Becky Wallower

Becky Wallower

@bwallower.bsky.social

archaeology, history, environment, quirky stuff -- love London, arts, travel -- writer, organiser, modest activist/stirrer 🏺

1.7K followers590 following2K posts

Becky Wallower reposted

Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

Viking values? #medievalsky #history #vikingsky #archaeology do consider giving this great new account a follow!!

Vitki runic research@vitkirunor.bsky.social

What did Viking Age people want to be remembered for? We read all 2,633 Viking-age runestones and Hávamál and counted the praise. The warrior is at the back of the room. What counts: generous with food, gentle in speech, true to friends, and a good name after you. #runology #OldNorse #Skystorians

vitkirunor.seGentle in speech and free with foodWhat did the people of the Viking Age want to be remembered for? We read every Viking-age runestone and the whole of Hávamál and counted what is praised. The warrior is there, but as a minor figure. What counts is how you treat other people.
Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

Two v interesting factoids in this piece: the only Prime Minister who hasn't selected the Lowry painting for No 10, and the reason Thatcher did.... www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/10/23/l...

theartnewspaper.comLowry painting, a favourite among UK prime ministers over the past 60 years, to return to No. 10 Downing Street under Andy Burnham‘Lancashire Fair’, going on view at a retrospective in Milton Keynes, has now been chosen for display by every British prime minister since Harold Wilson, except for one
Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#TerracottaTuesday Two little baby feeders c. 320 BC, both made in Sicily, then Magna Graecia. One Gnathian (style from Apulia) w ivy chain decoration; one w hippocamp figures. And who wouldn't want to feed their baby through a mouse's tail?? #Ancient #Greek #Pottery 🏺 BM

Becky Wallower reposted

Meg
@roaringmeg.bsky.social

If you decorate the outside of your house for #Halloween please don’t use this fake spider webbing. It’s fatal to bird life.

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

Blue people! May I suggest too many of you are missing out on one of social media's best ever posters? Dean is a poet, former postman, observer of life, lover of seaside and picker of curious/wonderful/silly/remarkable finds from N Yorks coast. He made lockdowns bearable, and makes mornings fab.

Dean Wilson@deanwilson.bsky.social

Beach Finds #Easington

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#MosaicMonday #Roman 🏺 Marine theme in vestibule of Domus M Caesi Blandi, centurion of Praetorian Guard, #Pompeii. Two dolphins + sea serpent beside a trident, around a ship's rudder topped w bird, + fortifications on threshold panel above. Perhaps a tribute to source of family fortunes.

Becky Wallower reposted

Nina Willburger
@drnwillburger.bsky.social

This is a marvelous example of whimsy and craftsmanship! A rare Greek askos, made in the shape of a lobster claw. Dating back to approximately 450 BC, the vessel was used to hold perfumed oil. 🦞 📷️ Antikensammlung Kassel #archaeology 🏺

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

Just a week to Halloween, and a week to go before CBA London's visit to one of London's 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries. Just a few tickets left: join us to discover West Norwood's Gothic tombs, imposing mausoleums and historic graves. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/explore-a-...

eventbrite.co.ukExplore a great historic London cemetery on Halloween with CBA LondonCome along with us for an atmospheric autumn visit to West Norwood Cemetery, one of London's famous 'Magnificent Seven' Victorian cemeteries

Becky Wallower reposted

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

Few London #ArtDeco cinemas survive as remarkably as former 1930-31 Tooting Granada: UK's only Grade I listed cinema. Eye-popping sort of medieval style features vast grandiose exit portals for #AdoorableThursday, w murals of damsels + minstrels, arcades, stained glass. ALT for more info.

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

Few London #ArtDeco cinemas survive as remarkably as former 1930-31 Tooting Granada: UK's only Grade I listed cinema. Eye-popping sort of medieval style features vast grandiose exit portals for #AdoorableThursday, w murals of damsels + minstrels, arcades, stained glass. ALT for more info.

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

The new Prime Minister is writing a "10-year plan" for the UK. The arts & culture MUST be part of it. I've signed @campaignforthearts.org's petition urging @andyburnham.bsky.social to revitalise the arts – to revitalise the whole nation 🌱 Join me: www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/10-year-plan/

campaignforthearts.orgPrime Minister – put the arts in your 10-year plan for the UK | Campaign for the ArtsSign our petition urging the UK Government to build a country where the arts are available from childhood, accessible to all and thriving everywhere.
Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

“No government should decide which parts of our history we can see based on its political preferences, or impose one version that suppresses all others,” www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/10/20/c...

theartnewspaper.comHundreds protest far-right government's removal of objects from Colombia's national museumPresident Abelardo de la Espriella ordered that dozens of objects related to LGBTQ+ rights and feminism be taken down from displays at the Museo Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá
Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#ReliefWednesday #Roman 🏺 Birth of Mithras from the Cosmic Egg from Housesteads Mithraeum, Hadrian's Wall. In most legends, Mithras born from living rock, but eastern provinces favoured egg version. Signs around birth may be earliest images of current version of zodiac in Gt Britain. in GNM Hancock

Becky Wallower reposted

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#MosaicMonday 🏺 One of many superb floors of #Roman Taranto - from late 2C triclinium in high status home. Scenes of Dionysian satyr abducting nymph in a cave, w panther + tiger at sides, + lion attacking horse, but also gorgeous little birds + fruits. Full view in /2 MArTA: Nat Arch Museum Taranto

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#MosaicMonday 🏺 One of many superb floors of #Roman Taranto - from late 2C triclinium in high status home. Scenes of Dionysian satyr abducting nymph in a cave, w panther + tiger at sides, + lion attacking horse, but also gorgeous little birds + fruits. Full view in /2 MArTA: Nat Arch Museum Taranto

Becky Wallower reposted

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#StoneworkSunday Through many repairs/restorations since Knights Templar founded Temple Church in London in 1185, some v splendid #SundayStonework has survived. Some of scary/silly/cruel grotesques in earliest Round Church part probably replaced in 1840, but brilliant anyway. Cat's got your ear? 🏺

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#StoneworkSunday Through many repairs/restorations since Knights Templar founded Temple Church in London in 1185, some v splendid #SundayStonework has survived. Some of scary/silly/cruel grotesques in earliest Round Church part probably replaced in 1840, but brilliant anyway. Cat's got your ear? 🏺

Becky Wallower reposted

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#SteepleSaturday St Andrew's Church, Corbridge in Northumberland. The original entrance to porch of c. 674 AD #Saxon church was at the west end frontage. Tower added above c. 11th C. Nearby #RomanSiteSaturday of Corstopitum supplied heaps of rubble/spolia. 🏺

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#SteepleSaturday St Andrew's Church, Corbridge in Northumberland. The original entrance to porch of c. 674 AD #Saxon church was at the west end frontage. Tower added above c. 11th C. Nearby #RomanSiteSaturday of Corstopitum supplied heaps of rubble/spolia. 🏺

Becky Wallower reposted

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#FrescoFriday 🏺 How stylish: have a racing quadriga (4 horse chariot) in your tomb, the pastime of the elite. Stone slab was placed in C4 BC Greco-Lucanian grave pit, plastered + painted in situ below ground. Some 200 excavated in 1960s in northern cemetery of Poseidonia, now Paestum, in Campania.

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

#FrescoFriday 🏺 How stylish: have a racing quadriga (4 horse chariot) in your tomb, the pastime of the elite. Stone slab was placed in C4 BC Greco-Lucanian grave pit, plastered + painted in situ below ground. Some 200 excavated in 1960s in northern cemetery of Poseidonia, now Paestum, in Campania.

Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social

Oh well - it's only the 28th mass shooting in the US so far this year....

Larry the Cat@number10cat.bsky.social

If an amendment to your constitution results in children routinely being shot in school then it's time to amend it again.

Becky Wallower reposted

Nina Willburger
@drnwillburger.bsky.social

What a charming #Egyptian bronze figure of a shrew! Since shrews are animals that find their way in the dark they were connected to the descending phase of the sun’s nocturnal journey. Late Period (746-332 B.C). On display at Museum Hohentübingen. 📷️ me