The latest "Early Medieval Europe" podcast is out now! Catch @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social talking to Holly Miller and Christina Lee about their new article on animals and early medieval medicine: rss.com/podcasts/ear...
We are looking at a close up of a neck of a ceramic bellarmine jug. The pottery is an orange brown colour and is dimpled. The face would have been scored into the wet clay. His cheeks are puffed up and his eyes scrunched with a big grin showing stylised teeth. His beard is long but appears well groomed.
May the smiley bearded man bring you joy on this Monday.
The manuscript of the week is RIA MS 23 E 25, Lebor na hUidre / The Book of the Dun Cow. This 12th century manuscript is best known for containing the oldest extant version of the Táin Bó Cuailgne, or the Cattle Raid of Cooley, a renowned Irish epic.
Constantine on the eve of battle in 312 - as a sign appears in the sky. His biographer said that Jesus visited Constantine in a dream that night, telling him to carry a cross into battle to ensure victory and further his imperial ambitions.
And still it goes on…
𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐬, 𝟏𝟏𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐚𝐭 𝟓 𝐩𝐦
Dr Tony Wilmott will be presenting our next lecture on 'A small town on Hadrian's Wall? - the extramural settlement and bathhouse at Birdoswald’.
At Burlington House and on youtu.be/a87uR2-M3Go
Non-members are welcome - just contact us to join the guest list.
Couple standing either side of sheaf of grain
Pair of beasts ?crocodiles biting each others tails
Beast feeding from cauldron with on tight seated woman beating it with spinning stave
Couple arguing /wife scolding On right with raised spoon
#MisericordMonday #Fairford #Woodnesday
The manuscript of the week is RIA MS 23 O 48(b), Liber Fergus Fergusiorum. The 15th century manuscript is of Connacht provenance and from the names of places mentioned, written in Co. Roscommon.
Tolkien mentions bicycles in the Shire in an early draft of the Hobbit.
Could the Fellowship, mounted on lightweight mithril-alloy mountain bikes, have simply ridden into Mordor? In this essay I will...
Extremely jealous of the event, the cheese, the badge, I mean, even that rug is next level
Book cover
🆕️ 📖 How exciting!
Early Medieval Sculpture in Stone - Boydell & Brewer (Eds. Jane Hawkes and Sarah Semple, 2025)
🔗 Link in the comments ⤵️
A History of England in 25 Poems by Catherine Clarke This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, which connect us directly with the nation's past, and the experiences, emotions and imaginations of those who lived it. These poems open windows onto wildly different worlds - from the public to the intimate, from the witty to the savage, from the playful to the wistful. They take us onto battlefields, inside royal courts, down coal mines and below stairs in great houses. Their creators, witnesses to events from the Great Fire of London to the Miners' Strike, range from the famous to the forgotten, yet each invites us into an immersive encounter with their own time. A History of England in 25 Poems is a portal to the past; a constant companion, filled with vivid voices and surprising stories alongside familiar landmarks, and language that speaks in new ways on each reading. Catherine Clarke's knowledge and passion take us inside the words and the moments they capture, with thoughtful insights, humour and new perspectives on how the nation has dreamed itself into existence - and who gets to tell England's story.
Just read @cathamclarke.bsky.social’s piece on Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop in her excellent book A History of England in 25 Poems. So enlightening and informative. Huge poignancy too.
Slighted after the Civil War & abandoned for 180 years before being rebuilt in C19, it has been thought that Sudeley Castle was a modern build. Recent investigations indicate that it may not be. Andy Moir explains why & how they hope to get a clearer answer: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2026/02...
A large archaeological trench in a field with archaeologists filling wheelbarrows and buckets with soil
It’s #ShropshireDay, and what better way to celebrate than revisiting the two-week excavation on the Attingham Estate last September, near Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire.
National Trust archaeologists worked with members of the public and volunteers to dig three trenches and several test pits. 🧵
Archaeology often challenges assumptions about listed buildings. This Leicestershire house was thought to be 17th century until a survey revealed evidence that it was mediaeval.
On 26 Feb I'll be speaking online about Reinterpreting Listed Buildings:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reinterpre...
A leftie who talks the same language as the electorate. No wonder the tax-dodging billionaires who own the media and the other political parties are shitting themselves.
Also, if you borrow an author's book from a library in the UK, that author gets more than 12 pence per loan in Public Lending Rights. Any author can earn up to £6,600 per year this way.
I have been reading about the history of Gaza lately. Apparently they minted very early coins from the mid-5th century based on the Athenian silver drachm, but with the bearded head of their own deity rather than Athena. Unfortunately the ROM doesn't have one so I stole this image from the internet!
The price of almost everything electronic is going to soar over the next decade so AI companies can create buildings that will make climate change worse to cram AI into things where we don't it.
The Caveman’s Lament me think about her when sun rises me think about her when sun sets me say to her how much me love her she tell me love invent not yet me make cave all warm and cosy me lie bearskin on cave floor me play song of love on bone flute she choose cave of Tim next door me no more go out hunt mammoth me throw spear too short or long me sit in cave me paint her picture she say me got perspective wrong me cook meal to show me love her — diplodocus with fried beans — she say food anachronistic me not know what this means stone age mighty hard for lovers yet rub two flints look what you get small sparks lead to big inferno but she say love invent not yet homo unrequitus
To mark Valentine’s Day, here is what is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving love poem, written 1.5 million years ago by one of our earliest ancestors, homo unrequitus.
A medieval illustration of a hedgehog with grapes skewered on its spines
It was believed in medieval times that hedgehogs had spikes so they could roll over fruit to carry home to their children, which is not true but is a really cute idea
A life‑sized taxidermied hippopotamus, fully wrapped in protective plastic, is suspended by straps and chains as it is lifted through a wide, newly opened section of a brick wall.
Q: How do you get a 🦛 hippo out of a museum?
A: Very, very carefully. 👀
Go behind the scenes with Anna Massignan to see how thousands of specimens were safely moved during the Dead Zoo decant.
👉: www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collec...
#NaturalHistory #MuseumLife #Museumology #NaturalHistory #NMIBlog
“Without coordinated action, [open research] frameworks shaped largely around STEM research could further marginalise AHSS disciplines and leave researchers without the support needed to put openness into practice.”
A morbidly inclined sheep, who likes to hang around in graveyards, detests parties and owns original pressings of the entire classic run of Leonard Cohen LPs from 1967-1974.
THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks.
You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
A sketch of Roman coins, jet pin and spindle whorls
A sketch of Roman pot sherds Roman coins, spindle works and a jet pin against a background of cliffs sea and two curious circular structures
So that is the last of this series of #diggingforbritain you may not be surprised that I’m drawing the Buckspool fort which we dug with @henebtwa.bsky.social Channelling my inner Rose Ferraby with a collage of finds - Thanks to @toriherridge.bsky.social for being fab! #drawingdiggingforbritain
Image shows brightly coloured Lego pieces including dragons and sharks as well as cutlasses and an octopus, all laid out on pale brown clock patterned paper with handwritten captions in italics
13th February 2026 marks the 29th anniversary of the Great Lego Spill, when nearly five million pieces of Lego fell into the ocean after a cargo ship laden with goods was hit by a storm.
Medieval Heresy will be the first single off the new record Ancestral Images by the Hangmen of England; released on The Demon's Brood label.
#AccidentalBands
#HistoryIsTheNewRocknroll
#BigRockShow
This is such an important question. It is baffling to me that every newspaper – including ones here in Ireland – saw fit to publish ill-informed swill from a total gobshite.
Rich people's opinions on things outside of their area of expertise are of no more value than anyone else's.
The Association of Greek Archaeologists has published an open letter withdrawing its participation from the EAA Athens advisory committee 🍉
archaeol.gr/anoichti-epi...
Folkoresky Has anyone heard of a superstition, possibly Tudor in date, of putting spoons out on the table upside down (with the back of the bowl facing upwards) to keep evil spirits away from the table?
Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943-) is a Northern Irish physicist who, while conducting research for her doctorate, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. This discovery earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974, but not to her - the prize was awarded to her (male) supervisor. #CelebratingWomen
