Katherine V Huntley
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kvallie.bsky.social
Katherine V Huntley
@kvallie.bsky.social
1.9K followers 490 following 100 posts
Roman archaeologist. Professor. Director of the Libarna Urban Landscapes Project (@libarnaulp.bsky.social). Working on cultural change, urbanization & domestic life in NW Italy. Interested in children, gender, religion in the Ancient World. She/her. T1
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#RomanSiteSaturday This is the Roman site of Libarna. Founded in 148BCE, it lay in Liguria along a major trade route across Northern Italy. The area was home to the Ligures, peoples who shared some cultural links w/ the Celts. Follow our excavations there @libarnaulp.bsky.social #AncientBlueSky
Photo shows the remains of two square city blocks and the elliptical amphitheater. Between the two city blocks is the ancient road that led directly to the amphitheater. The walls are only preserved enough to show the footprints of the buildings. Green grass covers parts of the site and there is a line of pine trees behind the amphitheater. In the background there are the foothills, with the sanctuary of Monte Spineto on the top of one. The sky is blue and cloudless.
December 7, 2024 at 3:38 PM
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#FortressFriday This is the medieval fort of Gavi in Italy. It was used as a POW prison in WWII. The only escapee: Capt. John Pringle. He survived the fall from the battlements & steep slope to make it to the Swiss border, but was caught before he could cross. He survived the war & passed in 2000.
An image of the side of the fort from inside the fortifications that shows the three levels that the fort is built on. View of the town of Gavi from a tower. The window frames the image of roofs with red tile surrounded by green trees. Stone steps leading up inside the rock-hewn entrance to the fort. There is a railing to the right side and a modern door letting in light at the top of the stairs. A view from the fort high up on the hill from a car park in Gavi.
December 6, 2024 at 6:46 PM
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#AdoorableThursday A small wooden shrine for household gods from the #Roman city of Herculaneum, Italy, 1st cent. CE. The shrine is in the form of a temple with double doors. Incredible preservation due to the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the town. #AncientBluesky #Archaeology
Carbonized wooden shrine in the form of a temple. A double door, slightly open is flanked by two corinthian columns. Above the columns is a architrave with diamond shapes carved into it. The doors each have two large depressed panels on them.
December 6, 2024 at 12:05 AM
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#Woodensday A rocking cradle discovered in the #Roman city of Herculaneum, which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. It was made of oak & discovered in the House of M. Pilus Primigenius Granianus. Excavation records reveal there were the remains of a mattress & infant. AncientBluesky
Black and white image of a carbonized wooden cradle for an infant. It as a slatted bottom and curved runners that would have allowed it to be rocked.
December 4, 2024 at 3:50 PM
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#MuseumMonday If you like old curio museums & find yourself in Turin, Italy, consider stopping by the Museo della frutta that has the lab & work of botanist Francesco Garnier Valletti. He was interested in biodiversity & made hundreds of wax models of different varieties of fruit. #history
Photo of the laboratory with a large dark wooden table in the center with a tile top. On it are various glass vessels and other instruments. To the left is a tall, dark wood and glass display with various glass instruments. Next to it is a radiator with a shelf above it. In the back a large window lets light into the room. A museum display case with some of Valletti's moulds, predominantly ones for pears. They are white and have a single hole to pour in the hot wax. Some are lying in halves to show the shape inside. There are also some long instruments with wooden handles for removing and shaping the model. A tall, dark wood and glass display case with 3 rows. They display wax models of different varieties of peaches and pits. The bottom row has glass vessels with samples in them. In the center of the case is a large sign with gold lettering that reads in Italian "Collezione di Frutti Artificiali Modellati Dal Prof. Fr. Garnier Valletti," which translates to "The Collection of Artificial Fruit Models from Professor Francesco Garnier Valletti." Above the sign is an old clock with Roman numerals. A dark wood and glass display case with three rows and three columns. The top row has models of different varieties of apples, mostly ones that are a mix of red and green in color. The middle row has models of cherries. And the bottom row has models of various types of mushrooms.
December 2, 2024 at 3:52 PM
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#SculptureSunday The archaeological museum of Cremona, Italy, has done a fabulous job with the display of this Ancient Roman sculpture fragment from the 1st-2nd cent. CE. Sadly we will probably never know who the own of this lovely derrière was. AncientBluesky #archaeology
A white marble sculpture fragment of an individual's posterior. It is set on a grey stand against a black background.
December 2, 2024 at 12:28 AM
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#FindsFriday A prehistoric (Early Bronze Age 1A) plow from Northern Italy. Known as the Lavagnone Plow, it was discovered in 1978. It dates to ca. 2000 BCE and is made of oak. It is the oldest plow that has been discovered. In the Museo Civico Archeologico G. Rambotti in Desenzano del Garda.
A large oak plow in a museum display case with in image of a man using the plow from a prehistoric pot. The plow itself has three parts: the plow stock, that works through the soil; the plow beam that fastens to a yoke; and the plow-stilt, a shaft that controls the direct and depth of the furrow.
November 29, 2024 at 8:54 AM
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This is the mansion of archaeologist Gaetano Poggi near Arquata Scrivia, Italy. Poggi excavated part of the forum of Libarna in the early 20th century. A beautiful building, but sadly in a state of disrepair. #archaeology #history
Four storey house with green window shutters and door. Painted a rust red with a terracotta tile roof. There is a round marble tub in the foreground. There is green grass in front of the house. The interior room of the house with large windows on the left. The wall has some red decoration though it is greatly faded and damaged. The floor is covered in debris and trash.
November 26, 2024 at 6:20 PM
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While Cremona is known for its violin makers & the amazing Museo del violino, it also has a fantastic archaeological museum. Here is a display of Roman roof tiles, some featuring prints from various animals. We had the joy of finding a dog & cat print on fragments at Libarna! AncientBlueSky
Roman roof tiles with prints from dogs, a cat, and a deer.
November 26, 2024 at 5:56 PM
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A perfume bottle in the shape of a bird with the perfume still inside. Dates to the second half of the first cent. CE. In the Museo di antichità in Turin. The bottle would need to be broken to access the perfume, so this beautiful object is primarily packaging. AncientBlueSky
Clear glass perfume bottle in the shape of a bird in a museum display case. Inside the bottle is the remains of the perfume, that has separated into a clear liquid with blocks of purplish debris. A signed identifies it as dating to the second half of the first century CE.
November 26, 2024 at 4:52 PM
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Post a ship that’s not from Star Wars or Star Trek

From the Casa della Nave Europa, Pompeii
November 19, 2024 at 11:35 PM
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Quote post with a picture of yourself and show the newbies who they're dealing with.
A woman (Katherine Huntley) in a dark blue shirt with a pink scarf kneeling on the right had side reaching out her hand to the left, turned towards a white marble Roman relief sculpture of a man facing to the left and holding out his hand. It gives the appearance that the woman is shaking hands with the scultpure.
November 17, 2024 at 5:48 AM
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TW for archaeologists who do post-ex work. A BTS image of the finds storeroom for a long-running project in Pompeii that concluded a decade ago. This is 1 of 4 such aisles in storeroom. I'll leave it to y'all to guess how much of this is actually published. #FindsFriday #Roman #Archaeology
November 15, 2024 at 9:48 PM
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Some rather grim 19th century souvenirs from Pompeii now housed at the Museo di Archeologia Ligure, Genova-Pegli. #archaeology #Pompeii #Italy #ancient #history
19th century souvenirs from Pompeii, Italy, in a museum case with a dark blue background. There are 4 small wine cups with black ashes in them and yellowed stickers on them, a miniature white figure of one of the casts of the bodies from Pompeii, and two glass bottles with red and yellow labels stating in Italian "Water from the Ancient Spring of Pompeii" and the date "1864".
November 14, 2024 at 1:13 AM
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A bronze model of a groma, a surveying tool, recovered from Libarna & housed in the Museo di Archeologia Ligure, Genova-Pegli. A groma was used by agrimensores to create orthogonal grids to establish things like agricultural plots, limits of city districts, etc. #Archaeology #Ancient #Roman #Italy
A model in bronze of a surveying tool, called a groma, in a musuem case with a blue background. The groma has 4 arms tapering to points that meet at 90 degree angles in the center. The photographer is reflected in the glass of the case.
November 13, 2024 at 9:12 PM
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A gorgeous column capital from Libarna. Recovered during excavations of the theater area in 1874. Decorated with dolphins and a sea deity. From the Area Museale, Serravalle Scrivia. #Archaeology #Roman #Ancient #Italy
A white marble column capital decorated with a sea deity flanked by dolphins with shell and leaf details.
November 13, 2024 at 8:11 PM
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I was going to post some archaeology today, but my parents' dog had to be put to sleep this afternoon. She was a beautiful, sweet girl, only 6 years old, and it was a shock (a fast spreading cancer). Rest in peace, Maggie May.
A black greyhound with a bright pink collar lying down on a blue rug.
November 12, 2024 at 11:55 PM
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Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
1st Book
#books
The cover of David Malouf's book "An Imaginary Life." The cover shows a lake with the sun setting behind the hills. What appear to be clouds are actually the curves of an ancient marble sculpture.
November 12, 2024 at 5:32 AM
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Introduce yourself with one book, one movie, one album, and one TV show.
Book cover of Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis Movie poster for the Original Jurassic Park. It has the silhouette of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton on a red background. The overall poster is black with the words "An Adventure 65 Million Years in the Making." The image is the cover for Tori Amos' album "Boys for Pele". It features the singer sitting in an old rocking chair on a ramshackle porch. A snake slithers under the chair. Amos's feet and legs are covered in mud and she is dressed in rags. Poster for the WGN tv series "Manhattan" showing an enlarged atomic bomb falling onto a settlement (Los Almos) in the middle of the desert.
November 12, 2024 at 1:39 AM
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This is a letterbox I saw in Arquata Scrivia (the town that hosts the Libarna Urban Landscapes Project when we are carrying out our fieldwork). It's got a beautiful message: "No adverts, only letters of love."
A green letterbox with the following written on it in Italian: "No pubblicità, solo lettere d'amore." In English: "No adverts, only letters of love."
November 11, 2024 at 10:46 PM