Simon Bralee

I helped edit this super cool story of a dude from India who wrote his name on Egyptian tombs 2,000 years ago! 🏺🧪

An oil painting of the Battle of Actium by Lorenzo A. Castro, depicting a stylised sea battle with early modern ships. (Public Domain)

Her country gods, the monsters of the sky,
Great Neptune, Pallas, and Love’s Queen defy:
The dog Anubis barks, but barks in vain,
Nor longer dares oppose th’ ethereal train.

Aeneid Book 8, 696-700 John Dryden translation.

The figure head of a long necked bird, possibly a black swan or Cormorant, at the stern of a wooden ship. It’s head in upside down with a goobery look on its face.

Reconstruction of the stern swan on a Roman period ship
🏛️ Museo della Città, Rimini

A black and white mosaic of a sailing ship. A swan figure can be seen at the stern of the ship.

Today (March 5) marks the Navigium Isidis, a religious festival dedicated to the goddess Isis, which officially opened sailing season. One account said it culminated with the launch of an ornately decorated ship with a swan neck like on this elegant mosaic from Rimini 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A screenshot of CNN Politics with the headline’Donald Trump defends size of his penis’.

Ten years ago today

Veii: famous for a 4th century BC siege, but in the 4th century AD it may have been one of Imperial Rome's wild-animal depots. This mosaic of an elephant boarding a ship was found there (modern-day Isola Farnese). #mosaicmonday #AncientBlueSky

📷 by Carole Raddato. Badisches Landesmuseum, Germany.

A marble statue of a bearded man. His eyes have a piercing stare emphasised by indentations where the pupils would go, possibly containing a stone or glass in antiquity.

A thousand yard stare, the sign of acute distress, deep wisdom or both? This larger than life sculpture may depict the philosopher Plutarch (350-433 CE), who sponsored the procession of the Great Panathenaia. From the Acropolis Museum, Athens 🏺

Seal with Forepart of Jackal or Dog

Seal with Forepart of Jackal or Dog https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/8625

A sculpture of a cruel self entitled boy tormenting a goose by pulling at its neck. The boy fights back with terror in its eyes.

Was this the very first Pokémon? A child tormenting and capturing a living animal for its pleasure was a popular topic in Roman art. Pliny the Elder said a sculptor called Boethos created a statue of a boy and goose. Several copies of this item have survived. 🏛️ Vatican Museum
#AncientBluesky

For #PokémonDay, here are our favourites with links to ancient Egypt:

Cofagrigus 👻 looks like an #Egyptian coffin
Lucario 🦾 based on jackal-headed god Anubis
Sigilyph 👁‍🗨 inspired by #hieroglyphs
Ampharos ⚡️ based on the lighthouse/Pharos of Alexandria

Who would you choose!?
📸 Ken Sugimori
#Pokemon

Remarquable statuette en bronze du dieu gaulois Sucellus provenant de Vienne (en France). Elle date du Ier siècle et provient du laraire d’une maison. The Walters Art Museum - Baltimore.

Metal detectorists find 2,000-year-old treasure in field The find - the first of its kind in west Wales - is incredibly rare and has been described as one of 'historical significance'

Huge news for Ceredigion & west Wales.

Imperial #Roman lead mines on Cardigan Bay were under the control of Domitian by AD 87 as confirmed by the discovery of these lead pigs

Only the 5th & 6th ingots ever found in Wales 😮

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-n...

A lead votive plaque with an image of Mercury wearing a winged helm and holding the caduceus, symbol of heralds.

Mercury - messenger of the gods, patron of merchants, thieves and businessmen, escort of the dead - looking pensive.
Norwich Castle Collection 🏺 #AncientBluesky

Le procès des rats d’Autun : un podcast à écouter en ligne | France Culture Et si les animaux devenaient des personnalités juridiques à part entière ? Il est une époque où cette idée, aujourd’hui dans l’air du temps, était une réalité. Non pas, cela dit, pour défendre leurs d...

TIL Barthélemy de Chasseneuz, a 16th century French jurist, was said to have courageously defended in court the rats of Autun charged with eating all the barley. When they didn’t turn up in court, he proved they could not do so safely due to local cats and they were let off the charge. 🗃️

A small cat shaped book with an intricate pen portrait of a cheeky anthropomorphic cat surrounded by arcane scripts and scribblings.

The installation partly explores ideas of truth and transparency as totalising revelation in the Trumpist world. A small cat-shaped book, bound with Coptic stitch, at the centre of the maze could be a guide out or a guide even further in.

A painting of a cat sat at a picnic table laden stood on grass and with glistening glasses of golden beers.

A detail from Candice Lin’s immersive, labyrinthine g/hosti in Whitechapel Gallery. “I want a visitor to be haunted by the experience of my art”, she says “to leave with a shadow, a demon, a ghost perched in their peripheral vision, somewhere barely seen but lurking” #cat #art

Is this from the archive of Zenon? There’s also a stele recording an offering to Anubis made by Pasos, Feeder of the Dogs. They had their priorities right! cpi.csad.ox.ac.uk/CPI-II/CPI-210.html

Broke: Cat Owner

Woke: Cat Dad

Bespoke: αἰλουροβοσκός, ailouroboskos ("herder of the sacred cats") *

*A position for slaves of a temple of Bastet attested to in a Ptolemaic document.

A neo-classical portico with eau-de-nil colour illuminations of Egyptian gods taken from a funerary content, including Anubis, Isis and Nephthys. Where the god Osiris would normally be located in this kind of image there is instead an ankh, the symbol for life. This is art of great power and mystery.

Bloomsbury’s Greek Revival Portico Building, designed by William Wilkins, lit up with ancient Egyptian art. #AncientBluesky #Egyptology #UCL200

It was a big team effort including the fantastic students who did a lot of research on all the historical nominees

The beadles of UCL: Frank Salkilld, protecting staff and students to the end Frank was a well-known figure at UCL – students and staff in need would always cry “See Frank” and he would be there.

To celebrate its bicentenary, UCL have published 200 short profiles of current and past figures, including some I wrote like this one on Frank Salkilld, the popular beadle who had a lucrative side hustle selling unsold items like oversized woollen socks from student bazaars #history #UCL200

A Levallois flake is held by Dr Matthew Pope who is wearing purple gloves. The text on the image reads: Happy 200th Birthday to UCL! As part of the celebrations we will be posting 200 artefacts & objects from the IoA. Day 1: this c.200,000 year old Levallois flake from Baker's Hole in the Thames Valley. Find out more in our stories!

Happy 200th Birthday to @ucl.ac.uk As part of the celebrations we will be posting 200 artefacts & objects from the IoA & @archsoutheast.bsky.social

Day 1: this c.200,000 year old Levallois flake from Baker's Hole in the Thames Valley.

#UCL200

If you're interested in history, then watch out for some great events, exhibitions and books from UCL this year to mark its bicentenary.

A clay pot with a vaguely owl-like head with beak and eyes. It has a round body with handles which are positioned where the wings or arms would go and two domes positioned to resemble stylised breasts, which might suggest it’s not a bird or not just a bird.

Heinrich Schliemann, business man and excavator extraordinaire, translated Homer's description of the Trojan cult statue of Athena glaukopis as owl-faced. He identified these owl pots with the goddess and on this assumption concluded he had found the legendary city of Troy #SuperbOwl #AncientBluesky

A bronze statuette of the god Mercury wearing a winged helmet and holding a money pouch. He is mounted in a museum, part of the Museum of the Docklands Mudlarking exhibition.

Not the best photo, but this tiny figurine of the god Mercury clutching his purse was found on the banks of the River Thames, perhaps lost off board a ship or someone’s person. It may also have been intentionally dropped. Mercury protected merchants, thieves, dead souls and more 🏺 #AncientBluesky

A gold coin depicting a bull with bearded human face. Greek letters at the top of the coin spell out Gelas.

The golden bull man of Sicily. A tetradrachm depicting the river-god Gelas, patron deity of Gela, Sicily. 5th century BCE. A fascinating image of one of the many animal-shaped divinities from Mediterranean antiquity 🏺 #AncientBluesky

So, does the Artemis crew realize what they are signing up for? #MoonSphinx

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

This article shows very clearly the short sightedness of current higher education ‘policy’. Universities are vital sources of social, economic and cultural regeneration which is also equitable. The loss of institutions is devastating to individuals and communities. A very difficult read.

A black stone head with curly hair and beard intricately carved out. Upon his head, a calathos, the holy grain-weight of the god Serapis.

Gorgeous hair lovingly carved on the grauwacke head of the god Serapis, from Alexandria, 2nd century CE, now held in Munich #AncientBluesky

In the time of the early Republic, before the adoption of a formal coinage system, the Romans used flat bronze currency bars. This example - with a relief of a bull on both sides - is known as aes signatum (Latin, literally 'stamped bronze'), usually weighing around five Roman pounds. The value of these bars isn't known, and they weren't standardized. They were in use from the 5th century BCE until the mid-3rd century BCE, when they were replaced by the first Roman coin, the aes grave. The ancient writer Livy (4.60.6) records how wealthier taxpayers: '...were first to contribute; and because there was as yet no coined silver, some of them conveyed their weighed brass to the treasury in wagons, rendering their contribution very showy.' Roman Republican, ca. 280-250 BCE. Minted in Rome. British Museum, London (1978,0721.1)

Relief of an elephant in profile on this bronze currency bars, facing right, his trunk held upwards in an S shape. He or she also has tusks. In the time of the early Republic, before the adoption of a formal coinage system, the Romans used flat bronze currency bars. The weight fluctuated and there's no agreed-upon value, but in the modern era this particular denomination - with an elephant on the obverse, and a sow on the reverse - is known as aes signatum (Latin, literally 'stamped bronze'), usually weighing around five Roman pounds. These were in use from the 5th century BCE until the mid-3rd century BCE, when they were replaced by the first Roman coins, the aes grave. Minted in Rome about 275 BCE. British Museum, London (1867,0212.1)

Have you ever wondered what Romans used as a monetary X system before the introduction of coins? Feast your eyes on these two early Republic aes signatum bronze currency bars, one with the image of a bull, the other an elephant. Not marked with value, a somewhat confusing system. 🏺 1/ 📸 me