#Roman antiquities

[skf-fineart]

Central panel of a mosaic floor with the head of Medusa, 1st - 2nd century CE. Baths of Diocletian, Rome.

[lionofchaeronea]

Capital of Composite Order, from Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae (Mirror of Roman Magnificence), Léon Davent after Francesco Primaticcio, mid-16th century

Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae was a collection of prints of Roman antiquities assembled by the publishers Antonio Salamanca and Antonio Lafreri beginning in 1540 to sell to tourists and collectors.

[er-cryptid]

Roman statue

National Museum of Denmark, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities

[timunville]

The one on the right looks so contemporary.

~ Portrait of two brothers.

Period: Roman Period

Place of origin: Hawara, Fayum

Medium: Cedar wood with encaustic painting

[666candies]

adam and eve apple. quote translates to “I am your half”

[illustratus]

The Triumph of Light over Darkness by Franz von Matsch

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Child's Sock from Egypt, c.250-350 CE: this colorful sock is nearly 1,700 years old

This sock was discovered during excavations in the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus. It was likely created for a child during the late Roman period, c.250-350 CE.

Similar-looking socks from late antiquity and the early Byzantine period have also been found at several other sites throughout Egypt; these socks often have colorful, striped patterns with divided toes, and they were crafted out of wool using a technique known as nålbinding.

Above: a similar child's sock from Antinoöpolis, c.250-350 CE

The sock depicted above was created during the same period, and it was found in a midden heap (an ancient rubbish pit) in the city of Antinoöpolis. A multispectral imaging analysis of this sock yielded some interesting results back in 2018, as this article explains:

... analysis revealed that the sock contained seven hues of wool yarn woven together in a meticulous, stripy pattern. Just three natural, plant-based dyes—madder roots for red, woad leaves for blue and weld flowers for yellow—were used to create the different color combinations featured on the sock, according to Joanne Dyer, lead author of the study.

In the paper, she and her co-authors explain that the imaging technique also revealed how the colors were mixed to create hues of green, purple and orange: In some cases, fibers of different colors were spun together; in others, individual yarns went through multiple dye baths.

Such intricacy is pretty impressive, considering that the ancient sock is both “tiny” and “fragile."

Given its size and orientation, the researchers believe it may have been worn on a child’s left foot.

Above: another child's sock from Al Fayyum, c.300-500 CE

The ancient Egyptians employed a single-needle looping technique, often referred to as nålbindning, to create their socks. Notably, the approach could be used to separate the big toe and four other toes in the sock—which just may have given life to the ever-controversial socks-and-sandals trend.

Sources & More Info:

Manchester Museum: Child's Sock from Oxyrhynchus

British Museum: Sock from Antinoupolis

Royal Ontario Museum: Sock from Al Fayyum

Smithsonian Magazine: 1,700-Year-Old Sock Spins Yarn About Ancient Egyptian Fashion

The Guardian: Imaging Tool Unravels Secrets of Child's Sock from Ancient Egypt

PLOS ONE Journal: A Multispectral Imaging Approach Integrated into the Study of Late Antique Textiles from Egypt

National Museums Scotland: The Lost Sock

[timunville]

Beautiful

Glass Funeral Urns

Roman, 1st-2nd century AD

Musée de la Romanité, Nîmes

[thatshowthingstarted]

A Roman Red Jasper Ringstone with a Chariot Race,

Circa 1ST Century A.D.

7/8 in. (2 cm.) wide; ring size 9.

Courtesy: Christie's

[tragediambulante]

Antinous, XVIII century

[skf-fineart]

Ancient Roman Belt with Central Medallion (detail)

About A.D. 379–395

Gold, enamel, sapphire, emerald, garnet, and glass

[timunville]

Amazing glassware from 1st century ad.

Il bellissimo vaso blu del I secolo d.C. conservato nel Museo Archeologico di Napoli

Decorato utilizzando la tecnica del vetro cammeo: ad uno strato di vetro blu cobalto, molto intenso, veniva aggiunto un secondo strato di vetro opaco, asportato poi in alcune zone in modo da formare un disegno dal colore bianco in forte contrasto con il blu dello sfondo.

La scena che rappresenta è legata al dio Dioniso, divinità del vino e dell’ebrezza.

[communistkenobi]

On the one hand, slavery represented the most radical rural degradation of labour imaginable - the conversion of men themselves into inert means of production by their deprivation of every social right and their legal assimilation to beasts of burden: in Roman theory, the agricultural slave was designated an instrumentum vocale, the speaking tool, one grade away from the livestock that constituted an instrumentum semi-vocale, and two from the implement which was an instrumentum mutum. On the other hand, slavery was simultaneously the most drastic urban commercialization of labour conceivable: the reduction of the total person of the labourer to a standard object of sale and purchase, in metropolitan markets of commodity exchange.

— Perry Anderson (1974), Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, pp. 24-25

I always knew that the Roman Empire probably wasn’t great to live in for a variety of reasons but reading about the obscene amounts of chattel slavery they were doing is really driving home why all the fascist guys on twitter are obsessed with this period of history

[howamidrivinginlimbo]

The ancient city of Pompeii, Italy

On the first photo is the bakery of Sotericus.

On the last photo you can see clay pots built into countertops in the taberna.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Bronze statuette of a dog

Roman

2nd-3rd century CE

[toyastales]

Roman gold snake ring, 1st century AD