Absolutely devastating for my blood sugar levels that when I simply cannot persuade myself to write something ove been procrastinating the only thing that works is to buy a big bag of haribo and eat it at my desk as I type, getting more and more antsy and typing faster and faster as the sugar hits.

Another species no longer on the global Endangered list: Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). A few decades after a Star Trek movie where the central conflict was the total extinction of the humpback, their numbers are rising fast enough to put them at "Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List.

"But what about women in history?"

Thousands of years after they went extinct in Europe, elephants are returning in the form of a reservation in Alentejo in Portugal! Primarily intended for retired circus and zoo animals, the first elephants arrive next year. #elephant 🐘 www.pangeatrust.org

3 seasons digging, 2 summers filming, 1 forgotten groundplan of a medieval abbey, hints at Aelfric's Anglo-Saxon minster, @hugh-willmott.bsky.social gesticulating like a pro, me wielding a trowel, Martin Papworth @nationaltrust.org.uk, Walter the cat & Kate Adie...🧐👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY68...

Siegfried Sassoon

As a white man, I hate AI for appropriating my culture of being confidently wrong about things while using Reddit as a primary source.

Exciting news! NWMS member @eddiemeehan99.bsky.social’s latest article Identity, exemplarity and the ideal king in early medieval Ireland has now been published in the Journal of Historical Research, academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

PLEASE DO NOT ASK STAFF WHERE DRACULA’S GRAVE IS THERE ISN’T ONE. Iconic sign from St Mary’s Church next to Whitby Abbey. I love that people think Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a real person/vampire who lived and died in Whitby.

A campus novel/speculative fiction about a university whose computer systems become so hopelessly infected by viruses that the school returns to paper. Strangely, everyone becomes smarter and happier until they are eaten by wolves.

Pedagogical highlight of the week: (1) discussing Ammianus Marcellinus' account of the death of Valentinian I, in which the emperor, in his fatal seizure, attempts to communicate by flailing his arms like a boxer; and (2) having one of the students voluntarily acting out what this looked like.

writing a journal article proportion of time taken writing the article: 20% proportion of time taken learning an entirely new reference system you'll never use again: 80%

Made a site where you can practise Old English scansion. You get given a half-line and have to select which of Sievers's five types it belongs to. Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/ [Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]

If you've not read it, you should: Henry Parkes's landmark article on Emperor Henry II, which has had a significant impact on scholarship internationally. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/P9YSAI...

I'm lucky to have worked with one of the many brilliant people in these departments. Henry Parkes in Music is one of the cleverest, most insightful and inspirational historians I know - and one of the finest teachers too. Don't waste such talent @uniofnottingham.bsky.social.

Just found out about this amazing example of #manuscript #recycling . The whole manuscript is made up from the margins of an earlier liturgical manuscript, cut out and rearranged (hence the unusual format), the (mostly) blank margins then used to copy various magical texts in the mid 16th century.

Today in unexpected academic epigraphs. At least now there is no uncertainty about what's going to be going round and round in my head for the next few days.

A masterclass in diplomatic gift giving and soft power from the Danes! egyptianstreets.com/2025/11/03/d...

How a misread Arabic tale misled generations of historians about the Black Death's rapid spread Paper: Mamluk Maqāmas on the Black Death. (2025). Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 25(4), 151-181. doi.org/10.5617/jais...

High point of the day - successfully writing Kyrgyzstan without checking the spelling beforehand! 🇰🇬

In case you, like me, missed @magistraetmater.bsky.social's recent post on the unmemorable queen. magistraetmater.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/t...

Delighted by this generous review of The Emperor and the Elephant by Giuseppe Albertoni in the latest issue of @lemoyenage.bsky.social #medievalsky (Tübingen doesn’t have online access so I had to read it as God and Nature intended).

For the francophones, a podcast on forged medieval charters 😍

"The book had been privately owned at Hagenes farm in Bergen until now"

@samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social's The Emperor and the Elephant is a new history of Christian-Muslim relations in the Carolingian period that provides a fresh account of events by drawing on Arabic as well as western sources. Now in #paperback! Read a free sample: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Happy to report that our book 'Local Priests in the Latin West, 900-1050' has been published! It is Open Access, so you can read (or download) it here: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Five years, four authors, one book. Out now (fully open access), our new book on local priests in the tenth century 🌟 www.cambridge.org/core/books/l... @jbwaagmeester.bsky.social

Delighted to add this article to my publications available to download: Who ruled Frisia in the mid-ninth century? works.hcommons.org/records/n3a9...

This week I talk about the distinction between a king and a tyrant, featuring quotes from my hometown after the Boston Massacre, John Locke, and naturally, Arnulf #medievalsky

A new interview blogpost from me! This time talking to @alexharvv.bsky.social about his book "Forgotten Vikings". We also touch on the importance of promoting academic history outside academia.

It frustrates me that fields such as history are increasingly becoming something of a free-for-all. Imagine the reverse, in which a bona fide history professor publishes a polemic book claiming to ‘lift the veil on secrets’ of, say, structural engineering. It’d be considered absurd, and rightly so.

'When we try to understand the Carolingians, we need to keep the fires of hell in the back of our minds.'

Today's Knowledge Commons share: The "annalistic section" of Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib - discussing the relationship between chronicles and saga relating to vikings in Ireland #history #chronicle #vikings #ireland #medievalsky works.hcommons.org/records/j8c6...

Some may know that I mostly write about Procopius and Agathias, but here is a review essay I wrote for Histos on another of my favourite sixth-century authors John Malalas: histos.org/index.php/hi....

New book on early medieval medicine coming down the line: boydellandbrewer.com/book/early-m...

"IT IS AGREED AND MOST EVIDENT THAT ALL MASTERS ARE EVIL..." So begins the speech of the slave character Pantomalus in the Querolus, the only extant late antique comedy. It will feature in a slavery sourcebook that we are working on. Read more in our newest blog post: tinyurl.com/zrmc4a6s

I’m delighted to hear that the translation has been useful! You can find it and many others by myself and @ralphtorta.bsky.social here: salutemmundo.wordpress.com/primary-sour...

Today on the blog, we descend into a dark, dangerous underworld to answer the question, is Charlemagne in hell? #medievalsky salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/t...

A terracotta figurine of a dromedary carrying two large amphorae on each side of a load frame. From Egypt, Roman period, 2nd/3rd century AD. 📷 me The photo was taken at the Caesar and Cleopatra exhibition in Speyer, having been loaned by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.

I'm afraid there's a lot wrong with the expert assessment of this fragment, let alone the claim of supposed uniqueness of finding neums in a late ninth century manuscript that's getting press. Liturgical fragments get sold quite often so auction houses could try a bit harder

To commemorate the Battle of the Milvian Bridge which happened on this day, why not read about the echoes of the battle in the reign of Arnulf? #medievalsky

Is there anyone on Bsky who remembers this book? It's been out of print for a while, because it needs revising in the light of 5 more years of research & experience (including a proper translation of Umdat ul-Kuttab). Being unpaid work, I've simply not been able to prioritise this, so I've decided…

This project examining the materials for Abbasid art looks fantastic! #medievalsky

The feeling when you realise you should have been watching Rome rather than I, Claudius to revise. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

"they studied the wrong caesar" is an incredible thing to discover just days away from final exams

Back in the late twelfth century Al-Baghdadi saw your post about how ancient aliens built the pyramids and is embarrassed for you.