Nostr notes by Ticia Verveer

This magnificent mosaic, with intricate geometric and figural ...

2026-04-26T19:26:58Z

This magnificent mosaic, with intricate geometric and figural designs crafted from thousands of small stone tesserae, was found during the construction of the Antakya Museum Hotel in Türkiye.

Measuring 9,000 square feet, it is the largest intact mosaic ever excavated.
The mosaic once graced the floor of a large public building in ancient Antioch.
Two earthquakes (526 AD and 528 AD) rippled the mosaic causing the fluctuations in the floor.

📷Museum Hotel Antakya http://www.themuseumhotelantakya.com/mobile/the-museum/index-more.php

A papyrus fragment of Homer’s epic The Iliad has been ...

2026-04-22T05:40:28Z

A papyrus fragment of Homer’s epic The Iliad has been discovered inside the wrappings of Roman-era mummy at the ancient site of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt’s Minya Governorate.

https://egyptian-gazette.com/egypt/spanish-mission-uncovers-roman-era-tomb-in-egypts-bahnasa/

Euterpe, muse of lyric poetry, shows a tibia to Hyagnis, while ...

2026-04-18T12:57:37Z

Euterpe, muse of lyric poetry, shows a tibia to Hyagnis, while she stands next to a scroll box.
Detail from a late 3rd-century mosaic, signed by
Monnus (“Monnus fecit”), from Augusta Treverorum, today's Trier in Germany.

📷Th. Zühmer RLM Trier
https://www.theatrum.de/1810.html

A New York State cemetery may be home to nearly 5.6 million ...

2026-04-15T08:09:14Z

A New York State cemetery may be home to nearly 5.6 million ground-nesting bees. The colony is one of the largest ever recorded and likely one of the oldest.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-just-discovered-5-6-million-bees-under-a-new-york-cemetery/

Paleolithic rock art in southwestern France’s Font-de-Gaume ...

2026-03-15T20:55:19Z

Paleolithic rock art in southwestern France’s Font-de-Gaume Cave has been radiocarbon dated for the 1st time. The bison was dated to between 13,461 and 13,162 years ago.

https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/03/archaeologists-achieve-a-historic-milestone-by-dating-french-cave-paintings-with-carbon-14-for-the-first-time/

Around 2,500 years ago in Siberia, a young woman experienced a ...

2026-02-27T15:40:25Z

Around 2,500 years ago in Siberia, a young woman experienced a serious head injury, underwent surgery to reconstruct her jaw, and received a primitive prosthetic during the procedure, CT scans of the woman's mummified remains reveal.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/2-500-year-old-primitive-prosthetic-found-on-jaw-of-mummified-scythian-woman-who-survived-complex-jaw-surgery

Rock-cut tombs dated to Egypt’s Old Kingdom have been ...

2026-02-27T15:33:43Z

Rock-cut tombs dated to Egypt’s Old Kingdom have been discovered in the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis at Aswan

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/562793.aspx

Two Celtic gold have been discovered by volunteers near Arisdorf ...

2025-12-21T19:11:08Z

Two Celtic gold have been discovered by volunteers near Arisdorf in Switzerland.
They date to the 2nd half of the 3rd century BC.

📷 Archäologie Baselland
https://www.archaeologie.bl.ch/entdecken/fundstelle/181/

A family has handed over a 13th century book to the National ...

2025-11-12T18:29:03Z

A family has handed over a 13th century book to the National Library of Norway. Conservator Chiara Palandri says its pages were made of calfskin parchment and that the cover appears to be hairy sealskin. The strap to hold the book together is thought to have been made from reindeer hide.

https://www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-history-culture-history/eight-pages-bound-in-furry-seal-skin-may-be-norways-oldest-book/2571496

A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge ...

2025-10-14T14:01:27Z

A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks
From lectures by Stephen Hawking to letters of British politician Neil Kinnock,it's a race against ⏳️ to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251009-rescuing-knowledge-trapped-on-old-floppy-disks

Archaeologists from the University of Cádiz discovered a ...

2025-09-25T07:37:51Z

Archaeologists from the University of Cádiz discovered a 5,000-year-old dolmen during their 4th excavation of the La Lentejuela necropolis in Teba, near Malaga in southern Spain.

https://www.uca.es/noticia/investigadores-de-la-universidad-de-cadiz-sacan-a-la-luz-un-dolmen-de-mas-de-5-000-anos-en-teba-malaga/

Fragment of a 5,000-year-old bag, found in a bog in Ireland. It ...

2025-08-08T12:27:53Z

Fragment of a 5,000-year-old bag, found in a bog in Ireland.
It was made by coiling long slivers of alder wood into spirals that were then bound together with lighter grass-like material.This would have made for a circular, purse-like bag, 40cm in diameter, with narrow opening at the top.

Photo credit: National Museum of Ireland

Happy #WorldEmojiDay ...

2025-07-17T07:05:05Z

Happy #WorldEmojiDay

Rome mayor seeks to make river Tiber swimmable again ...

2025-07-15T04:41:06Z

Rome mayor seeks to make river Tiber swimmable again

https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/rome-mayor-make-river-tiber-swimmable.html

Napoleonic prisoner of war site to open to public ...

2025-06-12T14:26:55Z

Napoleonic prisoner of war site to open to public

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g65g7ejk3o

A dinosaur’s last supper: Gut of a 100-million-year-old ...

2025-06-11T07:04:40Z

A dinosaur’s last supper: Gut of a 100-million-year-old sauropod sheds light on its diet

According to a new study, the animal, which had a varied herbivorous diet, barely chewed its food

https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-06-09/a-dinosaurs-last-supper-gut-of-a-100-million-year-old-sauropod-sheds-light-on-its-diet.html

Fossil of a new mammal species from the age of dinosaurs ...

2025-04-29T08:37:09Z

Fossil of a new mammal species from the age of dinosaurs discovered in Mongolia's Gobi desert

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-fossil-mammal-species-age-dinosaurs.html

Archaeologists in Peru said Thursday they found the ...

2025-04-26T12:53:25Z

Archaeologists in Peru said Thursday they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral.

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-year-noblewoman-peru.html

Chemical analysis confirmed the existence of a dried vanilla pod ...

2025-04-08T08:05:03Z

Chemical analysis confirmed the existence of a dried vanilla pod in a waste deposit in Prague castle's Vladislav Hall. Dated between 1513 and 1666, it is the earliest known example of the plant’s presence in Europe.

https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/03/the-oldest-vanilla-pod-in-europe-used-in-alchemical-experiments-discovered-at-prague-castle/

Researchers from the Universities of Tübingen, Bonn and Jena ...

2025-04-02T10:17:25Z

Researchers from the Universities of Tübingen, Bonn and Jena found chemical evidence that wine was drunk in Troy during the third millennium BC

https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/university/news-and-publications/press-releases/press-releases/article/even-the-common-people-drank-wine-in-troy/

The Question of Wine Consumption in Early Bronze Age Troy: Organic Residue Analysis and the Depas amphikypellon

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/734061

Parts of a carved and decorated traditional ocean-going canoe ...

2025-03-04T13:51:03Z

Parts of a carved and decorated traditional ocean-going canoe (waka) found in the Chatham Islands, around 800km east of New Zealand, could be the most significant discovery of its kind in Polynesia, archaeologists say.

Several smaller carved planks still hold exquisitely crafted discs of obsidian embedded in the timber. The team also found strings of plaited rope and other woven material, likely part of a sail.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/04/new-zealand-waka-carved-canoe-discovery-chatham-islands-polynesia

The “Ballymacombs More Woman” is an exceptionally rare ...

2025-02-22T09:33:03Z

The “Ballymacombs More Woman” is an exceptionally rare discovery of an Iron Age (c. 343 to 1 BC) female bog-preserved remains.

Osteoarchaeological analysis revealed that what was potentially thought to be a male, is in fact most likely a female.

https://www.nationalmuseumsni.org/news/ballymacombs-more-woman?fbclid=IwY2xjawImdmZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHW2Q7KvU4O45pGfhZBJ0ew2xLwLQuttYoqvDcKw4ghSCP1NXwwSW56fWCQ_aem_bwyEGkefC2dhM_AuWZQRKg

Happy Valentine's Day! ...

2025-02-14T08:38:59Z

Happy Valentine's Day!

This posting is very personal for me as many of my family members ...

2025-01-24T21:55:23Z

This posting is very personal for me as many of my family members were murdered in Auschwitz. Just one location in an extensive list of camps, where they suffered, died of starvation and exhaustion, and were murdered for just being Jewish.

Approaching 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz I will be honouring the memory of them, along with the rest of the six million victims, who were systematically targeted and murdered.

Fossils of trees, believed to be about 377 million years old, ...

2024-12-28T18:27:11Z

Fossils of trees, believed to be about 377 million years old, were found by Dr Kevin Page during a survey of Saltern Cove, near Paignton, which is part of the English Riviera UNESCO Global Geopark.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yd9jp89jxo

Bad weather led Dutch East India Company ship into Western ...

2024-12-10T14:15:44Z

Bad weather led Dutch East India Company ship into Western Australian coast, archaeologists find https://phys.org/news/2024-12-bad-weather-dutch-east-india.html

Mishaps in the Land van Eendracht: Exploring the Cause of Zuytdorp’s Wrecking
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11457-024-09424-4

Athens’s New Answer to a Water Supply Crunch: An Ancient ...

2024-12-08T19:29:14Z

Athens’s New Answer to a Water Supply Crunch: An Ancient Aqueduct

Hadrian’s Aqueduct supplied water to Greece’s capital for centuries but was then largely abandoned. It’s being revived to ease water scarcity amid global warming.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/world/europe/greece-athens-hadrians-aqueduct-water.html

A new study examines a distinct literary environment in ...

2024-12-03T16:34:35Z

A new study examines a distinct literary environment in Anglo-Latin and Old English literature: the open sea. It argues that such an environment was formed primarily through sound,where geophonic actions of water & wind were used to create a literary motif
https://academic.oup.com/res/article-abstract/75/319/127/7633231?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Luxury Roman villa excavated by local community archaeologists in ...

2024-12-01T09:34:59Z

Luxury Roman villa excavated by local community archaeologists in Wiltshire’s Chalke Valley

https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2883768-luxury-roman-villa-excavated-by-local-community-archaeologists-in-wiltshires-chalke-valley

A licensed metal detectorist uncovered close to 3,000 coins near ...

2024-11-18T21:58:57Z

A licensed metal detectorist uncovered close to 3,000 coins near Herschbach in Germany. A subsequent excavation by archaeologists unearthed about 2,940 coins & more than 200 decorative silver fragments buried inside a ceramic pot lodged between two rocks.

https://mymodernmet.com/roman-coin-stash-germany/

Monday Lisa ...

2024-11-18T08:46:08Z

Monday Lisa

Fig dating back 2,000 years discovered in north Dublin ...

2024-11-14T08:49:10Z

Fig dating back 2,000 years discovered in north Dublin archaeological site.

The fig was unearthed in Drumanagh, where an important trading post with the Roman Empire was located.

https://www.thejournal.ie/fig-dating-back-2000-years-discovered-in-north-dublin-6541613-Nov2024/

A section of a Roman road has been unearthed under Old Kent Road ...

2024-11-12T09:51:37Z

A section of a Roman road has been unearthed under Old Kent Road in south-east London.

Known as Watling Street, the near 2,000-year-old road ran from the Roman port at Dover through London to the West Midlands.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gpwqgwd8do

This wooden shield was found at Trelleborg Castle and is the only ...

2024-11-09T15:35:52Z

This wooden shield was found at Trelleborg Castle and is the only shield from the Viking Age that has been found in Denmark. Discovered in a wet area about 40 meters from the south gate of the castle, it is dated to the time of the Viking castle around 980 AD

Photo Benjamin Reed https://www.flickr.com/photos/rangerrick/21238350038/in/photolist-ymL6wW-82rPKT-2oXk4DY-2oXk4Bt-2oXqxt1-2oXqxtw-2nQxBQT-2nQBGPE-2nQCsdz-2oXk4Dx-2nS5sU5-2oXpaCW-2nQBGMR-yB3cz9-2oXk4DC-2oXqcWY-2nS6g4v-2oXk4CR-2oM4H7W-2oXqcUU-2qcYSsJ-2qcBm8p-2qdoFkz-2oXk4AM-2oXk4xF-2qeqbnY-2oXqcNg-2qcQB1T-2oXqcUJ-2qcwKVy-2oXqcW7-2oXpaCR-2oXpaDh-2oXqxqf-2oXqcTB-2oXqxoB-2oXqcUi-tFQoyL-2oXqcMV-uCqSGL-umpAaH-8muYL3-2qerQrj-2qcwKSC-2oXo7T6-2qcwLqP-2qcwLub-2qbHwYU-2qe6jHS-2qdNmUp

The bells of Notre Dame tolled on Friday for the first time since ...

2024-11-09T11:46:04Z

The bells of Notre Dame tolled on Friday for the first time since Paris's beloved cathedral was ravaged by flames in 2019. The famous monument is set to reopen its doors to the public on December 8.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20241108-bells-notre-dame-cathedral-ring-first-time-since-2019-fire

On November 9-10, we observe the 86th anniversary of the Night of ...

2024-11-08T09:41:47Z

On November 9-10, we observe the 86th anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass. Yad Vashem and the Kibbutz Religious Movement have launched the #SpreadtheLight initiative.

On Sunday night, 10 November, leave the lights on overnight as a symbol of the enduring Jewish spirit & in memory of those whose lives were shattered.

This ancient Egyptian ostracon (potsherd) preserves a fragment of ...

2024-10-30T16:16:41Z

This ancient Egyptian ostracon (potsherd) preserves a fragment of an actual ghost story. The more than 3,000-year-old story of the High Priest of Amun Khonsemhab and his encounter with a troubled ghost can be found on a set of four ostraca, discovered around the necropolis of Deir el-Medina near Thebes, but today housed in museums in Paris, Vienna, Florence, and Turin.

You can read more about this wonderful ghost story here:
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/964/a-ghost-story-of-ancient-egypt/

This Roman miniature skeleton with flexible joints (now missing ...

2024-10-27T14:57:56Z

This Roman miniature skeleton with flexible joints (now missing several limbs), jumps and dances when shaken. The Romans called these skeletons larva convivalis, meaning banquet ghost, and were handed out to guests at dinner parties to remind them to have fun while they were alive.

Authorities in the German city of Cologne have evacuated three ...

2024-10-11T15:17:00Z

Authorities in the German city of Cologne have evacuated three hospitals and thousands of homes after the discovery of an unexploded second world war bomb during construction work on a new medical campus.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/11/hospitals-evacuated-cologne-second-world-war-bomb-building-site

"Across the world, from the Netherlands, the US and the UK, ...

2024-09-28T21:18:38Z

"Across the world, from the Netherlands, the US and the UK, rivers are slowly being re-wiggled, to return them to their natural course. And, in the UK, the rewards are starting to pay off, with fish, birds and invertebrates flocking back to rivers in Cumbria and West Sussex"

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240918-how-restoring-rivers-natural-curves-can-prevent-flooding

The authorities in Sudan are trying to protect the country's ...

2024-09-14T15:51:07Z

The authorities in Sudan are trying to protect the country's ancient pyramids from flooding as heavy rains have caused the nearby River Nile to reach record-breaking levels.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54070697

Happy #internationaldogday let´s not forget that our four-legged ...

2024-08-26T14:53:19Z

Happy #internationaldogday let´s not forget that our four-legged friends play a vital role in the field of archaeology😊

A dog has unearthed a large hoard of medieval bracteate coins near Wałbrzych in southwestern Poland.
https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/04/20/dog-digs-up-huge-haul-of-medieval-coins-in-poland/

On her recent Jewish heritage trip in Romania, JHE’s Ruth Ellen ...

2024-08-18T15:21:10Z

On her recent Jewish heritage trip in Romania, JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber came across two rare examples of matzevot made of wood — one in the Jewish cemetery in Botosani, and the other in the “New” Jewish cemetery in Dorohoi.

Photo credit Ruth Ellen Gruber.
https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2024/08/15/romania-wooden/

Roman bronze oil lamp with a little mouse near the spout. Mouse ...

2024-08-14T19:17:52Z

Roman bronze oil lamp with a little mouse near the spout. Mouse statuettes attached to lamps refer directly to the common problem of mice gnawing at wicks and drinking lamp oil, a nuisance that is documented in various ancient texts.
From Pompeii, Italy

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/17161533859

Fearful that the Nazi forces in Prague would confiscate her ...

2024-08-13T10:02:22Z

Fearful that the Nazi forces in Prague would confiscate her lifetime's worth of artwork, Gertrud Kauders decided to hide 700 paintings and sketches. Nearly 80 years later, the artworks were rediscovered by a demolition team tearing down an old building.

https://www.rferl.org/a/murdered-jewish-artist-paintings-kauders-nazis-prague/30858168.html