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.

This is the medieval church of Westerwijtwerd with its unique mural of two Frisian fighters.

Aug 31: Feast of Cuthburh (Cuthburga) (†c.725). She wed Aldfrith, king of the Northumbrians, but later became nun at Barking then co-founded double monastery at Winburnan (Wimborne) with her sister Cwenburh. Austere to herself but kindly to others. Wimborne Minster 📸Memorino #medievalsky

Sad news. A pioneering woman historian.

RAI Vacancies: Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer Full details are available at www.royalarchinst.org/news/2025/va... Applications to be submitted to the Manager at [email protected] by 31st August.

Zoomorphic Handle from Donore, Co. Meath 8th century. My favourite little face in ‘The Word on the Wave’ exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St #medievalsky #ireland

It is great, but buy it while you are there. I made the mistake of not buying it when I was visiting the exhibition (too much luggage already) and I had some difficulty getting hold of it afterwards as there were problems with the online shop (many thanks to Shane of NMI for helping me out).

Heads up! The brilliant @victoriawhitworth.bsky.social’s Kells book is in Waterstones’ upcoming summer sale. I had the pleasure of engaging with the book when it was being written and it’s splendid - evocative, rigorous, step-changing. Get your copy on preorder at an excellent price! Code: SUMMER25

What a lovely homage.

We're back with some recent medieval news stories you might have missed! First up, an excavation shedding light on the tough lives of Early Medieval women: tinyurl.com/socmedarch9 And then we have new insights into medieval Dongola: tinyurl.com/socmedarch12

In case you missed it on the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Delighted to see that Sarah Semple ‪@arcdurham.bsky.social‬ is now a Fellow of the British Academy! Among her many achievements, she's done so much to ensure the completion of @ascorpus.bsky.social. Congratulations Sarah.

we would be in a much better state in this country if we stopped focusing on anointing a chosen few working class students into Oxbridge, and instead properly funded all the different sorts of universities that attract students from a wide range of backgrounds already

Happy St Swithun's Day!

Should rattle a few cages!

It was a great privilege to attend Jinty Nelson's memorial event this afternoon, organised by @kingshistory.bsky.social. Speakers reflected on Jinty as a teacher, researcher, mentor, collaborator, friend, colleague, and defender and promoter of the historical discipline and profession 1/2

For those interested in Æthelstan, charters, or early medieval succession, look out for my new article in the Journal of Medieval History - available on early view online now - doi.org/10.1080/0304... #medievalsky

“Oxford and Cambridge will come through this OK because they have other sources of funding...But we may well see a serious contraction of humanities postgraduate research training…That would be devastating for the vibrant national system that we’ve built in recent decades.” @mcraeandrew.bsky.social

This is cool. Another Anglo-saxon pectoral cross, this one eighth century rather than seventh, and, highly unusually, is decorated on both faces. Found nr Leeds, recorded @findsorguk.bsky.social & now in @leedsmuseums.bsky.social: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I have just been sent this wonderully witty 'funding' statement at the end of a book review. The state of things! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

An excellent article by @eicathomefinn.bsky.social on the utter oddness (to put it mildly) of how UK higher education policy treats universities' research, teaching, cultural contributions and economic contributions as if they don't happen in the same space, and aren't connected.

Red Monastery, Sohag, Egypt. Image by Arnaldo Vescovo. www.archnet.org/collections/...

14th May 5 pm👇

Pope Francis was a great man who was true to the spirit of Christ - unlike too many of those in the world today who claim to speak in Christ’s name.

More 9c Wessex lectures; this time the anniversary of King Ecgbert’s victory at Ellendune

Here's the whole sarcophagus - now in the Castelvecchio museum.

Elk. Alces alces. Elk. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A new book just published by Ian Wood; it may not have a fancy cover but I'll bet it'll be good and useful. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Lectures and an exhibition in Sherborne next month for anyone interested in early medieval Wessex

St Laurence in Bradford on Avon looking lovely in the sun yesterday

Lectures and an exhibition in Sherborne next month for anyone interested in early medieval Wessex

And a fitting tribute to a great historian and translator.

The BBC report is here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Each of the administrative burdens that we are confronted with on a daily basis might seem small on their own but cumulatively they amount to a ‘mountain of small things’ that is killing academia"

For #InternationalWomensDay: I’m looking forward to my first presidential lecture for @royalarchinst.bsky.social in May @antiquaries.bsky.social - all welcome! #IWD25 www.royalarchinst.org/events/2025/...

Booking is now open for the 𝗜𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗴𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 (30 April - 2 May) supported by the RAI. A packed programme that looks amazing! The conference schedule and registration are available at www.ironagedialogues.co.uk

New research on the earliest image of Pope Gregory the Great, painted in the C7th on the inside of a C5th ivory consular diptych, reveals not only how it was made but also that in the C8th new names were added including 5 Anglo-Saxons, pilgrims perhaps. artsandculture.google.com/story/nwVxkd...

Note possible Frankish influence adapted to an East Anglian context

Our next @royalarchinst.bsky.social lecture will be presented by @nattrustarch.bsky.social’s own @hannahfluck.bsky.social! Join us at @antiquaries.bsky.social or online on 12 March: www.royalarchinst.org/events/2025/... #archaeology #climate

Memorial conference today in Cambridge for my former partner Prof David N. Dumville who died in September - a very touching event.

Sorry to hear of the passing of Walter Goffart. A great scholar of Late Antiquity.