I read the actual article. What’s odd is that it has a paragraph addressing discipline-specific challenges to the research (including that, erm, painted portraits aren’t photos), and acknowledges the issue of iconographic conventions but then doesn’t return to this www.nature.com/articles/s40... 1/

📢 The BCDSS invites applications for 3 Doctoral Positions/PhD (65%, TV-L E-13, for 4 years) from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2030. Application deadline: 5 June 2026 ℹ️ For all details regarding the application documents and process, please see here: buff.ly/t0fVXcb @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

Back home after my whirlwind visit to Rome and environs, I did 2 things: checked whether I had been to Praeneste before (yes, in 1982), and reread my former colleague Daniele Miano’s terrific book about Fortuna

Top of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste.

Just emerged from a Roman aqueduct signed by Thomas Ashby 👀 (the Aqua Marcia)

Gerne möchte ich alle Interessierte im Raum Bonn zu meiner Antrittsvorlesung kommenden Mittwoch ab 09:15 einladen.

Despite the small impediment of the simultaneous papal visit to the Sapienza we had a wonderful launch of the Companion to Rome in Rome! It was great to reconnect with our terrific respondents Rita Lizzi and Andrea Augenti, as well as some authors and collaborators. Thank you to everyone!

Buongiorno

Bumping this for the Monday crowd.

I'll be talking about this diptych and late Roman imperial marriage at the Altertumsverein in Bonn on 21 May www.av-rheinland.de/index.php/ak... and in Oxford for the early medieval crowd on 25 May. Must really wrap this piece up after dragging it along for more than a year now :)

This war cannot end soon enough, but I hope one thing that will stay is the recognition that one can conduct diplomacy (and much else) by taking the train.

On 30 May French-German culture channel ARTE TV will show a documentary on Constantine to which I contributed in Rome & Trier. A first for me & a steep learning curve! I haven't seen it yet, but it will be available here 😬 www.arte.tv/de/videos/12... Pic: me & my man after shooting at Lateran.

The excellent @writinghelena.bsky.social has a fabulous new, open access article out in BICS: “A ladies’ man: Julian Augustus as son, husband, and emperor” academic.oup.com/bics/advance... Especially enjoying learning more about his wife (and Constantius II’s sister) Helena the Younger.

Join us at Dies Academicus for a series of mini-talks as our five BCDSS pre-doctoral fellows share the personal "sparks" behind their research. Don't miss this multidisciplinary journey! 📅 20 May 2026 🕒 10.15 - 11.00 📍 Lecture Hall V, main University building For more: buff.ly/I7RdghY

Still interested in our travel program? 🛫🏛️ Next week we head to Rome: Caroline Goodson & Julia Hillner present "A Companion to Rome (c. 400–c. 1050)". 📅 14 May | 12–2 pm 💻 Online: meet.google.com/gvx-ruhn-wpy 📖 brill.com/display/pack... @writinghelena.bsky.social @cjg70.bsky.social #medievalsky

👇🏻next week! Apparently almost coinciding with a visit to the Sapienza by the pope, how extremely fitting :)

Deadline for abstracts for this special issue is the end of the month. ⏰ #Skystorians

Rare imperial purple cloth found in Roman infant burials in York - News and events, University of York www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Long in the making, but so pleased this is finally out & open access, thanks to @unibonn.bsky.social Thanks to everyone who made it happen, especially those mentioned in the acknowledgements and captions. A ladies’ man: Julian Augustus as son, husband, and emperor* academic.oup.com/bics/article...

For those who want to follow up Guardian’s story about the discovery of another early copy of the Old English hymn by the Northumbrian cowherd Caedmon, often called the ‘father of English song/poetry’ in a MS of the Ecclesiastical History by the Northumbrian monk Bede, ‘father of English History’.

A Companion to Rome, c. 400 - c. 1050 will be presented at the Sapienza Centre for the Study of the Mediterranean and Near East in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages on 14 May, 12 noon. Huge thanks to the Centre and to Andrea Augenti and Rita Lizzi. If you're in Rome do come along, or join online.

Imperial couple flanking Christ, on the diptych of Justinus, c.540. If this refers to a real couple, it’s another and perhaps the only other known representation of Justinian’s Theodora outside San Vitale. Image from Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, SBM Archivaufnahme Public Domain Mark 1.0

Very interestingly looking article on the Life of Olympias, redating it and suggesting female authorship www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

How did late medieval debates shape the understanding of slavery and employment? Read up on Martin Schermaier's project here. 👉 buff.ly/n0dPpSF For an overview of all research projects, see the new Dependent: buff.ly/gi1LMwh @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

14. Julian had proved himself a competent enough Caesar in Gaul against Rhine communities like Alamanni and Franks. But he was personally responsible for upsetting a system that had worked in the West for decades, as @jmharland.bsky.social has recently demonstrated. Yet policing the Rhine was easy!

This was the Averil Cameron I knew, telling it like it is, here on social media. She was one of the least pretentious and straightforward academics I knew, which is also how she wrote, making her work easily engaging as well as fascinating

Averil was so wonderful. And “saying something at each seminar, even if it wasn’t anything brilliant” is a pro tip. My mum (from the same generation; not an academic, but also a “first woman” on many occasions) gave it to me too. It really works.

It is with great sorrow that we share the news that Averil Cameron has passed away. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her and her work. Further information will be shared in due course.

Amazing story! The NSDAP membership archive survived due to the bravery of Hanns Huber, boss of the paper mill where it had been sent for destruction just before the war ended www.zeit.de/wissen/2026-...

"Waren Ihr Vater, Ihre Großmutter oder Ihr Ur-Opa in der NSDAP? Bis vor Kurzem ließ sich das nur über eine Anfrage beim Bundesarchiv klären" Well, no, one could always "clarify" this by talking with family (I am blessed with a family who acknowledges, discusses and agonizes over its dark past)

And next to my HZ review of Kinzig’s History of Early Christian Creeds appears a very nice review of my Helena by Bruno Bleckmann, also one of the greatest in his field. Thank you 😊 www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Just published! Go read (or browse!) Wolfram Kinzig's A History of Early Christian Creeds. A true opus magnum! www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

„Aufgaben, die wir für schwierig hielten, wie zum Beispiel Schachspielen, sind für Maschinen relativ gut lösbar. Aber Fähigkeiten, die jedes sechsjährige Kind beherrscht, sind für Roboter extrem schwer. …In einfachen Tätigkeiten steckt eben doch viel mehr Intelligenz, als wir lange dachten.“

On advance access: "Lordship in the Later Middle Ages: A Round Table Discussion" Ft: Frederik Buylaert, Sandro Carocci, Thijs Lambrecht, Christian D Liddy, Alice Rio Tristan W Sharp, Alice Taylor, Chris Wickham #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/past...

How did gender shape who was seen and treated as a criminal in Late Antiquity? Read up on Julia Hillner's project. For an overview of all research projects, see the new Dependent: buff.ly/gi1LMwh @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

Looking forward to presenting tomorrow with the inestimable Maja Keller on our journey from the analogue "Tour of Roman Bonn" to Maja's digital heritage trail. Each step is the result of reflections on how to empower people to access knowlegde & what this means for our own power as researchers

And finally, please note that the Clerical Exile Project mines many of the late antique letters noted above and has better network analysis for late antique clerics. www.clericalexile.org

We are thrilled that the important research carried out by Julia Hillner, Pia Wiegmink and Jamie Wood is making waves!🥳 www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/048-...

And another press release from @unibonn.bsky.social, this time on our new project funded by @volkswagenstiftung.de The Nameless in History ...and in English www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/048-... @woodjamie.bsky.social

Probably Diocletian‘s wife. Nobilissima femina is attested as a title for other wives and daughters of tetrarchs (Fausta, Valeria Maximilla), and also later fourth century imperial female relatives. So much for the invisibility of the women of the tetrarchy!

I have recently joined the editorial board of the journal Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum, which has also just become fully open access for all future issues. If you are doing research on ancient Christianity, please consider sending submissions our way! www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

More on the new digital heritage trail around Roman Bonn from @unibonn.bsky.social 's press release (sadly, in German only) www.uni-bonn.de/de/neues/dig...

Job alert! Three late antiquity postdoc positions on an ERC funded project GREEKWEST here at Liverpool - come join an amazing department! #medievalsky

Last week, I attended the opening of the exhibition Amazônia at Bundeskunsthalle. It includes artist Jaider Esbell who brings together indigenous art and the (misleading) European idea of universal art. Some late antique works deemed “universal” also got a make-over www.bundeskunsthalle.de/amazonia

My wonderful colleague Maja Keller has just been interviewed for our local TV (WDR Lokalzeit Bonn) about the fantastic digital heritage trail on Roman Bonn 👇🏻 that she developed together with her students www.ardmediathek.de/sendung/loka...

Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Julia Hillner, and our best wishes for her new role at the Department of History. We are immensely proud of her tireless contributions to our Cluster. She will continue to serve as Co-Speaker and Principal Investigator at BCDSS and help shape our second funding phase.

As of 1 March I've changed institutions within my university, from @dependencybonn.de to the Department of History, where I am now a Professor of Ancient History (the first woman in this role @unibonn.bsky.social). Looking forward to returning to UG teaching! www.igw.uni-bonn.de/de/institut/...

Greatest honour of my career so far. As founding editor I'm proud to announce @edinburghup.bsky.social Studies in Late Roman History. The world's first book series exclusively dedicated to the core domain of Late Antiquity. Like to discuss proposals or manuscripts? Reach out! tinyurl.com/dujjeuth

How did ancient slavery function outside the shadow of the Atlantic trade? Do not miss this upcoming #JCMM lecture with Noel Lenski! 🗓️ 16 March 2026 ⏱️16:15 CET ❕Hybrid event: Niebuhrstr. 5 or via Zoom 👉For more info, visit: buff.ly/0UrzhQ2 @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

Great news—We remain the most successful German University of Excellence! With eight Clusters of Excellence and funding secured until 2033, we’re moving closer to our goal of establishing our Uni permanently among the best universities in the world: www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/040-... © VL/Uni Bonn