Kevin Wilbraham

The Moel Hebog Shield - a late Bronze Age shield which was found in a bog near Moel Hebog Mountain (Eryri National Park) in 1784. Now part of the collections at the British Museum. 📷 My own. #FindsFriday #Prehistory #Archaeology

Some of the surviving fresco decoration from the House of Livia, the wife of Augustus, on the Palatine Hill in Rome. The frescoes date to around 30 BC. 📷 My own. #FrescoFriday #Rome

The Norman font from the Church of St Michael the Archangel at Kirkby Malham in North Yorkshire. 📸 My own. #FontsOnFriday #KirbyMalham

Matthew the Evangelist, his symbol above; and the beginning of his Gospel 'L'(iber)

BnF Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal Ms-592 réserve; Evangelia quattuor; end of the 10th or beginning of the 11th century; Région de la Meuse et de l'Escaut; ff.19r-19v
@gallicabnf.bsky.social

Obverse of a Roman aureus: Bust of Trajan, laureate, draped, cuirassed, right.

Reverse of a Roman aureus: Trajan seated left on low platform, right with two attendants; three kings standing right before.

#OnThisDay - 8 August - in AD 117 the emperor Trajan died. As both builder and military commander (notably his campaign in Dacia) he excelled, accepting the title 'optimus princeps'. #AncientHistory 🏺

Image: RIC II Trajan 367; Münzkabinett Wien (RÖ 88278). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

Unlike many other chapter houses, the ribbed vaulting of Southwell Minster's C13th chapter house doesn't have a central pier.
It hovers over the space like a starburst in dramatic light.

The Norman tub font at Great Malvern Priory.

A Benedictine monastery was founded

#FontsonFriday

Young lads preening on a monument at Lamerton

😍🫢A door of real beauty. It simply astonishes me to think that the base of the tower at All Saints in Brixworth is Anglo Saxon 7th century. Notice the murmuration of re-used Roman brick tiles in the stone coursing taken from Leicester and Towcester. #thread

Ruins of an rectangular desert fort with partially collapsed towers, surrounded by empty, rocky sand and no vegetation.

For #RomanFortThursday let’s go to Qasr Bashir, #Jordan, located 15km northwest of Lejjun. An inscription dates the construction of the Castra Praetorium Mobeni to AD 293-305. It was occupied throughout the 4th and into the 5th century. Umayyad pottery...🧵1/2

📷 taken by me in 2000

🏺 #archaeology

Tom na Moine: Woodend cairn, of national importance as a well-preserved example of a largely undisturbed Bronze Age burial cairn with central stone-lined cist. A low rising mound located 455m above sea level on the southern slopes of Tom na Moine.

#RomanFortThursday & this week, was able to tick off one thats eluded me for ages - Lamanis, fort in Kent

a short 🧵👇

🏺AncientBluesky

Worn stone steps leading up between two vegetation covered brick and stone walls. A tree is in the distance

Stairway to premier seating in the #Roman amphitheatre of #Caerleon legionary fortress #Gwent

Here the officers and guests of the Legio II Augusta would ascend to watch *entertainment* in the arena 😱

📷 2015

#RomanFortThursday

The remains of the south west turret of Aesica Roman Fort (Great Chesters) on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. The fort was built in around AD 128, the ninth fort built along the line of the Wall. 📸 My own. #AdoorableThursday #RomanBritain #HadriansWall #Northumberland

The South Transept Norman Doorway of Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire. 📸 My own. #AdoorableThursday #RiponCathedral

A very lively depiction of the Ascension....more from this ms tomorrow. Good night all!

BnF Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal Ms-592 réserve; Evangelia quattuor; end of the 10th or beginning of the 11th century; Région de la Meuse et de l'Escaut; f.157v @gallicabnf.bsky.social

Image shows both sides of the gold tremissis.

An early medieval gold tremissis converted for use as a pendant was found by a detectorist near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, #OTD in 2019. 📸Portable Antiquities Scheme #medievalsky

Reconstruction of a Neolithic enclosure from the air showing the ditch, stone walls and internal buildings with smoke rising

Long before the Iron Age hillfort of Crickley Hill #Gloucestershire there was an impressive Neolithic enclosure

Here's an epic recreation looking West © Johnny Wall for the Crickley Hill online archive

crickley.org

For more of Johnny's art see

johnnywall.co.uk

#HillfortsWednesday

Pembrokeshire coast van detail

Digging in progress

Digging in progress

Diggers in high vis

Amazing work in progress on #HillfortsWednesday at Buckspool coastal promontory fort in south Pembrokeshire.

An excellent project by @richardosgood.bsky.social & DIO with an Op Nightingale team, working with @henebtwa.bsky.social & @rcahmwales.bsky.social 👏

Tours are ongoing until 14th August

St. Mary’s, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, is one of England’s greatest Anglo-Saxon churches - with much pre-Conquest fabric - set in a bucolic landscape. #thread

My photo shows a Roman ornamental fountain spout in the shape of a frog excavated from the vesuvian area. Made of glazed terracotta, the frog is viewed from the side. It is sitting with its head to the right and raised upwards with mouth slightly ajar for water to pass through. In colour it is creamy-beige with darker greeny-brown bumps. The glaze is missing from the throat and mouth area. The glaze on the surface of the body appears bumpy like that of a toad although the museum describe it as a ‘rana’ / frog.

Roman fountain spout in the shape of a frog. Glazed terracotta. From Pompeii, 1st century AD.

Great to see ornamental froggie fountain spouts have been popular for 2,000 years! 🐸❤️

MAN Napoli 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Mary Magdalen wears a tightly laced dress & cloak. She holds her jar. Her long hair is braided & is wrapped around a bonnet.

“Mary Magdalen” - Jan Borman I

Carved in oak with traces of polychromy.
#Brussels 1480-90

Amazing to see the #medieval costume & hairstyle of the late 15th Century. But such skill in rendering it in wood.

Now @museecluny.bsky.social #Paris

#Woodensday
#WoodcarvingWednesday

Homes of ‘working-class Romans’ discovered during Rome metro dig Experts say the relics at Piazza Venezia appear to resemble a multistorey complex of homes and shops

Homes of ‘working-class Romans’ discovered during Rome metro dig.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Clay relief showing an ancient hydraulis (water organ) at the center, flanked by two gladiators, each raising an arm as if in a gesture or salute. The figures are dressed in typical gladiatorial attire, and the organ features several upright pipes.

For #ReliefWednesday a depiction of a hydraulis – a water organ with a keyboard and pipes, the supply of air was created by water pressure. The instrument on the terracotta relief found in Trier is flanked by gladiators, a retiarius and a secutor. Water organs were used in... 🧵1/2

🏺 #archaeology

And this is St Mary, Boxford, where Rosemary Rutherford's Transfiguration glass is in the east window. A splendid church in a lovely village, both full of interest.

Boxford: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/boxford.htm

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

12th century wall painting from St. Laurence’s Church at Pittington in County Durham depicting St. Cuthbert’s consecration as a bishop by Archbishop Theodore, with King Egfrith of Northumbria looking on.📷 My own. #WednesdayWallpainting #Medieval #Pittington

My photo shows a small Proto-Corinthian clay aryballos (perfumed-oil container) in the shape of an owl with a pouring hole in the tail. Height 5 cm, Width 6.4 cm. The owl is perched with its tail to the left and head to the right. It leans slightly forwards with head turned so that its large eyes face the viewer. The owl’s chest is painted black. The eyes and plummage are intricately detailed in black on a yellowy-cream slip. Three rows of feathers in the wing plumage are painted alternately in red and black. Dated c. 640 BC

It’s #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay
🦉❤️

To celebrate here’s an Ancient Greek clay aryballos (perfume flask) in the shape of a little owl!
Dated c. 640 BC.

The Louvre, Paris 📷 by me

#OwlishMonday
#Archaeology

This is fascinating, but what is the squirrel up to? Annoying a bear?

A Bronze Age food vessel from Hare Hill Ring Cairn which contained cremated remains. Located near Thornton-in-Craven in North Yorkshire, the site contained the cremated remains of at least 15 people. Part of the collections at Craven Museum in Skipton. #TombTuesday #CravenMuseum