Dr Jo Ball

A #Roman gladiator's helmet, missing the face mask it originally had, found in Hawkedon (Britain). It dates to the C1st AD, suggesting that gladiatorial combats were introduced to Roman Britain quite early in its history 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

Round glass bead with a green base color, featuring a portrait of a woman with a necklace framed in red on a blue background.

Fascinating world of ancient #glass: a glass mosaic face bead. 1st century AD.

📷️ Landesmuseum Württemberg

An animal footprint on a #Roman tile from Dalton Parlours, a villa in West Yorkshire - amazing to think of it walking over the drying clay more than 1600 years ago!

#AncientBlueSky

Inside the hunt for British Museum’s missing treasures More than two years have passed since the British Museum revealed it was missing hundreds of precious artefacts. Alex Ross spoke to the man tasked with tracking the prized items down

Article about retrieval of items stolen from the British Museum. 654 out of an estimated 1,500 missing items have been recovered 🏺 #AncientBluesky

I think they did put meat etc between bread, not sure if they would recognise it as a sandwich in modern terms, but the basic concept seems the same!

‘That belongs in a museum’: The true ‘cost’ of detecting in England and Wales. By Tess Machling [A download/print PDF version can be found at the end of the paper] ‘My members don’t want to be quasi-archaeologists, they want to go out on a Sunday, dig around, get dirty, find …

FOI requests show that in 2024/2025, payments to individual finders & landowners for 'Treasure' rewards cost us £7,280,321.26

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bigbookoftorcs.com/2026/01/11/t...

#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺

A loaf of #Roman bread, which was being baked in an oven in #Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79; it was carbonised by the disaster & left in the oven until being excavated nearly 1800 years later 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

A snowy scene in the Alps, viewed from 39,000ft one year ago today

‘Extraordinary’ iron age war trumpet find in Britain may have Boudicca links Bronze instrument or carnyx dug up in Norfolk in area inhabited by Celtic tribe led by warrior who fought Romans

It would be so cool if this carnyx really did have links to the Boudican Revolt, as suggested by its find spot (I'm not sure we could ever be certain though, sadly)

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

An assortment of engraved #Roman gems, found in the drains of the legionary bathhouse at Caerleon (Wales). Originally set in pieces of jewellery - especially rings - until the glue softened in the heat & they fell out; similar collections are found in many Roman bathhouse drains

#AncientBlueSky 🏺

A beautiful pair of #Roman earrings, made of gold & decorated with small emeralds & garnets - a lovely piece of ancient jewellery.

A #Roman mosaic from a villa in Baiae (Italy), now underwater due to seismic activity in the region. Baiae - a coastal town not too far from Naples - was once a pleasure resort for Rome's elite (📷 Andreas Solaro/AFP)

🏺 #RomanSiteSaturday #AncientBlueSky

Pretty good opening line-up!

In some regions I think soldiers were making these tombstones instead of professional stonemasons - which might explain why some are not done very well!

A wide roman theatre with stone steps in a semicircular arc around a stage at the bottom, with columns standing behind it

For #RomanSiteSaturday, here is the magnificent Theatre of Dougga in Tunisia, one of the best preserved in Africa

Built in 168 AD, it could hold 3500 people (though Dougga only had ~5000 inhabitants). Likely people came from far and wide to see plays here!

📸 Mine

#archaeology #photooftheday 🏺

WALL FRESCO OF A DIVINITY, 30-20 BCE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME This beautiful female figure, elongated to impossible proportions like the Columbia Pictures logo lady, is on the wall of the main cubiculum of the ancient domus of the Farnesina, probably where Augustus' daughter Julia and her husband Agrippa slept. The whole room has frescoes with a white background, unusual for a bedroom. Spindly columns of vaguely Egyptian inspiration divide up the wall space. This figure is wearing a white peplos and stola against the white background, but she's far from camouflaged. Her head is slightly tilted, with an appraising expression on her face. Her crown is of leaves. In her right hand she holds a baton or other cylindrical object at shoulder level, her arm bent. The cylinder goes behind her shoulder. She stands on a low pedestal of blue-green which rests on a red ground. Is she a statue of a Muse or goddess?

Anyone for a game? This #FrescoFriday we're admiring a detail from the splendid White Bedroom of the #domus of the #Farnesina in #Rome, 30-20 BCE. A tall lady, gowned and crowned, holds a baton or scroll case against her shoulder like a racquet handle. She may be a statue. #AncientBluesky 🏺

The trumpet brooch is composed of a strong, sturdy body, spring and pin. The head is trumpet-shaped with a thin moulded around the edges. The trumpet end doubles as the spring housing and there is a small extra loop attached to the back of the trumpet-shaped head. It is probably that a beaded string ora chain was suspended from it and/or attached to another, similar brooch which was worn on the other shoulder. The latter end of the brooch's bow has a circular cross section and tapers slightly towards the foot which terminates in a moulded knop. the bow itself is decorated with a moulded reel decoration, flanked by two acanthus leaves - a decor which is very typical for trumpet brooches.

#FindsFriday
A cast copper alloy trumpet brooch dating from the early #Roman period, that is c. AD75-175. The brooch is in excellent condition with body, spring, pin and foot still intact.  Findspot Cumbria.
FindID: 623650
(see Alt for more)👇
#Archaeology #History
#AncientBlueSky🏺

Gaius Valerius' tombstone was found near the fort of Carnuntum (Austria), where the XV Apollinaris was stationed in the mid-C1st AD, suggesting that this is the period in which he died. It is on display in the Museum Carnuntinum in Bad Deutsch Altenburg.

The tombstone of a #Roman soldier named Gaius Valerius, who served in the Legio XV Apollinaris as a tubicen - a military musician who played a tuba to give commands, particularly on the battlefield. He died at the age of 36 after 16 years of service in the #RomanArmy

🏺 #AncientBlueSky

Happy New Year - 2026 already, wow!

In the #Roman world, lamps were often given as New Year's gifts - on this example, a winged Victory inscribes a shield with a wish for happiness in the new year, surrounded by coins & dried fruits (also traditional new year gifts).

A lovely #Roman necklace, made of gold & small chunks of emerald - a delicate, beautiful, & timeless piece of jewellery, made more than 1800 years ago.

A delicate #Roman glass bird, in a lovely shade of cobalt blue: it would originally have held perfume

Two Lego #Roman soldiers guarding the streets of #Rome still (well, the street outside the Lego shop, at least...)

Deep blue glass vessel shaped like a stylized animal with four legs, a pointed snout, and decorative ridges along its back, resembling a whimsical pig.

One of my most favourite glass vessels: A marvellous Roman vessel in the form of a pig, made of blue glass. It was used to hold ointment or perfume.
Found in a burial in Cologne. Dating late 2nd/early 3rd century AD

📷 Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln

🏺 #archaeology

#FindsFriday A mystery stone head on display at Castell Henllys Iron Age fort in Pembrokeshire, found locally in north Pembrokeshire

Not a typical 'Celtic' head but nonetheless possesses many features which could suggest an Iron Age date 🧐🤔

📷 My own, last week

Small bronze figurine of a naked woman - a girl, really - sitting on the ground, mostly on her left thigh, as her legs are pulled back. She has her right hand on her right ankle, and her head is turned to her left and slightly upwards; her left hand is on the ground. This pose creates a great tension in the work. She wears a large torc around her neck, with bulbous terminals, and a bracelet on each wrist (which may have been gilded, as well as the torc). The bronze surface is heavily corroded from centuries in the river. A very affecting portrait of a conquered Gaulish woman. British Museum, London (1867,0508.748)

This small bronze figurine of a naked Gaulish woman projects great vulnerability - which was certainly the point, but not in a good way. She's identified by her torc and represents the eroticization of a conquered people. 🏺

Found in the River Seine, Paris. Roman, 100-200 CE. #BritishMuseum
📸 me

A beautiful #Roman glass bowl, cobalt blue with an irregular white swirling pattern - it must have looked fantastic on an ancient table! (📷 Bonhams) 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

A reddish Roman samian ware bowl with richly figurative and geometric decoration, its surface pierced and repaired with several lead rivets.

Fascinating glimpse into everyday Roman life: This samian ware bowl was repaired with lead rivets, clear evidence that it was valued enough to mend rather than discard.
The repair reflects either the practical mindset and economic realities of a Roman household, or it may have been a...🧵1/3

📷 me
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Dedication stone from Roman Bath to the goddess Sulis which was set up by Priscus, a stonemason and tribesman of the Carnutes (a tribe in Gaul). Now part of the museum collections at The Roman Baths in Bath. 📸 My own. #EpigraphyTuesday #RomanBritain #Bath

Loved recording this episode with @ancientblogger.bsky.social, all about the Northwest African bandit-turned-rebel Tacfarinas!