🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️

@benpaites

Senior Curator at Colchester Museums. Mainly Roman archaeology and LGBTQ+ history. Also cat dad to Artemis and enthusiastic Gaymer. He/Him Author of 50 LGBTQ+ Finds: Website: www.benpaites.uk

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🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 3d

It’s #ModiusMonday - it’s a thing, I swear! This amphora, found in Colchester, has an inscription on the side that says it contained 3 modii (just over 26 litres) of wine. Either a month’s worth of vino or a VERY good party.

A cream coloured amphora, a tall ceramic vessel with long handles on either side of a narrow neck. An inscription in cursive is written on the side.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 4d

She usually looks even more beautiful 😅

A black cat on an orange sofa. She’s lying on her right side, facing the camera. Her yellow eyes are wide and ears pointed upwards.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 5d

It’s #InternationalCatDay, and here’s one of my favourite pics of Artemis. Taken (unfortunately) mid yawn.

A black cat with yellow eyes, about to yawn. Her eyebrows are furrowed and her pink tongue is sticking out. She is lying down with front paws forward and tail tucked around to her left side.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 7d

Advice for when in Pompeii… “Cave canem, sed mulce felem!” (Beware of the dog, but stroke the cat)

A mosaic showing a black and white dog chained up with the words Cave Canem below, which means beware of the dog.

A fluffy brown and black cat laying on a stone counter with a stone wall behind. A blue sky is in the background and a rope barrier is in front.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 8d

No cheating, post your lock screen.

A lock screen showing the time and date at the top. Tue 4 Aug 19:55. A Roman style wall painting showing a woman holding a stylus and a book with billowing green cloak and skin coloured skirt. She is wearing a crown made of leaves and berries. The background is an orange red.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 11d

Turns out I visited the house of Julia Felix back in 2023. She features in the new Tom Hiddleston documentary “Pompeii: Out of Time”. I’ll be writing up my thoughts on it soon…

A series of alcoves in a white stone wall. Above is a series of wooden beams with vines hanging from them. Grass is below and a blue sky above.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 12d

Working in museums, you discover all sorts of unusual things when looking through the stores (usually for something else). I’ve never seen anything like this before. Any thoughts as to when and why it was made?

A photo of a basket made of gold with pearls and enamel decorating it like branches and vines. Little pearl eggs are in the nest while a bird flies down from above. It’s inside a glass dome.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 20d

Full moon at Colchester Castle, all day every day (until November) @lukejerram.bsky.social

A giant inflatable moon hanging inside Colchester castle above the model of the Norman Keep. It’s lit internally, with the light picking out the many craters and dark patches across its surface.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 22d

The city of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ was filmed in Morocco at Aït Benhaddou. This place features in quite a few movies. I visited back in 2008 and took this photo. You can see why it has become the set of so many movies set in the ancient world.

A Yellowstone city covering a hill with palm trees and scattered green plants below. A very shallow river runt in front of it with a few similar style buildings in the foreground. The city looks ancient. Grey clouds are in the sky are overhead.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· 23d

The image on this Roman oil lamp has been interpreted as Odysseus, returned home disguised as a beggar. The Romans were very familiar with #TheOdyssey and tales of the Trojan War. This lamp was probably made in Colchester, showing the story’s popularity even stretched to the provinces.

A fragment of a Roman oil lamp. On the front is what looks like an old man in a cloak. It is a yellow cream colour ceramic.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jul 12

Finally got the chance to see the Prittlewell Prince burial yesterday. There are also some fascinating objects in the rest of the Archaeology Gallery at Southend Central Museum.

A large bronze jug, turned green with age. Some green glass vessels are from left and bone dice and counters bottom right. They all sit on purple grey blocks. A screen behind has orange and white writing on black.

Bronze objects turned green with age. The two at the front are mouths of vessels, decorated in gold. A large bowl with hanging loops is higher up at the back. A fragment of painted wood is bottom left.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jul 11

Sus…

An email with the Duolingo symbol but it’s from RingGo parking.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jul 6

Visited Holy Trinity Church in Long Melford yesterday. I’m not religious by any means, but seeing the colourful light from the stained glass projected onto this incredible scene really makes you go “oooh, I get it…”

A beautifully carved scene in stone showing Jesus on the cross with people gathered around. Above are ornately carved designs. Colorado light falls on the sculpture from a stained glass window.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 27

“I thought they said it was going to get cooler…” @ancienthousemus.bsky.social

The top part of a sculpture of a person with wide, staring eyes. They have some kind of head covering and a large collar. They are staring down to the bottom right.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 26

It’s Freddo Cappuccino weather 🇬🇷☀️

A hand holding a plastic cup of iced coffee. A dark layer is below with white foam on top. An ancient wall is in the background.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 25

Found out who “sabotaged” the reflecting pool…

A screenshot from the video game Assassins Creed Odyssey, set in Ancient Greece. It shows the main character, squatting in front of a rectangular pool of green coloured water.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 24

This was published in “Highlight: the journal of the harwich society” in 1972! Clearly not much has changed…

Black text on white background. There is a worldwide awakening to the dangers of pollution: of continuing thoughtless indifference to changes in the environment in which we live, lest our children’s’ children perish on the refuse heap of our so called ‘advanced’ civilisation. Is is a sobering thought that some developing nations are having second thoughts about whether they want to progress as we have done after all. We have been neglectful. All of us. Sometimes criminally so. Unless we start pulling our socks up now societies such as ours and town councils everywhere having failed to make common cause will sure come to a common end - in the dog house of posterity.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 22

First stag beetle (Lucanus cervus) of the year spotted. We get A LOT in and around Colchester.

A stag beetle with a shiny black body and small pincers, on a concrete floor.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 20

For #Caturday, here’s a feline friend I met at a restaurant near the Athenian Agora a few years ago. I think he wanted my sardines.

A tabby cat peaking around a corner of a door. He is lower down as there is a white step leading up to the doorway. The door is a blue-green colour. A pair of wood and wicker chairs are seen just outside on the grey stone floor.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 19

Next up for #Pride #FindsFriday, the importance of language. Even the word “gay” has meant many things throughout history. At one point, it referred to sex-work. Hence this Punch cartoon from 1857. The object from #50LGBTQ+Finds is this “toujours gay” intaglio, here meaning “always happy”.

A colourless stone or glass with an engraving of a Cupid, small winged boy, with the words toujours gay inscribed above. This means “always happy” in French. The stone is fitted in a silver band.

A black and white cartoon of two women in Victorian clothing standing in a doorway. The text at the botttom reads “The Great Social Evil. Time: midnight. A sketch not a hundred miles from the haymarket. Bella: ah! Danny! How long have you been gay!”

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 16

My Ancient (and maybe even modern) Greek language people! 🇬🇷 Could “ίωση ᾰ̓́γω” be correctly translated to “I bring disease”? And if so, is that was this inscription is meant to say? The other option is “ίωση ᾰ̓́νω” (disease above?) which seems odd. It’s an intaglio, once fitted in a ring.

A blue oval stone with Greek letters engraved into it.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 13

Saturdays are for family time 😌 #AssassinsCreedOdyssey

A screenshot from the game, Assassins Creed Odyssey. Four people sit around a wooden table. They’re are on collapsible chairs made of wood and red fabric. The nearest person has their back to the camera and is in a red dress with long dark hair. The other three all wear armour, with the furthest away and the one on the left having short dark hair and a beard while the one on the right has long dark hair. Food and drink are on the table. A blue wooden door is ajar to the left with some sunlight coming through. A large patterned textile hangs on the back wall to the right.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 13

On this day, 13 June 1648, parliamentary forces reached Colchester and started a siege that would last 11 weeks. Residents of the town were forced to eat domestic animals and tallow from candles. This painting by Peter Froste imagines one of the parliamentary encampments.

A colourful scene showing men preparing a cannon, men discussing plans over a map, resting on a board on top of a barrel and a woman gathering white sheets. They’re on the top of a hill looking over a town.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 12

Next in the #Pride month series is this Giraffe badge. The work of ecologist Anne Innis Dagg showed what was once thought of as displays of male dominance was in fact sexual behaviour. Giraffes are one of many species in the natural world to engage in same sex activity. #50LGBTQ+Finds

A green badge on the shape of a giraffe neck and head.

Two giraffes in the savannah. They each face opposite directions, necks crossing one another.

A woman with short grey and white hair wearing a beige t shirt. She is standing with half her body extending out of a vehicle. She is facing the camera and smiling. Two giraffes are in the background standing in Savannah.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 11

It was an absolute pleasure to speak at Epping Forest District Museum last night about Roman Colchester. Also had a quick look around their current exhibition “Town and Country: Life in Roman Durolitum”. Some wonderful objects and very well put together!

A sign above a rectangular opening in a wall that reads “Town and country life in Roman durolitum exhibition.” A red fabric is draped over the door. Fake vines and printed leaves are above the wall, hanging down.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 7

Finally got myself a Pokémon coffee tin from Grind. ☕️

A burgundy tin with light blue decoration and writing, the word Grind is in the centre and Pokemon is above. The Pokemon mew, a floating cat-like creature with a long tail, is on the design. A pink bag of grind coffee is to the right.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 6

Wonderful day at Ingatestone Hall for the Essex Society for Archaeology and History AGM. I was also formally made Honorary Curator for the society! 🥳 looking forward to getting more involved.

A red brick building with a central arch and clocktower. There are black timbers on the upper half of the tower, above the arch. The top of the tower is white with a black clock face and a bell tower above. The tiled roof has a steep slope. A long concrete pathway leads through the arch and curves to the right beyond.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 5

The first #FindsFriday post for #PrideMonth is this incredible intaglio of Alexander the Great. Known to have had relationships with people of all genders. He features in my first chapter exploring Historical Figures. #50LGBTQ+Finds finds.org.uk/database/art...

A silver decorative oval object with a red stone in the centre. Cut into the stone is a man in armour, meant to be Alexander the Great.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· Jun 1

Happy start of Pride Month! If you want to celebrate pride, support queer artists and writers. You can start by buying my book! 😂 www.amberley-books.com/50-lgbtq-fin... Each week I’ll be sharing an object from the book on #FindsFriday. So keep an eye out for some of the highlights. #PrideMonth

The front cover of a book. The cover is a dark brown with a large 50 in white at the top. An oval object is in the centre which is formed of a colourless stone or glass with an engraving on it. Below in yellow font is LGBTQ+ Finds. A green coloured bust of a young man is below a line of white text reading “from the portable antiquities scheme”. At the bottom in yellow font is Ben Paites. A white border surrounds the image.

🏰 Ben Paites 🏛️@benpaites· May 27

Artemis says “gosh, it’s still hot isn’t it?”