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sapinuwa.bsky.social
Sapinuwa
@sapinuwa.bsky.social
770 followers 230 following 5.7K posts
I am an extremely over-qualified high school chemistry teacher. (Photos captured by myself unless mentioned otherwise.)
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Reposted by Sapinuwa
aidanosullivan.bsky.social
Memories of plunging my hand deep into the very cold peat to uncover Iron Age wooden planks last seen over 2,000 years ago.

In 1986, I started work on my first archaeology dig at Corlea 1, dated to 148/147 BC. I didn’t know then it would be some of the most spectacular archaeology of my career.
November 11, 2025 at 9:23 AM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
😢
sarahebond.bsky.social Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 8h
Waking up to news 🚨 that 6 (!) Roman statues were stolen from Syria’s National Museum, in Damascus, on Monday. No details on which statues yet, but I had a few pics below from the GRB gallery with the famed Al-Lat Athena. Heartbreaking news.
thehill.com/homenews/ap/...
Damascus, Syria - September 28, 2023: Minerva statue. Allat-Minerva, Allat-Athena. Statue of the 2nd century AD from As-Suwayda, Syria. National Museum of Damascus
November 11, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Sapinuwa
biographic.bsky.social
Critical Minerals? There’s a Plant for That

Could phytomining—using plants to pull metal out of the soil—put the green in “green transition”?

by @sarahdeweerdt.bsky.social

www.biographic.com/critical-min...
Critical Minerals? There’s a Plant for That - bioGraphic
Could phytomining—using plants to pull metal out of the soil—put the green in “green transition”?
www.biographic.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:06 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
The chimeric buildings of Roma. Millenia solidified, compressed and squeezed into levels, grades, segments.
What a crazy and lovely city.
The columns of Hadrianus Temple are face to face with a modern concrete building inside Above the arches of Marcellus Theater rise modern day walls and windows A concrete building with a segment of the façade looking totally different, consisting of red tiles and marble entablatures
November 11, 2025 at 7:00 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
More than 1200k people visited Anıtkabir yesterday, this is the highest score ever in the history of the monumental tomb.
I was among this 1200k.
Me taking a selfie among the crowds in Anıtkabir.
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
The last Phrygian monument we've seen yesterday (yes we missed many) was this, Aslankaya monument, with 2 sphinces on the acrotere, 2 lions on the niche below the acrotere and another lion to the north side of the monument.🏺
A cone shaped rock mass, the front side has been shaped as a building façade The acrotere shows the (eroded) sphinces Two standing lions On the side of the monument is a lion relief
November 10, 2025 at 5:12 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
The ancient roads of Phrygia grooved by cartwheels.♥️
A limestone(?) ground with grooves all through. To the left the road has been eroded about 2 metres from the surface forming a tunnel and there are horizontal lines on its walls. The grooved bedrock and pines Another section, same road A general view of the territory
November 10, 2025 at 4:28 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
I saw this I saw this I saw this!🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 I wonder whether this joy of mine will ever age🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
alisonfisk.bsky.social Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 1d
Delightful detail from the Roman “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus, showing a mouse nibbling a walnut.

Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!

2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
The image shows detail from a floor mosaic of a brown mouse on a pale background facing left with its nose close to half a walnut in its shell. The mouse has a long thin tail stretched out behind. The mosaicist has used a mix of lighter and darker brown tiles for the mouse’s body to hint at fur. The walnut is created with warmer light and dark brown tiles. Slightly darker background tiles have been used beneath the mouse and walnut to create subtle shadows
November 10, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Sapinuwa
bwallower.bsky.social
Found her on facebook - where her profile states 'digital creator'. www.facebook.com/groups/77257...
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See posts, photos and more on Facebook.
www.facebook.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
I wept. I always weep.
Anıtkabir, Atatürk's tomb a few minutes ago. He passed away otd 87 years ago. A little girl on a man's shoulders carrying a red rose and Atatürk's banner Crowds waiting to enter Anıtkabir
November 10, 2025 at 1:25 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
On one side of the road leading to Göynüş Valley in Eskişehir are the ruins of Yılantaş (ie, snake-stone), today as it was toppled down we do not see the snake that the monument took its name from, only the head of a lion can be recognized.
A lion relief on a broken stone block on the ground, only the head remains The lion relief among other broken blocks around A few stone blocks paved together, on the ground YILANTAŞ BURIAL CHAMBER The triangular ceiling beams can be seen because of the damage at the monument. A lion relief and a relief of a foot managed to come until our time. At the door there is a serpent relief and there are two warriors attacking to the serpents on both sides. Because the rock is upside this scene cannot be seen today down. It is dated to VIII-VIIth century B.С.
November 10, 2025 at 10:58 AM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Where is this place in Ephesus? Also, what are the amorphous figures on the mosaic border?
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 AM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
I am too tired to share anything else for now, except this usual security guard 😁- Almost in every ancient site with rock monuments I've seen nestling rock nuthatchs and Gerdekkaya wasn't an exception.
This bird really loves archaeology.
#Archaeobirds
A grey, white and orange bird on a rock Same bird climbing on the rock monument Same bird from back
November 9, 2025 at 5:56 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Our next stop was Gerdekkaya monument, another rock tomb build in Hellenistic age in the shape of a Doric temple (I particularly loved the roof carved as if made of wooden beams)
The façade of a rock carved as the entrance of a temple, with 2 colums in front. There are 2 semilunar carvings below it View from below, a semilunar cell, the main chamber of the temple/tomb, the columns and the false-wooden roof seen Looking at the vast valley from tomb chamber Inside there are several burial cells
November 9, 2025 at 5:47 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Ca 800 BC Phrygians in midwest Anatolia made open air sanctuaries by smoothing natural rocks located in distinctive places. Yazılıkaya monument, carved as the façade of a megaron and dedicated to mother goddess Kybele (Matar) is the greatest of them.
The inscriptions haven't been deciphered yet.
🏺
A brown rock mass, smoothed on one side, shaped as a house with an inclined roof, has a shallow "door" pit at the center, the façade is decorated with + shaped patterns, on the acrotere and on one side there are inscriptions in Phrygian script. Inscrptions, closer İnscriptions, closer The + shaped motifs of the rock face
November 9, 2025 at 5:24 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Seeing this in the middle of nowhere, behind the pleasant colors of the autumn and within the sweet scent of the bushes around was unforgettable, I am in heavens.♥️
🏺
Areyatis (or Arezatis) monument, a rock cut open air sanctuary of Phrygians, near Han in Eskişehir. The smoothened façade of a rock shaped as a megaron's front is seen behind yellow and brown oak trees.
November 9, 2025 at 2:09 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
These are so close to real!😍
A hoopoe photo with an erect orange crest
November 8, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Sapinuwa
achronalart.bsky.social
Hoopoes are so pretty! I've never seen one irl, but I made some sketches from photos when studying ancient Mesopotamia.
About half a page from the sketchbook of Alessandra Kelley. Graphite drawings of hoopoes, a bird native to Africa, Asia and Europe with striking black-and-white wings and peachy pink shoulders and a big crest. Studies of birds perched, eating a small lizard, or flying with wings spread showing the black-and-white feather pattern. There are also a few notes on Mesopotamian house plans and a note that they depicted sheep's wool differently from the way they depicted their skirts, suggesting that the skirts are not just plain fleeces, as some have claimed.
November 8, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Sapinuwa
alisonfisk.bsky.social
This little bird survived a volcanic eruption!

Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago!

Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy
📷 by me

#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology
My photo shows detail from a Roman fresco (wall painting) in a corridor at Villa A, the luxurious so-called ‘Villa Poppaea’ at ancient Oplontis (modern day Torre Annunziata) in the Bay of Naples, Italy. The fresco depicts a small light brown bird standing on a small pinky-brown wooden shelf, against a vibrant red background panel. The bird is shown in profile, facing left, with plummage painted in various shades of light brown and grey to beautifully depict detail of its feathers. The bird is lowering its head with beak open, about to peck into a fig on the shelf in front. There are two further figs painted behind the bird which have already been pecked into. The figs are painted light brown. The figs which have already been pecked into have cream flesh and red seeds.
November 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Did shopping, cooked for today & tomorrow, made yoghurt (yoghurt is important). Tidied the kitchen, changed the bedsheets, did laundry, dried & tidied them up. Vacuum cleaned the house, wiped the shelves, cleaned the two bathrooms.
All of this was to spare tomorrow for an archaeological site.🥳🤞🏻
November 8, 2025 at 6:07 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Wait, where did I photograph this thing in Vatican? I don't remember having seen it at all. So funny and lovely isn't it?😍🏺
Inside of a kylix, two dancers on both sides of a seesaw, and a lyre player at the center. From Vulci, 550-530 BC.
November 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Once again repeating: They were all colored.🫣
Etruscan marble sarcophagus, the deceased is lying down on the lid, on the long side is a procession with carts and offerings, and the faces and body parts of humans are colored orange.
November 8, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Sapinuwa
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Greek fashion week.
The three goddesses parading before Paris.
📌 Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Vatican.
🏺
An amphora with 3 standing women in different patterned chitons, Hermes (?) and Paris.
November 7, 2025 at 6:22 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
Greek fashion week.
The three goddesses parading before Paris.
📌 Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Vatican.
🏺
An amphora with 3 standing women in different patterned chitons, Hermes (?) and Paris.
November 7, 2025 at 6:22 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday Heading from the Egyptian section to Braccio Nuovo of Musei Vaticani we passed through a narrow vaulted corridor which has bird painted fresco plates on its walls.
#archaeobirds
A rectangular red plate on a white background, on it there are 2 crested black and white birds resembling lapwings
November 7, 2025 at 7:40 AM