Temples of Britain and Ireland

I appreciate that I don't post much anymore, but there's been a real surge of activity at the other place. So I think I'll be spending more time there from now on. You can find me there as @templum.bsky.social

This took way longer than I intended it to, but I finally got round to finishing an article about the temple at Pagans Hill. If you're interested in rural temples during the end of the Roman West I think you'll enjoy it wedeti.substack.com/p/pagans-hill-…

Some figurative sculpture was on display - a hippocamp on a decorative frieze recently found at Irthlingborough, and a crudely carved Hercules found at Higham Ferrers. Neither usually visible to the public @TemplumData

As today marks the start of Chinese Year of the Snake... it's a good time to show off perhaps our most enigmatic sculpture - the serpent stone. Both the Chinese and the Romans associated snakes with prosperity, among many other things.

@JJCONeill Hey John, was this work published in Emania 26?

All of which suggests that cult practices in Iron Age Ireland have recognizable similarities to that found elsewhere in Europe. It's also possible to re-establish a provenance for the Tandragee Idol, but you'll have to wait until that appears in an upcoming Emania article.

A bit more on the 'Tandragee Idol' #Archaeology Look closely at the Idol's right hand - often presented as holding a severed arm. But it is actually an object being held. Which is clearer when seen from the side. The Cloghfin and Lurgan figures also hold objects.

#RomanSiteSaturday The nymphaeum (shrine to a water nymph) at Chedworth roman villa in Glos. A spring was channelled into an octagonal basin [sound on] which then supplied the villa's kitchen, baths and... 1/2

🏛 I had the pleasure of getting a tour of the Uncovering #Roman Carlisle project at Carlisle Cricket Club, where the brilliant team are excavating an enormous administrative building with huge bath-house, roads, and a fascinating monumental area that might include large shrines!

Fort Sunday 10th November 2024, 4pm theallendale.org/tickets New play on Dorset hillfort to tour ahead of its London premiere bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/24698336.…

Exhibition features lesser known folklore figures buff.ly/40v5MiW

Pádraigín Riggs about the storyteller Tomás Ó Cathasaigh in @IrishTimes: irishtimes.com/opinion/an-iri… The volume Sgéalta ó Thomás Ó Cathasaigh will be the subject of the Irish Texts Society’s Annual Seminar: 9 November @UCC @uccsmghaeilge

@DrFrancisYoung @pighilltweets One project at a time

@DrFrancisYoung @pighilltweets I've thought about it! And maybe I will eventually, but I can't help but think that they'll be a nightmare to find and validate

Ponders... Has anyone exhaustively mapped all the Churches across the UK that are home to / or give house-room to Roman Altars'?

@pighilltweets I'm imagining a "Find my Altar" app now

Hexham heads archival footage recovered 💀 youtube.com/watch?v=J4WXop…

An excellent lecture by @urbanprehisto on *Housing the future dead: the new British wave of long barrow construction* at the 2024 @BU_ArchAnth @PrehistSociety annual Pitt Rivers lecture tonight (with a nice tribute to the late great Tim Darvill at the beginning) #Archaeology

This striking Iron Age bone comb was made from a horse metapodial bone, recovered during excavations by Wessex Archaeology at Harwell, Oxfordshire. The seemingly human face that looks back at us is a highly unusual form of decoration for this object type & period! #WildWednesdays

This looks interesting, it's interesting to think about what the overlap between mortuary architecture and practices is with late temple/shrine architecture. I'd love to compare this to Blair's Anglo-Saxon pagan shrines and their prototypes. #d1e236" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…