Matthias Hoernes

Many thanks to the colleagues at Metaponto. Despite the museum being a huge construction site, they found time to browse their storerooms with me. It is hard to imagine such enthusiasm, effort, and hospitality outside of southern Italy. #Archaeology 🏺

Oxford chemists identify honey offering in a 2,500-year-old shrine | Researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Chemistry have solved a decades-old archaeological puzzle by re-investigating the molecular composition of an intriguing residue found in

Oxford chemists identify honey offering in a 2,500-year-old shrine | University of Oxford
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-07...

Titel ohne Zukunft?
Privatdozenten sind habilitiert, hochqualifiziert – und oft ohne Einkommen, Stelle oder Perspektive. Eine neue Initiative will ihnen Gehör verschaffen. Wer steht hinter "PD Prekär"?
Im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/07...

Couverture, violette, du livre "Perséphone et la culture populaire. Patriarcat et féminisme aux Enfers", aux éditions EDUL.

Mon livre est sorti de presse ! Il faudra tout de même attendre la rentrée pour vous le procurer, ou venir directement au Livre sur la place à Nancy le 13 septembre pour que je vous le dédicace.

My second stop was Cirò and Cirò Marina. Huge thanks to many people, including the amazing Soprintendenza di Catanzaro e Crotone, for giving me access to materials, making countless calls to organise things, showing me around the region, and sharing their knowledge and passion. #Archaeology 🏺

We are deeply grateful for the funding. To celebrate this, some photos from San Chirico Raparo. One of the Lucanian tombs there contained this extravagant black-gloss fountain model, and they also had an abundance of lead barbecue equipment that we are going to analyse. #Archaeology 🏺 #AcademicSky

Whenever I have time, I try to visit the burial plots that I work on, and the ones in Lucania never fail to amaze me with their views of the landscape.

San Martino d'Agri, Tempa Cagliozzo; with some of the assemblages displayed in the Museum of Grumento Nova. #Archaeology 🏺 #AcademicSky

This is Susi, my new local collaborator this year. Her constant efforts are very much appreciated. #dogsofbluesky #Archaeology 🏺 #AcademicSky

As seen here from the Sacro Monte di Viggiano, the Agri Valley embodies everything I love about Basilicata: majestic mountains, deep oak woods, rivers, hillside towns, and incredible archaeology. #Archaeology 🏺 #AcademicSky

Entrance of the National Museum of Grumento Nova.

Panoramic view of Grumento Nova and Viggiano in the background, both located on hills.

Driving through the oak forests of Basilicata's Agri Valley feels like coming home. The first stop on this summer's trip is Grumento Nova, and I am extremely grateful to the Museum for opening its doors wide to support my current research and future collaboration. #Archaeology 🏺 #AcademicSky

📣 Vienna's Institute of Classical Archaeology is recruiting a Full Professor of Roman Archaeology. It is one of the largest and most international departments in German-speaking countries, with a strong fieldwork profile and a rich blend of academic traditions. #Archaeology 🏺 #AcademicSky

Working in academia is not always fun, but when you collaborate with welcoming, warm-hearted colleagues like I did today at the splendid Museo Barracco archive, you are reminded of the reasons behind your work. Many thanks! #Archaeology 🏺 #AcademicSky

A figuratively decorated plate with black gloss, showing a war elephant with a baby elephant following behind, perhaps in a parade.

There is so much to say about the 3rd-century Capena plate, but for me, the baby elephant is still the star, albeit a poor one. Archaeological escapism at a time that feels like the eve of the next world war. 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺 Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia

📣 Save the date and join us to discuss Classics pedagogy in German-speaking countries. How can we organise study programmes, address professional diversification, and strike a balance between research-oriented education and vocational training? #Archaeology 🏺

🔜 www.kleinefaecher.de/beitraege/bl...

Now for the negative: a beautifully detailed mould of a terracotta banqueter lying on his bed with his shoes underneath, and a table with plates, fruit and food. Taranto, first half of the 5th c. BCE, 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺

A female head with a neutral expression, red lips, reddish-brown hair and a yellow diadem imitating gold.

Another example of the perfection of southern Italian terracotta artefacts: a polychrome female head, the findspot and identification of which are unknown. Taranto, 4th c. BCE (?), 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺

This is an ancient lyre with a tortoiseshell body and iron fittings. The upper part of the instrument is a modern reconstruction.

As someone with a soft spot for turtles, I have mixed feelings about this one, but I am also interested in tortoiseshell lyres, such as this 5th-century BCE piece from Taranto. 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺

For #MothersDay, the great hall of the Matres Matutae, votive statues of mothers, typically holding infants in swaddling clothes, at the Museo Campano, Capua. The statues were excavated in the 1870s/1880s at a sanctuary near Capua.
#AncientBlueSky

Maybe you missed each other. A good excuse to return to the MArTA soon.

There has been a great deal of research into the terracotta mourners from Canosa, up to a metre high, my personal favourites, but you will know that.

Not of the same type, but large-format terracotta figurines and statues are a speciality of southern Italy. This website and catalogue give a good overview: www.getty.edu/publications...

Three terracotta statues of Orpheus, sitting on a stool and playing his instrument, and two sirens, half human and half bird, standing in front of him.

Three terracotta statues of Orpheus, sitting on a stool and playing his instrument, and two sirens, half human and half bird, standing in front of him.

A highlight of early Hellenistic Taranto is the stunning terracotta group of Orpheus and the Sirens, recently returned from the Getty to Italy. While striking, their original setting, possibly on a funerary monument, remains a mystery.

Taranto, late 4th c. BCE, 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺

Im Bild zu sehen ist Rektor Schütze mit einem Beitrag zum Thema "Niemals wieder"! Gedenk- und Befreiungsfeiern des Mauthausen Komitees. Er wird folgendermaßen zitiert: "Die Universität Wien vermittelt künftigen Generationen nicht nur Wissen, sondern fördert kritisches Denken, historische Verantwortung und demokratische Were - für ein 'Niemals wieder' gegen Hass, Rassismus und Verfolgung."

„Gemeinsam für ein Niemals wieder!“ ‼️
Sebastian Schütze, Rektor der Universität Wien, ist Teil des "Virtuellen Gedenkens 2025" des Mauthausenkomitees.
Mehr dazu hier: ⤵️
www.befreiungsfeier.at
#MKOE #80JahreBefreiung #VirtuellesGedenken2025 #NiemalsVergessen #NiemalsWieder #WeRemember

A bronze nutcracker in the shape of two hands, the fingers of which are intertwined and decorated with golden bracelets with snake heads.

Form follows function? A nutcracker designed as pressed bronze hands with an internal hinge and beautifully decorated gold bracelets. A must for every kitchen drawer.

Taranto, late 4th/early 3rd century BCE, 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺

Small terracotta model of an old woman, probably a nanny, sitting next to a cradle in which a baby and a dog are sleeping.

After Canosa, I'd like to start a series of posts about Taranto, whose MArTA is a must-see in southern Italy. Here's something small to start with: a terracotta model of an old nanny looking after a sleeping baby in a cradle and a dog snuggled up to it.

Taranto, 350–325 BCE, 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺

My photo collage shows four cylindrical Minoan cups each with a single handle and each decorated with a different polychrome motif, including white spirals, white whorls, white petals, red spots, orange spots, orange bands, and white bands, all painted on a black background. This type of ornamental Minoan pottery is known as Kamares Ware, named after the Kamares Cave on Mount Ida on Crete where this kind of pottery was first found. Kamares Ware vessels were luxury items produced by palace workshops at Phaistos and Knossos on Crete. These four cups were excavated at Phaistos and dated 1800-1700 BC.

Sipping my coffee ☕️ thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups!

So modern-looking it’s incredible to think they were made by Bronze Age potters 3,800 years ago!

Known as Kamares Ware, these luxury ceramics were made in palace workshops. Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me

#Archaeology 🏺

The cleaning of the plaster casts at the Vienna Archaeological Collection is nearing completion, and the results are breathtaking. 🎬 Enjoy one round of peeling in fast motion. Many thanks to @univie.ac.at for funding the project.🏺AncientBlueSky #museum

This is exciting. If you can find the reference, I would love to read more about it. To be honest, I never really appreciated the tiles from a cappuccina and other tile tombs.

Good to know, thank you.

Absolutely. I would love to think that the tile was commissioned for the funeral, but maybe it was just reused from another context.