Dr Eleri Cousins

Not gonna lie, a significant part of my research and engagement agenda is basically centred on getting to spend time in the Lakes 😅😎

This looks great - hopefully going up to Ambleside next month, so will be keen to try this out! 👇😃

Obviously I’m biased, but they’ve done an amazing job with it - I’m in awe of how well they researched and wrote about the objects! And the route is lovely too, taking in the river and head of the lake on its way to the fort.

They’ve done a wonderful route that takes in the river as well on the way to the fort - please do take it and let me know what you think!

Rowan Colley giving trail tours in Ambleside Roman Fort

A group listens to a trail tour by Rowan Colley in Ambleside Roman Fort

The trail was officially launched last weekend as part of The Armitt and @nattrustarch.bsky.social’s Ambleside Roman Fort open day for the #FestivalOfArchaeology, with Rowan and @aliceeliz.bsky.social giving trail tours to the public, supported by an @ics.bsky.social public engagement grant.

You can read The Armitt’s Roman Ambleside digital trail entry on the sling bullets and our knowledge of the so-called Battle of Ambleside here, researched and written by @arcdurham.bsky.social student Isla Mustin

#RomanFortThursday

www.armittdigitaltrail.co.uk/lead-bullets

Professional photograph of lead sling bullets from Roman Ambleside, taken by Durham archaeology students Rowan Colley and Isla Mustin. The bullets are cream coloured. Some are lemon-shaped, and others are more hastily formed blobs.

And here is the final photo for the trail itself 😱 Recent work by Edinburgh Uni and @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social suggests the sling bullets, all found scattered extramurally, are evidence for at least one battle outside the fort between the Roman army and the local population.
#RomanFortThursday

Rowan Colley photographing lead sling bullets from the Armitt’s collections

They also got the chance to learn about object photography - many of the trail photographs are their own work 🤩 - and get embedded in The Armitt’s ongoing collections audit. Here is Rowan photographing lead sling bullets from The Armitt’s collections…

#RomanFortThursday

Rowan Colley, Isla Mustin and Faye Morissey discussing the tombstone of Flavius Fuscinus and Flavius Romanus, held in The Armitt

Rowan and Isla taking photographs at Ambleside Roman Fort

Isla and Rowan spent two weeks in Ambleside with me and the Armitt curator, Faye Morissey, researching the objects, designing the trail route, and writing the trail text, as part of their @arcdurham.bsky.social
Advanced Professional Training module

#RomanFortThursday

View of the principia at Ambleside, under a bright blue sky with Windermere in the background. Two students stand in the principia taking pictures.

The trail highlights 13 objects from The Armitt’s collections from Ambleside Roman Fort, introducing visitors to life in a Roman auxiliary fort and vicus and to Roman occupation of the Lake District.

www.armittdigitaltrail.co.uk/roman-ambles...

#RomanFortThursday #Archaeology #LakeDistrict

So delighted to announce the official launch of The Armitt’s new digital trail through Roman Ambleside! The trail was developed by our fabulous @arcdurham.bsky.social 2nd-years Rowan Colley and Isla Mustin, with initial work by LU student Bastien Hamilton… 🧵

#RomanFortThursday #RomanBritain 🏺

I'm knackered after a full day of travelling yesterday, so let's do this.

One like, one curse tablet.

A horned god with spear and shield - a local god from Roman Maryport in Cumbria. The relief is now part of the collections at Senhouse Roman Museum at Maryport. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #RomanBritain #SenhouseRomanMuseum

My former colleagues at Lancaster are facing grave redundancy threats: 1 in 4 jobs are at risk, after already enduring hugely increased workload through staff departures and voluntary severance and major admin and curriculum changes over the last two years. Please consider signing/supporting them.

Gold bust of Marcus Aurelius from Avenches. The mustachioed and bearded emperor looks straight ahead with heavy-lidded eyes. An image of the gorgon sits on his breastplate.

View of the white limestone column of the Sanctuaire du Cigognier at Avenches on a sunny cloudless day (with another reconstructed column in the distance).

The Sanctuaire du Cigognier is best known as the find spot of this spectacular gold bust of Marcus Aurelius, and was likely dedicated in part to the imperial cult.
Cigognier means “stork’s nest” - after its sole surviving column! 🪺🏛️🏺

Bust 📷 © Site et Musée romains d'Avenches
Column 📷 my own

View of the exterior corner of the church of Ste-Marie-Madeleine in Avenches. Most of the church is built of greyish brown stone, and the exterior is plain. But at the bottom corner an extravagant piece of carved Roman masonry in white limestone sticks out, with coffered cornices and egg-and-dart motifs on the modillion.

Spot the Roman bit…

(Entablature fragment from the Sanctuaire du Cigognier at Avenches, Switzerland, built into the medieval church Ste-Marie-Madeleine. 📷 My own )
🏺 #archaeology

Ambleside Roman Fort under a bright blue sky with Lake Windermere visible in the background

The trail tours are launching The Armitt’s new digital trail of Roman Ambleside, designed by our students this spring (more on this next week!), and have been generously supported by an @ics.bsky.social public engagement grant 🥰

Ambleside Roman Fort open day 2025 <p>Get hands-on at Ambleside Roman Fort on this special open day including stalls, walk and talks, demonstrations and reenactments.

If you’re in the South Lakes tomorrow, head to Ambleside Roman Fort for the @nationaltrust.org.uk and The Armitt’s free #FestivalOfArchaeology open day! Our amazing @arcdurham.bsky.social students will be doing trail tours as part of the festivities - and there’s a ballista, apparently…

You can spot the St Andrews years books on my shelves through the sheer density of hardbacks. Never have I been so frequently seduced by a new books table in my life. I genuinely had to promise my husband I’d stop 😭

I would absolutely be bankrupt. And I wouldn’t even care. 😂

'Country's largest independent bookshop' set to open in York Councillors approve plans for Topping & Company Bookseller’s new city centre bookshop.

This…is the most exciting news I have seen in a long time 😳 Actually squeaking with joy 🤩

I basically tithed to the Topping & Co in St Andrews when I lived there - I guess if this one is a train ride away I’ll still have a chance of keeping at least some of my money! 😅
www.bbc.com/news/article...

I am like a kid in a candy store every time I’m there, usually to the bemusement of my companions. So many of my favourite chunks of stone! 🥰

Honestly, I’m getting more licorice allsorts vibes 🤔 Either way, delicious? 😋

(Yes, my photo is also a bit wonky, but if anything that makes the altar look less crooked than it actually is 🫣😅)

Small Roman altar, with a relief of a roughly carved cloaked male figure standing in a niche. Below is a worn inscription. Both the figure and the inscription are noticeably at a slant. The modern museum base reads “Altar to the holy god Mars, set up by Vi…anus”, RIB 1592 from Housesteads. The altar sits on a shelf, with other carved stones visible to either side.

Scrappy altars are my favourite. Behold this lovely little wonky god in a niche - and highly diagonal lettering 😂 - on this altar to Mars from Housesteads fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Adorable 🥰

RIB 1592, now in Chesters Museum.📷 mine

romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions... #EpigraphyTuesday 🏺

Amusing myself while reading about seals by imagining the other kind of seals.

"Seal boxes"
"Inscribed seals"
"Neither Greek nor Latin was wholly dominant among seals"

Yes - I’m really looking forward to the full write up when it comes!

(@kpw1453.bsky.social, just occurred to me this could also be read as criticism of your original post, which is certainly not what I meant! You always have brilliant photos that invariably make my day better! 🤩)

Picture of the full Hinton St Mary mosaic, showing two rectangular panels with figural scenes joined by a narrow geometric panel. The central roundel of the larger panel shows a male figure with a chi-rho behind him; the corners contain images of the Four Seasons. The central roundel of the smaller panel shows Bellerophon fighting the Chimaera. Hunting scenes flank both roundels.

As irritating as the current display is (this image, of all images, divorced from wider context!), the high-res photos on the BM collections website do bring me joy

📷 © The Trustees of the British Museum

www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

Picture of a church entranceway with a Roman inscription built into the wall

Photo of RIB 757 in the wall of the entranceway of the church at Brough, with a bench in front of it . IMP CAESA[R] very clearly visible in the first line.

The joys of walking into a church and instantly spotting a Roman inscription 🥰🤩😱

(RIB 757, dedication to Septimius Severus from the fort at Brough-under-Stainmore)

romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions... #RomanBritain 🏺