You're no Adonis / Having you gone is the best. For #SarcophagusSaturday, a look at this stunning late-C3 BCE #Etruscan terracotta cinerary urn from #Tuscania. It depicts a high-relief sculpture of the dying #Adonis. But was the deceased really such a catch? #AncientBluesky 🏺
September 26, 2026 at 12:09 PM
You're no Adonis / Having you gone is the best. For #SarcophagusSaturday, a look at this stunning late-C3 BCE #Etruscan terracotta cinerary urn from #Tuscania. It depicts a high-relief sculpture of the dying #Adonis. But was the deceased really such a catch? #AncientBluesky 🏺
And so I have left Sir John Soane's Museum. With huge sadness; I can't really believe I worked there, & I can't believe I no longer will. It's beautiful, pioneering, fascinating, gloomthy & staffed by truly lovely and stunningly well-informed ppl. But I can't urge you to go, there's already a queue.
September 25, 2026 at 8:33 AM
And so I have left Sir John Soane's Museum. With huge sadness; I can't really believe I worked there, & I can't believe I no longer will. It's beautiful, pioneering, fascinating, gloomthy & staffed by truly lovely and stunningly well-informed ppl. But I can't urge you to go, there's already a queue.
But t'house and allaboardshoops! Show coffins, winding sheets, goodbuy bierchepes, cinerary urns, liealoud blasses, snuffchests, poteentubbs, lacrimal vases, hoodendoses, reekwaterbeckers, breakmiddles, zootzaks for eatlust,
September 16, 2026 at 11:29 PM
But t'house and allaboardshoops! Show coffins, winding sheets, goodbuy bierchepes, cinerary urns, liealoud blasses, snuffchests, poteentubbs, lacrimal vases, hoodendoses, reekwaterbeckers, breakmiddles, zootzaks for eatlust,
Cinerary Urn with Reclining Man and Battle Scene https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/332045
August 30, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Cinerary Urn with Reclining Man and Battle Scene https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/332045
Amazing what turns up in cinerary urns. 😉 #archaeology
August 21, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Amazing what turns up in cinerary urns. 😉 #archaeology
One of the earliest Roman military tombstones from Britain (with finely detailed militaria) is that of the centurion M. Favonius Facilis of legio XX. The original stone is in @colmuseums.bsky.social but there is an excellent cast in @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social. #TombstoneTuesday
August 18, 2026 at 11:41 AM
One of the earliest Roman military tombstones from Britain (with finely detailed militaria) is that of the centurion M. Favonius Facilis of legio XX. The original stone is in @colmuseums.bsky.social but there is an excellent cast in @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social. #TombstoneTuesday
Obviously better all around! Though I do realize now that if the British Museum announces 1 of its 98 Etruscan sarcophagi & cinerary urns goes missing (of which only 3 are ever on display), I've just announced myself as an obvious suspect. [Seriously, 98! Many of which I've never seen pics of!]
August 16, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Obviously better all around! Though I do realize now that if the British Museum announces 1 of its 98 Etruscan sarcophagi & cinerary urns goes missing (of which only 3 are ever on display), I've just announced myself as an obvious suspect. [Seriously, 98! Many of which I've never seen pics of!]
In honor of The Odyssey, here’s an alabaster #Etruscan cinerary urn with the scene from the epic where Odysseus is tied to his ship’s mast so that he might hear the song of the Sirens. Oddly, the Sirens here don’t have birds’ bodies/legs, but appear as women playing musical instruments. 🏺 1/
📸 me
📸 me
August 1, 2026 at 7:48 PM
In honor of The Odyssey, here’s an alabaster #Etruscan cinerary urn with the scene from the epic where Odysseus is tied to his ship’s mast so that he might hear the song of the Sirens. Oddly, the Sirens here don’t have birds’ bodies/legs, but appear as women playing musical instruments. 🏺 1/
📸 me
📸 me
ALT text for the cinerary inscription of Atistia:
July 28, 2026 at 11:10 PM
ALT text for the cinerary inscription of Atistia:
To conquer the Roman "marketplace of memory", patricians traded on ancient lineages. Eurysaces, lacking ancestors, used archaic Latin to mock or claim that past, placing Atistia’s ashes in a panarium or breadbox to immortalise their pride in their trade. #EpigraphyTuesday
July 28, 2026 at 11:03 PM
To conquer the Roman "marketplace of memory", patricians traded on ancient lineages. Eurysaces, lacking ancestors, used archaic Latin to mock or claim that past, placing Atistia’s ashes in a panarium or breadbox to immortalise their pride in their trade. #EpigraphyTuesday
Cinerary Urn https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.130
July 20, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Cinerary Urn https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.130
Hi, Chapps. If it's a vase, might it not be a cinerary urn? It would then preserve her likeness and hold her ashes. Truly remarkable.
July 18, 2026 at 5:14 AM
Hi, Chapps. If it's a vase, might it not be a cinerary urn? It would then preserve her likeness and hold her ashes. Truly remarkable.
A slate cinerary chest (for cremation) from North Korea circa the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) #geology #thestoryofslate
July 16, 2026 at 3:45 PM
A slate cinerary chest (for cremation) from North Korea circa the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) #geology #thestoryofslate
July 16, 2026 at 1:47 PM
1. ODYSSEUS AND THE CYCLOPS
2. ODYSSEUS ON ITHACA WITH PENELOPE’S SUITORS
Alabaster cinerary urns, Volterra. From underground family tombs. The lid shows the body of the deceased, emphasizing facial features, at a banquet.
Now at the Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, Leiden.
Own photos, 12 July 2026.
2. ODYSSEUS ON ITHACA WITH PENELOPE’S SUITORS
Alabaster cinerary urns, Volterra. From underground family tombs. The lid shows the body of the deceased, emphasizing facial features, at a banquet.
Now at the Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, Leiden.
Own photos, 12 July 2026.
July 14, 2026 at 8:44 AM
1. ODYSSEUS AND THE CYCLOPS
2. ODYSSEUS ON ITHACA WITH PENELOPE’S SUITORS
Alabaster cinerary urns, Volterra. From underground family tombs. The lid shows the body of the deceased, emphasizing facial features, at a banquet.
Now at the Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, Leiden.
Own photos, 12 July 2026.
2. ODYSSEUS ON ITHACA WITH PENELOPE’S SUITORS
Alabaster cinerary urns, Volterra. From underground family tombs. The lid shows the body of the deceased, emphasizing facial features, at a banquet.
Now at the Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, Leiden.
Own photos, 12 July 2026.
I've loved Kevin McLeod's Listed Britain & the last ep was particularly wonderful/odd for me, featuring 3 organisations I've worked for and 3 former or current colleagues: Tim O'Brien at the Uni of Mcr's Jodrell Bank, @colourwoman.bsky.social at the Royal Pav and Helen Dorey @soanemuseum.bsky.social
June 21, 2026 at 9:30 PM
I've loved Kevin McLeod's Listed Britain & the last ep was particularly wonderful/odd for me, featuring 3 organisations I've worked for and 3 former or current colleagues: Tim O'Brien at the Uni of Mcr's Jodrell Bank, @colourwoman.bsky.social at the Royal Pav and Helen Dorey @soanemuseum.bsky.social
There were various Etruscan cultural regions, and the wars with Romans went on for centuries, but the last Etruscan cities didn't actually fall until 27BC. As an example of continuing culture, here's an alabaster cinerary urn from Volterra in Tuscany, perhaps even slightly later date, end 3rd C.
June 21, 2026 at 2:07 PM
There were various Etruscan cultural regions, and the wars with Romans went on for centuries, but the last Etruscan cities didn't actually fall until 27BC. As an example of continuing culture, here's an alabaster cinerary urn from Volterra in Tuscany, perhaps even slightly later date, end 3rd C.
Hand-coloured photograph of a cinerary urn (CIE 2901 = ET Cl 1.2470), sent to Carl Pauli by his friend, collaborator and eventual adversary Wilhelm Deecke in 1881. Pauli's labels are visible on the mount. Preserved in Uppsala University Library. #etruscanepigraphy #etruscan #etruscan
June 12, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Hand-coloured photograph of a cinerary urn (CIE 2901 = ET Cl 1.2470), sent to Carl Pauli by his friend, collaborator and eventual adversary Wilhelm Deecke in 1881. Pauli's labels are visible on the mount. Preserved in Uppsala University Library. #etruscanepigraphy #etruscan #etruscan
Its #FindsFriday! A small Romano-British face-pot fragment from a 1990 Kent Rescue dig at The Havisham Centre, Rochester. Face pots—often tied to military sites—were also used as cinerary urns. This buff sherd has eyes made from two applied rings; faces were hand-applied to wheel-thrown pots. 🏺
June 5, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Its #FindsFriday! A small Romano-British face-pot fragment from a 1990 Kent Rescue dig at The Havisham Centre, Rochester. Face pots—often tied to military sites—were also used as cinerary urns. This buff sherd has eyes made from two applied rings; faces were hand-applied to wheel-thrown pots. 🏺
Antique vase on a marble cinerary urn https://www.wikiart.org/en/giovanni-battista-piranesi/antique-vase-on-a-marble-cinerary-urn
May 29, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Antique vase on a marble cinerary urn https://www.wikiart.org/en/giovanni-battista-piranesi/antique-vase-on-a-marble-cinerary-urn
Marble cinerary chest (90–110 AD), made by Marcus Domitius Primigenius "for himself, his freedmen and freedwomen, and their descendants": the deceased makes an offering to a reclining female figure who may be Mother Earth, with two attendants holding food and wine (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
May 27, 2026 at 10:35 PM
Marble cinerary chest (90–110 AD), made by Marcus Domitius Primigenius "for himself, his freedmen and freedwomen, and their descendants": the deceased makes an offering to a reclining female figure who may be Mother Earth, with two attendants holding food and wine (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
A funerary cinerary urn, probably from Chiusi. On display in the Etruscan exhibition in the Antikmuseet at the University of Aarhus. #RACTRAC2026 #FindsFriday
May 22, 2026 at 6:53 AM
A funerary cinerary urn, probably from Chiusi. On display in the Etruscan exhibition in the Antikmuseet at the University of Aarhus. #RACTRAC2026 #FindsFriday
do you at least have all your cinerary urns
May 20, 2026 at 9:11 PM
do you at least have all your cinerary urns
Cinerary Box https://clevelandart.org/art/1915.560
May 18, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Cinerary Box https://clevelandart.org/art/1915.560