A celebratory post, but with mixed emotions. Congratulations, Arlene, and we'll miss you! www.facebook.com/OtagoClassic... #BlueskyClassics #AncientBluesky

Facebook public announcement of two new colleagues in Otago Classics! www.facebook.com/OtagoClassic... Staff profile pages for Dr Hannah Sorscher and Dr Davide Morassi here: www.otago.ac.nz/classics/staff #AncientBluesky

BBC story via Otago Classics FB: www.facebook.com/OtagoClassic... #ancientbluesky

Otago Classics PhD candidate Jaymie Orchard will give a public lecture for the Otago Classical Association this Thursday at 6pm. Full event info on the FB: www.facebook.com/events/69166...

Digital reconstruction of the interior of the Parthenon. This appeared in my world about four weeks too late for my first-year class on classical archaeology, but I think the students will appreciate the visualization as we're now talking about the Pantheon. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/s...

Public lecture at the University of Otago this evening (17 April), Dr Hamish Cameron of Victoria University Wellingon, "In the Shadow of Roman Giants: The Language of Ruins in Valhalla's England". In person, from 6pm (drinks and nibbles from 5:30pm). Details at link www.facebook.com/share/18xG1Y...

Uh-oh, looks like elon took the chainsaw to facebook, which is currently experiencing a widespread outage. Maybe he'll offer to have xhitter cover that branch of the CIA's operations?

A bit late with this, but a huge congratulations to the ASCS 2025 OPTIMA winner Elizabeth Leaning and to our joint runners-up Jemima McPhee and Jaymie Orchard! Pictured here with the prize committee. Classicsbluesky

Full house for Prof. James Ker's (UPenn) keynote lecture, 'Seneca's First Intervention' at the Australasian Society for Classical Studies Conference (ASCS46) at Australian National University, Canberra

We're hiring! VUW Classics is looking for a generalist and particularly encouraging specialists in Greek history and Roman art and archaeology to apply. Full details here: ejye.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Study says "the planet 'has darkened'," I buy it. edition.cnn.com/2024/12/05/c... Where are all those weather machines and hurricane generators to deal with this one?

Bronze snakes and perfectly intact eggs among treasures found at ancient Italian thermal spa.

Classics at the University of Otago is now offering Ancient Greek and Latin by distance. These classes are open to anyone interested in studying the languages by distance. For further information or details about how to enrol as a non-Otago student, visit: otago.ac.nz/classics/lan...

Dec 14 Canberra NMA (2pm AEDT) Spotlight Conversations - #Pompeii: A living heritage - Virginia Trioli, Prof Steven Ellis (Cincinnati), Dr Sophie Hay (Parco Archeologico di Pompei), Dr Lily Withycombe (NMA). Book $ www.eventbrite.com.au/e/spotlight-... @pompei79.bsky.social @stevenellis.bsky.social

This short news report (in Spanish) is from a month ago, but still interesting on the Roman and post-Roman wall of Mérida (Augusta Emerita, in Spain).🏺An excavation focusing on a tower in the city's medieval wall revealed remains of the Roman wall, its ditch, and a house with wall paintings.

So, ummm, Gladiator II. Saw that. That's it, that's my post.

1/2 Roman Galleries in Lisbon museudelisboa.pt/pt/nucleos/g... One of the most exclusive experiences you can have in Lisbon is a visit to the underground Roman galleries in the centre of the city. ... #archaeology #ancientbluesky #romanarchaeology #roman

Today I had to do a careful inspection of my vineyard (1 vine) to see how the crop is developing. Things are promising, but there are plenty of wind storms yet to come before I'll feel super confident about our 2025 grape supply. We're at about 50 bunches, so I'll have to prune in a couple weeks.

Still working out what to think about the bony materials that emerged from the packed clay at the base of the city wall/Roman amphitheater in Mérida, Spain, a few months back. I have to admit reviewing pictures of pottery is faster but less fun than reviewing pottery. 🏺 #ancientbluesky

Been a while since I posted, let's say I've been busy preparing for today's lecture, where I'll present some very preliminary results of the 2024 Otago-Consorcio Mérida excavation project. If you're in Dunedin.... facebook.com/events/s/pub...

I first came to Mérida on my own in 2006, and I was last here in 2016. Things have changed, I'm no longer the only person who knows about this place! 🏺 Thus ends week 6 of our Otago/Consorcio dig.

Any bone people out there have a quick guess on what sort of critter this is? Roman context... 🏺 Ancientbluesky

Action shot (the only one) showing me trowelling a step into the profile so I can climb out of the trench without my crutches. Three weeks down one week to go in the OtagoClassics/Consórcio Mérida excavation 2024! 🏺

Got a bone thingy or doohickey here in Mérida, anyone recognize the form? Could be Roman, could be significantly later... Archaeologists out there or anyone else help us out please! 🏺 (Pencil above for a vague sense of scale)

#meridafamous www.facebook.com/100064506499...

The Otago-Consorcio de Mérida excavation is in full swing now, super hot and super dusty! We've had many interesting small finds thus far, not so many wonderful contexts yet. Here's a winner from yesterday: a bone six-sided die. Still dreaming of hitting a D12 someday, halfway there!

We're all over the news! In Mérida, anyway. 🏺

Kicking off tomorrow, this is it, don't get scared now! #meridaotago2024 🏺

On Monday kicks off the second Otago University - Consórcio de Mérida excavation of "something Roman we hope." My team includes 14 Kiwi-ish volunteers and some local pros, so this project is going to be awesome. I'll post here occasionally because pictures of archaeology are cool. ClassicsBlueSky 🏺

I've never liked the popular theory that ancient seafarers always hugged the coastline, most boaties know that's where the danger lies. Maybe this is relevant? LBA Canaanite amphoras (and probably shipwreck) discovered 1,800m deep in the Mediterranean. www.bbc.com/news/article... ancientbluesky 🏺

My program just posted a job at for a two-year Teaching Fellow, with a focus on Greek and Latin instruction. Full details in the link. AncientBlueSky

Archaeological fieldschool people, I've had an unexpectedly enormous level of interest in a project I'm designing, what are the most important criteria for vetting applicants? Adulting is hard work! 🏺

This is sad news, so sorry to hear that John Hayes has passed away, he was always very kind to me in our correspondence despite my being an ignorant nobody.

Hi archaeologists, anyone out there with experience using the scanning/photogrammetry functions on the stupid apple iphone 14 pro and 15 pro, is there a superior version that is preferable, or should I do the Dan thing and get the cheapest one I can find? 🏺

Oh, look, yet another Classics/Archaeology Department under threat because the university leadership doesn't know how to budget properly! This is not ok. Some links at the bottom: tell your friends, tell the Queen's University leadership it's just not good enough from them. 🏺ClassicsBluesky

We lost our friend and colleague, John Garthwaite, last week. It says he "retired in 2014" but he was still teaching a Humanities Medical Selective right up until 2024, when he was scheduled to run another one. Brilliant lecturer, wonderful human being. ave atque vale

Nice to see some tourist access to the Domus Tiberiana restored after a long time - remember that Humble Augustus lived in a shabby little hovel on the Palatine, and it was only with later emperors that lavish displays became normal. Here's a great example. AncientBlueSky 🏺

AI is so much fun, here's what it came up with when I was looking for s detail on the life of Bernabé Moreno de Vargas (d. 1648)

"a specter haunts the college campus. It is neither the specter of communism, of course, nor that of corporatization (which has already arrived on campus). Instead, it is the specter of what we might call, mouthful though it is, “consultization,”" www.chronicle.com/article/huma...

Anyone want to talk about why there isn't a reasonably recent, lavishly fictionalistic epic on Julius Caesar? Is it because "we" already "know" too much about him to keep it interesting? I figure if they can do this with a nutter like Napoleon and sell a zillion tickets, Julius should be a goer?

Just came across this exciting PhD opportunity in Roman glass on that other place. So much great material! sussexpast.co.uk/phd-fishbour... Ancientbluesky 🏺

Since I got all "political" earlier and probably offended half of society, here's this. Hope for humanity.

The new New Zealand Government is reversing some rules, due in part to concerns tobacco products might slide over into the black market and reduce the tax take - this possibility was raised in a submission by British American Tobacco. True story. edition.cnn.com/2023/11/28/a...

New Zealand's new coalition government has decided to try to replicate one interpretation of Rome's famous Republican era power-sharing system: two Deputies Prime Minister. Not at once, mind you, but 18 months each. An innovative take on "strong and stable", they'll be "sharing" by taking turns.

Just staggered across this little gem on that other place, shared by @christophersmith.bsky.social "we estimate that globally authors paid $1.06 billion in publication fees to these [big five commercial] publishers from 2015–2018". direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Found this one on the BBC, probably some food for thought in there. "Museum reclassifies Roman emperor as trans woman." (Elagabalus, d. 222). Ancientbluesky

Yummm, seaweed in the ancient European diet! 🏺 My kid likes a bit of seaweed in his lunch now and again, probably because of the salt...

Staring down the barrel of the last lecture - Archaeology, History, and the Fall of Rome - for the semester (yeah, our semesters are like that). Vaguely relevant music video below, I usually stash a tissue or two in my pocket just in case my allergies act up... AncientBluesky

Disaster. Complete and horrible disaster.