Happy Monday, 246th January 😩😩😩

Research leave is well and truly over! Was back to it @durhamclassics.bsky.social today, kicking off a new term with Pliny, Epistulae II in Advanced Latin! And you know what, it’s so nice to be back! (Remind me I said this when I’m tired and grumpy in week 18…)

Officially in print, rather that just first view! Check out vol. 56 of Libyan Studies, featuring a plethora of delightful articles about Libyan epigraphy!

Romeward Bound ❤️ The last 6 months have not been easy, but I’m going Rome for a few weeks and something tells me that everything will get better as a result. A tra poco, città mia!

It’s true! EpiDoc workshop coming to Durham in April 2026! Watch this space for further details.

💥 Congratulations to Dr @carolinebarron.bsky.social , who has a new publication in the journal 'Libyan Studies'! 👉 Dr Barron reassess 53 Latin, Greek and Latino-Punic inscriptions from a late-antique tomb excavated in 1926 at Sirte, Libya 🔗 Read here for free, open-access: doi.org/10.1017/lis....

This is an important piece from a senior Holocaust scholar (who grew up in Israel and is an IDF veteran), and it’s important that it’s published in the NYT.

WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for. Stop using WeTransfer.

I’ve had a rotten couple of months with various things not going particularly well. But today I have been promoted to Associate Professor @durhamclassics.bsky.social, which is very exciting and the mark of a new chapter! Better things ahead!

My lovely students from the Pompeii module are exhibiting their visual reconstruction projects today in @durhamclassics.bsky.social! They’ve produced some excellent work and I am very proud of them. Poster by Eleanor Paxton 😊

📚 Congratulations to @carolinebarron.bsky.social on the publication of 'Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Etchings from the Research Collections of the British School at Rome'! 🖼️ This book follows a 2021–4 exhibition at @bsrome.bsky.social co-curated by Dr Clare Hornsby and Dr Caroline Barron

On my way to St Andrew’s today to give a paper in the School of Classics’ research seminar series. Excited to catch up with lots of good people there, and to see the beach!

I (co)-wrote a book! The catalogue for the Piranesi Print Project I co-curated at the British School at Rome has been published, and I am very proud of it! The research for this project was so interesting, and there’s still work to do! Thank you to everyone who was involved, my heart is full ❤️

And so begins another Monday! This week’s Research To Do List task: finish the revisions to a talk on the Diaspora Revolts in Cyrene under Trajan that I’m giving in St Andrew’s next week. And some marking…

Revisions are done and the article is submitted! I don't know if I actually achieved Clever Writing in the end, but it's better than it was before and most importantly it is DONE! Onto the next one...

Article revisions are sooo nearly finished, but the last recommendation require Clever Writing and I DON’T WANT TO.

Working on the final revisions to a little article about some Latino-Punic inscriptions in Libya today! Quite pleased with how it's going, and hopeful that I'll be ticking it off the Overdue Research Things To Do List by Friday...hold me accountable please.

It's been so great to finally talk about the Melsonby Hoard. The important message missing from some of the press is the #YorkshireMuseum needs support to secure and conserve it! 1/ www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-the-m...

Easing my way into Research Leave by finishing an overdue book review, which is proving to be more satisfying than anticipated.

The Historic England press release gives a more detailed overview of the finds and their significance: historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/ne... (And pictures of @proftommoore.bsky.social doing some excellent CT scan pointing.)

Fabulous work here from our friends in @arcdurham.bsky.social! What an amazing find! www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

It’s the end of term. A lovely term in many respects, but also brutal in its busy-ness and responsibilities. But…Research Leave lies ahead!! And whilst I have a book to finish and 24,000 other projects to complete, I really am a very happy Caroline. For now: bubbles. And then, gin.

One more day of term. ONE.

Oooof. Right smack on the nose here from @nesrinemalik.bsky.social writing in @theguardian.com

Last week of term! And the final lecture for my Pompeii module. We've had such a good time: great, questioning students, more material than we know what to do with and brilliantly creative Visual Reconstruction projects to mark at the end. Definitely my favourite part of this job.

The weather today was Not Good: it alternated between snow, rain, bright sunshine and cold wind. Flashback to Sunday, when the sun was warm enough on the skin that this soft Southerner left her Big Coat at home and brought the sunglasses out (and a jacket, because she’s not actually that brave…)

PERMANENT! CLASSICS! JOB! At Leeds! 😁 Get your applications in! #ClassicsSky

The pain. If you know, you know… #marking #whatweekend #TurdItIn

Books designed to be read only by human eyes are different from books designed to be read by machines, which is why Google will tell you that the phrase “shake my booty” can be found in an 1863 English translation of Don Quixote.

Although I have just realised that at 14 years old, most of my students were only 6 years old when that Dr Who episode aired... 😬

In the midst of a trying week, I can at least look forward to my Pompeii seminar groups tomorrow and Friday, in which we’ll be looking at reconstructions of Pompeii on film! And yes, the Dr Who episode does feature!

Postdoc position @UiB for project on material religion or religion of place with a focus on power, networks and sacrality in the ancient world. #Ancientbluesky #Acrel #archaeology #religiousstudies #materialreligion

📣 Prize in Classical Reception Research 👉 Award for a doctoral thesis in Classical Reception Studies, completed between 30/6/2024 and 30/6/2025 🎉 £100 prize & invitation to a guest lecture with @durham-university.bsky.social 👉 E-mail entries to @carolinebarron.bsky.social by 30 June 2025

This will be an excellent workshop!

Finally Friday! It’s been a frantically busy week of all the normal stuff plus meetings with my Pompeii students to give feedback on their visual reconstruction projects! I say it all the time but the creativity and research skills they deploy is just enchanting. Can’t wait to see their results!

The thing is, the “quarter of unis” stat is pretty misleading. Many more have *already* cut back to the bone, especially in arts & humanities

For anyone wondering, some possible dog names have survived from cuneiform sources. On tiny dog figurines found buried under a palace in Nineveh, Iraq are inscriptions that seem to be names. dan rigiššu “loud is his bark” munaššiku gārîšu “biter of his foe” mušēṣi lemnūti “expeller of evil”

Opening the times higher education is a barrage of not good news.

And other people outside universities might shrug their shoulders at that too, but universities are a *public good* — as well as an engine of economic growth — and you should care that they are collapsing. And that the HE system means universities themselves can’t solve this issue.

And it really highlights how universities are expected to constantly twist and shape themselves to the context around them, but there’s no acknowledgment of that. It’s not *organic* that language study has declined. The government pulled a lever and then shrugged their shoulders.

Modern languages has been under threat in British HE for some time — really not helped by the policy change, in 2004, when the requirement for all pupils to take a language to GCSE was dropped. Fewer GCSEs: fewer A levels: far fewer students who want study at degree level, even as a minor.

Students: apply to participate in the Faleri Novi excavations with our £1,000 bursary and summer placement! Applications are open to all students registered at a UK university, and must be received by 28 February, 2025. For details see: www.romansociety.org/Grants-Prize...

Happy Monday world! Mine looks like a couple of meetings, some research planning and a Pompeii lecture - which just happens to be on the Boscoreale Treasure and the dodgy dealings of the art market. Fitting given our seminar on Roberta Mazza’s fab book later in the week @durhamclassics.bsky.social!

#ReliefWednesday #AncientBluesky Although funerary reliefs for animals are not unknown, this chubby little fellow is guarding the grave of 'Helena, the incomparable and worthy soul'. Favourite pets are not uncommon on the graves of wealthy children, although in this case, the inscription.. 1/2

What. A. Day. Intermediate Latin at 9am, followed by back to back meetings from 10.30-2.30, a million (ish) emails, 2 x dissertation chapters marked and I read a chunk of Roberta Mazza’s brilliant book ahead of our round table next week. I am TIRED. Time for wine 🍷

Being a first-hand witness to the excavations in #Pompeii of the bathhouse has been a joy and an honour. I’ve learnt so much from the team of archaeologists and conservators unravelling, protecting and understanding this complex. New episode of ‘The New Dig’ airs tonight BBC2 9pm

Just a casual Monday evening with one of my very best humans in the world on television! Bloody miss you @pompei79.bsky.social but am loving seeing you on the Beeb tonight!

No sign of Blue Monday over here! Had an excellent time with my Pompeii students today, followed by a really exciting meeting about the next phase of the Piranesi project and some impact activities in the NE. And my bestie @pompei79.bsky.social is on telly tonight at 9pm BBC2 talking about Pompeii!

Temperatures have dropped again in Newcastle, so I'm spending Sunday hibernating with the new discoveries at Pompeii, some Res Gestae prep for next week and Roberta Mazza's brilliant book 'Stolen Fragments'. We're hosting Roberta @durhamclassics.bsky.social on 29.01.25 for a round table, can't wait!

Superb piece here from Carlos Noreña. Not only is he one of the very nicest people I know in academia, but he’s pretty brilliant too! Really enjoyed this.