Becky Wallower
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bwallower.bsky.social
Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social
1.3K followers 540 following 1.3K posts
archaeology, history, environment, quirky stuff -- love London, arts, travel -- writer, organiser, modest activist/stirrer 🏺
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bwallower.bsky.social
Love Barbara Hepworth sculptures, though somewhat mystified how Art Newspaper's '10 essential works in UK. includes the one at UN in New York....
Here's one of my local favourites instead: a smaller version of the UN one called Single Form (Memorial), in Battersea Park.
Cast bronze sculpture by Barbara Hepworth of elongated irregular shape, with a hole perforating it at top left, beside a lake in Battersea Park on a bright day in London.
November 22, 2025 at 1:19 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
#StaircaseSaturday
Breathtakingly lovely.
The Palladian 'Tulip Staircase' in Inigo Jones' Queen's House in Greenwich - the first unsupported spiral stair in Britain.
Commissioned c.1616 by Anne of Denmark, Queen to James I.
Completed c.1635 for Henrietta Maria, Queen to Charles I.
A spiral staircase, cantilevered from surrounding circular walls, all in white. Bannister railings in elegant blue wrought iron with designs featuring spiral stems and tulip like flowers. These were probably meant to be lillies, connected to French royal symbolism of Henrietta Maria.
November 22, 2025 at 12:16 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
Back to Secrets of the Thames exhibition at Lon Museum to write update for next @londonarchaeo.bsky.social.
So many intriguing #FindsFriday from the foreshore.
Here badges 1300-1500 for #PhallusFriday: 1 popping out of purse, several dancing on comb, plus cockerel worn to crow about virility.
ALT
Displayed in Secrets of the Thames exhibition at London Museum Docklands: 3 lead badges, worn on cloaks or hats. Left a cockerel, worn by young Londoners to advertise virility. Cock was a symbol for lust Centre: a purse decorated with cross hatch design with dots; a phallus is popping up in the centre between bag and handle. Purses were symbols of good fortune and metaphors for vaginas. Right: a double sided comb, with dancing phalluses in the central band. Displayed on a thin stand in an exhibition case. Found by mudlarks JB Hathaway, Tony Pilson and Ian Smith. The exhibition tells history and stories behind hundreds of mudlarked finds over the centuries.
November 21, 2025 at 12:23 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
All a bit manic just now, so turning to a joyous medieval flying hooved doggo/dragon for #TilesOnTuesday.
And he's a very good boy.
Among riches of MOLA's 2021 Blossom St site north of Spitalfields - Iron Age horse remains, Roman burials, medieval walls, Tudor ovens + more.
Medieval encaustic tile with a winged creature in the centre of a circle+quatrefoil. He has hooved feet, floppy ears and snout like a dog, plus wings.
November 18, 2025 at 2:27 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
#StainedGlassSunday
This window is one of 3 memorials in St Aidan's Bamburgh to heroine Grace Darling, pictured w her pink oar.

At 22, the lighthouse keeper's daughter rowed out w her father to rescue survivors of SS Forfarshire, shipwrecked in fierce storms off the Farne Islands in 1838.
Victorian stained glass window with three large figures featured across the centre representing charity, fortitude and hope. Fortitude in the centre holds a pink oar. Angels are depicted in panels below, and above are blue and red glazed sections with stars or crowns in the centres, and an angel at the top.. It is a memorial to Grace Darling was one of the most celebrated heroine of the Victorian age. She was just 22 years old when she risked her life in an open boat to help the survivors of the wrecked SS Forfarshire on 7 September 1838. With her father, she rowed for over a mile through raging seas to reach them.
November 16, 2025 at 10:09 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#SteepleSaturday
From Papal Palace of Avignon, the steeple of Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms d'Avignon.
Built 12th C, tower collapsed and reconstructed in 15th. Gilded Virgin Mary added on top in 19th.
@drrjwarren.bsky.social posted her lovely painting on other side, but I can't find it! Pls repost.
A view through towers from ramparts of Papal Palace of Avignon to Cathedral. It has a large square tower with two of the upper levels having narrow slit-like windows on two visible sides. On top is a round arched construction with a gilt statue of Virgin Mary on top. In front of the church is a gabled entry way, and other extensions are to the right, on the south side.
November 15, 2025 at 11:20 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
Nothing like the martyrdom of Becket to brighten up a Friday.
From Canterbury Cathedral windows in BM's 2021 Becket exhibition
[quote posted as well...]
November 14, 2025 at 11:47 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
Nothing like the martyrdom of Becket to brighten up a Friday.
From Canterbury Cathedral windows in BM's 2021 Becket exhibition
November 14, 2025 at 11:37 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#AllMetalMonday 🏺
Quack!
A bronze duck w flat body decorated in relief, long neck, open beak and sturdy legs.
Plus second duck w 2 little ones on its back.
From C6 BC hoard found in Ortanova near Foggia in Puglia, representing material culture of indigenous Daunian people.
MArTA Taranto
Two larger ducks each standing on a square block with open beaks and bulging eyes. On lower plinth the duck can be seen to have raised lines on the wings folded over its back. The upper duck has two ducklings on its back.
November 14, 2025 at 8:34 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#AdoorableThursday
Doors/not doors in frescos all round the atrium of luxurious #Roman Villa A / Oplontis near Pompeii.
Also called Villa Poppea as it may have belonged to Poppea, second wife of Emperor Nero or her family.
🏺 #archaeology
Surviving lower part of a large fresco surviving on a high wall. It features two full size large doors shown placed above three steps. Columns and decorative panels are painted along the wall to simulate a real interior.
November 13, 2025 at 11:38 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
Ah hah. Prittlewell Prince Saxon burial (early med c.580) had these whalebone gaming pieces, found in close group so believed to have been hanging in a cloth bag. Also near a wooden gaming board, but 9 rather than your 10. Antler dice thought to indicate a game of chance.
Southend Museum. 🏺
9 small domed pieces made of whale bone displayed 3 x 3, below 2 larger antler dice.
November 12, 2025 at 8:40 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
Double dip #StMartin from Lucca as it's his feast day.
Cattedrale di San Martino's 13th C original is inside now, and a replica still represents the dedication on the facade, between two large arches of the portico.
Stone sculpture of St Martin aith halo on horseback touching a poor man on the shoulder with his sword and giving him his cloak. It's in a warmish grey stone on two plinths, originally on the façade of the Cathedral. Same design as other photo, with small differences. It's placed on the facade of the cathedral between two decorative arches and below a band of foliage with animals and people interspersed among the fines.
November 11, 2025 at 10:50 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#TympanumTuesday
Chapelle St Gabriel de Tarascon in Provence now fully restored and a treasure: C12 #Romanesque with superb nested portals and reliefs.
Lower #Tympanum: Daniel and lions plus Adam and Eve; middle pediment: Annunciation; top gable oculus: four Evangelists.
Facade of Romanesque church. Doorway set back in wide arch has red door with columns either side supporting semi-circular tympanum with relief of Daniel in lions' den on left and Garden of Eden on right. This is placed under a broad triangular pediment again set on columns, with decorative Corinthian capitals. Above this in the gable of the facade is another semi-circular area with a decorative round window with the emblems of the four evangelists along the outside, at N, S, E, W positions. Detail showing tympanum and Annunciation panel above it.
November 11, 2025 at 9:36 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday 🏺
A fit, colourful triton with a dolphin bearing a trident and two fish - from large c. 200 AD #Roman mosaic pavement in the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, probably adorning floor of an auxiliary landing.
Site was discovered/excavated 1872 by John Turtle Wood working on behalf of BM.
A large (2.4 x 1.6m) rectangular mosaic with a triton pictured headed to the left. Triton's face and tray he's carrying have been partially replaced. He has a muscular chest, two hooved legs and a long curly, twisting body twirling behind, in shades of blue with yellow spiky fins running along much of the top. Above the triton's body is a dolphin in th same colours with a trident in its mouth. In each lower corner is a fish, one silvery, one more golden. The figures are bounded by a thin solid black border, a gold and yellow guilloche border and a wider solid black one.
November 10, 2025 at 11:19 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#SaxonSunday
London Museum has some fantastic bone/antler combs, but you'll have to wait to see whether they'll feature in the new museum in Smithfield Market opening next year.
Hope so - remember handling one for finds recording and it seemed so evocatively personal. 🏺
Two large Saxon combs (and part of a third) in a glass case. One is a reddish colour with a top divided into three sections, the middle one of which has a diamond design carved into it. The second is a pinkish white and more elaborate, with additional carved bits inserted into the top - these feature a dragon's head at the right end, and smaller pieces sticking out like fins with small circles on them. The back itself is in three sections, but more decorative - first and third have lines carved round them, and the middle one has a scale-like fine criss-cross pattern
November 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
Julia Child has been my rock for so many decades even the bookmarks are historic. Never, ever fails to please - both me and those who get to eat the results. Cheers 🍷
A very, very tatty and well used paperback version of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Siomne Beck, Louisetta Bertholle and Julia Child. Various bookmarks are sticking out the top.
November 9, 2025 at 12:06 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
Tarragona, Spain.
#Roman Tarraco, established by early 2nd C BC, had a good variety of entertainment venues, eg
*325m long circus for chariot racing w cement vaults to support stands above + for circulation;
*amphitheatre nr beach + Via Augusta, handy for bringing animals in. 🏺
‪Becky Wallower‬ ‪@bwallower.bsky.social‬ · 1h www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/31/t... Trajan’s force: Houston exhibition to explore Ancient Rome’s imperial peak Giant statues and a section of Trajan’s Column flaunt the might and culture of the empire under the successful ruler www.theartnewspaper.com 1 ‪Becky Wallower‬ ‪@bwallower.bsky.social‬ · 1h www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/11/05/f... First Americans may have sailed from north-east Asia, new research suggests New research comparing stone tools found at sites across the US and on Japan’s northernmost island suggests a different timeline and mode of travel for the first humans to arrive in North America www.theartnewspaper.com 3 Reposted by you ‪Nina Willburger‬ ‪@drnwillburger.bsky.social‬ · 6h It's time for #Caturday and a timeline cleanse! A terracotta figurine of a #cat playing the harp. From #Egypt, #Roman period, late 1st century AD. On display at Museum August Kestner, Hannover. Have a lovely #weekend! 📷 me 🏺 Fragment of a yellowish-brown clay figurine depicting a cat playing a harp. The cat is upright, with detailed facial features and textured fur, holding the harp to its side. The surface shows signs of wear and age, and the piece is displayed on a clear stand. ALT 7 97 Reposted by you ‪Becky Wallower‬ ‪@bwallower.bsky.social‬ · 1d #FindsFriday 🏺 Huge askos from 300BC tomb of a high ranking man in ancient Forentum (now Lavello). Decorated w figures + polychrome, for purification rites: on body is woman's head between 2 prancing horses; topped w 3 women, central one w blue wings holds a dove and the reins. Nat Arch Museum Melfi Very large terracotta askos (vessel for pouring liquids). On front of body is sculpted head of a woman w blue decoration in her hair. Above her springing from the body of the vessel are the front parts of two prancing horses, positioned as if emerging from the body of the jar. Above them is the spout, painted delicately in polychrome. On top,… View from hill above elliptical Roman amphitheatre in Tarraco with seating to left and right. Also visible built into the far side of the amphitheatre are remains of a 12th C Romanesque church, which had been the site of 6th C basilica commemorating martyrdom early Christian clergy). To the right can be seen beaches and sea of modern Tarragona.
November 8, 2025 at 2:45 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
#FindsFriday 🏺
Huge askos from 300BC tomb of a high ranking man in ancient Forentum (now Lavello).
Decorated w figures + polychrome, for purification rites: on body is woman's head between 2 prancing horses; topped w 3 women, central one w blue wings holds a dove and the reins.
Nat Arch Museum Melfi
Very large terracotta askos (vessel for pouring liquids). On front of body is sculpted head of a woman w blue decoration in her hair. Above her springing from the body of the vessel are the front parts of two prancing horses, positioned as if emerging from the body of the jar. Above them is the spout, painted delicately in polychrome. On top, behind the spout are three women: the one in the centre has lovely blue painted wings, and holds a dove in her left hand and the reins in her right. The other two women are by her side. It was used in purification rites in the Daunian area of Puglia where a temple was sited for observing birds, which had a mystical role. Other vessels from the burial also feature doves.
November 7, 2025 at 11:33 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#AdoorableThursday
A remnant of industrial heritage of Southwark's Borough area: beside railway, hoist still in place to shift goods through 1st floor doors.
Shiny windows reveal evolution of HQ of WH Willcox & Co, engineering supplier est 1876, to a Portuguese restaurant in popular market area.
Victorian brick built warehouse/supply depot for supplier of engineering fittings and supplies WH Willcox & Co in Southwark Street, London. There are bands of white stonework near the top of the piers between windows and doors, and a band all along the frontage above those. A large opening on the left has been boarded over, but the industrial hoist providing lifting facilities to glazed doors on first floor remains. The woodwork is painted a rather grubby olive green, with darker green door at ground for level where graffiti is in evidence. To the right of the hoist set up is the more public facing aspect of the building, where large windows, arched on the first floor, can be seen. Inside is now a Portuguese restaurant over two floors. An 1891 advertisement for Willcox's engineering supplies.
November 6, 2025 at 11:23 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#WindowsOnWednesday
12th C Brinkburn Priory in Northumberland
Post-dissolution of monasteries, part of south cloister + monks' undercroft converted to manor house for new owner Cuthbert Carnaby c.1538.
In 19th C Cadogans transformed decaying house in a Georgian/Tudor Gothic style + restored church.
With parts of the south wall and transept of the 12th C Brinkburn Priory church in the background, photo shows eastern extension of manor house built post dissolution of monasteries. A semi-circular two storey feature has three full height glazed doors on the ground floor opening onto the lawn, and windows of almost the same size on the floor above. These are all in a Georgian style with intersecting tracery arches at the top. Two further windows are in the wall either side of the curved section, also with pointed arches. There is a further wooden door to the right.
November 5, 2025 at 9:44 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#TombTuesday
Victorian Gothic in overdrive at Kensal Green Cemetery, N London: tomb of Charles Spencer Ricketts (d.1867), naval officer ret'd at 26 on marrying well.
Pevsner called it "atrociously rich", unaware designer Wm Burgess.
15 pedestals, 8 gabled canopy, each w crockets + 8 gargoyle spouts
A hugely decorative tomb, with gothic style features everywhere. The tomb takes the form of a bier, resting on fifteen pedestals, twelve on the edges, and three running down the centre of the sarcophagus. This is surmounted by a stone canopy, itself supported on eight colonettes. The canopy roof has eight gables, each topped by crockets, and with eight gargoyle waterspouts. The outer colonettes are carved from Peterhead granite, the inner columns from Cornish serpentine marble. The latter has not worn well. The rest of the structure is carved Portland stone. Some of the elaborate decorative features on the roof of the tomb carved with gables, crockets and gargoyle water spouts.
November 4, 2025 at 10:38 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
Time for a LAF
CBA London's autumn London Archaeological Forum, coming up 6pm, 18th Nov, Inst of Arch, free!
Super range of speakers + topics
*Jess Bryan MOLA: 50 Fenchurch St
*Ellen Green AOC: osteoarch of City burials
*Ian Hogg ASE: lost med manor
info/book: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/autumn-lon...
🏺
A medieval church tower is suspended above a working archeological site at 50 Fenchurch Street in City of London. MOLA's Jess Bryan is talking on the multi-period site at CBA London's autumn London Archaeological Forum. Details and booking here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/autumn-london-archaeological-forum-with-cba-london-tickets-1891521484679?aff=oddtdtcreator
November 4, 2025 at 9:35 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday 🏺
Rare image of Greek myth of death of Dirthe on horns of bull for cruelty to niece Antiope in fine 12x6m C3 AD #Roman mosaic.
Floor in original position hidden in back streets of Pula, Croatia - found when clearing WWII debris.
Other sections include geometric, animal, plant motifs.
Central portion of mosaic floor with panels outlined in lines and guilloche. Beneath a vine are two men either side of a bull, its front legs rising, with Dirthe spread out below it alongside a shield and spear. Geometric panels surround this. Colours include red, tan, green, brown, black and white. A wider view of the mosaic, showing the top portion. Above the row with the death of Dirthe panel iw a row with three geometric patterned squares - all surrounded with guilloche. Above those are four rows of tangential hexagonal panels, all with guilloche borders, and different designs, mostly with leaf/petal extensions surrounding a circular pattern featuring eg star or heart shaped figures around a small dot.
November 3, 2025 at 2:10 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
#StandingStoneSunday
Beside King Doniert's stone on Bodmin Moor is this decorated 9th C Celtic cross base.
The tall 'Other Half Stone' is carved with an 8-cord plait.
They would have made impressive markers at the spot where important trackways divide down land.
#StoneworkSunday
The lower section of a cross from Celtic period, roken off at the top. On the carved panel it features what is known as an 8 cord plait - parts are slightly raised and lower as the cords go over and under one another. The stone is in a walled enclosure with grass and daffodils.
November 2, 2025 at 2:03 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
Little #Roman child's #SarcophagusSaturday featuring some super lions.
Wingless cupids celebrate the dead (so probably a boy) w wine god Bacchus + followers.
More modern lid features Bacchus' sidekick Silenus.

Marble, probably from Rome 220-250AD, formerly at Castle Howard, now in British Museum. 🏺
A small marble sarcophagus in the form of an elongated tub, only large enough for a small child. Two large lion heads with rings in their mouths are below, with Bacchus and others enjoying the celebrations. Some of the figures around the sides, between the lion heads are wingless erotes which is said to indicate a boy. On top is a lid in a slightly later shade of marble which has a figure of the drunken god Silenus reclining. This is a later addition to the sarcophagus.
November 1, 2025 at 11:25 AM