It's #DolphinDay so of course we have to share this amazing Roman mosaic of Cupid riding a dolphin from Fishbourne @romanpalace
📷 by Tony Hisgett / CC BY 2.0
The palace is the largest residential Roman building discovered in Britain and has a massive number of amazing mosaics to match.
📷: Some of the wide-spanning mosaic floors, by Nigel Richardson / CC BY-SA 2.0
Many of the mosaics - including the delightful dolphin - were discovered during excavations in the 1960s, after a trench for a water-main exposed building material.
🔗 to the excavations being reported in Antiquity (£) doi.org/10.1017/S00035…
📷: One of the mosaics being dug up
📷: Another snapshot of the excavations, revealing both mosaics and parts of the buildings in the North Wing.
The black and white photos don't quite do the mosaics justice, but the plans produced from these excavations are 😻
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NEW Greek colonisation of the Mediterranean and the development of the Greek alphabet took place earlier than previously thought, radiocarbon dates from the Geometric period site of Zagora on the island of Andros find.
An #AntiquityThread 1/9 🧵
The Greek Geometric period is named after the ceramics of the time, which were painted with geometric patterns. It took place towards the end of the Early Iron Age in Greece and witnessed the beginning of Greek colonisation in the central Mediterranean. 2/9
Key cultural developments, such as the introduction of the Greek alphabet, and a population boom took place during the Late Geometric period, which was thought to date from 760–700 BC. However, absolute dates are scarce and dating has been done using ceramic typologies. 3/9
NEW Painkiller or pleasure? Black henbane seeds discovered in a hollowed bone provide the first conclusive evidence for the intentional use of the poisonous plant in the Roman world.
Strap in for a hallucinogenic #AntiquityThread 🧵 1/13
📷 BIAX Consult
Archaeologists have discovered hundreds of black henbane seeds in a hollowed bone at the rural Roman-period settlement of Houten-Castellum in the Netherlands, providing the first firm evidence for the poisonous plant’s intentional use in the Roman world. 2/13
Black henbane is a plant, known from ancient and historical sources both for its medical properties and for its hallucinogenic effects. Before now, however, no conclusive evidence of its use in the Roman world had been found. 3/13
NEW Pottery analysis uncovers the complex flavours of Roman wine!
Archaeologists have compared Roman clay jars for winemaking with modern Georgian examples, revealing how Roman wine looked, smelled, and tasted. 🍷
A dry and full-bodied #AntiquityThread 1/12 🧵
The Romans are well-known for their love of wine. In the Roman world, large clay pots called dolia were manufactured for fermenting, storing and ageing wines. 2/12
"No study has yet scrutinised the role of these earthenware vessels in Roman winemaking and their impact on the look, smell and taste of ancient wines”, state the authors. 3/12
NEW DNA analysis has revealed that regional cuisines persisted as new staple crops spread across the prehistoric world, showing how even the first cooks retained strong cooking traditions.
Strap in for a tasty #AntiquityThread 1/12 🧵
Broomcorn millet was first domesticated in China before spreading west into Central Asia and beyond. In China it was cooked through boiling and steaming, producing a wet and sticky end product. 2/12
In Central Asia, however, grains were typically ground and baked into bread. When millet was introduced, people simply applied their pre-existing cooking techniques to the new grain. 3/12
NEW Deep in the remote, boreal landscape of the Siberian taiga, a promontory fort has been found to be 8000 years old, making it the oldest in the world! It is a rare example of hunter-gatherers building fortified sites.
A wintery Antiquity Thread ❄️ 1/10 🧵
Archaeologists have typically associated the rise of social and political 'complexity' in Eurasia with the development of agriculture. However, hunter-gatherers in Siberia built fortified settlements centuries before similar sites developed in Europe. 2/10
To find out why, researchers performed fieldwork at a promontory fort (Amnya I), thought to be the oldest Stone Age fortification in Eurasia, and its associated settlement (Amnya II), providing the first direct radiocarbon dates for Amnya II. 3/10
NEW: “Bog bodies” were part of a tradition in Europe that spanned millennia. People were buried in bogs from the prehistoric period until early modern times and when a cause of death could be determined, most met a violent end.
Content warning: This thread will feature some more complete images of bog bodies 2/16
Several European bog bodies are famous for being very well-preserved, such as Lindow Man (🇬🇧), Tollund Man (🇩🇰) or Yde Girl (🇳🇱). They offer a snapshot of life in the distant past but these well-preserved bodies are only a fraction of what has been found. 3/16