Dr Eleri Cousins
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elericousins.bsky.social
Dr Eleri Cousins
@elericousins.bsky.social
1K followers 380 following 210 posts
Asst Prof in Roman Archaeology at Durham. Likes all things Roman Britain/Gaul/Germany and Roman religion, with a side helping of art and epigraphy. Also likes trees and hills.
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elericousins.bsky.social
4/ But it also says a lot of things I’ve been thinking about for a long time about how we handle local gods in the Roman world, what we can - and can’t - do with Roman altars and with gods we only know through epigraphy, as well as the (*whispers*) Celtic problem in Roman provincial archaeology 😬…
Altar to Cocidius dedicated by Paternius Maternus, tribune of the Coh. I Nervana. RIB 966, from Netherby or Bewcastle, now on display at The Auckland Project’s Faith Museum
October 23, 2025 at 1:32 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
3/ It represents a few years of my thinking about this guy, the god Cocidius from Hadrian’s Wall, and how religion and military power could intersect on the edges of empire.
(Spoiler alert: I’m not sure he’s a very nice god 😂)
Close-up of plaque to Cocidius, showing the god standing in a columned niche, holding a spear and shield
October 23, 2025 at 1:32 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
Publication day! “What’s in a name? Cocidius and the Epigraphy of Local Deities in the Roman Empire” now out in Religion in the Roman Empire special issue edited by @ericorlin.bsky.social doi.org/10.1628/rre-... 🥰

This is my first really meaty article to drop post-pandemic and motherhood…🧵🏺
Side on view of the two silver plaques to Cocidius from Bewcastle Roman fort
October 23, 2025 at 1:32 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
Hadrian’s Wall and the Whin Sill viewed from Steel Rigg. With some lucky resident cows who I hope enjoy the view 🐄

📷 my own, taken today
View of the Whin Sill with Crag Lough in the distance. In the foreground, black cows are lying in a field. Much of the sky is blue but with big clouds floating around and a definite feel of possible rain.
September 11, 2025 at 5:20 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
Okay, the Levantine Neolithic is officially scaring the pants off me.
Stone carved to look like a face - but with definite alien/horror movie ghost vibes.
August 11, 2025 at 10:29 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
The trail was officially launched last weekend as part of The Armitt and @nattrustarch.bsky.social’s Ambleside Roman Fort open day for the #FestivalOfArchaeology, with Rowan and @aliceeliz.bsky.social giving trail tours to the public, supported by an @ics.bsky.social public engagement grant.
Rowan Colley giving trail tours in Ambleside Roman Fort A group listens to a trail tour by Rowan Colley in Ambleside Roman Fort
August 7, 2025 at 9:19 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
And here is the final photo for the trail itself 😱 Recent work by Edinburgh Uni and @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social suggests the sling bullets, all found scattered extramurally, are evidence for at least one battle outside the fort between the Roman army and the local population.
#RomanFortThursday
Professional photograph of lead sling bullets from Roman Ambleside, taken by Durham archaeology students Rowan Colley and Isla Mustin. The bullets are cream coloured. Some are lemon-shaped, and others are more hastily formed blobs.
August 7, 2025 at 9:10 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
They also got the chance to learn about object photography - many of the trail photographs are their own work 🤩 - and get embedded in The Armitt’s ongoing collections audit. Here is Rowan photographing lead sling bullets from The Armitt’s collections…

#RomanFortThursday
Rowan Colley photographing lead sling bullets from the Armitt’s collections
August 7, 2025 at 8:59 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
Isla and Rowan spent two weeks in Ambleside with me and the Armitt curator, Faye Morissey, researching the objects, designing the trail route, and writing the trail text, as part of their @arcdurham.bsky.social
Advanced Professional Training module

#RomanFortThursday
Rowan Colley, Isla Mustin and Faye Morissey discussing the tombstone of Flavius Fuscinus and Flavius Romanus, held in The Armitt Rowan and Isla taking photographs at Ambleside Roman Fort
August 7, 2025 at 8:53 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
The trail highlights 13 objects from The Armitt’s collections from Ambleside Roman Fort, introducing visitors to life in a Roman auxiliary fort and vicus and to Roman occupation of the Lake District.

www.armittdigitaltrail.co.uk/roman-ambles...

#RomanFortThursday #Archaeology #LakeDistrict
View of the principia at Ambleside, under a bright blue sky with Windermere in the background. Two students stand in the principia taking pictures.
August 7, 2025 at 8:46 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
The Sanctuaire du Cigognier is best known as the find spot of this spectacular gold bust of Marcus Aurelius, and was likely dedicated in part to the imperial cult.
Cigognier means “stork’s nest” - after its sole surviving column! 🪺🏛️🏺

Bust 📷 © Site et Musée romains d'Avenches
Column 📷 my own
Gold bust of Marcus Aurelius from Avenches. The mustachioed and bearded emperor looks straight ahead with heavy-lidded eyes. An image of the gorgon sits on his breastplate. View of the white limestone column of the Sanctuaire du Cigognier at Avenches on a sunny cloudless day (with another reconstructed column in the distance).
August 5, 2025 at 9:14 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
Spot the Roman bit…

(Entablature fragment from the Sanctuaire du Cigognier at Avenches, Switzerland, built into the medieval church Ste-Marie-Madeleine. 📷 My own )
🏺 #archaeology
View of the exterior corner of the church of Ste-Marie-Madeleine in Avenches. Most of the church is built of greyish brown stone, and the exterior is plain. But at the bottom corner an extravagant piece of carved Roman masonry in white limestone sticks out, with coffered cornices and egg-and-dart motifs on the modillion.
August 5, 2025 at 9:14 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
The trail tours are launching The Armitt’s new digital trail of Roman Ambleside, designed by our students this spring (more on this next week!), and have been generously supported by an @ics.bsky.social public engagement grant 🥰
Ambleside Roman Fort under a bright blue sky with Lake Windermere visible in the background
August 2, 2025 at 4:36 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
Scrappy altars are my favourite. Behold this lovely little wonky god in a niche - and highly diagonal lettering 😂 - on this altar to Mars from Housesteads fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Adorable 🥰

RIB 1592, now in Chesters Museum.📷 mine

romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions... #EpigraphyTuesday 🏺
Small Roman altar, with a relief of a roughly carved cloaked male figure standing in a niche. Below is a worn inscription. Both the figure and the inscription are noticeably at a slant. The modern museum base reads “Altar to the holy god Mars, set up by Vi…anus”, RIB 1592 from Housesteads. The altar sits on a shelf, with other carved stones visible to either side.
July 15, 2025 at 10:44 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
As irritating as the current display is (this image, of all images, divorced from wider context!), the high-res photos on the BM collections website do bring me joy

📷 © The Trustees of the British Museum

www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
Picture of the full Hinton St Mary mosaic, showing two rectangular panels with figural scenes joined by a narrow geometric panel. The central roundel of the larger panel shows a male figure with a chi-rho behind him; the corners contain images of the Four Seasons. The central roundel of the smaller panel shows Bellerophon fighting the Chimaera. Hunting scenes flank both roundels.
July 15, 2025 at 9:14 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
The joys of walking into a church and instantly spotting a Roman inscription 🥰🤩😱

(RIB 757, dedication to Septimius Severus from the fort at Brough-under-Stainmore)

romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions... #RomanBritain 🏺
Picture of a church entranceway with a Roman inscription built into the wall Photo of RIB 757 in the wall of the entranceway of the church at Brough, with a bench in front of it . IMP CAESA[R] very clearly visible in the first line.
July 13, 2025 at 1:16 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
“I’m not worried, YOU’RE worried.”

My favourite angsty face pot. From Roman Carlisle, in the collections at Tullie.

#FindsFriday
Male head modelled in high relief on the neck and mouth of a broken flagon. His bulging eyes stare slightly off to one side and his downward mouth looks alarmed and concerned. His eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard and moustache are picked out in short incised lines. He has an appliqué wreath or crown of disks around his brow.
June 6, 2025 at 9:13 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
That would be @duxbritanniarum.bsky.social, and yes, he’s somehow managed to get us all to use this typology 😂😭

www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...
Screen shot of Rob Collins’ typology of phalluses from Hadrian’s Wall
June 6, 2025 at 8:55 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
I swear, Durham is actually a painting, not a place. 🧐
View from the Prebends Bridge in Durham. Green woods line the River Wear, with the towers of the cathedral rising above, lit up golden in the evening light.
May 25, 2025 at 7:14 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
THESE WERE INCREDIBLE.

Just *look* at this model of the estate of Julia Felix by one of our @arcdurham.bsky.social students, Eleanor Paxton 🤯

ALL the projects were so well-researched and with such creativity on the part of all the students! Pedagogy gold star to @carolinebarron.bsky.social 🤩
Close up photo of a corner of a foam model of the garden of Julia Felix, placed upon a plan of the rest of the site. Astounding recreation of brickwork and plastered walls using paint, sand, and other materials to create texture and detail. Top down view of a foam model of the garden of Julia Felix, placed upon a plan of the rest of the site. Astounding recreation of brickwork and plastered walls using paint, sand, and other materials to create texture and detail.
May 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
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
Half of a spindle whorl made from red Samian pottery sits in the palm of a hand wearing a white latex glove
April 11, 2025 at 11:25 AM
elericousins.bsky.social
The bathhouse at Hardknott was much more basic and survives to considerably less of a height!

(Why yes, we have been on a jaunt through the Roman Lake District today, thank you for noticing 😎)

#RomanFortThursday
View of the three-room strip bathhouse at Hardknott with its circular laconicum, against a backdrop of fells
April 10, 2025 at 5:03 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
The massive (4m+) standing remains of the bathhouse at Ravenglass fort. The fort stands on the Cumbrian coast, at the far end of one of the main Roman routes through the Lake District.

@arcdurham.bsky.social students for scale.

#RomanFortThursday
Large standing remains of Roman masonry, with two students standing in front of complete doorway spaces
April 10, 2025 at 5:03 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
Hardknott Roman Fort, 2nd c. AD

Funny how the worst places to have probably been stationed are now the nicest to visit.

#RomanFortThursday
View of the interior of Hardknott fort with sweeping views down into Eskdale on a brilliantly sunny day.
April 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
elericousins.bsky.social
Hardknott Roman Fort.

@arcdurham.bsky.social students for scale 😎

#RomanFortThursday
#LakeDistrict
April 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM