Brittunculus

The charred papyrus scroll rests in a metal cradle at the bottom of a glass fronted cabinet. Part of the scroll has been unrolled and hangs, in large fragments, from supporting wires.

A close up of the scroll in its metal cradle at the bottom of the cabinet. (Apologies for the glass reflections.)

The cabinet containing the mechanism. It sits in a corner of the Museum, unlabelled and easily overlooked!

#EpigraphyTuesday
One of the Herculaneum scrolls, preserved in charred form by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. Ever since the scrolls' discovery attempts have been made to read them. This example sits in the Papyrus Unrolling Machine designed by Fr. Antonio Piaggio c.1756: now in the MANN, Naples.

@drtobydriver.bsky.social created this nice explainer:

Yay, got it! The hideous large erotes are a major tell.

Druids and Furies by Dr Toby Driver Finding the Iron Age people of Ynys Môn and north-west Wales

I'm delighted to be lecturing at Oriel Môn/Anglesey Gallery in March about the incredible Iron Age remains on the island, including about recent work with @richardosgood.bsky.social at Llyn Cerrig Bach & our #RCAHMW recording of coastal forts.

See you there!

www.orielmon.org/en/events/dr...

Even roof tiles and writing tablets could get stamped if made for official use. Items ‘disappearing’ seems to have been a common problem.

Brilliant final paragraph.

Thank you! I’ve got lucky with weather this week. A couple of days when it’s been just like Spring in England

A view through the main entrance (with 'prominent' wall painting of Priapus at top right) into the atrium, tablinum and garden portico beyond.

A real treat to be back in Pompeii again.

A glimpse of the House of the Vettii in the evening light.
📸 my own

Um had Hadrian’s Wall been built by then?

Although it was built almost 300 years earlier (around 262), the temple at Pagans Hill, Somerset has a very similar layout and dimensions to the Basilica of San Vitale. Both are octagonal, east facing, an outer ambulatory with vaulted ceilings, and and inner cella defined by arched piers.

I was trying to think of the right word. Procession isn’t it, so I went with sequence. But I didn’t mean “in the same sequence.” Should have been clearer. Anyway, it’s intriguing.

Not that dissimilar (in its sequence of Aeneas, Dido and Ascanius on galloping horses) to the same hunting scene at Low Ham in Britannia. A common model? #mosaicmonday

Fabulous

It might just be a bit of fun (this pair of erotes are one of several in a frieze) but as there’s a woman who is probably Venus depicted above them, it maybe alludes to the trials & tribulations of love, which would certainly include triangular rivalry!

The secutor has discarded his helmet and rushes at the wounded retarius.

Fighting erotes (cupids) from Bignor #Roman Villa in W. Sussex. One is dressed as a retarius gladiator (net and trident) and the other as a secutor (sword and shield).
3rd/4th century
#MosaicMonday
#RomanBritain

I suppose the proportions looked ‘right’ to the carver, with the god a huge and terrifying figure. Or he was just having an off day.

The cold plunge with a flight of steps leading down from the right, an ‘opus signinum’ floor and a patch of surviving wall plaster on the left.

Apsed hot bath with terracotta box flue tiles around the periphery (to draw heat from a hypocaust up the walls).

Box flue tile (in suspiciously good condition, so maybe a modern replica).

Artist’s impression of the villa’s main wing in the mid 4th century. By Luigi Thompson. (There is an aptness to the boy practicing his archery as the site is now in the grounds of a hotel where guests can try it out - along with other outdoor activities.)

Among the otherwise low flint walls of Littlecote #Roman Villa’s residential buildings, a stepped cold plunge pool and a hypocausted hot tub bring home that real people once lived, shivered and luxuriated here. 1,700 years ago.
📷 me
#RomanSiteSaturday
#RomanBritain

The cold plunge with a flight of steps leading down from the right, an ‘opus signinum’ floor and a patch of surviving wall plaster on the left.

Apsed hot bath with terracotta box flue tiles around the periphery (to draw heat from a hypocaust up the walls).

Box flue tile (in suspiciously good condition, so maybe a modern replica).

Artist’s impression of the villa’s main wing in the mid 4th century. By Luigi Thompson. (There is an aptness to the boy practicing his archery as the site is now in the grounds of a hotel where guests can try it out - along with other outdoor activities.)

Among the otherwise low flint walls of Littlecote #Roman Villa’s residential buildings, a stepped cold plunge pool and a hypocausted hot tub bring home that real people once lived, shivered and luxuriated here. 1,700 years ago.
📷 me
#RomanSiteSaturday
#RomanBritain

A recreated Roman watchtower from Burgsalach on the German frontier. Similar structures existed across the Gask Ridge in Perthshire

What’s equally remarkable is that they carted it to Gaul for a Celtic chief to mix his wine in!

Roman Timber: Roofs, Doors and Forgotten Walls Podcast Episode · Build Like a Roman · 12/02/2026 · 21m

Episode 5 is now available:

Roman Timber: Roofs, Doors and Forgotten Walls

#romans #rome #history #archaeology #brick #tiles

To be honest, not that dissimilar to Ptolemy’s stab at it.

Maybe scope for starting a #churchinformerromanforttuesday. They’re definitely a thing.

An iron bread shovel used to take bread in and out of the ovens.

Tile-built base of a large Roman bread oven, one of two constructed within a shared open room, indicating commercial-scale bread production rather than domestic use.

Detail of third-century mosaic from St-Romain-en-Gal showing a Roman bread oven in use.

For #FindsFriday we’re celebrating the Roman festival of Fornacalia, the Feast of Ovens, held each February.

Baking hearths were honoured as the goddess Fornax to ensure good bread & large ovens in the City of London show how commercial baking fed Roman London, with an iron shovel found with them.

The images don’t seem to load on my iPhone sadly.

📸 ShareAlike License version 4.0 credit West Yorkshire Archaeology Service, Anna Marshall
finds.org.uk/database/art...

A plate brooch in the shape of a sitting greyhound. His waist is exaggeratedly thin and his head is overlarge. The head is turned back to look at the viewer with a large round eye, giving him quite a cute appearance.

A sinuous tinned-bronze brooch in the shape of a greyhound found at Fulbeck, Lincolnshire in 2005. His sinuous form was characteristic of Romano-British art and his eye might originally have been inlaid with enamel, a British speciality.
This good boy dates from the 2nd C.
#FindsFriday
#RomanBritain

A museum display case with iron dagger, parts of a wooden handle and an iron scabbard with gold and silver / niello inlay

An iron dagger (with wooden handle) and iron scabbard (with gold and silver inlay) found in the 1960s excavation of the mid 1st c AD #Roman fort at Waddon Hill #Dorset

Hopefully not used on any of the Durotriges ! 😬

Now in the fantastic Bridport Museum

📷 Feb 2023

#RomanFortThursday

The swirls are slightly hypnotic. Where is this on display?

With apologies for the terrible pun...