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The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent has secured a rare Bronze Age solid gold dress fastener. The 3,000-year-old jewel with trumpet terminals is one of only seven found in England and Wales, and it’s the first to be found in Britain in over 30 years. It is the first to be found in … Read the full post →“Another local museum acquires Bronze Age gold”

Like many people, I’ve been reading Pope Leo XIV’s first Encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. It is long, it is expansive, and in many ways, it is daunting. Time will tell whether it is a worthy successor to Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891), but it certainly continues (explicitly) in that tradition. There are already quite a few… Read More →

An exceptional Roman gold ring with an intaglio stone depicting a winged Victory driving a two-horse chariot has been acquired by the South West Heritage Trust and will become part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Somerset. The ring is heavy at 48 grams and is decorated with abstract openwork patterns, niello enamel … Read the full post →“Museum snags Roman gold ring with chariot intaglio”

This week has been pretty slow. I had this plan to write a very ambitious paper that would weave together various Roman period features and finds from the area E.F2 at Polis. As the article took shape — complete with catalogues, stratigraphic descriptions, and comparanda for the various features — it crept toward 25,000 words.… Read More →

During this current academic year I’ve started completing a part-time MA in History. It’s been great being able to learn new things again, whilst also attempting to write essays; although, I’ve struggled at times juggling the course along with work and other commitments. My current module focuses on German history from 1870 to 1945, and […]

My interest in Roman lamps has not grown over the last few years where I’ve been studying them (albeit in a rather desultory way). As readers of this blog know, we have a lamp deposit from Polis and have been working to say something about this odd little assemblage of lamps. The most unusual thing… Read More →

Two babies buried in ancient Roman York were wrapped in cloth of Tyrian purple with gold thread, the apex of luxury in the Roman world. This is the first discovery of the sumptuous purple dye, worth three times the cost of gold, in York, and one of only a few examples found anywhere in the … Read the full post →“Infants in Roman York buried in Tyrian purple”

A finely carved ivory double comb from the 12th century has gone on display at the LWL Museum of Archaeology and Culture in Herne, Germany. One of only 60 known examples, the comb is what is known as a liturgical comb, and the only one ever found in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia. The comb … Read the full post →“Rare Ivory comb returns to Westphalia for exhibition”

It goes without saying that I’m listening to Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis this week. The passing of Sonny Rollins led me to listen to his great album Saxophone Colossus (1957). It’s may well be the greatest hard bop album ever recorded. Everyone knows it, but it’s always worth hearing again: As readers of this… Read More →

Photo courtesy Arkeologerna.Two 2,500-year-old Bronze Age neck rings have been found in Marby outside Norrköping in southeastern Sweden. They were discovered crammed between two stones on the edge of a burial, an unusual context that suggests they were placed as offerings. The two rings are different in design: the larger one is thinner, the smaller … Read the full post →“Two Bronze Age neck rings found in Sweden”

A massive Iron Age structure of wood and stone in an excellent state of preservation has been discovered on the banks of the Main River in Aschaffenburg, Germany. It dates to the 4th century B.C. The combination of the riverbank find location, the mixture of timber and stone construction and the early Iron Age date … Read the full post →“4th c. B.C. wood and stone structure found in Germany”

I took both my Ricoh and my Sigma out this week. My Ricoh remains convenient as ever and an easy companion on my afternoon perambulations. My Sigma remains a pain. The bright Mediterranean sun washes out the back screen and the dim light of the storeroom makes it just shy of useless in anything… Read More →

A Bronze Age hoard with three heavy gold necklaces has been discovered near the town of Urlați, northeast of Bucharest, Romania. The three necklaces have a combined weight of more than 300 grams, that’s a hair under 11 ounces. This is an exceptional find for the country and may upend current scholarship on the chronology … Read the full post →“Bronze Age hoard with heavy gold found in Romania”

On my walk yesterday, I forced myself to come to terms with how tired I’m feeling. I know by admitting this, I risk turning this blog into one of those early aughts Live Journal confessionals. And I really don’t want to do that, but I’m tired. People who follow this blog have a pretty good… Read More →

The intertwined skeletons of two individuals have been discovered in a grain silo from the early 5th century B.C. in Dijon, France. It is the first discovery of its kind of the Dijon area. Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) excavated the site in the Saint-Apollinaire neighborhood last summer, unearthing … Read the full post →“Intertwined bodies found in ancient grain silo in Dijon”

Over the last few days, I’m grinding out a bit of text based on an assemblage of frneware from Polis on Cyprus. This is in the service of a larger project that I’ve been describing over the last few weeks. It’s been slow going and quite frustrating, but words on the page count especially when… Read More →

The Kasta Tumulus, the largest known burial monument from ancient Macedonia, is now visible along its entire circumference and height for the first time. Restorers have exposed the full peribolos, the marble enclosure wall that surrounds the tomb, a perimeter 497 meters (1631 feet) long. Areas of loss on the southern side of the peribolos … Read the full post →“Massive Kasta Tumulus restored”

A larger than life-sized statue of Agrippina the Elder, niece of Emperor Augustus. discovered at the ancient city of Veleia in Emilia Romagna, northern Italy centuries ago, has been restored and is back on display with 11 members of her family at the Archaeological Museum of Parma. Conservators from the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta in … Read the full post →“1st c. statue of Agrippina the Elder restored”

I feel like I’m starting to find my groove here this summer and our manuscript is getting tighter and more polished. This gives week two of my summer research leave a bit momentum. There are a couple things going on these days that probably deserve a bit of text. Thing the First We had a… Read More →

This past week has been productive to the point where I’ve not had as much time to listen to music as I perhaps would have liked. I did, however, take some time to listen to some Dewey Redman on and around his May 17th birthday. I’ve always enjoyed his debut album, Look to the Black… Read More →