Mark Patton (@markpatton1) header
Mark Patton (@markpatton1) profile picture

Historical novelist, academic, archaeologist

London
Joined July 2010
Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)Photo by Mark Patton (@markpatton1)
Walking back into (and onto) the late #Roman past The mosaics of Villa Ventorum, in the Civitas Durotrigum, gloriously reimagined @thenewtsomerset 🎥 May 2024 #MosaicMonday
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In 1995, a gold signet ring with a reverse engraving (to use as a signature seal) was found near Fishbourne @Romanpalace West #Sussex The text read TI CLAUDI CATUARI *Tiberius Claudius Catuarus* It is one of the most important finds from #Roman Britain... #FindsFriday
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Isn’t this spectacular? 🤯 This is a mezzotint, a form of engraving, gifted to Soane by the artist John Martin. It apocalyptically depicts the Fall of Babylon in 539 BC, that storied city which stood in modern-day Iraq. The details are amazing: can you spot the war elephants? 🏹
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A chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of the Light, on the summit of the 5,500 year old Neolithic mound of La Hougue Bie, Jersey. A 16th century recreation of the empty tomb is aligned to an Easter sunrise. The same alignment as the then unknown tomb below. #StandingStoneEasterSunday
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Yesterday over 580 dedicated heritage professionals took the time to challenge the way archaeological evidence and process are being misrepresented in #Stonehenge campaigning. Read the letter here: openletter.earth/the-stonehe…
Today, as the winter solstice approaches, we pray to the gods of midwinter (aka the judges of the Royal Courts of Justice) that they will stop the Government from sending in the bulldozers, and desecrating a landscape that has been holy for millennia
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La Poquelaye de Faldouet glowing in the wintery morning sun. Owned and cared for by the @societejersiaise, it was clear a lot of effort has obviously gone into cleaning up the Dolmen after Storm Ciaran. The monument was looking safe and splendid. #StandingStoneSunday
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Farewell to Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1929-2023) - pioneering historian of the French peasantry and climate, leading figure of the Annales School, and one of the great masters of micro-history. A great loss to scholarship and public life.
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A thread for the autumnal equinox, the 'evenlength' - a moment of balance before we enter the dark half of the year.
The Old English word for equinox is 'emniht', from efen + niht, when night and day are evenly balanced. Today is the 'hærfestlice emniht', autumnal equinox; after this (as Byrhtferth of Ramsey puts it) 'langað seo niht and wanað se dæg', 'the night lengthens and the day wanes'...
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Those were the days! BBC broadcast all three of Sophocles' Theban plays in September 1986 with world-class actors. Here are Anthony Quayle as Oedipus in the Colonus play and John Gielgud as Teiresias in Antigone. Please could they re-broadcast soon?
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The earliest ever mention of Londoners, I think. An amazing inscription discovered in the Roman temple complex in Tabard Square, Southwark.
Replying to @PCAarchaeology
✨This marble inscription recovered from the base of a pit or ritual shaft was one of many extraordinary finds from the site. It is the first stone inscription found with the name of the city, or in this case the inhabitants of the city 'LONDINIENSI', carved into it. #PCA30🧵
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1/4) The burial of the 'first Roman Londoner'. This magnificent cinerary urn carved in sumptuous Egyptian basalt was unearthed in Warwick Square, London, in 1881. The urn was found to contain the cremated bones of an adult male, revealed by modern analysis to have been..
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We're starting what will be a challenging week at #LaCotte with seeming autumn gales blowing through. Last week we achieved, through the survey expertise of Geomarine and @EdBlinkhorn, the first robust and total survey control for this complicated site. 1/N
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Une découverte archéologique de taille à Rome à l’occasion de travaux pour un hôtel : le théâtre de Néron près du Vatican, là où l’empereur se donnait en spectacle comme le rapportent les auteurs antiques. ilmessaggero.it/roma/metropo…
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Aha! At last a serious treatment of the modern myths surrounding Indo-European “origins” - by someone who really knows the history of the topic @JPDemoule (and I said so on the back).
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Why such violence in the imagery of @RishiSunak's crack-down campaign? The desperation of a rip-off government looking for scape goats? Total absence of vision and leadership.
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The univallate Early Iron Age hillfort of Belle Tout, Beachy Head #EastSussex encloses over 20ha Coastal erosion means the original extent of the monument will never be known 📷 🧭 NW © Damian Grady 2007 / Historic England 🤩 historicengland.org.uk/image… Happy #HillfortsWednesday!
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Mark Patton retweeted
'When you study the humanities you learn a crucial skill: namely, how to argue well, and responsibly, on the basis of inadequate evidence. That sounds a bit banal perhaps. But it is in fact one of the ... foundations of the democratic process' (... the-tls.co.uk/articles/why-w…
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For centuries, dozens of passages from Camden's Annals have been invisible to the naked eye – until now. Through the use of new imaging technology, we've been able to uncover hidden text within this 400 year manuscript: the first official account of Queen Elizabeth I's reign.
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This is absolutely insane - it’s the early modernist equivalent of Classicists finding the lost books of Tacitus’ Annals or something. Hard to overstate how important Camden is - the father of British antiquarianism
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