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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Durotriges Dig
@durotrigesdig.bsky.social
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Investigating the Iron Age and Roman period in SW Britain. Bournemouth University #HillfortsWednesday Posts (mostly) by Miles Russell
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · Nov 16
Hello, we're the Durotriges Project 👋

If you're here for updates on prehistoric Dorset, archaeology info or just to look at pictures of Iron Age / Roman artefacts, we hope you'll find something of interest

#Durotriges25

⚠️ warning: may contain random references to #DoctorWho and #HypocaustGate
A complete Late Iron Age Black Burnished Ware pot from the #Durotriges24 excavation
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Some pictures from when Sandi Toksvig and @rakshadigs.bsky.social came to visit our dig in July #Durotriges25

If you missed episode 1 of *Sandi Toksvig's Hidden Wonders*, you can still catch up at Channel 4 On Demand

www.channel4.com

The rest of the series continues on More4 Tues 9pm

Enjoy 😊
Archaeologists Ruby, Sandi and Meg, all smiling in the sun Archaeologists Raksha and Lewis at work Archaeologists Sandi and Bron happy by the site hut Archaeologists Kel and Sandi examine some finds laid out on a table in the sun
November 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
A rather angry sea gryphon chases a cheeky dolphin across a 2nd century #Roman mosaic

Found at #Cirencester in 1849, the entirety of this decorated floor (featuring hunting dogs) can now be seen in the excellent @coriniummuseum.bsky.social

📷 Aug 2022

Don't play with your food this #MosaicMonday !
Detail from a Roman mosaic floor depicting a sea gryphon with claws outstretched chasing a dolphin
November 10, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
carlyasilver.bsky.social
This #MosaicMonday, we take a look at the outer edges of Emperor Hadrian's 'Doves of Pliny' mosaic. Hadrian may have bought it when it was already an antique! From his villa at Tivoli. #ancientsky #skystoriand

Now at V & A in London
November 10, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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followinghadrian.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday - The Eros and Pan Mosaic from Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily. The mosaic depicts a wrestling match between the gods Pan and Eros. Dated 4th century AD.
Pan, to the left, is depicted with goat-like legs and a beard; Eros, to the right, is shown as a winged boy. Between them is a palm leaf, the symbol of victory. The match's arbitrator is standing to Pan's left. He is bearded and dressed in a purple toga over a white embroidered tunic. His right arm is raised to signal the start of the match.
November 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
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alisonfisk.bsky.social
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 1:07 PM
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drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #MosaicMonday a charming duck.
Found in Trier, dating 4th century AD

📷 me

On display at Museum am Dom, Trier

🏺 #archaeology
A mosaic depicting a duck
November 10, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
wittspat.bsky.social
There's been a request for elephants in mosaic, and we always like to oblige! To start with, here is the splendid beast from the Horkstow Orpheus mosaic. 1/2
#MosaicMonday
#AncientBlueSky 🏺
@classicalalan.bsky.social
Part of a coloured engraving of a Roman mosaic showing a radial design with the 'spokes' drawn in simple guilloche. In the main compartment in this photo, a dark-coloured elephant is shown in profile walking to the right. The animal is depicted against the backdrop of a tree. In the smaller compartment above are two birds in profile, facing one another but with their heads turned away to look behind them. Between them is a triangular object with a vertical line above it, probably a stylised bunch of grapes on a stem.
November 10, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
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
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anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome, this time to look at the dazzling #opussectile floor of the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, 385-388 CE. Its complex #geometric design makes it the most perfect floor of its kind in #LateAntiquity. #AncientBluesky 🏺
OPUS SECTILE FLOOR, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This extraordinary opus sectile pavement only finds comparisons in the House of Cupid and Psyche in Ostia and in the Diocletianic opus sectile floor of the Curia Senatus, which has been heavily restored. Here we have a background of giallo antico and a complex pattern of polygonal shapes with three recurrent themes, the circle, the four-pointed star, and the strange pelta or C-shaped shield. At the centre of each four-pointed star is a circle of alternating porphyry and serpentino set inside a round frame, or a circle of those marbles inset with a square of giallo antico or brecciated white marble. Within the octagons created between the stars, on a background of pavonazzetto, are circles framed with porphyry, with four peltæ in serpentino. This is a sophisticated and expensive floor, and the room must have had a public or ceremonial function.
November 3, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
kpw1453.bsky.social
The central panel from the ‘Geometric Mosaic’ which decorated one of the rooms at Rudston Roman Villa in East Yorkshire. The mosaic is now part of the collections at the Hull and East Riding Museum. 📸 My own. #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain #RudstonRomanVilla
November 10, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
katesfwriter.bsky.social
At the AD 3rd C Baths of Caracalla scraps of floor mosaics lean casually against the ancient walls.
#AncientRome #MosaicMonday #Archaeology
📸 my own, Rome.
November 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
A rather angry sea gryphon chases a cheeky dolphin across a 2nd century #Roman mosaic

Found at #Cirencester in 1849, the entirety of this decorated floor (featuring hunting dogs) can now be seen in the excellent @coriniummuseum.bsky.social

📷 Aug 2022

Don't play with your food this #MosaicMonday !
Detail from a Roman mosaic floor depicting a sea gryphon with claws outstretched chasing a dolphin
November 10, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
chapps.bsky.social
An idea for your Christmas tree this year - stacks of Celtic gold torcs! Known as the Ipswitch Torcs after the location where their hoard was found, the terminals are decorated in the swirly La Tène style (Tène II), save the top one which is unadorned. 🎄🏺 1/

150-50 BCE. 📸 me
#BritishMuseum
A stack of five gold torcs against a green background. All were made from two twisted solid bars, with loop terminals cast on. Four (1969,0103.2-5) have cast terminals ornamented in high relief with Tène II style curvilinear motifs of bosses and scrolls, within a border of two corded bands lying slightly apart; they can be paired but their patterns are not identical. The fifth - at top (1969,0103.1) - has plain terminals. These torcs were probably deposited together as a hoard around 75 BCE.
November 8, 2025 at 5:27 PM
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Some pictures from when Sandi Toksvig and @rakshadigs.bsky.social came to visit our dig in July #Durotriges25

If you missed episode 1 of *Sandi Toksvig's Hidden Wonders*, you can still catch up at Channel 4 On Demand

www.channel4.com

The rest of the series continues on More4 Tues 9pm

Enjoy 😊
Archaeologists Ruby, Sandi and Meg, all smiling in the sun Archaeologists Raksha and Lewis at work Archaeologists Sandi and Bron happy by the site hut Archaeologists Kel and Sandi examine some finds laid out on a table in the sun
November 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
tuatha.ie
These decorated bone slips were found during excavations at Cairn H, one of the Neolithic passage tombs at Loughcrew.

They date to the 1st century AD, and they were found along with other material from the Iron Age, showing that the Neolithic tomb continued as a place of importance for millennia
Six bone plaques with delicately incised decoration
November 7, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
nature.com
A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire

go.nature.com/4nHZmoM
‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network
Nature - A high-resolution digital map nearly doubles the known length of the ancient road network.
go.nature.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
cambriansarch.bsky.social
❄️⛄🎄Cambrians Christmas Lecture 2025 ❄️⛄🎄
The Druids' Sacrifice: Discovering Iron Age Wales on Military Land By Richard Osgood (Senior Archaeologist, Defence Infrastructure Organisation)
Online via Zoom: Thursday 4th December @ 7.00 pm
Booking details [to follow]
November 1, 2025 at 9:33 AM
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Also Britannia, in the Bank of England float, looks brilliantly like Boudica

Wonder if she's planning to torch the City? 😱
Britannia in a cart (with Roman helmet and Union Flag shield) being pulled by two red waist coated men through the city of London She's definitely not Boudica (possibly)
November 8, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Thanks to the BBC we've just learnt that the effigies of Gog and Magog, appearing in the Lady Mayors Show are:

"representations of 2 giants captured by the Roman general Brutus, first governor of Londinium, back in the day" 🧐

Thank you
Two giant basketwork effigies being carried in a parade with a red London bus behind
November 8, 2025 at 11:16 AM
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Thanks to the BBC we've just learnt that the effigies of Gog and Magog, appearing in the Lady Mayors Show are:

"representations of 2 giants captured by the Roman general Brutus, first governor of Londinium, back in the day" 🧐

Thank you
Two giant basketwork effigies being carried in a parade with a red London bus behind
November 8, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
bajr-badger.bsky.social
www.bajr.org/a-2000-year-...

Hidden Wonders airs on More4 from Tuesday 4th November at 9pm. 
Sandi Toksvig to unearth the UK’s Hidden Wonders | Channel 4

love it..
and nice one Raksha Dave
A 2,000-year-old murder mystery in rural Dorset - BAJR - British Archaeology Jobs and Resources
Bournemouth University’s Principal Academic in Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology, Dr Miles Russell welcomed broadcaster Sandi Toksvig to an archaeological excavation near Winterborne Kingston in Dorse...
www.bajr.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:25 AM
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
If you missed us on TV this week don't forget you catch up at:

Channel 4 On Demand www.channel4.com

For fantastic Iron Age #archaeology and glorious #Dorset with #SandiToksvig @rakshadigs.bsky.social and the students @buarchanth.bsky.social

Trust us, it's an emotional rollercoaster!

ENJOY
November 7, 2025 at 1:23 PM
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tessmachling.bsky.social
Some fabulous talks at this FREE day symposium on Thursday 20th November.

You can even hear me chatting about how some tiny tool marks can give us some big insights into the torc makers of the Iron Age.

#Archaeology 🏺
lpfgsocmedia.bsky.social lpfgsocmedia.bsky.social @lpfgsocmedia.bsky.social · 5d
The LPFG symposium will be taking place on Thursday 20th November.

The full program can be found below.

Do join us from 10am - 5pm via the link here: teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-joi...
November 5, 2025 at 11:48 AM
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
A gorgeous early Iron Age round-based pottery bowl from Howe broch #Orkney

The unusual design and decoration may have been intended to mimic a riveted bronze cauldron 🤩

On display in the wonderful Orkney Museum in #Kirkwall

#FindsFriday #Prehistory #Archaeology #AncientBluesky

📷 Aug 2024
A repaired, round bottomed prehistoric pottery bowl with irregular rim and surface lugs in a museum case
November 7, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
kentarchsoc.bsky.social
A large amount of predominantly Romano-British pottery including this ?shell tempered storage jar rim from a historic excavation probably from Rochester in the 1970s by Arthur Harrison occupies our curator's desk this #FindsFriday #Ceramics #PotteryStudies #ArchaeologicalPot #PotSherdFriday
November 7, 2025 at 4:41 PM