Dr Jo Ball (@drjeball) — Bluesky Profile

3 days ago

Nothing on record, but I suspect so - both were prominent figures in Rome around the same time, & Varus was an important person & a member of the Imperial family by marriage, so I suspect a lot of people knew him!

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3 days ago

Oh, wonderful - I really hope you enjoy it!

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1 week ago

A Roman mosaic depicting an owl with wide eyes, brown and red body, and blue feet, set against a cream-colored background with a black geometric border. The owl looks a bit deranged.

Just another Monday…

A Roman mosaic depicting a somewhat whimsical owl 🦉, found in Uzès, southern France, dating second half of the 1st century BC.

📷 Denis Gliksman, Inrap

🏺 #MosaicMonday

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6 days ago

My photo shows a Roman floor mosaic depicting an octopus. The octopus is composed of small black tesserae (tiles) and has eight writhing arms with suckers and narrow curling tips. It is set against a white tesserae background. Octopus detail from a monochrome marine mosaic featuring Triton with a cherub and various sea creatures, including the octopus, dolphins and a cuttlefish, at the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in Herculaneum.

Spectacular octopus from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum.

📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

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3 days ago

A #Roman tile , impressed with the footprint of a chicken that walked across it some 1600+ years ago 🐔 #AncientBlueSky

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4 days ago

One of my favourite stories about Varus is when he is said to have appeared in the dream of Caecina, a #Roman commander campaigning in the same area of Germany. He rose covered in marsh water & blood, calling out & reaching his hand to Caecina, who pushed him away - spooky! 👻

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4 days ago

A beautiful #Roman metal brooch in the shape of a horse - animal brooches were popular in the Roman world, & I can see why! #AncientBlueSky

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6 days ago

The swirling central panel of a #Roman geometric mosaic - almost hypnotic! #MosaicMonday #AncientBlueSky

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1 week ago

An ancient woolly sock from #Roman Egypt - with a split between the big toe & the other toes so that you could wear it with sandles! #AncientBlueSky

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2 weeks ago

Roman arched walls along a walkway curving around to the right

#RomanSiteSaturday The upper levels of El Djem Amphitheatre in Tunisia, 3rd century AD

It was huge - I think this was floor 3 of 6!

📸 Mine

#archaeology #photooftheday 🏺

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2 weeks ago

I know the feeling!

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2 weeks ago

I think a lot are thought to be mold-made, but some modern glassmakers suggest the ridges might be added onto the vessel in a different production stage

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2 weeks ago

A selection of #Roman ridged glass bowls, all made about 2000 years ago - but still looking fantastic! #AncientBlueSky

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2 weeks ago

A #Roman gemstone, carved with the image of the goddess Aurora in her chariot, riding across the sky to bring the dawn of a new day ☀️ #AncientBlueSky

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2 weeks ago

A fundamental feature of Greek ceramics and their offshoots is that they could be used. By contrast, this vase, with its lid fixed onto the body, serves a purely symbolic function. It belongs to a class of pieces associated with the site of Centuripe in Sicily. They are characterized by elaborate and delicate applied decoration and by refined polychromy executed after firing. The vase was made for the tomb.

The scene shows a bride surrounded by attendants. The background is a deep, vibrant pink, and the colors of the women's clothing includes cream, yellow, blue, green, orange, lilac, and red. Their skin is very pale. One female attendant wears a grape-leaf wreath on her head and bangs on a tympanum (hand drum). The bride is veiled.

The sealed vessel resembles a tholos-style tomb or temple, with lion-headed waterspouts, triglyphs and metopes.

Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe, 3rd-2nd century BCE.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (53.11.5)

This Greek terracotta vase from Centuripe, Sicily (a Greek colony) is brightly painted with a scene depicting the mostly-naked red-haired enthroned god Dionysos cradling a thyrsos in his right arm. A female figure veiled in a white himation - a priestess? - stands next to him, her face lost to time. A shield is propped up against the side of Dionysos' throne. The background here is a vivid pink madder, and the skin of the god is very realistically portrayed - pale, with reddish toning, and highlights and shadows.

Even in its partially ruined state, the painting technique is obviously wonderfully realistic while the intensity of the colors make it look fantastical. The top of the vase includes architectural features, including a Lesbian kyme cornice (with remains of gilding) below lion-head waterspouts. The base is an open acanthus plant, as if the vase were growing out of its center. Probably made for the tomb.

Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe, 3rd-2nd century BCE. Terracotta, gilding, and pigments.

H. 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.); diameter 14 1/2 in. (36.83 cm.)

Met Museum, New York (29.131.2)

Ancient #polychromy is rarely more vibrant than this type of Greek painted pottery from Centuripe, Sicily. Both vases here are funerary and have architectural elements at top, looking like small tholos-shaped temples (lion head waterspouts!). The colors are blazingly vivid. 🏺 1/

📸 me

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3 weeks ago

A #Roman glass bowl, found near #Pompeii, & made about 2000 years ago. A beautiful & colourful piece of ancient glass! #AncientBlueSky

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3 weeks ago

A #Roman gold ring, set with an oval of green chalcedony which has been engraved with the image of a parrot; the level of detail is amazing, especially the texture on the feathers (especially given that it is only 2.6cm wide!) (📷 Christies)

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3 weeks ago

I'll do my best to keep them coming ;)

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3 weeks ago

A lovely #Roman glass bowl, in shades of green & yellow. It was made about 2000 years ago, probably in Italy, but ended up in a grave in the Rhineland; it is one of the largest glass bowls ever found north of the Alps (📷 Clemens Sels Museum Neuss) #AncientBlueSky

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1 month ago

His own legs are pretty out of proportion too!

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1 month ago

A Romano-British relief sculpture of a warrior (or maybe a war god?) on horseback, with a spear in their left hand & a shield in the right. It has a somewhat unusual approach to the relative sizes of the figures though!

#AncientBlueSky #Roman #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology

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1 month ago

A cute little #Roman brooch in the shape of a hare or rabbit - animal brooches were popular in the Roman world, & this may once have been a very treasured possession for someone who lived 1800+ years ago 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

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1 month ago

A beautiful Byzantine necklace (dated C6-7th AD), made of amethyst, glass, & gold beads linked by delicate gold thread. A lovely piece of ancient jewellery! (📷 NY Met Museum) #AncientBlueSky

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1 month ago

The Romans used the same techniques as the medieval Venetian glassmakers - so we do know the way they did it, but I'm not sure if anyone still makes glass the same way today

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1 month ago

This is in the BM - for once, at least it has a good reason to be there!

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1 month ago

This thymiaterion has five individually hand-made women sitting on the edge of a red-painted wellhead, with one sitting in her own high-baked chair. All are brightly painted, and each woman has a 'hat' with a cup on top for the burning of the incense. All painted slightly differently - three with orange-yellow tunics, two with red tunics; two red himatia (cloaks), two purple-black himatia, and one yellow himation. They each once carried an attribute in each hand, but several are missing. In this photo, one woman carries a yellow (meant to be gold) phiale, an offering plate, and a pomegranate; the other woman facing us carries a spindle with wool.

Met Museum (2012.546)

One of the best examples of ancient #polychromy that I know of is this terracotta thymiaterion - incense burner - in the form of a group of colorfully dressed women sitting around a wellhead. The iconography reflects a local cult, perhaps of Demeter and Kore. 🏺 1/

4th c. CE. #MetMuseum
📸 me

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1 month ago

Wealthy but not the uber rich - I think it would have been a bit of a luxury, but the proper elite went for silver when they could!

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1 month ago

A #Roman glass bowl in cobalt blue with white irregular swirls; it was made about 2000 years ago, probably in Italy, but ended up in a C1st AD grave in Roman Britain

#AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientRome

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1 month ago

For #EpigraphyTuesday a Roman infantery helmet (Weisenau type) with an owner’s inscription formed by punched dots on the neck guard: the helmet belonged to Lucius Lucretius Celer, legionary in the centuria of Gaius Mummius Lolianus of the legio I adiutrix. 🧵1/2

📷me

🏺 #archaeology

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1 month ago

DISCO ZEBRA!!!
🦓🦓😍

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