Looking forward to running a stall all about ancient alphabets at the public Read Between the Lines fair in Oxford next week (Cheney School, Tuesday 11th). Come by to learn all about the history of writing — plus a short play about emojis! @TheIrisProject @RumbleMuseum pub.marq.com/40443503-03d...

New issue of Kadmos Vol. 64, Nos.1-2 (2025) www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/... @dgb-ancientstudies.bsky.social @fsrphil.bsky.social

Unsurprised, but disappointed, to see that Newnham College's JRFs are being defined as explicitly trans-exclusionary: newn.cam.ac.uk/research/res...

If you are a trans academic, or an academic who feels you cannot apply for these fellowships because they are trans-exclusionary, you should consider writing to Newnham College to let them know.

*Such* an enjoyable weekend after so much preparation, hosting New Voices on the Polis here in Oxford So grateful to our excellent speakers, to the inimitable @nakhthor.bsky.social, and to my fellow organisers for making this all possible And now: an early night and a lie-in, I think

Babe wake up, new letter of the alphabet just dropped

This is just the NHS admitting they are denying treatent to trans children

This is of very great concern. Labour has effectively declared war on trans academics and students. By defining transphobia as a “free speech” issue it is going to protect transphobes in higher education while preventing trans-inclusion. This is the opposite of “free speech”.

What pigments were used in the frescoes of Pompeii? Study published on the subject www.finestresullarte.info/en/archaeolo...

This is a cool discovery! www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

From the archives: George Bean, writing to a young Anne Jeffery, insisting on free & open academic communication by taking a shot at Louis Robert

A good summary by Seth Sanders in ASOR Today about the origins of the alphabet: anetoday.org/sanders-inve...

I didn’t make this

This is really interesting. I'm sure people will argue for years about whether it's alphabetic - 4 short inscriptions isn't enough to make clear judgements - but it lends support to the idea of non-cuneiform writing in the Levant very early on. phys.org/news/2024-11...

my boy

I choose to believe that snow in november is a divine reward for me finishing a chunk of my thesis last night. but who knows

rather the Venetic alphabet, borrowed from & closely related to the north Etruscan alphabet, but with punctuation and additional signs to represent sounds present in Venetic (an Indo-European language) but not in Etruscan. This is a (4th-2nd c. BCE) votive model of a school exercise tablet... (1/5)🏺

Making my way back to this app! As a reintroduction, I just realised I never showed off my Lycian inscription here #ancientbluesky

Spent far too much of my weekend making beeswax writing tablets for a project of ultimately tangible relevance to my thesis. Fun though! (Pure beeswax doesn't work very well - further research obviously required)

Se acabó! Voy a estudiar Hititología. La Filosofia no tiene estas galletas.

Update - the text is amazing. "Eat me and you will immediately be pleasing yourself" (aklāni-ma adanniš lū tadammiqū) www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/chocolate

absolutely unparalleled conference goodie bag - nothing matters to me but my chocolate cuneiform tablet

Conference time! ‘New Voices on Anatolia’ will be running tomorrow and Wednesday - a fantastic showcase of graduates’ research on Asia Minor in post-Bronze Age antiquity. Oxford people, please drop in!

Sharing from the other place: CFP for A Cultural History of Trans Lives in Antiquity, ed. Ky Merkley & Chris Mowat. Part of Bloomsbury's new 6-volume Cultural History of Trans Lives series, edited by Blake Gutt, Greta LaFleur & Emily Skidmore: docs.google.com/document/d/1...