arsenal a kick in the stomach.
Just got soaked on my way to @corinthiancasuals.bsky.social.
Hoping The Casuals will break the pattern

I've never come across them before. I thought this was very drinkable

I thought it was a bowed head having its face clawed by hands....

"There's a feeling you get
in the presence of beautiful buildings and bustling courtyards. A sense that these spaces are inviting you to slow down, deepen your attention, and be a bit more human. What if our software could do the same?" #greatdesign

H/t: @mathieuon.bsky.social

a man holding a burning log in front of him in an office ALT: a man holding a burning log in front of him in an office

Me: Don't mess this up England. It looks a tame wicket if you play sensibly and punish the bad ball.
England:

This one’s a heavy recommend for the reading lists:

A photo of a hand pump of Newark Castle Brown Ale A circular sign featuring Newark Castle.

Been down the pub. I think @jpwarchaeology.bsky.social would approve of beer choice.
Nottinghamshire ✅
Brown Ale ✅
Castle ✅

My photo collage shows a selection of bishop and warder chess pieces finely carved from creamish-coloured walrus ivory, dated c. 1150-1200 AD. Found in a large gaming hoard on the Isle of Lewis. On display at the British Museum. Photo top left: Two bishops and a warder. All standing. The bishops wear long garments, mitres, and hold a crozier with both hands. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and a conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces. He’s armed with a sword and kite-shaped shield inscribed with a lozenge shaped cross. Photo top right: A so-called ‘berserker’ warder chess piece. Standing, wearing a long garment and hood, armed with sword and a shield decorated with an interlaced saltire. The warder has large, wide-open eyes, and large upper teeth which bite the top of the shield. Height 8.2 cm. Photo bottom left: A standing warder and two seated bishops, one of which is partly obscured by the warder. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces, is armed with sword and shield. The seated bishops wear long garments, mitres, and each holds a crozier and book. Photo bottom right: A warder and a bishop, both standing. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment, and conical helmet with neck, ear-pieces and ornamented head-band. He is armed with a sword in right hand and kite-shaped shield in left hand. The bishop wears a long garment with cloak, and mitre, and holds a crozier in his left hand and a book in his right hand.

The Lewis Chessmen

These 12th-century chess pieces are packed with personality, and have such charmingly expressive eyes! ♟️ 👀

From a large gaming hoard discovered on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in 1831.

📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology

If there was any doubt that FIFA remains corrupt to its core.