r/Archaology

This clay statuette of a seated goddess dates to around 400–300 BCE and comes from Thebes in Boeotia, Greece.

Remarkably, much of its original painted decoration has survived.

Archaeological Museum of Thebes, Greece.

Beautiful Late Roman gold bow fibula (ampulla-type) from the 4th century AD, dating to the reign of Constantine the Great or his successors.

• High-quality solid cast gold (not gilded silver)
• Engraved decoration with niello inlay featuring a benevolent / fortunate inscription
• All three characteristic terminal knobs (“ampullae”) preserved
• Movable pin is missing, but the catch-plate (fibula foot) and the hinge mechanism on the crossbar are intact

This example is fully gold, unlike the more common gilded-silver versions (such as the well-known Croatian find).

Originally from a private collection and sold at Hermann Historica auction (Munich, Germany).

What do you think of the craftsmanship? Anyone else collect Late Roman military/civilian fibulae?

A gold beaker decorated with turquoise, created by the Sicán culture on Peru’s northern coast around 900–1000 AD.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Hittites continue to amaze us—not only with their wars, tablets, and monumental temples, but also with the everyday objects they used in daily life.

These bathing vessels are on display at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. One was excavated at Alishar, while the other was discovered at the Kültepe–Kanesh archaeological site.

Long before its modern restoration, the Roman monument stood partly buried and altered, with its original columns already lost and replaced by masonry supports.

Wooden chasse reliquary with gilded copper and enamel, made in France in the late 12th or early 13th century. Now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.