Sophie Ploeg

24 January AD 126 – A small Serapeum is consecrated in Thebes to Hadrian on his 50th birthday (#Hadrian1900) FOLLOWING HADRIAN On January 24, AD 126, Emperor Hadrian celebrated his 50th birthday. This event was marked by the dedication of a small temple to the god Serapis (Serapeum) in the forecourt of the Luxor Temple (Ro…

24 January AD 126 – A small Serapeum is consecrated in Thebes to Hadrian on his 50th birthday #Hadrian1900
followinghadrian.com/2026/01/24/2...

yeah but the lace.... ❤️

a woman with a bun on her head and earrings looks at the camera ALT: a woman with a bun on her head and earrings looks at the camera

They will be iconic

#TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK

Great Traitors finale! 😈👹😊 #TheTraitorsUK

😂LOL

Was reading Middlemarch and it is good and interesting but also a little boring…. Took a break and now having fun with Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. Less prestigious but who doesn’t love to survive a trollock attack?! 🤗 #books #fantasybooks

Book cover of Joan Smith’s Unfortunately she was a Nymphomaniac

This was a rough read. In a good way. As in, in an important way. 1/3 #JoanSmith #unfortunatelyshewasanymphomaniac #womenshistory #ancientRome #Ancienthistory

Warwick’s own seminar series is great this spring term! 😊😃
#AncientBluesky
warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cla...

Just signed up for a number of online talks at the ICS 😊😃

Republican tombs found in Rome suburb Archaeologists have uncovered a major funerary complex dating to the early Republican period in Rome’s Pietralata district.

Republican tombs found in Rome suburb

www.heritagedaily.com/2026/01/repu...

An important book. I listened to the audio book but will buy the paper version as I want to be able to go back to it more easily. 3/3

It lifted my blinkers on the treatment of imperial women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty for what it was: a seemingly endless story of abuse, rape and murder, all too often blamed on the female victim by ancient and subsequent historians.2/3

Book cover of Joan Smith’s Unfortunately she was a Nymphomaniac

This was a rough read. In a good way. As in, in an important way. 1/3 #JoanSmith #unfortunatelyshewasanymphomaniac #womenshistory #ancientRome #Ancienthistory

Very interesting piece on AI and Roman authorship with link to a talk on it given by Howley #AncientBluesky

Did you know that the PR agency for #COP30 also works for fossil fuel companies like Shell?

We made a meditation app to help them sleep at night.

Try it for yourself here
oilwell.app

Detectorist who 'dug up Roman brooch' actually bought it on eBay - BBC News Funeral director Jason Price "deceived thousands" of people by planting the Leasingham horse brooch.

#RomanBritain 🧐

Detectorist who 'dug up Roman brooch' actually bought it on eBay - BBC News share.google/HBxCBOufSfwx...

Hamnet review: The Oscar-tipped Shakespeare drama is moving but 'manipulative' The Shakespeare drama starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley has a stellar cast but is "exploitative" and lacks subtlety.

Read so many positive reviews about the film Hamnet, this is actually refreshing. Haven’t seen it yet but enjoyed the book. #Hamnet
www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

title page of George Eliot's Middlemarch, 1871.

Gave ChatGPT a short list from my 'to be read' pile, my mood, and asked which I should read next. It suggested Middlemarch by George Eliot, which was not on my list at all. Giving it a go. #books #reading

Book Review "The Will of the Many" Great fun although a little shallow

Wrote a short book review of 'The Will of the Many' by James Islington on Substack - my first post on Substack - not quite sure Substack is the place to be but it's worth a go! Have a read:
open.substack.com/pub/sophiepl...
#bookreview #reading #books

Anonymous painting bought at auction on ‘hunch’ identified as two-in-one Rubens Study of man often featured in works by the Flemish master reveals hidden painting of woman beneath model’s beard

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Today's artist without a (known) birthday: Robert Peake. Hailed from Lincolnshire, came to London, made it big against stiff competition from Dutch & Flemish painters. Here Frances, Lady Reynell, 1595.

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, looking dashing and bloodthirsty at age 9. At least young Sir John Harrington at left is impressed! Painted by Robert Peake, whose day is today.

Description from Wikimedia Commons: “The peplos-clad woman in this fresco is labeled as an 'offerant', which is appropriate since she's carrying a silver offering tray with herbs, food, and other implements to perform a ritual offering to the gods. Found in the diaetae ('day rooms') facing the gardens at the ancient Villa San Marco, in Stabiae.” This artefact is held by the MAN Napoli, inv. 8890a. Image credit to Chapps.

✨A woman makes an offering✨

This #FrescoFriday we travel to the Villa San Marco in Stabiae to enjoy this beautiful depiction of a woman carrying a tray that has food an implements associated with making a ritual offering.

Photo credit to @chapps.bsky.social ☺️

Frank Gehry, legendary Canadian-American architect, dies aged 96 The architect, whose work included the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, died after a brief illness Frank Gehry, one of the most influential and distinctive talents in American architecture, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles following a brief respiratory illness, his chief of staff confirmed. He was 96. Gehry, the most recognizable American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright, was one of the first to embrace the potential of computer design, and pioneered a distinctively exuberant style of bravura power, whimsical and arresting collisions of form. His most famous work remains the Guggenheim Museumin Bilbao, a fantastical, titanium-clad composition on the Nervión River which received international acclaim upon its opening in 1997, heralding a new era of emotive architecture. Continue reading...

Frank Gehry, legendary Canadian-American architect, dies aged 96

Frank Gehry's most iconic work - in pictures As one of architecture's most provocative and creative forces, Frank Gehry was behind intriguing buildings the world over.

RIP. Frank Gehry's most iconic work - in pictures
Frank Gehry's most iconic work - in pictures www.bbc.com/news/article...

Mycenaean bronze daggers, inlaid with scenes featuring animals, sea creatures, birds and a lion hunt, made about 3,500 years ago (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

🇳🇱 BREAKING: Netherlands withdraws from #Eurovision 2026, following the results of the EBU General Assembly today.

Press Releases

The Women's Institute has been forced into excluding trans women too
"Not doing so would leave us at risk of costly legal challenge and potential regulatory action from the Charity Commission. We have a public duty to ensure our charity is not in breach of the law."
www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre...

It's official: 400 redundancies and a campus closure. At-risk staff will get a letter next week. Absolutely no serious consideration of any of the union's counterproposals.

Please share widely.

Man wearing some kind of helmet that looks almost exactly unlike a Roman legionary of the mis 1st century BC would have worn

A man pretending to be a Roman legionary of the 1st century BC wearing comedy Roman breastplate, wrist guards and anachronistic helmet

Actors all pretending to be Roman soldiers but wearing hopelessly incorrect fancy dress outfits. Sigh

Dear BBC

Watching the programme *Civilisations: Rise and Fall - Egypt* and wanted to know what in the name of zarking fardwarks are these outfits?

If only there was a way of knowing what Roman legionaries in the late 1st century BC actually wore 🤔

#Archaeology