![The photo shows four images of the same Roman iron stylus (pen) one below the other, with knib to the left. This stylus is octagonal in shape, with an inscription dot-punched along its length on four alternate sides. The stylus is 132 mm long and 5 mm thick, and the letters are circa 2 mm high. The four images of the pen show the four lines of inscribed text (highlighted) which read:
‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro
acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m)
rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem
largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’
Translated as
‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift
with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give)
as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’
This inscription is generally interpreted by scholars as a humorous, tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment by the giver of the cheapness of the gift.
The pen was used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets. Found in London (Roman ‘Londinium’) by MOLA, during excavations for Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in 2010–2014 . Photo by Juan Jose Fuldain for MOLA](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j56ydp325adovobhwpkzc6sp/bafkreifnagf7o3c3tsvpawfj2o5exyqsg52vwrovvapsjrhwtzd6tv5bf4)
Timeless humour!
A 2,000 year-old Roman souvenir pen with a joke inscription roughly equivalent to:
“I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap pen!" 😂
Dated circa 70 AD, this iron stylus pen was recovered in London during excavations by MOLA. 📷 Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA
#Archaeology
Wildlife group returned to the English/Welsh border on Weds to the location of our Land Caddis (Enoicyla pusilla) discovery last Nov. Found in v. good numbers again & over a wider area. Grown too: cases now around 3.5mm long (prob 3rd instar of 5). Excellent result!
Meanwhile, the rest of us scrape together our fivers and tenners to try to stop this happening...
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-save-...
The bone collector caterpillar is a carnivorous caterpillar that lives in spider webs.
It disguises itself with the corpses of the spider's prey, while stealing food from their eight-legged host's web
🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Hello everyone! If you’re watching Channel 4. If not, why not? ALL NEW ROMAN EMPIRE BY TRAIN ON RIGHT NOW!!!
Tears of joy! SCOTLAND HAS JUST PASSED SWIFT BRICKS INTO LAW unanimously!
4 years of asking England & Scotland sorts it in a month led by ACE MARK RUSKELL MSP ♥️The RELIEF is unreal! Tell England to follow 🏴by emailing PlanningPolicyConsultation@communities.gov.uk now!WOOP!
The Ehenside Tarn axe, found in Cumbria in 1869, now in the British Museum. An early Neolithic stone axe from Langdale, with its original wooden handle still attached. The haft always reminds me of Captain Caveman’s club!
#FindsFriday
Lithics called Maros points characterise assemblages of the Toalean hunter-gatherer group, who occupied south-west Sulawesi 🇮🇩 c. 8000-1500 years ago.
Their similarity to perforated shark teeth suggests a possible link between the two technologies.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
Bats (order Chiroptera) comprise 20% of all mammal species with 1200 known types of bat. With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more manoeuvrable than birds. #bat #bats #mammal #mammals #wildlife #nature #chiroptera 🦇
✨Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. A kitchen in the nave and a bedroom in the chancel hid within plain sight an Anglo-Saxon chapel built by Earl Odda (a relation to Edward the Confessor). Re-discovered in 1865, it is the most complete surviving Saxon church in England.
WOW! This late Roman blue glass cup made an epic 12,000 km journey!
Made in the eastern Mediterranean, it was excavated from the Cheonmachong Tomb, a royal tomb of the ancient Silla Kingdom in Korea! 🤯
Early AD 500s. Gyeongju National Museum, South Korea. 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
Greater Bilby (Macrotis lagotis): 55cm (22in). Aka just "Bilby" this is a long-eared rabbit-like mammal native to Australia. It lives in burrows. Formerly widespread, bilbies are now endangered & with the odd exception restricted to arid parts of northwestern and central Australia. #bilby #australia
We interrupt your feed to bring you this fluffy chap adopting what we like to call the Spread Bearded Tit.
The name is still being workshopped…
Digging for Britain is back on our screens on BBC Two at 9pm tonight!
Two @Nationaltrust.org.uk properties feature in this series - Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire (Ep. 5, 4th February) and St Michael's Mount, Cornwall (Ep. 6, 5th February).
All episodes are also on BBC iPlayer: bit.ly/4qv9H9o
Only six species seen all day on an 8 mile epic from Penmaenmawr to the summit of Drum and back. At least 12 Red Grouse seen, a species I could only dream of seeing up there as a young lad. Red Kite, Raven, Stonechat, Kestrel and a Carrion Crow made up the rest of the list! #ukbiring #birdingwales
Something lovely for the weekend!
Beautiful blue glass beads from the late Bronze Age 💙
Ploughed up by a farmer in Denmark in 1885, analysis shows the beads were made in Mesopotamia, pointing to long-distance trade in luxury goods some 3,000 years ago.
📷 National Museum of Denmark
#Archaeology
#AshmoleanAdvent Day 24: Winter Coat
Woven from the fleece of a Himalayan mountain goat, Kashmir shawls were famous for their lightness, softness and warmth.
Starved Wood-sedge and the emergency efforts of the Species Recovery Trust to save the last few plants
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Happy #FlyDay all 👋 Life tick ✅ last week at Nash Point - South Wales and first time photographing a Chough, pronounced Chuff - did not land, just flew past (see ALT)😍 🦉 #birdingWales #ukbirding #birdphotography #naturephotography #birdwatching #chough #corvids
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
For me, Ancient Music Ireland playing the Loughnashade horns were the highlight of my night.
Theyre so loud!!! Keep Romans off your lawn with these baddies!
Did you know Bronze Age Cyprus had trade connections all the way to Britain? Tin was imported from south-west England, playing a fundamental role in the transition from copper to full tin-bronze metallurgy across Europe and the Mediterranean.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
A newly identified native bee species with distinctive horn-like features has been discovered in Western Australia's Goldfields, underscoring the diversity of Australia's native pollinators. doi.org/g99xcf
Last Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) officially known to man. The animal, a female, was captured by Elias Churchill with a snare trap and was sold to Hobart zoo in May 1936. It, lived as an endling (known last of its species) at Hobart Zoo until its dēātħ on night of 7 September 1936.
#archaeohistories
Some good news for Friday: the new RBBP report reveals that five species of large wading bird reached record totals in 2023, including Spoonbill. See the trend since 2010 below… even the bird itself looks shocked by the increase! Read more at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... #ukbirding #ornithology
Wow! 😮🤩
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓
itiner-e.org
We might have to have a lie-down.
Major revision of #GBRedList of plants published today shows 25% of our native & archaeophyte flora threatened with extinction. Many iconic widespread species classified as threatened for first time including Betony, Marsh Marigold, Devil’s-bit Scabious and Harebell. Another wake-up call for action!
Well this was neat.
World's biggest spiderweb discovered inside 'Sulfur Cave' with 111,000 arachnids living in pitch black | Live Science share.google/IcsbD2Lb3zhT...
An extraordinary discovery was made in Ibiza: a 30-centimeter wooden sculpture representing Hercules. Considering the scarcity of wooden sculptures preserved from the Roman era, this discovery is truly remarkable.
The figure was found in a Roman well that was later reused as a refuse pit. 🧵1/2
🏺
When in the woods, best beware of dead man's fingers lurking there.
Reaching up above the ground, a creepy fungi to be found.
Happy Halloween everyone.
Photo: Sheringham Park by Rob Coleman
