An online magazine about current archaeology and classical research into the lives of inhabitants of the Roman Empire and Byzantium and the civilizations around them.
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by Mary Harrsch © 2026 A small marble statuette in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens carries an emotional weight far greater than its modest 63-centimeter height would suggest. Catalogued simply as a boy with a dog, it is known to visitors and staff alike by an unofficial name: the "Little Refugee" (Prosfygaki). Hooded child holding a puppy from ancient Nysa in Asia Mintor 1st century…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 Most of us picture canopic equipment as four jars, each crowned with the head of one of the Four Sons of Horus, standing guard over the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines of the deceased. That image is essentially a New Kingdom snapshot. By the time we reach the Ptolemaic Period, canopic equipment had quietly become something else entirely — and this small painted wood…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 Among the Dallas Museum of Art's most striking objects that I photographed there is a small bronze lamp holder depicting Eros as an ephebe attributed to a Greek workshop, perhaps in the eastern Mediterranean, dating to the late 2nd or early 1st century BCE. Depicted as a winged youth leaning dynamically forward in flight, the figure once functioned as a luxury fixture, its…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 For some strange reason I have always been particularly drawn to metalwork and found this beautifully decorated Corinithin-style Etruscan helmet incised with images of boars really spectacular when I photographed it at the Dallas Art Museum. Corinthian-style Etruscan helmet incised with images of boars, Bronze, 5th century BCE, photographed at the Dallas Museum of Art by…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 Another beautiful piece I photographed at the Dallas Art Museum includes this Roman marble portrait of a veiled woman (Dallas Museum of Art, 1973.11), dated to the mid-2nd century CE. She exemplifies a central paradox of Roman sculptural production: the use of mass-produced, standardized body types to represent elite individual identity. This statue is a product of a visual…
by Mary Harrsch, © 2026 Photographed at the Dallas Museum of Art (Accession No. 1995.26), this elegant gold necklace illustrates the sophisticated jewelry traditions that flourished in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire during the 2nd and early 3rd centuries CE. The museum attributes the piece to Nabataea, the former kingdom centered on Petra that was incorporated into the Roman Empire in…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 This is one of the finest surviving examples of a Greek kerykeion — the iconic staff of Hermes, messenger of the Olympians and guide of souls between the worlds of the living and the dead that I photographed at the Dallas Museum of Art. Bronze kerykeion (caduceus), Greek, early 5th century BCE. Dallas Museum of Art. In Greek art, this staff identifies Hermes—herald,…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 I was listening to The Ancients podcast on Amazon Music and Dr. Rob Collins, Newcastle University, stated that not all the Roman armies left with Constantine III in 405-407 CE as evidence by a lack of coinage with his image beyond southern England. The traditional narrative holds that Constantine III took all of the mobile troops from Britain when he crossed to Gaul to…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 Exploring more of my images from the Dallas Museum of Art icame across this exquisite little bronze spout in the form of a boar's head, a testament to the extraordinary artistry that Roman craftsmen brought even to functional domestic objects. The carefully rendered bristle crest, alert ears, open mouth, and prominent tusks speak to a workshop of considerable skill, and the…
by Mary Harrsch © 2026 This morning I was reviewing images I took at the Dallas Museum of Art back in 2006 and came across this ornate Villanovan bronze horse bit dating between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. My research revealed this extraordinary bronze horse bit exmplifies the remarkable technical virtuosity and artistic ambition of Villanovan craftsmen working at the dawn of Etruscan…
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