We hope the BlueSky moderators don't flag today's offering for #MosaicMonday as being, ahem... prawnographic. 😳

December 22, 245 CE: Birth of future emperor Diocletian in Dalmatia. He was a complicated and persecuting man. But he tried to cap hyperinflation, increased Roman record-keeping + archives, and taught us all to keep your enemies close—& your Tetrarchs closer. journals.openedition.org/techne/2567

My in-laws are discussing the fact that Emily in Paris now takes place in Italy. I glanced at the title of an episode—“. “Veni, Vidi, Venezia”—and had to leave the room. I can take a lot of things but I cannot take grammatically incorrect Netflix shows. HBO Rome would have never.

The best place to find an ancient labyrinth? It’s India, not Crete. “A classical 15-circuit labyrinth — the largest such circular maze-like structure discovered in India… — has been found” dating to ca. the 1st century & revealing the many trade & cultural links w/ Ancient Rome #GlobalAntiquity

lol. This new Iowa Christmas snow map put out by the local news is worthy of @terriblemapshq.bsky.social status.

lol. This new Iowa Christmas snow map put out by the local news is worthy of @terriblemapshq.bsky.social status.

A really great piece highlighting ceramicist and social activist Roberto Lugo: “‘Black figure’ is a double entendre, referring both to the likenesses of trailblazing individuals like Angela Davis, Biggie Smalls… & the terminology used to describe the paintings on 2,500-year-old Greek amphorae.” 🏺 ❤️

Our tribute to Natalie Zemon Davis, in the Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte. Please share widely! www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/...

We’re so thrilled to share that our Ancient Office Hours podcast was awarded the 2025 Forum Prize!

I’m in paperback! 😭 📖

Right at Hanukkah the Maccabees are in the news, as archaeologists reveal finding a bronze coin from Side and several lead sling bullets at the site of ancient Beth Zecharia. A few thoughts on the finds and how they do--AND DON'T--connect to the Maccabean battle. And happy Hanukkah!

This 🧵 is absolutely insane documentation of the bibliographic catastrophe that's already started w/ AI. My sympathies to @benpatrickwill.bsky.social, his (real) co-authors, & to the students, librarians, journal editors, & readers who will be tearing their hair out. And this is just one example!

🍻 📖

I’m in paperback! 😭 📖

A new open access vol _ Serving the Gods: Artists, Craftsmen, Ritual Specialists in the Ancient World_ is out now. www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_9143.a... Excited to read this but also remembering Alison Burford’s work on the craftsmen at Epidauros. wellcomecollection.org/works/t5b8zjma

I am still an August 🌋 date supporter. Re: New report. I think we need to consider that when it’s raining ash and hot debris from the sky we might put on a heavy wool cloak to protect ourselves? I mean let’s think beyond just “their clothes were heavy ergo it was October” gizmodo.com/vesuvius-exp...

I started reporting this story after I’d been back at work for a few months and was starting to once again feel overwhelmed by the amount of pain and harm and cruelty at work in the world. Talking to people about how they are finding ways to care for one another helped.

I am still an August 🌋 date supporter. Re: New report. I think we need to consider that when it’s raining ash and hot debris from the sky we might put on a heavy wool cloak to protect ourselves? I mean let’s think beyond just “their clothes were heavy ergo it was October” gizmodo.com/vesuvius-exp...

A bit belated, but I am happy to be quoted in US Catholic for this story. uscatholic.org/articles/202...?

Searched my camera roll for hell and found this brilliant book by @meghanhenning.bsky.social. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

My latest for @hyperallergic.com looks at a new article in JRA on Berenike, Indo-Roman trade, and of course some pet monkeys which may have had pet piglets or kittens? 🐵 Really this is just amazing research showing us the extensive connections between the Mediterranean and India. #GlobalAntiquity

The full @genderandhistory.bsky.social issue is now out, packed with fascinating studies from late antique Rome to 2000s Tanzania. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14680424...

Today would have been the lovely Joyce Reynolds’ birthday. She was born in 1918 and was one of the earliest female epigraphers and supporters of digital epigraphy. Remember her: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_R... Then enjoy the database of inscriptions from Roman Cyrenaica.

Plaques matter. A few yrs ago for @hyperallergic.com, I wrote on the import of museum labels. hyperallergic.com/can-art-muse... The reports on the new plaques written by Trump for the presidential portraits are worrying—but the political silence is even scarier 🎁 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/u...

that was a serious plug for that La Loma paper, too! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Some important monkey business!

My latest for @hyperallergic.com looks at a new article in JRA on Berenike, Indo-Roman trade, and of course some pet monkeys which may have had pet piglets or kittens? 🐵 Really this is just amazing research showing us the extensive connections between the Mediterranean and India. #GlobalAntiquity

Heard @sarahebond.bsky.social on Classical Antiquity Side quest today, talking about her book Strike. Sounds like I need to read it for a number of reasons & it turns out to be on sale for $2.83 on Kindle today. www.amazon.com/Strike-Labor...

New blog on how ISAW's Pleiades project collaborated in the creation of Itiner-e, a new digital atlas of the roads of the Roman Empire isaw.nyu.edu/news/pleiade...

Iraq plans a $14.5M renovation of the ancient city of Ur to restore its archaeological landscape, protect cultural heritage, and boost sustainable tourism in Dhi Qar province. #Archaeology #AncientMesopotamia #Iraq #CulturalHeritage #Ur #HeritagePreservation

This is how old I am in terms of internet classics memes.

Reception need not be over hundreds of years. Interesting new Open Access volume on _Flavian Responses to Nero’s Rome_ is a case in point. Definitely gonna need @laurenginsberg.bsky.social’s assessment on this! www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

I was there for the beginning of this 10 years ago and have loved seeing the display cases and subway exhibitions opening this week. Museums can be and are all around us.

Just a shocking missed opportunity that this paper (a) develops a Bayesian approach to network community detection, tested on (b) Sampson’s Monastery Data—which is about conflict amongst a group of monks—but (c) is somehow *not* titled “Updating Your Prior”. www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~teh/researc...

Spending the morning reading @dominicmachado.bsky.social’s book on collective action in the Roman army. I have been waiting for this to arrive! puz.unizar.es/2851-volunta...

I do think it would be quite the powerful lesson to have a video game wherein Lara Croft and Indiana Jones were arrested by INTERPOL and then you watch as Jones is also denied tenure at U. Chicago. But this is good too. www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

Put those snow boot(s) on.

For those of you who dream of a clawfoot bathtub, as I do: they just found a first century one at Ephesus. Now did Romans like bubble baths? No, because they did not usually bathe with soap. 🧼 www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/r...

I spy @ingerkuin.bsky.social’s new book @prairielights.com! 📕 🛢️❤️ www.basicbooks.com/titles/inger...

Cary Elwes #NoWords #RobAndMichele

From @worldheritageusa.bsky.social

And here it is! After many recommendations that she come on as a guest, @sarahebond.bsky.social stopped by to talk about her book Strike and labor in Roman Antiquity. Apologies for the somewhat esoteric Roanoke talk, but Roanoke is the best for a reason! classicalantiquitypod.com/2025/12/15/s...

Enjoying that Oxford Press allows you to search their Global Middle Ages books through an interactive map. More of this, please! blog.oup.com/2024/06/the-...

Steve isn’t here anymore, but he always posted this picture on Hanukkah so I thought we could carry on his tradition and remember him.

Redraw the maps 🗺️ ! “what started out as a geography lesson evolved into a way of depicting variability in indicators such as life expectancy or GDP per capita... ‘I think that does real damage, not just to how we understand those countries, but to how we understand inequality,’ says Rankin.”

Anti-Semitism is utterly vile and must be opposed unequivocally.

Egypt revealed the revamp of two colossal statues of a prominent pharaoh in the southern city of Luxor, the latest in the government’s archaeological events that aim at drawing more tourists to the country.

Texts from my husband who is shopping. Maximus: Smells like performed masculinity!

How Conifers and Christmas Trees Secretly Shaped U.S. History www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...