I recently presented my stola paper at An Tir’s Kingdom Arts and Sciences Championship as a single entry. You can see a video of my presentation here (20 min talk, 20 min Q&A). Since I kn…

The Roman legions are the bodies of Roman soldiers responsible for creating the Roman Empire and the size of these units changed over time.

Dionysian Late Roman Style Embroidery – Design for hoop 7x7 Embroidery is digitized after a late roman probably 5th century tunic in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The squares depicts dancing warriors and the bands are decorated with wine leaves possibly associated with Dionysos, the Greek god of wine. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/447842 These style of motifs and tunic decorations is today called coptic these evoled from the simple clavi bands that was popular amongs the romans. These were often done on linen or wool with black wool other colours like purple, red and dark blue was also done during this period. The later coptic motifs could be multicoloured. Designs comes in a .zip file which contains: - Design Embroidery files - Pictures of the designs - .txt info file Embroidery files: - Dionysos Square 5th century Size: 141.1 mm x 134.4 mm, Stitches: 32471, Colours: 2 - Dionysos Square 5th century 2 Size: 175.5 mm x 167.2 mm, Stitches: 45952, Colours: 2 - Dionysos Ribbon 5th century Size: 47.4 mm x 175.7 mm, Stitches: 10886, Colours: 3 - Dionysos Ribbon End 5th century Size: 47.1 mm x 208.2 mm, Stitches: 13678, Colours: 3 - Dionysos End 5th century Size: 37,4 mm x 37,2 mm, Stitches: 2669, Colours: 1 The design embroidery files comes in these file types: .10o .dst .exp .hus .jef .pec .pes .vip .vp3 .vp4 .xxx I only can test stitch the embroidery in .vp3 myselt so I can´t garanty the quality of the other formats. All Digitized Designs are Copyrighted by The Medieval Squirrel and are to be used by the person who originally purchased the designs. You can use it for personal use but not for commersial items (i.e. to stitch on items that are being sold). It is not allowed sharing, duplication or reselling the design digital files. If you have any questions do not hesitated to contact me by email: info [!at] medievalsquirrel.com Best Regards Alfhild Thörner www.medievalsquirrel.com/

Now Splendor considers Seraph to be her knight in shining armor, her true champion and all around soul mate. People often ask how Seraph + Splendor made their acquaintance with one another in the first place. What mystical conjunction of the universal forces of destiny or chaos brought the two wayward angels together? There are many strange and heroic tales bandied about containing various degrees of truth. Perhaps brave Seraph had to rescue her from a tall and spindly tower or revive her with a kiss as she slept in a glass coffin? (Oh, wait…that coffin incident was just LAST WEEKEND…) Or perhaps he just found young Splendor misbehaving in 7-11, gave her a place to crash for the night and then decided to keep her. NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW…as to how a certain snake tattoo and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s figured into the story, that will have to be left up to your ample imaginations, dear readers…HA! Now truth be told, Splendor started living (in sin, no less…) with Seraph at rather a young age. Their apartment was quite different than it is today, being at that time decorated in the romantic style of YOUNG BACHELOR MEETS TEENAGE RUNAWAY. Now if you are not familiar with this mode of interior decoration there will probably be a coffee table book coming out soon enough. In the mean while, just imagine bookshelves full of Mercyful Fate records, an overabundance of beverage bottles and a bed draped in an evil and billowing canopy complete with a human skull dangling from a chain of camel teeth… (in other words every parent’s dream …) Another query frequently asked is “are you two weirdos ACTUALLY MARRIED or did you just put some floral garlands on your heads, chant some stuff and then call it official???” No, in fact we had a real living, breathing wedding complete with family (!?!), cake and a potluck buffet. We had initially planned to keep things simple and find some scruffy justice of the peace to perform the deed, but you know how these things go, dear ones. In the end, it was decided to have the wedding in the yard of Splendor’s paternal Grandmother’s house. In retrospect, we are glad that we did. It was truly an enchanted place full of fey magic and earth spirits. A colonnade of towering oak trees draped in a thick curtain of ivy formed an eerie semicircle where the ceremony could take place. Adding to the enchantment was a luscious cushion of moss dappled with woodland flowers and an unmistakable sense of mystery… When the day finally arrived it was sultry and overcast with the exhilarating threat of rain. No one was completely sure what faith our “minister” adhered to, except that it was not one of the proper ones. There are foggy recollections of a robe appliquéd with faux-archaic symbols like something left over from a groovy 60’s cult and an intriguing leather volume from which he read. Then there was his sudden disappearance back into the forest when the ceremony was over never to be heard from again…(Ok, Ok, he was a family friend, once again proving Splendor’s family is about as traditionally religious as a pond full of ducks.) Even after all of the intervening years there are still those that seem unhappy with our blessed union (*cough*parents*cough*). We started getting rather suspicious when only being wished a happy anniversary by the resident garden squirrels, crazy Aunt Mildred and the ghost in the linen closet. This year the squirrels were even thoughtful enough to leave a gift of peanut shells… The honeymoon however is still in full swing… Now guess what I saw on one of the stones I saw my soul, in a magical haze It was all dressed up as a corpse in a wedding dress Small black wings on my naked back Now hear my prayer, beggin' for mercy I'm living to die ("Corpse Without a Soul" by Mercyful Fate)

A detail of the new (July 2012) Corbridge Hoard display at Corbridge Roman Museum showing the armour. The display has been made up of various disparate pieces of cuirass (it would be impossible to make it consistent, given the condition in which the armour has survived). Cuirass 1-4 and i-iv are Corbridge Type A, 5-6 and v-vi Type B/C. Ironically, the Type B/C upper shoulderguard used here was actually attached to its Type B/C breastplate unlike its chum, the cuirass 1 upper shoulderguard which had been transplanted to a Type A (as the Americans say, go figure!); not sure why EH chose to do this. Links are provided here to my scanned detailed slides of the armour taken when writing the report.

A Roman mosaic is a mosaic made during the Roman period, throughout the Roman Republic and later Empire. Mosaics were used in a variety of private and public bu...

It has taken me quite a while but I’m finally posting a bit about my caligae, the standard soldier’s shoe of the Roman Army. Of course, the design changed somewhat over several centuri…

Mosaic panel showing the hero Meleager about to spear a leopard, from a villa in Halicarnassus #BritishMuseum #Roman

Trajan's Column (108-113 AD), Apollodore di Damascus, bas-reliefs, detail, Trajan's Dacian Wars (101-106 AD) Colonna Traiani, La conquista della Dacia

Hannah Honors her Vow, Recreant Priests, Old Testament Miniatures, France, Paris, 1240s, MS M.638 (fol. 20r)

Ancient Roman Hairstyles. Photography: Tim babiak. Model: Emma Dirks. Makeup and wigs: Allison Lowery

Men of the northern tribes of 5th and 6th century England dressed alike regardless of social rank. The fashions during this time consisted of the cloak, tunic, trousers, leggings, and accessories. …