DAY SYMPOSIUM: CELEBRATING THE STONE OF SCONE/DESTINY on 14 March 2026 comprises a day of papers at Perth Art Gallery, between 9.00am and 6.00pm, followed by an evening wine reception to visit the Stone on display in Perth Museum Scotland. Book now www.culturepk.org.uk/event/the-st...

Due November. Border Land: Frontiers of Early England by Ryan Lavelle. #medievalsky

Stephen Baxter the Scholar: an Appreciation by Julia Smith www.history.ox.ac.uk/stephen-baxt... There's also a lot of moving tributes to him on the St Peter's webpage: www.spc.ox.ac.uk/news/in-memo...

A Great aak for #SuperSeabirdSunday Our brothers of the Arctic on Fowl Craig, one fine summer. #Papay #Orkney

Video and audio recordings are now available of the Society's latest lecture (6 February): ‘Alike in Appearance but not in Scope’: Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe' with Professor Charles West (University of Edinburgh) bit.ly/46j42f5 @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social #Skystorians

Excited that my volume on the Early Bronze Age coffined burial from Tetney is now published open access by @antiquaries.bsky.social! Now everyone can read about this amazing find dated to 2032 BC and containing an amazing array of environmental and artefactual data. library.oapen.org/viewer/web/v...

I am sorry to report that George Speake, expert on Anglo-Saxon art, died on 15 January. His funeral will be this Friday, 6 February, in St Laurence's, Combe, Oxfordshire. I will miss his warm-heartedness & kindness, his curiousity, rigour, and willingness to take intellectual risks. I'll miss him.

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

Apparently today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. Here is our harpy, to cheer you up. This talisman pin from the 16th century harpy (or angel/monster) was possibly used as a protective charm to ward off evil Whatever she was, she makes us smile. We hope she does the same for you.

Fascinating article on the possibility and probability of early medieval contact between England and India during the reign of King Alfred by @caitlinrgreen.bsky.social:

The wonderful @caitlinrgreen.bsky.social has a hugely interesting new article just out in Early Medieval England & its Neighbours, all about Alfred the Great's embassy to India - free to read here #India #AlfredtheGreat #medieval www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Anglo-Saxon gold-and-garnet hoard discovered in England reveals early medieval jewelry and ritual practices More information: archaeologymag.com/2025/12/angl... #archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #medievalart #anglosaxon #medieval

Great end to the year for our Oswald project with an essay in the 75th anniversary edition of @historytoday.com. #MedievalSky @kingsartshums.bsky.social

📣Now Available📣 The Bamburgh Bowl Hole Anglian-period Cemetery is the full publication of the sixth- to eighth-century burials excavated between 1999 and 2007. It integrates archaeological, osteological and isotopic data into a comprehensive account of the cemetery. 🏺 @brparchaeology.bsky.social

Any thoughts about the date of the Wollaston princely burial? Written up as later C7th but the evidence for seems slender - essentially on the basis of the belt buckles. Still, it's wonderful to have two boar-crested helmets, of about the same date, buried some 80 miles apart.

Christmas! This is the report on the C6th-8th cemetery in the sand dunes below Bamburgh Castle: 'the comprehensive isotopic analysis adds further detail to the interpretation of the cemetery as one primarily serving the working population of the royal site.' www.barpublishing.com/book/the-bam...

'Warner's originality and her detachment from any literary school have tended to an undervaluing of her achievement in general, but posterity may well regard her as one of the great belletrists of the century.' (Claire Harman, DNB) Isn't 'Belletrists' marvellous!

The algorithms are making it a lot harder to spread the word about these online talks. Although numbers are still reasonable, it would be a great help if folk were able to give the 30 December event a quick share 🙂 Booking available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...

‘We’ve got a library with no books, no readers, no digital content, no front-facing staff & absolutely no clue!’ ‘I can’t pay my rent with prestige,’ ‘They started running the library as a shopping centre,’ ... posters... appeared ... a few years ago: ‘If it happens in the library, it’s research’

A party @ox.ac.uk on Thursday to celebrate the work of Ros Faith with a magnificent book edited by @hannah-boston.bsky.social & @richardpurkiss.bsky.social. Speakers emphasized her commitment to 'treating the peasantry as people with minds of their own'.

Can you help @nationaltrust.org.uk buy- and care for - the land surrounding the Cerne Giant to help protect this numinous landscape? www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/cerne-abba...

Just out! As @sarahsemple.bsky.social says, '544 pages and 190 images of pure sculptural joy!' A fantastic cast list and a tremendous achievement @ascorpus.bsky.social. boydellandbrewer.com/book/early-m...

Many congratulations to my colleague and very old friend Marios Costambeys and his entire team for winning one of these! Early medieval monasticism rulez 💪https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/info-wissenschaft/2025/ifw-25-96

The serpent head of the Oseberg Viking ship, carved in 820, and shown for the first time to the public in the Oslo Historical Museum

A marvellous book on one of our guys, and a surprisingly rich source of #OTDs.

The latest @timeteam.bsky.social feature length episode focusing on our excavations at Cerne Abbey has gone live. It's fantastic to see the work we've been doing over the last couple of years shared with everyone! 🏺 🐈‍⬛ youtu.be/DY68mzYXWK8?...

The Government have published the Curriculum and Assessment Review report and their own response. We have a short statement expressing our views. www.history.org.uk/secondary/ne...

Today in my Viking Age module we read Ibn Fadlan’s account of a Rus’ funeral, with this article in particular prompting some great discussion. Always find something new to talk about in this text! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

BBC News - Solid silver Saxon cross found in Leeds field goes on show - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Here's something you don't see every day. Our President Professor Jane Geddes's new theory of Sueno's Stone now on a t-shirt, courtesy of @northernpicts.bsky.social! Is this the first time a conference paper has made it to a t-shirt?!

To mark the launch of Colmán Etchingham's Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland, Boydell & Brewer are offering a **65%** discount on the book until the end of November. Enter the code BB158 when ordering it from their website (individual not institutional orders): boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...

Very exciting news for those interested in early medieval England: a hugely important new volume on crops and food supply (by Helena Hamerow, Mark McKerracher & the FeedSax team) is now available Open Access academic.oup.com/book/61548?l...

Of interest for anyone who enjoyed the Words on the Wave exhibition in Dublin this summer.

If you'd like to know more about Cedd and his chapel at Bradwell, check out the Open Access book published by @uclpress.bsky.social that I edited a few years ago: uclpress.co.uk/book/st-pete...

Essays in honour of Ros Faith, brilliant topics and a terrific volume recognising one of the most friendly and engaging of medievalists www.herts.ac.uk/uhpress/book...

The Book of Kells by Victoria Whitworth - Out Today! The Book of Kells is probably the most famous manuscript in the world – and Victoria Whitworth's masterly treatment offers something new. Get your copy here! - https://bit.ly/48HEVnQ

Happy Wednesday! Here are some recent medieval news stories you might have missed. First, a forgotten medieval abbey in Cerne Abbas, Dorset: tinyurl.com/socmedarch25 And a medieval knight beneath an ice cream parlour: tinyurl.com/socmedarch26 (Image of excavation: Piotr Wittman/gdansk.pl)

Wirksworth still v significant royal holding in the Peak in Domesday with lead mines. Lead from Wirksworth sent by Abbess Cynewaru to Canterbury in 835, so some connection. In Mercia as in Northumbria, stone sculpture v important source for early ecclesiastical history. Here a lost female house? 3/

A warmly evocative tribute to Jinty Nelson by Alice Rio: 'Her openness about her family & how much it meant to her turned her into an inspiring role model to generations of younger women...she somehow made you feel that you could be yourself, & that this would not be counted against you.'

Free book download of collected papers on Knowledge Commons ‘No Horns on their Helmets? essays on the Insular Viking Age’ #medievalsky #history #vikingsky #archaeology works.hcommons.org/records/xc6k...

Is the Book of Kells from Pictland rather than Ireland? Great to see this @theguardian.com piece about @victoriawhitworth.bsky.social's new book on Kells, published by @headofzeus.bsky.social next month: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/book-of-k... www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

A chill in the air and some blushing crabapples are telling me autumn has surely arrived now. Have a great week everyone.

Get to see this before it goes in October!!!!

THE PICTISH ARTS SOCIETY CONFERENCE!! Day 1, Metal and Metalwork Day 2, New research on Pictish Art and it’s Context Book below! facebook.com/events/s/pas...

Today is the feast of Edith of Wilton, d. ca. 984. 🕯️ My hero for fighting Æthelwold over her wardrobe and winning. Read more here: blogs.bl.uk/digitisedman... Gotha Forschungsbibliothek Membr. I 81, a 14th-c. MS, contains copy of her Vita by Goscelin. #medievalsky

Coming next spring ... yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Agenda is up for the Pictish Arts Society conference 2025, happening online on Sat 4 and Sun 5 October. Papers on metal and metalworking in Pictland, plus latest updates from @northernpicts.bsky.social and new research on Pictish cross-slabs and bull carvings. Tickets from £12.94. Not to be missed!

Check out the great line up for our 2025 - 2026 lecture programme. Full details at www.royalarchinst.org/events/lectu... Lectures are held in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, at 5 p.m and on our YouTube channel.

Another major aDNA paper on early medieval Europe. Hard to keep up.