'That ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole World'. Revelations 12.9. Here he is seen on the chancel arch at Elkstone, Glos.
14.02.2026 11:28
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'That ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole World'. Revelations 12.9. Here he is seen on the chancel arch at Elkstone, Glos.
My photo shows a ‘roaring’ hippo statuette made of Egyptian blue faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. The hippo is seated with head at left, and turned to front. The hippo’s original tusks (top incisors and lower canine teeth are known as tusks), are missing, so it looks as if the hippo is smiling. The blue body is decorated in black with Nile river plants such as water weed and lotus flowers. This decoration depicts the hippo’s marsh habitat as well as having layers of symbolism associated with regeneration e.g. lotus flowers open with the sun in the morning and close at night symbolising rebirth. Height 7.5 cm, length 12.5 cm. On display Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
A little blue hippo made by an Egyptian artisan around 4,000 years ago! 🦛 ❤️
Decorated with river plants and lotus flowers, blue faience hippos are associated with the life-giving Nile and rebirth. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 📷 by me
#Archaeology
Les Gaulois au-delà du "roman national":
le regard de l' #archéologie
rfi.my/CPax.X via @rfi.fr par Olivier Favier cc @aphg.bsky.social
A detailed close-up photograph of a limestone relief plaque featuring an owl face. The owl has large, circular eyes with intricate dotted borders, a prominent curved beak, and decorative patterns around the eyes and neck, set against a plain gray background.
It has been quite a week! We all need a timeline cleanse.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
An Egyptian relief plaque with a face of an #owl 🦉.
The owl hieroglyph represents the sound m.
Late Period–Ptolemaic Period. From Egypt, 400–30 BC.
📷 Metropolitan Museum
HIstoriated initial B, page from a psalter, showing King David with harp. V&A, MSL/1902/1664 (Reid 24) at top, and man being beheaded below
Another in my series of images from medieval manuscripts
#SomethingBeautiful #MedievalSky
Historical buildings in Burgundy with blue window shutters
Burgundy in blue
a medieval painting of a scruffy white dog with a strangely human face
normal dog, switzerland, 15th century
Carved figure of a Roman woman in pale sandstone. The style of art looks quite naive but still an impressive piece.
Tombstone of an unknown Roman woman at Vindolanda.
Found used in 4th century wall repairs, the local buff sandstone was quarried in the 3rd century, so the tomb may date to that period.
@vindolandatrust.bsky.social
#TombTuesday
Born #onthisday in 1626, Charles Perrault, the French author who helped to lay the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale. Read Christine Jones' essay on his work and the importance of the early English translations. publicdomainreview.org/essay/m... #otd
A Dutch tile from the seventeenth century showing a person standing and reading a paper. The person is supposed to be a "Stads- en Dorpsomroeper", an kind of spokesmen of the past. The source for this, and many more Dutch readers and cries may be found here: https://www.spijkertegels.nl/mensen-beroepen/stadsomroepers
A Dutch tile from the seventeenth century showing a person standing and reading a paper. The person is supposed to be a "Stads- en Dorpsomroeper", an kind of spokesmen of the past. The source for this, and many more Dutch readers and cries may be found here: https://www.spijkertegels.nl/mensen-beroepen/stadsomroepers
Catching up on the reading in blue and white, pure seventeenth-century Dutch style. #skystorians
A large Carolingian gilded disc brooch intricately decorated with cloisonné inlay; that is tiny gold cells inlaid with semi-precious red almandine stones, white pearls, and red, white, green, and blue glass and enamel. The inlay is arranged to form a cross. At the centre of the brooch is a large oval red almandine in a gold fitting. Around the rim are four smaller almandines (one missing), four relatively large pearls, and sixteen smaller pearls. The brooch measures 8.5 centimetres in diameter. Large brooches like this were used to fasten a cloak, so this one was both functional and decorative. Analysis shows that the brooch was modified in antiquity. The remains of the attachment pin on the reverse was hammered flat to take small nails to attach the brooch to another object, perhaps a book or casket
Something lovely for the weekend!
The Dorestad Brooch, c. AD 800.
This beautiful Carolingian brooch was found at the bottom of a well in the Netherlands in 1969!
Gold inlaid with almandines, pearls, glass, and enamel. Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden 📷 AlexanderVanLoon www.rmo.nl/en/collectio...
An image of an ornate book cover featuring elaborate gold and silver embroidery. In the middle of the book, the initials K.P. have been sewn in. The text overlay reads 'A very special New Year's gift from 1544/5.'
Handwritten page by Princess Elizabeth I, featuring elegant script on aged parchment, with a ruler for scale on the right side. The text overlay reads 'Written by Princess Elizabeth, aged 11, for her stepmother, Queen Katherine Parr'
A handwritten page from "Le Miroir de l'ame pécheresse," an early 16th-century French devotional poem, attributed to Marguerite de Navarre. The document is aged, with visible fold marks and slight discoloration. There's a circular seal at the bottom right corner of the page.
The back cover featuring the same ornate blue silk and gold embroidery. The text overlay reads 'Bound in blue silk, embroidered with silver and gold, possibly stitched by Elizabeth herself. Now preserved at the Bodleian Libraries after entering the collection in 1729'
Aged 11, Princess Elizabeth made New Year’s gift for her stepmother, Queen Katherine Parr. 🎁
Bound in embroidered blue silk, it has been preserved at the Bodleian since 1729: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/a3a60c14-8a31-42b9-b8e7-a0986e276459/
Shelfmark: Bodleian Library MS. Cherry 36
Astronomy showing the stars to a group of scholars at the beginning of Ptolemy's Almagest translated by Gerard of Cremona
#HeavensAbove
BL Burney 275; Scholastic miscellany; 14th century; France, Central (Paris); f.390v
Meme image divided into a text section on top and four medieval-style cat paintings below. The text reads: “I'd like you to paint me a cat.” “A what?” “A cat. You do know what a cat is, right?” “Uh yeah, of course.” The four paintings each show an oddly drawn, somewhat clumsy, whimsical, or distorted cat.
#Caturday is every day 🐈😻😼
The 12th-century Romanesque nave at Ely Cathedral rarely steals the spotlight (thanks to that lantern tower), but it’s absolutely jaw-dropping
Read the article here (open access): doi.org/10.1093/hisr... @academic.oup.com
British Museum photo of a Romano-British brooch in the form of a leaping (?) hare seen in side profile with head to the right and displayed against a black background. The brooch is cast from copper-alloy (bronze), now grey in colour. The hare has a long body inlaid with green enamel and decorated with four copper-alloy dots arranged along the length of the body within the enamel. Its back arches gently and its legs are represented by one back and one front leg, both bent, with feet curling slightly inward, giving a sense of motion. The head is small with a narrow snout and one long ear rises up and backwards. The head is decorated with a large circular green enamel inlay, at the centre of which is a copper-alloy dot for the eye. The hare has an incised mouth with a slight upwards curve as if smiling!
Happy Monday!
Leaping into the new week with this lovely Romano-British brooch in the form of a cheerful little hare!
Copper alloy decorated with enamel, 2nd-3rd century AD.
📷 British Museum www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
#Archaeology
Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath.
Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath.
Fascinating world of ancient glass: The skill of ancient glassmakers never ceases to amaze me.
This a magnificent #Roman striped mosaic bowl was made of preformed rods and canes fused on or in a mold.
Dating late 1st c. BC/early 1st c AD.
Timeless beauty!
📷 Corning Museums of Glass
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A round Iron Age silver coin with a stylised horse figure in the centre
What animal design would you put on a coin?
This coin is a silver 'unit' from Iron Age East Anglia, c.10–45 CE.
On one side is a horse with the letters 'CEN' below, which is part of the full legend: 'ECEN'. We do not know who ECEN was – some believe it was the name of a ruler or a wealthy person.
Link to the full description of the Cathach and digitised images:
www.ria.ie/collections/...
Looking across the Presbytery crossing vaults at Salisbury Cathedral from the clerestory. The scissor arches are older than those at Wells Cathedral and may well have been the inspiration for them. On the roof can be seen the 'ghosts' of the original C13 murals and their C19 update.
The picture shows six needles of different sizes. They were made of bone resemble their modern descendants with an eye at one end and a tapered end.
Things used in everyday life are the real archaeological treasures! These sewing #needles were made from animal bone some 15,000 years ago. Some designs simply don't need to be improved, because form and functions were perfectly matched from the start. Form follows function! 🧵1/2
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A bronze bulls head with curved horns and protruding tongue that forms a ring - the handle of an Iron Age bronze vessel.
An ox-head Iron Age bowl handle from Llantrisant Fawr in Wales. Some 2000 years old and gloriously ’Celtic’ with incised tongue. Known (I believe) as ‘bovril’ the vessel was worked on by @archaedelle.bsky.social . Having seen it this week I thought it perfect for #findsfriday #archaeology #celts
This year, HMML’s Systems department completed improvements to the HMML Data Portal (vhmml.org/dataPortal), reducing the runtime from seven hours to 10 minutes.
Use Data Portal to create & download a custom dataset from HMML Reading Room (vhmml.org), for research or digital humanities projects.
My photos show four ornate Visigothic bronze belt buckles arranged in a 2 x 2 grid. Each buckle has a rectangular plate decorated with colourful glass (red, blue, green) inlaid into metal cells using cloisonné technique, and a chunky curved metal loop and prong. They adorned leather belts which Visigothic women wore over a tunic (probably) as a status symbol. Excavated between 1942 and 1949 by Antonio Molinero from the necropolis of Duratón near Segovia, Spain. They are on display at the Casa del Sol Museum in Segovia.
Fabulous Visigothic bronze belt buckles inlaid with cloisonné glass. AD 500s.
Which is your favourite?
From the Visigothic Necropolis of Duratón, near Segovia, Spain.
Casa del Sol Museum, Segovia
📷 by me
#Archaeology
The cross has a circular centre, with arms which end in a curve. Made by a highly skilled jeweller, with garnets (probably from Asia) & gold foil backing. It demonstrates the Christian faith of the woman & medieval craftsmanship & trade networks.
“The Trumpington Cross”
Trumpington bed burial c 650 -710 AD
The burial of a female teenager.
1 of only 5 crosses of this type found in Britain. Excavated in 2011.
Now Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology #Cambridge
#FindsFriday
#medieval #archaeology
1st November is All Saints' Day. The Hours of All Saints in the 'Bedford Hours'
BL Add 18850; 'Bedford Hours'; c.1410 CE-1430 CE; France, Central (Paris); f.126r
Fermail-reliquaire orné d’un aigle couronné sur fond de flammes et serti de pierres précieuses
Trésor de Bohême ✨
Ce grand fermail-reliquaire servait à attacher les pans d'un vêtement d'apparat. Il a probablement été produit à Prague : l’aigle couronné sur fond de flammes est l'emblème de la Bohême. 🦅
Famous Medieval Words and Their Surprising Origins www.medievalists.net/2025/10/medi... #medieval
Some Norman decoration from St. James’ Tower at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk (also known as the Norman Tower). Constructed in the 12th century, the tower was the principal gateway to the monastic church of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey. 📸 My own. #StoneworkSunday #BuryStEdmunds