Dr Jo Ball

I saw it in a temporary exhibition at Manchester Museum, I have no idea where is usually lives (could well still be Manchester, for all I know!)

A mummy portrait from #Roman Egypt, depicting a bearded young man dressed in a white tunic with dark red stripes. We don't know his name, but he probably lived & died towards the end of the C2nd AD, & may well have been a soldier in life 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

A Roman glass funerary urn that was found during excavations in the Botchergate area of Carlisle. Dating to the 1st century AD, the urn can be viewed in Carlisle Cathedral’s treasury. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #RomanBritain #CarlisleCathedral

The base of a black prehistoric pottery vessel, held in the red nail varnished hands of an archaeologist, showing an area of decoration, comprising a series of squiggles, scored into the fabric prior to firing

The base of a 2,000 year old, Late Iron Age Durotrigian style Black Burnished Ware bowl from Winterborne Kingston #Dorset

A series of squiggles were scored into the fabric prior to firing - decoration, doodle or pot-makers mark?

📷 during cleaning in June 2013

#FindsFriday

A fragment of #Roman pottery, into which a sketch of a rowing ship has been incised - I love the little details, like the oars coming down into the water, & the ram at the front of the ship. A lovely piece of everyday art, made nearly 2000 years ago 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

A #Roman glass bottle, in blue, white, & green glass with gold gilt decoration. It was probably once used to hold perfume or perfumed oil, about 1800-2000 years ago.

A selection of Roman glassware, mostly from the eastern provinces & made 1600-2000 years ago - and a clear demonstration of how much the Romans like a bit of colour in their homes!

New post this week starting a new series on (Colonia Martia Julia Valeria) Salona! The colony was established by Caesar in 47 BCE, and would later be the birthplace of Diocletian:

www.roamintheempire.com/index.php/20...

#RomanSiteSaturday #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientBlueSky 🏺

A #Roman wooden barrel, once used to bring supplies to the soldiers stationed at Bar Hill fort on the Antonine Wall (Scotland) - hopefully it was a little luxury that made frontier life a bit more bearable! #AncientBlueSky

A cat chilling in the #Roman ruins of #Pompeii.

A #Roman oil lamp in the shape of a gladiator helmet (of a Thraex gladiator); the green glaze makes it a really unusual example! #AncientBlueSky

A #Roman helmet with a bit of a decorative surprise - on the back, it features two little mice chasing after loaves of panis quadratus bread.

Made about 1850 years ago, it once belonged to a soldier named Julius Mansuetus - did he choose this unusual decoration? 🐭 (📷Christies) 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

OPUS SECTILE FLOOR, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This extraordinary opus sectile pavement only finds comparisons in the House of Cupid and Psyche in Ostia and in the Diocletianic opus sectile floor of the Curia Senatus, which has been heavily restored. Here we have a background of giallo antico and a complex pattern of polygonal shapes with three recurrent themes, the circle, the four-pointed star, and the strange pelta or C-shaped shield. At the centre of each four-pointed star is a circle of alternating porphyry and serpentino set inside a round frame, or a circle of those marbles inset with a square of giallo antico or brecciated white marble. Within the octagons created between the stars, on a background of pavonazzetto, are circles framed with porphyry, with four peltæ in serpentino. This is a sophisticated and expensive floor, and the room must have had a public or ceremonial function.

#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome, this time to look at the dazzling #opussectile floor of the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, 385-388 CE. Its complex #geometric design makes it the most perfect floor of its kind in #LateAntiquity. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Small translucent amber figurine carved in the shape of a squatting monkey. The figure has a detailed face with expressive eyes and rests its chin on its hands, appearing thoughtful. It sits atop a rectangular platform supported by four rounded, balloon-like legs.

A tiny but very charming #Etruscan amber pendant in the shape of a squatting #monkey, height 4.7 cm.
Found in Vetulonia, #Italy, dating late 8th/early 7th century BC.

Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana

🏺 #archaeology

If you ever need an assistant you know where I am ;)

A lovely #Roman mosaic found in the grounds of a villa in Rabat, Malta, with a popular 'drinking doves' design - two doves drinking from a large bowl #MosaicMonday #AncientBlueSky

The beautiful #Roman ruins of Ostia Antica, a port city located just a short distance from #Rome - such an amazing & well-preserved site! 🏺 #AncientBlueSky #AncientSiteSunday

The tombstone of a #Roman woman named Curatia Dinysia, who died at the age of 40 in Deva Victrix (modern #Chester, Britain); she is pictured on the stone in a banqueting scene. Her tombstone later became part of the city wall #AncientBlueSky

In the #Roman world, roads & crossroads had their own guardian spirits - the Lares Viales (roads) & the Lares Compitales (crossroads). Travellers would offer them sacrifices in the hope of arriving & then returning home safely (travel was dangerous back then!) 🏺 #AncientBlueSky #MythologyMonday

Such empathy with these huddled beasts on a 10th/11thC whalebone chesspiece, perhaps a rook or a bishop, snuggling up against cold and damp autumn days…
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

People LOVED colour in the ancient world (our monochrome recreations are a huge barrier between us & them). Glass pieces like this were meant to impress for probably the (upper) middle classes, with the elite preferring silver; but intended as a beautiful thing to admire.

A beautiful #Roman glass bowl, with striped bands in blue, yellow, & clear/white glass. It was made about 2000 years ago, & was found in the area around Mount Vesuvius, after being buried in the AD 79 eruption 🏺 #AncientBlueSky #Archaeology

A beautiful #Roman glass bottle in a beautiful shade of amber-orange with white swirly decoration - a beautiful piece of ancient glass made more than 1600 years ago.

An adorable little #Roman figurine of a mouse playing a trumpet - because, why not?

#Archaeology #AncientBlueSky

A #Roman figurine of a dog, shown lying down with its back legs curled underneath, looking at something behind it. Dogs feature quite prominently in Roman everyday art, associated with loyalty & healing, & valued for their companionship (just like today!) 🐶 🏺 #AncientBlueSky #Archaeology

Terracotta gladiator group, with an olive-green enamel glaze. Two gladiators once opposed each other on the long base, one now missing, save his left foot. The remaining gladiator stands with his right leg advanced, his scutum (shield) held before him in his right hand. He holds a sica (short curved sword) in his left hand and wears a crested visored helmet and extra long greaves which cover his entire legs.

I imagine this guy shouting at museum patrons with a squeaky little voice, ‘C’mon, you think you can take me? Look what I did with the last guy!’.

This green-glazed terracotta gladiator is ready to rumble, but only his competitor’s foot remains. 🏺 1/

Roman, 1st c. CE, #BritishMuseum
📸 me

Roman grave marker found in New Orleans yard left there by US soldier’s granddaughter Erin Scott O’Brien says grandfather Charles Paddock brought back artifact with him from second world war

The story deepens! We now know the person who brought a #Roman tombstone to New Orleans was a US soldier stationed in Italy during WW2; I like to think that Sextus Congenius Verus - the tombstone 'owner', & a military man himself - would have understood...

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

A #Roman glass cup, in amber glass with irregular blue, red, & white splodgy decoration #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientBlueSky

New Orleans couple discovers ancient Roman grave marker in their yard Discovery of 1,900-year-old headstone dedicated to Roman sailor sets off effort to repatriate item to Italy

Wow, #Roman tombstones really do get around - this one was rediscovered in New Orleans, after being transported across the Atlantic by unknown persons in the chaotic aftermath of WW2...

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I might make this a regular thing, posting every week about some of the underappreciated Roman deities out there!