Maggie Knapp
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maggiecknapp.bsky.social
Maggie Knapp
@maggiecknapp.bsky.social
38 followers 90 following 22 posts
She/her. MA Classics Tulane, BA Classics/Art History UMass. Interested in Roman art and archaeology, especially painting, domestic religion, portraiture, and Pompeii
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maggiecknapp.bsky.social
Dido Abandoned by Aeneas, fresco, 1st c CE, Casa di Meleagro, Pompeii
Dido, Queen of Carthage, sits on a throne between two attendants and the personification of Africa while Aeneas sails away in the background.
#AncientBlackness
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli 8898
Fresco with 4 women in the foreground and a ship on the sea in the background. Left to right, the figures are a woman with dark skin who wears a light purple dress and holds a large ivory rhyton in both hands; a woman slightly to the back, with light skin who holds up a fan for the woman next to her; the central figure, a light-skinned woman wearing an off-white dress and sitting on a throne draped in blue fabric; and, slightly removed from the other three, a woman with light skin who wears a yellow dress with red stripes and a hat with elephant ears, trunk, and tusks. The woman with the elephant hat props her right elbow on a stand and holds her arm up to her head, her pointer and middle finger resting on her temple.
February 5, 2025 at 5:42 AM
maggiecknapp.bsky.social
Portrait of a Child, Roman, marble, c. 150-200
This tender portrait could depict a toddler with Black African ancestry--but the lack of information about the portrait complicates possible identifications.
#AncientBlackness

Getty Villa 71.AA.462
White marble portrait head of a young boy. He has short, bouncy curls, a rounded face, large eyes with drilled pupils, a small nose and full lips. He looks up off to the viewer's left, and his mouth has the hint of a twist.
February 4, 2025 at 5:16 AM
maggiecknapp.bsky.social
Funerary Portrait of a Woman, Roman, marble, c.120-30CE.
Said to be from Alexandria, this portrait features a variation on the "beehive" hairstyle: her curls on the side fall away from her face as ringlets in the style of the curls of Isis or personified Africa. #AncientBlackness
Nelson-Atkins 48-9
White marble bust of a woman on a black background. She has high cheekbones, thin eyebrows, a straight nose with slightly flared nostrils, and full lips. Her hair is piled high with curls: the ones at the center of her face turn to face forward, and the ones on either side of her face turn and lean away.
February 3, 2025 at 5:53 AM
maggiecknapp.bsky.social
Head of a young man, Roman, Pentelic marble, c. first half of 1st c. CE. Based on the hair and facial features, it has been suggested that he may have been of North African descent.
MFA Boston 88.643
#AncientBlackness
Sculpted portrait of a young man. He has short, tightly curled hair, a gently rounded face, and close-set almond eyes. His nose is completely broken off, and despite damage it is clear that he had full lips.
February 2, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Reposted by Maggie Knapp
moudhy.bsky.social
For anyone wondering, some possible dog names have survived from cuneiform sources.

On tiny dog figurines found buried under a palace in Nineveh, Iraq are inscriptions that seem to be names.

dan rigiššu “loud is his bark”

munaššiku gārîšu “biter of his foe”

mušēṣi lemnūti “expeller of evil”
Photo of 5 dog figurines in profile facing to the left in a staggered line. The closest one is reddish, the three in the middle are beige, and the furthest is dark grey. Each one has a cuneiform inscription on their side.
January 30, 2025 at 10:13 AM
maggiecknapp.bsky.social
The result of multiple New Orleans snowdays: new Flora fresco cross stitch 🌼❇️🪡
Cross stitch work in a vertical oval shape. Within a dark green background, a woman with her back to the viewer wears a yellow dress with white cloak, holds a light green cornucopia with a few flowers, and stretches her right hand out to pluck another off of the thin, branchy plant next to her with white and yellow blossoms. The same cross stitch piece, being held out next to a wall where there is a postcard of the Flora fresco from Pompeii, on which the cross stitch is based.
January 26, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Reposted by Maggie Knapp
chapps.bsky.social
Horrific news out of Assen, Netherlands. Thieves used explosives to access the Drents Museum and made off with several antiquities from ‘Dacia – Empire of Gold and Silver’, including the masterpiece the golden Helmet of Coțofenești, c. 450 BCE, a loan from the National History Museum of Romania. 🏺 😡
Closeup of the golden Helmet of Coțofenești from Romania. It has large raised circular nubs and two eyes in relief on the brow. In shape it’s close-fitting to the head and drapes down the sides and back.
January 25, 2025 at 2:19 PM