#FindsFriday is an active hashtag on Bluesky. In the last 30 days, 44 people shared 150 posts with it — around 5 a day. Activity is down 43% versus the previous week, peaking on Jul 10 with 36 posts.

Posts with #FindsFriday

Alison Fisk

@alisonfisk.bsky.social

about 23 hours ago

Happy #InternationalBeerDay! Here’s a 2,000-year-old whopper of a tankard from Iron Age Britain, designed to hold 4 pints! 🍺 🍺 🍺 🍺 Probably passed around for communal drinking! Cheers! 🍻 Oak staves sheathed in bronze. From the River Thames at Kew. London Museum 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

My photo shows a large Late Iron Age cylindrical bronze tankard displayed on a pale grey museum plinth at the Museum of London Wall (this museum is now closed for relocation). The vessel is constructed of oak wood staves encased in beaten bronze sheet. It has a rolled rim, three horizontal bronze plates and a cast bronze loop handle soldered to the middle plate - shown on left in my photo. Dark, fragmentary, weathered wooden staves can just be seen inside the top of the bronze tankard plates. Dated c. 100 BC - 50 AD.

Measurements of outer bronze casing:

Height 15.2 cm
Base diameter 18.3 cm
Rim diameter 17.6 cm
Width (including handle): 19.6 cm

The tankard would have held just over two litres (four pints).

It was probably used at large ceremonial feasts for the communal drinking of beer or imported wine. Drinking was an important part of feasts and ceremonies. Vessels such as tankards were often placed in rivers or graves after being used. This one was found in the River Thames at Kew. It is part of the Layton Collection on long-term loan to the Museum of London

16 79 349

Alison Fisk

@alisonfisk.bsky.social

12 months ago

Artists have always loved to sketch! Sketch of a sparrow from Egypt dated c. 1479–1458 BC. Some 3,500 years ago in Egypt, artists used small flakes of limestone as sketchpads! MMA excavations 1922-23, Deir el-Bahri. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/col…. #FindsFriday #Archaeology

51 685 3287

Jon Hawke

@archaeohawke.bsky.social

1 day ago

#FindsFriday This Roman bronze #brooch in the shape of a stag would have been used to fasten a shawl or cloak. This brooch was once decorated with bright multi-coloured enamel which was very popular in Britain and France during the #Roman period. 100-200 CE. Amiens, northern France. AN1927.418

Ashmolean Museum Collection - See it on display in Gallery 13 on Level G Bronze brooch inlaid with coloured enamel. 100-200 CE. Amiens, northern France. AN1927.418

3 62 255

Kevin Wilbraham

@kpw1453.bsky.social

1 day ago

Pictish carving of a dog-headed man, known as the ‘Mail Stone’. Possibly dating to the late C7th or early C8th, the carving was found by a grave digger at Mail cemetery, Cunningsburgh, Shetland in 1992. Part of the collections at Shetland Museum & Archives 📸 My own #FindsFriday

8 64 251

Durotriges Dig

@durotrigesdig.bsky.social

1 day ago

A 4th century AD stamp-impressed colour coated New Forest Ware bowl found in a 6th century grave at Winterborne Kingston #Dorset in 2014 The heavily worn nature of bowl suggests it was a prized possession A family heirloom? #FindsFriday #Roman #Archaeology

A Roman pottery bowl with stamp impressed decoration held in the blue gloved hand of an archaeologist

1 42 201

Alison Fisk

@alisonfisk.bsky.social

15 days ago

The famous Hindsgavl Dagger, found by a young boy out walking with his mum on the Danish island of Fænø! A masterpiece of flint knapping from Late Neolithic Denmark, c. 1900-1700 BC. 📷 National Museum of Denmark #FindsFriday #Archaeology

A photo of the so-called Hindsgavl Dagger by Arnold Mikkelsen for the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. It is knapped from flint which appears a burnt orange colour in the photo, displayed against a black background. The Hindsgavl Dagger is a type of late Neolithic flint blade known as a ‘fishtail’ dagger. It has a leaf-shaped body and a distinctive fishtail-shaped hilt. There is zig-zag knapping on the hilt which is said to mimic the stitched seam on leather handles of bronze daggers. The blade is less than 1 cm thick. The Hindsgavl Dagger is famous in Denmark and features on the Danish 100 Krone bank note. Dimensions: 29.5 cm in length.

42 305 1666

richard mortimer

@richardmortimer.bsky.social

1 day ago

#FindsFriday What's he got in his pocket today? Fresh from the ground in Suffolk

14 25 186

Alison Fisk

@alisonfisk.bsky.social

8 days ago

A rare and fragile survival from Viking-age York! A delicate silk cap made of hand-spun, undyed silk, c. AD 875-950 Silk was an exotic material imported via a vast network of Viking trade routes. Found during excavations at Coppergate in 1980. Yorkshire Museum 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

My photo shows a hood-shaped silk cap from Viking Age York displayed on a thin metal stand against a dark display case background at the Yorkshire Museum. It is made from a rectangle of hand-spun, undyed silk, and shaped at the back by a centre seam. The pale silk is yellowy-gold in colour with a shiny lustre. The edges have been neatened with fine hems. According to the museum, it was probably worn with ties to fasten it to the head, as it includes the remains of two groups of stitches with which to attach ties.

The museum says that the silk cap was likely worn by a female Anglo-Scandinavian resident of York. Also that “Silk was incredibly rare in the Viking North because it was not made locally. Silk-weaving is a Chinese technology, but by the 10th-century, the practice had reached the Arabian Peninsula, the Byzantine Empire, and parts of North Africa and Spain. Silk used to make the cap was imported from one of these places. The fine, pale-toned material would have been recognised in the town as a highly expensive and exotic fashion item”.

10 131 634

Luc Amkreutz

@prehistoryrmo.bsky.social

6 months ago

Beautiful Bouquetin (ibex) dating to the Middle Magdalenian 14.400-13.300BP. Galleria Inferior de la Garma. Omoño Ribamontán al Monte, Cantabria. 📷 At Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria in Santander. #FindsFriday

24 233 1635

Alison Fisk

@alisonfisk.bsky.social

6 months ago

A little bear figurine carved out of amber some 6,000 years ago 🐻❤️ A hole runs through the bear’s torso suggesting it was threaded on a cord, perhaps worn or carried as a protective charm. Found in a peat bog near Słupsk, Poland, in 1887. 📷 National Museum in Szczecin #FindsFriday #Archaeology

Photo by G. Solecki/A. Piętak of a small figurine of a bear carved out of amber between 9600 and 4100 BC. The amber is a deep translucent orange. The display lighting makes it glow in places. The bear's head is carved to show ears, mouth, nostrils and eyes. A hole runs through the bear’s torso, suggesting it was threaded onto a cord. Dimensions: Length 10.2 cm, Height 4.2

It was discovered in Słupsk during peat mining in 1887.

According to the museum catalogue ‘’Shortly after its discovery, the figure underwent conservation work to restore its original appearance as it was covered with a layer of dull patina from the exposure to the minerals contained in the peat. Already at that time, at the end of the 19th century, it was assumed the restoration had gone too far. The figure was stripped entirely of patina, the anatomical features of the animal were emphasised, the eyes and nostrils were sharply drawn, and the amber was carefully polished”.

In 2013, a competition was organised by the Education Department of the National Museum in Szczecin, for children to choose a name for the bear. The winning name was ‘Słupcio’,

27 326 1458

Dr Alan Montgomery

@classicalalan.bsky.social

3 months ago

This rare Roman pottery lamp, shaped like a foot wearing a sandal, was made between 50-60 CE, and was found at Borough High Street in Southwark. Archaeologists discovered the lamp in a rubbish pit, close to buildings that had been burnt down during the Boudican rebellion in 60-61 CE. #FindsFriday

A lamp made from orange terracotta in the shape of a sandalled foot.

62 252 1451

Alison Fisk

@alisonfisk.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

Marvellous 3,500 year-old Minoan clay flask decorated with a wide-eyed octopus 🐙😍 Excavated in 1903 from a Bronze Age settlement site at Palaikastro on the eastern coast of the island of Crete. Heraklion Archaeological Museum. 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology