@archadam
Archaeologist, classicist, museum curator, runner, tea drinker, cake eater, nature watcher, tired parent. Curator bod at the Yorkshire Museum. Visiting Fellow at the Open University. And writing about Roman Magic, Roman Britain, and materiality.
Leaving your partner and a newborn to go to work is hell. And loads of other people have it much worse than I did.
If we want strong, healthy, equal relationships, we need decent paternity leave in this country.
Follow @thedadshift on other socials to see the campaign.
#paternityleave
@dadshiftuk and @movember's new research shows 59% of parents with young kids say bad paternity leave makes it harder to share childcare equally, not just at the beginning, but long-term too. And heartbreakingly, 40% of separated parents say this inequality was a factor in their breakup.
Most couples these days want to parent equally. But the UK's paternity leave—the worst in Europe at two weeks on less than half the minimum wage, or nothing if you're self-employed—makes that impossible for many families.
A valentine's card with a broken heart balloon and the words "two weeks is not enough". The card is hidden in plain sight in a shop amongst other normal valentine's cards
This might be the most depressing Valentine's card ❤️ you'll see today. But the UK's paternity leave is crap.
So today I'm joining hundreds of people across the country putting these cards in shops to send a message to the government: we need longer, better paid paternity leave now.
If you are interested, check out all the work by @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social. and here's a bit of research we collaborated on about geocaches and lovelock structures as serial collaborative creations. (Open access)
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
An iron bridge railing with hundreds of differently coloured and sized padlocks locked into it.
A tightly bunched group of padlocks locked into a steel railing next to the river elbe
A large metal sign structure above a river with padlocks locked onto the accessible lower railing above the river.
Hundreds of padlocks in tightly packed toruos on every available part of a ln openwork steel railing on a footbridge over the elbe.
Had a lovely chilly day in Hamburg. So many bridges and therefore so many lovelocks! A modern folklore custom where Couples lock their relationship onto structures, Usually bridges, and then cast the key into the river to seal it forever.
🏺
A closed pub with a weathered sandstone carving of the dying Gaul from the Capitoline museum in Rome.
#BlueskyClassics
Check out this nuts bit of Classical reception: The Dying Gladiator pub in Brigg, North Lincs. Opened in the 1860s it is, allegedly and unsurprisingly, the only pub named this in the world. With it's weathered copy of the Dying Gaul sculpture. Wild.
Yup that's somewhere different now. It's no secret to say that Star Carr will be closing in late April for the changeover so if that's your bag then come soon 👌 otherwise the new fancy thing will be open in mid-May.
We'll be making an announcement in a couple of weeks about the next excellent exhibition in the YM. Want to know more about these topics or have questions about the old things or need references, do ask. /End
Museum panels reading 'The Story of the Rocks' and part of a case with some object on the base beneath another worded panel.
A historic library. Old books are locked behind a cross-hatched wire mesh held within a dark wooden frame.
Part of a historic map showing hand coloured geological features
Upstairs in the historic library is The Story of the Rocks, featuring an original geological map by William Smith (it's flipping enormous!) and in a great setting. 9/
A panel which reads St Mary's Abbey.
Four large limestone statues of apostles. Moses is closest, followed by an unidentified, bearded one. Then St James the lesser and finally St John.
Hidden in a corridor is the story of St Mary's Abbey proper, but there are also loads of ruins built into the museum itself. It was the wealthiest Benedictine monastery in the North before the dissolution. These updates are from 2017. 8/
A red panel with white text reading Medieval Treasury
A Medieval copper-gilt figurine of Christ in Majesty, broken from a processual cross. It is held in an acrylic frame in the shape of a cross.
A smaller gallery showcases our Medieval Treasury where some of the finest Medieval gold working in the north can be found. Featuring the Middlehame jewel, fulford ring, and a processual cross from St Mary's Abbey. Also 2025. 7/
A museum panel reading Viking North with a black and white line drawing of a Viking couple next to it.
A museum case with the Beadle Hoard in it. Black vinyls outside contain object information in white text.
A museum case showing a silver hammer pendant in the foreground, groups of bone skates and combs in the middle ground, and a black and white drawing of a man wearing the pendant at the back.
Viking North is in the Medieval gallery and replaced a story about Med York to have a deep dive about the Viking archaeology of the North. It's gorgeous and also the largest collection of british viking archaeology together you can see in a room in England. Opened 2025. 6/
A sandstone statue of the Roman God Mars, human sized. The gallery behind had red banners hanging from the roof and a series of red-base cases in two lines.
A sandstone inscription. In Latin it reads DEO SANCTO SERAPI TEMPLUM ASOLO FECIT CL HEIRONYMIANUS LEG VI VI. This translates to "To the holy Serapis. This temple was built from the ground up by Claudius HEIRONYMIANUS. Legate of the 6th Legion"
A Roman floor mosaic featuring the Four Seasons
Meet the People of the Empire is the oldest surviving gallery. It shows our excellent Roman archaeology - statues, jewellery, altars, wall paintings, a floor mosaic. All my favourite things are here. Opened 2010. 5/
A label reading Sea Dragons
A fossil in a case with a large panel above it reading 'A Dinosaur Called Alan's. A digital image of a sauropod dinosaur is behind it.
A panel called Yorkshire's Jurassic World
A huge icthyosaur fossil in a large case. It is set on a bed of black sand.
Yorkshire's Jurassic World is all about marine reptiles, dinosaurs and stuff. I'm an archaeologist so I've no clue 🤷 looks dead pretty.
Opened 2018. 4/
A museum panel reading Mary Anning Rocks. It's shows a cartoon of Mary's head, wearing a bonnet and a thick cloak. And a series of hand-drawn, cartoonist fossils.
A museum display called Yorkshire Fossils. In the case is a small icthyosaur mounted on the wall in a brown cabinet.
A section with a banner reading 'Dig HQ'. It is an interactive section of tables containing tiny black rubber crumb which visitors can brush away to reveal fossils hidden beath. Small stools are next to the tables so children can reach. The walls are green and more cartoons of fossils are shows there.
Mary Anning Rocks was originally a temp gallery whilst the Maquette of the New Mary Anning statue went on tour but we loved it so much we made it permanent! It's a gallery about 1) the undertold story of an important early palaeontologist 2)community responses to fossil hunting. Opened 2023. 3/
Museum panel with the text Star Carr: Life After the Ice
A museum gallery. There is a big green floor section with four cases of different heights in the background. Ropes hang from a messaging balcony to create the idea of triangular structures. Panels and wall graphics are on the walls.
One of the 34 deer frontlets from Star Carr thought to have been headdresses used in an unknown ritual activity.
The first gallery is Star Carr: Life After the Ice. It's the largest gallery of Mesolithic archaeology in the UK and tells the story of a SUPER important post glacial site which includes the Oldest House in Yorkshire! Opened 2024. 2/
The Yorkshire Museum. It's a neoclassical building made to look a bit like a temple - there is a central portico with four Doric columns and a triangular pediment, all in a pale limestone. The central portico, where the entrance is, is flanked by four broad windows. An additional extension is off to the left. It's all set in a botanical garden. This image shows the grass and rose garden in front of the museum on a bright day. The sky is blue and there are white clouds above.
Hey, come for a look around the lovely #YorkshireMuseum 👀
We're nearly 200 years old and have a really important collection of archaeology and natural sciences. Dead things and broken old stuff? Loads of that!
1/
Well said ✊
Was working in @uoylibrary.bsky.social before #TAG2025 and nipped to the shop where I found this sign.
What happened with the Party Cannons folks? What happened?
A fragment of a medieval jar rim with a large boss on the handle. A low relief applique figure of a woman is depicted there in ceramic she appears to be wearing a headdress (with straight sides framing her face) and has one hand held at her bust and the other at her waist. The ceramic has a dark, glossy green colored glaze. It is abraded in the surface to reveal a paler, white colour, beneath at the woman's face and hips.
The #YorkshireMuseum just repatriated bits of an archaeological archive in York dug by Dudley Waterman, who took it all to Ireland. It includes this rather excellent Medieval vessel handle decoration depicting a fancy lady. It's made of Hambleton Ware, so 14th-15th century stuff.
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4 days into my toddler waking up at or before 5am I am becoming increasingly radicalized to abolish daylight savings time.
Found the Yorkshire 3 peaks!
🏺🏛️🪨
#YorkshireMuseum
A pair of neolithic barbed and tangled arrowheads, each bearing a paper label showing the location called 'Peak'. They both have an accession number hand written below the label.
TWIN PEAKS!
A barbed and tangled flint arrowhead bearing the location name 'Peak' and an accession number.
Ah, this must be the official best flint arrowhead in the collection then 👀
#YorkshireMuseum
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Check out this latest research blog from the very excellent Seeing The Dead project in York.
It's an account of what we found when removing the upper part of a Roman gypsum cast which hadnt been moved in 150years.
seeingthedead.ac.uk/blog/excavat...
A box of archaeological finds in bags and small boxes. Most are not visible but a Roman copper alloy brooch and a medieval buckly fragment are visible.
A Roman plate brooch. It is pear shaped and decorated with a background of blue enamel with a series of eight red circles surrounding it. It's still in a box lined with white foam.
A Roman copper alloy knee type brooch in a plastic box lined with black foam.
A Roman copper alloy bell, upside down, shown through the plastic bag it is still in.
Had a little furtle through the finds archive from Heslington East excavations in #York in a #YorkshireMuseum store.
Tasty little small finds from a mostly Roman site. A tiny selection of the 157 boxes of finds from this site.
Screenshot of a mobile webpage of the Spelling Bee Forum. There is a central image of a hoverfly on a yellow flower.
#spellingbee falling foul of poor image metadata here. That is a hoverfly, Eristalis tenax, not a bee (spelling or otherwise)
It's a honeybee mimic so would surely be delighted at succeeding in this deception!
#hoverfly
#entomology 🐝🐞
If I wanted to host a free public online talk as part of a local natural history society, what platforms are folks using for this sort of thing now?
Still Business zoom, Restream etc.?
Toddler stood in a tree lined path wearing a high-vis jacket and holding a large, red, foam hand
Thoroughly wholesome Sunday morning taking the 3yo to marshall at the local Junior #Parkrun. She's too young to run but a rockstar at helping.
Shout-out for Parkrun volunteering - it's easy, quick, has no long term obligations, and great outcomes for communities. 🫶