Good morning with a brand spanking new episode! All you wanted to know about the first beer! An interview with @tatepaulette.bsky.social Author of "In The Land of Ninkasi - A History of Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia" all about first beers! Enjoy! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

Not sure if any single part of academia felt more like a weird cheat code than Interlibrary Loan. Like, I just say a book I want, basically any book, and this crack team of experts just *get it*????

Congrats to Tate on the second award for his book this year!

Another new Hamoukar publication! This time, on my excavation of Early Bronze levels at the site.

Please share widely!

My department is hiring an archaeology post-doc to create GIS databases of archeology, ethnography, historic structures, and cultural landscapes at Gettysburg, Valley Forge, and Richmond NPs. Good salary, 3 year position, cool project, working with great people. jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/224...

Hot off the presses - new article on the faunal remains from Hamoukar! Big thanks to co-authors Max Price, Diana Fennimore, Salam Al Kuntar, and Clemens Reichel for helping get this out into the world.

Renowned cryptologist Robert Langdon waited by his phone. Surely, the French authorities would call him, a renowned cryptologist, to solve this mystery he thought in italics.

📕#BookReview Hannah Chazin's 'Live stock and dead things' reconsiders the idea that domestic herd animals were passive economic resources in the past, investigating how living and working with animals shaped society, economy, ritual and politics 1/2 (£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

I feel like they’re trying to tell me something … something about … breakfast?

This is why I love studying cities. Dense urban living requires that you think about the needs of others. The materiality of that concern is baked in to urbanism.

Sunday evening walkies with @kategrossman.bsky.social and the floofs at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary, NC

Every time I find myself staring at a blank page I picture a faceless person asking why I don't just use ChatGPT and then I picture myself replying "fuck you, I can find my own damn words" and I start to type.

Thanks to all of our students and staff for a successful 2025 field season at Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia in western Cyprus. @kategrossman.bsky.social

Just finished up our first week of excavations at Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia in western Cyprus. Here's @kategrossman.bsky.social introducing our field school students to the site and a visit to Aphrodite's Rock to cap off our end-of-week field trip

Site visit with @kategrossman.bsky.social and staff before the hordes (students) arrive later today. At Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia in western Cyprus in the foothills of the Troodos mountains

Papers delivered! Now one more day to hang out in Lyon before heading off to Cyprus

Are all muppets the same species just with wildly different phenotypes like dogs or are there a lot of different species of muppet

In Lyon with @kategrossman.bsky.social to give 2 joint papers. Tues, 5pm, "Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia, 2017–2024: Results from a Chalcolithic–Bronze Age Site on the Northwest Coast of Cyprus." Fri, 2:30pm, "Grain standing in her furrow: Toward an animist archaeology of agriculture in Mesopotamia."

Making the most of my day in London so far with @kategrossman.bsky.social: a stroll through Highgate Cemetery, a swim at the Highgate Men’s Bathing Pond, and cask ales (and roast pork baps) at The Southampton Arms

Thanks to the "Bible & Archaeology" podcast for inviting me to chat about beer in ancient Mesopotamia. youtu.be/DD6UoU2Zh48?...

London friends, @kategrossman.bsky.social and I are in London next weekend for one day. Arrive at 7am. Staying at The Bull and Last on Hampstead Heath and having dinner there. Suggestions for best nearby spots for cask ales? Should we visit the bathing ponds? Golders Hill deer/lemurs? What else?

This is cool. I’m on board.

Max is getting into the rhythms of the household

It can often be difficult to tell Sheep (right) and Goats (left) apart, but to the trained eye there's an obvious difference: While both commit Crimes, only Goats are aware that their actions are wrong, and are thus capable of Sin.

A real banger from @katewagner.bsky.social

Our new family member!

Celebrating 15 years married to @kategrossman.bsky.social. The first "official" wedding was in Orvieto, Italy. These photos are from our second wedding a month later in Syria during the 2010 excavation season at Hamoukar

Always a good day when a new podcast episode about Mesopotamian beer drops

To get us out on the town, @kategrossman.bsky.social always asks her students if they’re in any plays or performances. This semester she got one yes: METAL HAMLET. It did not disappoint.

I have a new article out today on animal husbandry practices at Roman period Aila (modern Aqaba), Jordan! www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AWXSH...

Happy National Beer Day! 🍻 Did you know beer's history is ancient? Dr. Tate Paulette @tatepaulette.bsky.social shared lectures on Mesopotamian brewing at CU Boulder & Yale, even with replica beer tastings! 🤯 History in a glass! aeon.co/essays/mesop... peoplingthepast.com/2022/02/18/b...

Happy to see Tufts writing in support of Rümeysa Öztürk. www.tufts.edu/president/sp...

Converting my 401K into cartons of cigarettes for barter before the market opens tomorrow.

We're back to balmy temps (78F/25C) here in North Carolina, but it was so nice to be able to swim straight through the winter in this heated outdoor pool a short bike ride away at the Southeast Raleigh YMCA

New paper 📝 ✨in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal (OpenAccess). I highlight #Glocalisation as a model to explain the regional nuances of the #Uruk Phenomenon in southern Iraqi #Kurdistan #archaeology #globalisation #Mesopotamia www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Still accepting submissions through April 1st for the Archaeology of Syria session at the ASOR Annual Meeting in Boston, 19-22 Nov 2025. Papers can be in person or virtual. Late fee can be waived, and scholarships available for the registration fee! www.asor.org/am/2025/call...

Spent a lovely afternoon and evening with @kategrossman.bsky.social and Daisy at Wrightsville Beach on the North Carolina coast. As always, I couldn't resist a quick dip in the ocean, but it was very cold. We went back out around 10:30pm to enjoy the beach under a full moon and snapped these photos

He begins!

New publication on legacy data, community archaeology, and Nabataean fauna from the Temple of the Winged Lions at Petra (sorry, no winged lions actually identified in this assemblage). www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Working on Syrian archaeology or cultural heritage? Submit an abstract for @asor-research.bsky.social's annual meeting in the Archaeology of Syria session! Abstracts due March 15. Papers can be virtual or in-person, and scholarships are available for registration fees. www.asor.org/am/2025/call...

Sniffing the jasmine

Listening to the birds @kategrossman.bsky.social

Apropos of nothing, here's some posters I made for outside my office in case anyone wants them. Text on one edited from @blacktrowel.bsky.social, the other from an Eco article (both cited of course). If you'd like the PDF files, just email me. #antifascist #AncientBluesky 🏺

For all the zooarchs staring at spreadsheets today, a small note of joy and beauty in the cells.

Oh yes, Homer’s famous “Tes Thdpssssps.” 👍🏻

Snow day here in Raleigh, and @tatepaulette.bsky.social is making the most of it :)

Sometimes the system works, y'all. I got an email this morning saying that my student loans have been completely forgiven through Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Seeing that $0 balance notification on the Mohela website is wild.

A windy day brings out all the sneefs