Sometime between AD 55 and 65 a man named Lucius Julius Hipponicus scratched his named into a Samian Ware drinking cup

Because of this simple act, he is one of the first residents of Exeter (ISCA) for whom we have a name

📷 May 2025

@rammuseum.bsky.social #FindsFriday #Roman #Archaeology #Devon

A wee Samian spindle whorl from Ambleside Roman Fort for #FindsFriday

I love objects made from recycled bits of pottery 🤩 Such wonderful examples of reuse and the many lives an artefact can have!

📷 my own

Two rare leaf-scroll handled Samian Ware dishes found with a #Roman cremation at Sompting West #Sussex in 1971

In the wonderful Worthing Museum @wtmworthing.bsky.social

Made in Rheinzabern #Deutschland in the early 3rd century, they're stamped with the makers names, FAVVO and IVVENIS

#FindsFriday

#FindsFriday

Samian bowl (Form 30) by the potter MARTIALIS South Gaulish AD 50-60. Found during excavation at Burrium, Usk.

#History #RomanBritain #Archaeology #pottery

do, a deer! I actually said, upon finding this delightful fragment of decorated Roman Samian Ware bowl on the Thames foreshore recently, showing the whole body of a deer. #mudlarking

chng.it/vbNyF6HmBr
🏺🧪 #archaeology

For #FindsFriday (and finishing my celebration of Roman Lancaster), one of the more enigmatic objects in the City Museums: a chi-rho lamp.

This object has long been treated in Lancaster as the earliest evidence of Christianity in the city. Sadly, it’s almost certainly not.
Why not, you say? 🏺🧵

Fresh from the kiln today, a Roman, Barbotine decorated, green glazed cup showing two gladiators fighting. A sector armed with a gladius (short sword) and scutum (shield), challenges a retarius armed with trident, net and pugio (dagger) #archaeology 🏺

A relief of Dionysus, discovered in 1907 in a shipwreck off the coast of Mahdia, ancient Aphrodisium, in Tunisia. Archaeologists believe the ship was sunk in the 1st century BC, and its cargo, which contains other important statues, may have been stolen during the sack of Athens by Sulla in 86BC. 🏺

🥳

I can live with the messy solder when it turns out the “gilt coin” set into the bowl of the George III silver punch ladle you bought does indeed turn out to be the 22ct GOLD third Guinea you thought it might be.

#antiques

If you care for such things a short film on the engraving of Exeter silver is available over on my YouTube channel now.

Though to say the content is “niche” may be something of an understatement.

#Antiques

Definitely one of my favourite parts of Hadrian’s Wall up on Walltown Crag as the wall snakes along the cliff edge

“Of the Sixth Cohort, the century of Lousius Suavis” a centurial stone from #HadriansWall now built into a nearby garden wall at Thirlwall, the stones marked building work and instilled a sense of pride between the units #RIB3401

I’m sad we’ll no longer have this snowy view of Sycamore Gap to enjoy this winter on Hadrian’s Wall.

Milecastle 39 on Hadrian’s Wall the new really

Sometimes it's the simplest little pots that inspire people the most: This tiny Roman BB2 Black Burnished cooking pot was found in a child's grave at Godmanchester. Was it a toy or could it have contained a last meal, lovingly prepared for the afterlife? #archaeology ⚱️

A charming Roman enamelled fibula (a pin for fastening garments) in the form of an owl.
Found in the civilian settlement of the Saalburg fort.

Photo: Römerkastell Saalburg / Peter Knierriem

🏺

Working on an upcoming post on Brundisium last week, and from the Museo Archeologico Francesco Ribezzo in Brindisi, the bronze head of a philosopher, perhaps Antisthenes. Possibly the work of Silanion. From the waters of Punta del Serrone, dated to the 4th century BCE.

AncientBlueSky 🏺