Rectangular sandstone relief with a standing figure of Minerva in high relief. She wears a long garment and helmet, she's holding a lance in her right hand and an oval shield at her left side. On her right sight an owl is visible.

For #ReliefWednesday a representation of Minerva, the #Roman goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, and warfare. She's carrying the helmet, a lance and a shield. The deity is accompanied by an #owl, her sacred animal.
Found in Burgstall an der Murr.

📷 Landesmuseum Württemnberg

🏺 #archaeology

Norwegian skier hands IOC a petition to 'ski fossil free' ahead of the Olympics Norwegian skier Nikolai Schirmer has handed the International Olympic Committee a petition signed by more than 21,000 people who want to stop fossil fuel companies from bolstering their reputations by sponsoring winter sports.

Norwegian skier Nikolai Schirmer has handed the International Olympic Committee a petition signed by more than 21,000 people who want to stop fossil fuel companies from bolstering their reputations by sponsoring winter sports.

I am a Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. I have a question.

Why has Trump's year of negotiations been the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion? The number of deaths and injuries has increased by 31 percent compared to the previous year.

This is such exciting news for the prehistory & early history of western Britain & the wider European seaways, providing further firm evidence for the tin trade documented by classical authors 👇

This isn’t some anonymous tip. This is sworn testimony, under penalty of perjury, from someone who said Trump threatened to kill her if she exposed Epstein’s sexual abuse.

I'm expecting a blood thirsty rabbit to appear in that picture

Attention, Greek and Latin translators! Nominations are open for the Society for Classical Studies' Raffaella Cribiore Award for Outstanding Literary Translation. For information about eligibility and for nomination instructions, click the link. And please share! classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...

Side profile view of a helmet displayed in a museum case. It's mounted on a metal stand.The patinated helmet features a rounded dome-shaped skull cap, a broad flared neck guard extending downward. The punched inscripton is visible.

For #EpigraphyTuesday a Roman infantery helmet (Weisenau type) with an owner’s inscription formed by punched dots on the neck guard: the helmet belonged to Lucius Lucretius Celer, legionary in the centuria of Gaius Mummius Lolianus of the legio I adiutrix. 🧵1/2

📷me

🏺 #archaeology

Red clay terracotta head depicting a river divinity (Medma?) h 31.6 cm - from the ancient Medma, oggi Rosarno, Calabria, Italy 400 BC.

Musée d'art et d'history de Geneva, Switzerland.

#Archaeology #History #goddess #AncientBlueSky

The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture For centuries, Westerners have been engaged in an act of collective blindness.

for, um, almost no reason at all, here is Margaret Talbot's 2018 article on how we got the myth of whiteness in classical statuary, with references to @sarahebond.bsky.social: www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

⏳A gentle reminder that our special offer ends on 10 Feb.
The newest figure is inspired by a Late Bronze Age terracotta from Cyprus. Learn more about her mystery, and every order of a goddess figure currently includes a FREE Miniature Palaeolithic Figurine.
potted-history.co.uk

Such is the outrage in Denmark over both Trump’s desire for Greenland and disparaging remarks about NATO that one of the country’s leading newspapers devoted their Saturday front and plenty of room inside to the bios of all 44 Danes slain during NATO missions in support of the US

February on the Mosaic with the months of the year, starting with the Roman first month, March. From Thysdrus (El Jem). The scene shows the Lupercalia purification rites (a pastoral festival observed annually from February 13 through 15) with two men forcibly holding a naked woman while a third man whips her thighs. Dated 1st half of the 3rd century AD. Sousse Archaeological Museum, Tunisia.

Statue of Juno Sospita. Dated to the 2nd century AD. Vatican Museums, Rome.

Happy February! The Kalends of February honoured Juno Sospita, the goddess who protected the Roman state. February was considered the month of purification rites. From 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the Lupercalia, a festival intended to purify the city and promote fertility.

#Photography, ‘Medusa,’ Nemi, Italy #art

integrity

The Ironic order

I keep thinking again, in light of the latest Epstein files dump, about how MeToo “went too far.”

YouTube video by Brendan Barry Best in Show Cookie Guggleman and Malcolm

Cookie Guggleman- you don't forget the best.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rIH...

Wall of Tears: 50ft Brooklyn mural pays tribute to children killed in Gaza Installation remembers the names of over 18,000 children killed by Israel in Gaza between October 2023 and July 2025

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

The US Embassy removing 44 flags outside the embassy in Denmark - flags placed to honour soldiers who died fighting for the US - is disgraceful.

The flags were placed by veterans, furious over Trump's dismissal of NATO allied soldiers.
This isn't "protocol." It's cowardly, insulting, and shameful.

#ReliefWednesday - A rather fabulous polychrome relief of a 'secutor' type gladiator, with wonderful colour survival: ca. 2nd Century AD. Its excavation context was only rediscovered in 2017. #Art #Gladiator 🏺

Image: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki (MTH 28158). Link - amth.gr/en/exhibitio...

Anyone surprised by this story has been living in a fantasy world. Since Jan 2025, the Trump administration has been using lots of different tactics to force Ukraine to commit strategic suicide. This is just the latest.
The real story is that people have not grasped this reality.

What's happening in the camps:

> Senator Ossoff’s investigation has received or identified over a thousand credible reports of human rights abuses within U.S.
immigration detention since January 20, 2025

www.ossoff.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

A personification of Victory reclining languidly, framed within a temple. She has a palm leaf in her left hand, elbow resting on a globe, and holds a huge wreath with her right. The inscription is split into three with the name and titles of the emperor in the pediment, the reference to the legion in the wreath and the distance constructed in a tablet at the base. The boar shown running across the tablet was the emblem of Leg XX VV. (And maybe brags of how quickly the legion built their section?) The slab marked the western end of the Wall near Old Kilpatrick. Photo - The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

'Victory' and inscription recording construction of a section of the Antonine Wall, AD140s.

"For the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, father of his country, a detachment of the 20th Legion Valeria Victrix built 4,411 feet."

RIB 2208.
#EpigraphyTuesday
#ReliefWednesday

The article below adds some fascinating detail to the rule of the #Thracian king Seuthes III, whose bronze portrait head, greaves and helmet I've photographed, below. He straddled multiple cultures, as the treasures from his tomb attest. 🏺

📸 me #ancientbluesky

flic.kr/s/aHBqjBSifK

This March 1965 Herblock cartoon about police violence against civil rights activists has added relevance today.

A large bronze hand is displayed in a museum, with its middle finger extended while the other fingers except the thumb are broken or missing

Given the news, it seems appropriate to share this photograph once more. Feel free to share.

Hand of a gilded bronze statue of an Roman emperor.

From Kempten, 1st to 3rd c. AD
On display at Archäologische Staatssammlung

📷 me

As we return to a pre-WW2 order, the middle powers face a challenge With economic stagnation and extremes of inequality comes corrosion of trust in democratic institutions. So Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of what Carney called a "rupture" with the post-WW2 ord...

"He likened the US to Imperial Rome."
www.bbc.com/news/article...

‘If you haven’t served, respect those who have’: Nato soldiers on Trump’s slurs For those who fought alongside US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, president’s remarks have cut deep

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Great pictures. Hard choice, but Aspens in the fall was my favorite.