Oscar Lozada
LightNews LightNews
banner
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Oscar Lozada
@oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.1K following 520 posts
Prehistoric archaeologist and hunter-gatherer of interestingness 🏹🌾 | Sharing my love of all things ancient 🏺🏛️ | PhD student at Cambridge studying the Neanderthals of Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan

https://linktr.ee/oz_of_the_ancients
Posts Replies Media Videos
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#TombTuesday This zigzag pattern is thought to have been carved 5000 years ago by Neolithic farmers on the wall of a tomb... 👀

What was this for? 🤔

📍 Holm of Papay South tomb, Orkney, Scotland

📸 Me

#archaeology #photooftheday
A zigzag carved into a stone in the wall of a dark tomb
November 18, 2025 at 1:12 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#MedievalMonday Another curious animal carving on the archway of St Bene't's Church in Cambridge, from the early 11th century

I can't tell what it is though 🤔

#archaeology #photooftheday
A stone carving of a four legged animal embedded in a wall
November 17, 2025 at 11:12 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#StandingStoneSunday The western arm of the fabulous Callanish Stones

📍 Isle of Lewis, Scotland

📸 Mine

#archaeology #photooftheday 🏺
Two large wide standing stones in a green field against a blue sky
November 16, 2025 at 11:18 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#MedievalMonday A Late Anglo-Saxon carving on an archway inside St Bene't's Church, #Cambridge, 1000-1050 AD

It possibly shows a lion or maybe mythological creature

#archaeology #history #photooftheday
A stone carving of a lion-like animal in a stone wall
November 10, 2025 at 12:09 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
The Callanish VIII stones

This circle stands on the edge of Great Bernera island, leaning towards the mainland Isle of Lewis

I always wondered why it would be placed here...

#StandingStoneSunday #archaeology #photooftheday 🏺
Standing stones on a rocky slope looking out towards a narrow strait of water and mountains in the distance
November 9, 2025 at 8:26 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
A window to the ancient world...

The Roman Amphitheatre of El Djem, Tunisia

📸 Mine

#RomanSiteSaturday #archaeology #photooftheday 🏺
Gap in a wall looking onto the edge of a ruined Roman amphitheatre
November 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#FindsFriday A set of walrus-tusk and whalebone pendants, from around 3000 BC!

These may have been strung together with small beads to form a necklace

Found at Skara Brae Neolithic village in Orkney, Scotland

#archaeology #museums 🏺
Four tooth-shaped bone pendants held on museum stands
November 7, 2025 at 4:48 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Neolithic carvings of eyes above the entrance to a tomb, 6000 years old... What were these for? 👀🤔

📍 Holm of Papay South chambered tomb, Orkney, Scotland

#TombTuesday #archaeology #photooftheday
The top of a tomb chamber with pockmarked carvings in the stone lintel
November 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
What the hell happened to this stone? 😅🤔

#StandingStoneSunday

📍 Stones of Stenness, Orkney, Scotland

#archaeology #photooftheday 🏺
A crooked standing stone
November 2, 2025 at 12:49 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#RomanSiteSaturday These steps lead up to Jugurtha's Table in Tunisia, a huge flat-topped mountain

Legend says the Numidian king Jugurtha made his last stand against the Romans here in 105 BC

#archaeology #ancientbluesky #photooftheday 🏺
Stone steps leading down past a large cliff face to a dirt road with two parked cars
November 1, 2025 at 9:53 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Happy #Halloween!

Here's a spooky one for you - the Woman from Lemb from Cyprus, 3500BC

The story goes that after discovery in 1878, 4 families who owned it all suffered huge tragedies..😱

In fact this is an internet myth! They never existed and it was found in the 1970s! #archaeology #findsfriday
A grainy black and white photo of a vaguely humanoid statue on a plinth
October 31, 2025 at 4:27 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#HillfortsWednesday The creepy Chanctonbury Ring hillfort has a long history of ghosts and demons...

Legend says if you run around the clump of trees 7 times anti-clockwise the Devil appears and offers you a bowl of soup in exchange for your soul!

#archaeology #folklore #halloween #photooftheday🏺
A black and white ghostly aerial photo of a circular clump of trees on the top of a hill
October 29, 2025 at 8:04 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#TombTuesday These carvings on the wall of a tomb are thought to be eyes and eyebrows 👀👀

They were carved 6000 years ago by Neolithic farmers on the tiny Holm of Papay in the Orkney islands

Why would people carve eyes in the wall of a tomb?? 😬

#archaeology #scotland #halloween #photooftheday 🏺
A greenish brown rock surface with stylised carvings of eyes and eyebrows
October 28, 2025 at 5:06 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#StandingStoneSunday A spooky Castlerigg stone circle in the mist..

📸 Mine

🏺 #archaeology #halloween #spooky #photooftheday
A row of stones in a misty field
October 26, 2025 at 9:27 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#FindsFriday This curious bone object is apparently the back of a comb 🤔

It was found in an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery near the Thames, from the 5th or 6th century AD

Now in the Museum of Reading

🏺 #archaeology #museums #heritage
A semicircular piece of bone with multiple rings inscribed into it, held upright in a museum stand
October 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#TombTuesday This haunting Neolithic tomb on the Holm of Papay, a tiny spit of land in the Orkney islands, has a secret

It's said there are 5000-year old carvings on the walls inside, including *eyes* that watch you as you enter... 👀

📸 Mine

#archaeology #scotland #halloween #scary #photooftheday🏺
October 21, 2025 at 12:41 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#StandingStoneSunday Raigmore Ring Cairn is an unlucky stone circle...

Its original site near Inverness was destroyed by a road development, then at some point explosives were used to blast apart some stones!

I assume this is one of them?

📸 Mine

#archaeology #scotland #photooftheday 🏺
An arc of stones curving around to the right, in a low cut grass field, surrounded by industrial buildings. The stone in the foreground appears to be damaged
October 19, 2025 at 12:05 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
An Ancient Egyptian stonemason's mallet!

Craftsmen would have used these to hammer out blocks for temples, obelisks and (in earlier times) pyramids

This one is from the New Kingdom ~1300BC, and now in the Weston Park Museum Sheffield

#FindsFriday

🏺 #archaeology #ancientbluesky #museums
A hefty carved and dented wooden mallet resting on a museum stand, on a red background
October 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#HillfortsWednesday Dumpdon Hillfort, with its distinctive clump of beech trees, sits on one of the largest and most striking hills in the Blackdown Hills of Devon

Closer up it has some impressive Iron Age earthworks too!

📸 Blackdown Hills AONB

#archaeology #ancientbluesky #photooftheday 🏺
A landscape of rolling hills, patchwork fields and woodland, with a distinctive hilltop in the distance with a clump of trees
October 15, 2025 at 10:41 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#MedievalMonday Inside the 12th century church of Teampall Mholuaidh (St Moluag's church) on the Isle of Lewis, #Scotland

You can really feel the age in here!

#history #archaeology #churches #photooftheday
The inside of an old stone church with rugged grey walls and altar at the end. Modern wooden roof vaults and benches fill the interior
October 13, 2025 at 10:52 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Why do I hear the Jaws theme playing...? 😦🦈
#StandingStoneSunday

📍 Callanish II stone circle on the Isle of Lewis

🏺 #archaeology #scotland #landscape #photooftheday
A grey standing stone in the shape of a triangular point, surrounded by moorland
October 12, 2025 at 10:01 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
The southern wing of the huge Amphitheater of El Djem in #Tunisia, third largest in the Roman world

These stands extended 6 flights of stairs up, which you can still climb today!

#RomanSiteSaturday

🏺 #archaeology #ancientbluesky #photooftheday
The pathway under the stands of a Roman amphitheatre, with huge ruined columns on either side and sky poking in from above
October 11, 2025 at 10:54 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#FindsFriday This bronze helmet was found in a field near Falaise in northern France in the 1820s

It dates to the late Bronze Age, around 1100-900BC, and was part of a cache of 10 helmets!

What could have prompted someone to bury all these? 👀

#archaeology #ancientbluesky #museums
A dark greenish corroded metal helmet with a large point at the top sitting on a glass museum shelf
October 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Isn't Wiltshire amazing - five Bronze Age round barrows in one image! See if you can spot them all...

#TombTuesday

📸 Mine

#archaeology #ancientbluesky #photooftheday 🏺
A hillside made up of patchwork fields and hedges with a round barrow at the bottom of the valley and several on the ridge above
October 7, 2025 at 2:03 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#MedievalMonday The tiny 12th Century St Moluag's church (Teampall Mholuaidh in Scots Gaelic) on the northern windswept tip of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides

St Moluag was a companion of St Columba and founded a chapel on this spot in the 6th Century!

#archaeology #history #scotland #photooftheday🏺
A gravel path with fences either side leading up to a small stone chapel surrounded by wild moorland on either side
October 6, 2025 at 12:44 PM