Idle Expectations

ancientpeoples:

Vessel-shaped earrings in gold.

Found in Egypt. Roman period, ca. 3rd century A.D. 

(Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

ancientpeoples:

The London Magical Papyrus

Found at Thebes

3rd Century AD

Roman Period

P Leiden/London, recto cols. 4-7, verso cols. Papyrus written with black ink; demotic text recto and verso: spells and recipes; Old Coptic glosses and Greek recitation. 
On the recto are a series of spells and recipes arranged in twenty-nine columns written between ruled lines. These include spells for divination, love spells, poisons and spells of healing. On the verso are apparently discontinuous memoranda, prescriptions and short invocations. 

Column 4 contains a spell for a revelation, including a recitation written in Greek that is to be read in the opposite direction to the demotic. This is followed by two further spells for visions. Column 5 contains a spell for ‘a tested god’s arrival’, that is, for a vision in a dream. There follows a recitation in which the magician identifies himself with various magical names. 
The remainder of the spells in this section of the papyrus is another ‘inquiry of the lamp’.

ancientpeoples:

Roman period mummy mask made from cartonnage.

Early 3rd Century

In the Roman Period mummy masks and decorated pieces placed on the mummies were being produced from thicker fibrous material supporting a thicker layer of plaster. This made them less fragile.