A mysterious ceramic cross pendant found at the fortress of Dumbarton Rock, but is it early or later medieval? Now on display at the Castle alongside other finds from the early medieval hillfort. Read more on scientific analysis by Historic Environment Scotland: blog.engineshed.scot/2025/07/09/u...

An upcoming exhibition on Roman Scotland at the National Museum of Scotland will include two Mithraic stone altars found at Inveresk, near Edinburgh 🏛 One of the altars was designed to be backlit in the lamplit gloom of a Mithraeum!🕯 Read more: open.substack.com/pub/historyh...

Great new study on early medieval foodways, specifically a lack of fish in cooking pots! Glad it's not just our #ArchaeoFINS pots that lack 🐟! Implication with the human isotopes is that the Vikings adapted to local cuisine & left their fishy ways behind! doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

👀 Post Doctoral Researcher - Osteoarchaeology (18mths/PT) "This post is part of a Historic Environment Scotland-funded project to collate, record and disseminate the archive of a 1970s excavation of an important Pictish/Norse cemetery at Newark, Orkney ..." www.uhi.ac.uk/en/staff/vac...

Mark your calendars! Roman Scotland: Life on the Edge of Empire 14 November 2026 to 28 April 2027 at National Museums Scotland

Disturbingly detailed analysis of my first rewatch incoming

Pictish cross from a broch alert! From Crosskirk Broch, Caithness

Proud of my colleagues @earlymedieval.bsky.social et al. I saw the years of work that went into this firsthand. Available NOW, free to read online, completely beautiful and packed with discoveries rewriting the end of Empire in Britain and beyond

Museum job alert!! Assisstant Curator Renaissance and Early Modern History at National Museums Scotland Full time but temporary (mat leave cover) Closes 18 Feb so don't dilly-dally careers.nms.ac.uk/job/829206

SMA Conference 2026! The Society for Medieval Archaeology annual symposium will be in York 19 September 2026, on the theme of Heritage Science. Call for papers and posters closes Friday 10th April 2026 #MedievalArchaeology #MedievalSky medievalarchaeology.co.uk/sma-conferen...

Some incredible claims being made here. The location of Laithlind as Cumbria speculative, mound is most probably *not* the burial location of Ivarr the Boneless, very doubtful this was the location of palace, have yet to see convincing evidence of ship burial. Worrying hyperbole. #medievalsky

Pictish round barrows, log coffin and decorated IA daub alert!! Finds from Windhill, Muir of Ord in this reel. Big ups to @hornesupremacy.bsky.social for alerting me to this! If you're not subscribed to his A Whole Lot of History newsletter, you're missing out!! www.facebook.com/share/r/1Arq...

Happy St Brigid's weekend! To celebrate we bring you a journey through Europe w/Prof. Jean-Michel Picard, UCD. He has unreal stories of hunting down manuscripts (incl. Napoleon & nazis!) & helps us understand the appeal of Brigid in lands far from Kildare! #brigid open.spotify.com/episode/0Bl4...

Job alert: Director for Historic Churches Scotland, deadline Monday 9th February 2026. Anderson Knight is delighted to be partnering with our member Historic Churches Scotland to appoint a new Director at a pivotal stage in the charity’s development. For more information, go to: buff.ly/eteYlh1

🚨 Vacancy alert! 🚨 www.sal.org.uk/about-us/vac... Join us as our Museum Collections Manager and be in charge of a globally important Museum Collection including, but not limited to, Roman, Greek & Egyptian artefacts, Prehistoric & Romano-British Antiquities, Ango-Saxon & Viking objects, & more!

This is not a drill- Llanbedrgoch finally published!!

Be still my heart

Find out what our favourite osteoarch Jess Thompson has achieved in her first year at NMS!

The only good explanation of what's going on in Greenland I've seen anywhere, by Andrew Jennings, UHI Prof of Island Studies "There is a lesson here for island nations globally: When you sit on critical resources during a great power conflict, 'sovereignty' becomes a negotiation, not a given."

Hadrian’s Wall and its Trees, ed. by David J. Breeze @archaeopress.bsky.social Just flipped through a copy of this, and it's rather beautiful. A celebration of life inspired by the death of a tree. All short contributions, from the academic to the poetic www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress...

More on the stunning Iron Age carnyx found in #Norfolk with boar standard and shield bosses 👇👇👇 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Found by PreConstruct Archaeology and featuring in episode 2 of the new series of #DiggingForBritain with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social on BBC2 Wowzers 🤩

A thrilling find from Norfolk - an Iron Age boar standard and a fabulous carnyx to rival the one found in the nineteenth century at Deskford, Moray, in proto-Pictland.

... not only a carnyx but also a 'bronze boar’s head battle standard'... So much about this that's Deerhurst label stop/ Coppergate helmet but not quite. A reminder perhaps of how much more Iron Age material was still around in the early middle ages?

My project over the holiday break was just a lot of rewatching Andor

I spent the holiday break thinking about Andor, and so should you! The latest post on #AlmostArchaeology by @archaeonado.bsky.social, with a sequel to follow

Big takeaways: Britain is never cut off from the Continent, migration is constant, the 7th/8thC are fascinating, people are moving into England from the Arctic to Africa & beyond! Lots more I can't get into here on 🦋 so please check it out! It's FREE to read 🙏 ❤️+ 🔁 doi.org/10.1080/0076... 10/

Here for the Beer Event Horizon! But check out this entire thread for the future of early medieval archaeology

🌟New Year exciting new OA paper🌟 doi.org/10.1080/0076... from myself @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social, @shakenbeck.bsky.social & TC O'Connell @cam-archaeology.bsky.social "Large-Scale Isotopic Data Reveal Gendered Migration into Early Medieval England c ad 400–1100" using #isotopes & #aDNA🧵⬇️ 1/

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

The National Museum of Scotland acquired the Crosier-head and Coigreach of St Fillan from hereditary custodians the Dewars #OTD in 1876. The bronze crosier-head was made in the C11th and its silver-gilt case, or coigreach, later. They are from Glendochart, Perthshire. 📸NMS #medievalsky

“Women in early medieval Ireland”, Online lectures by me, Lizzie Boyle, Charlene Eska, and Fergus Kelly seminar for Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland youtu.be/ebQjYq-rT4c?...

The @govanstones.bsky.social pages are really the model for how socials can make a huge difference for heritage sites

Got an ogham ('I thought it was runes') hat for Christmas

And one more! The very excellent @archaeonado.bsky.social talks to @monikierockart.bsky.social about his favourite Pictish stones and artefacts, and the one lost Pictish object he'd love to find (as would we all!)

New podcast! David McGovern in conversation with @victoriawhitworth.bsky.social on the Pictish Arts Society's Pictish Shorts: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzFB...

This time it's the turn of the marvellous @archaeonado.bsky.social [have we really never met?!] on his love for the Picts, his move from History to Archaeology, a favourite Pictish brooch & a rather special enigma. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKDe...

Wasn't expecting this: Pope Leo, Amost Archaeologist www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

We've been up in York for @tag2025york.bsky.social conference where 3 of us met, Brenna gave a talk on the challenge of creating an accidental archive, AND... we only went & won the Outstanding Achievement Award for Archaeological Theory In Action 🏆! Huge gratitude to the entire community ❤️ 🏺

On the Third Sunday of Advent, we light three candles - perfect occasion to share the oldest preserved candles found north of the Alps. The candles were made from beeswax around 1,400 years ago. They were found in the early #medieval burial site in Oberflacht. The damp...🧵1/2 📷 me

Finally got my hands on the physical book for Carved in Stone by Heather Christie @archaeoplays.bsky.social and Brian Tyrrell @stoutstoat.co.uk. Really gives me hope that early medieval archaeology can inspire worlds that are hopeful, empathetic and overall, fun www.stoutstoat.co.uk/products/car...

Attention creative medievalists! Eleanor Barraclough & I are co-editing a special issue of Public Humanities entitled CREATING THE MEDIEVAL NOW! See the cfp for details: essays of 2,000-3,000 words due 1 May 2026. (Amazing artwork by @hellomizk.bsky.social). 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

We’re nominated for Research Project of the Year! 🎉 Vote for Words on the Wave and help us celebrate Ireland’s medieval heritage: 👉 www.museum.ie/en-IE/News/V... #MedievalIreland #IrishArchaeology

Hot off the presses! Thrilled to be a part of this important new initiative at National Museums Scotland: People of the past: Building a future for Scotland’s archaeological human remains, in the latest @currentarchaeology.bsky.social magazine or with subscription at the-past.com/feature/peop...

Great podcast about the excavation of a 1970s Glasgow skate park by @urbanprehistorian.bsky.social this summer and a call for more #parkaeology

Really excited that our book on Baltinglass and the Prehistoric Hillforts of Ireland has been nominated for Book of the Year in the 2026 Current Archaeology Awards! The only hillfort on show in this category, so please, all of you #HillfortsWednesday crew, get voting! www.archaeology.co.uk/vote

Just uploaded to Knowledge commons another book chapter - the whole volume can be read or downloaded at books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de//propylaeum/... Dorestad and the North: Frankish Connections to Scandinavia works.hcommons.org/records/ez2e...

Subscribed!

Tonight!

Me, tomorrow! How to (re)build an early medieval church: new light on the Whithorn ‘minster’ and shrine @firstmillennia.bsky.social 18:00, Tuesday 2 Dec Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre, University of Edinburgh, Old Medical School, Teviot Place (enter via doorway 1)

Yes! By popular demand, TOLKIEN: The True Story of the Rings, is back - and with English subtitles! A continent-spanning film on the places that inspired JRR Tolkien, which inexplicably has me in it. Co-pro by @artefr.bsky.social and Phoenix, first aired December 2024 www.arte.tv/en/videos/11...