#AncientBluesky 🏺 people who know more about the Bronze Age Cyclades than me - what would you recommend for an interested first-year undergrad to read by way of an introduction? (To the archaeology in general and/or specifically to issues of identity and Minoan/Mycenaean contacts)

🚨This is an emergency🚨 This Government is currently sitting on an EHRC Code of Practice that will lead to the segregation and exclusion of trans people in public life. Use our tool to email your MP: tinyurl.com/scrap-the-bathroom-ban @transsolidarity.bsky.social #ScrapTheBathroomBan

I have ended up adapting this passage to use a few more words my students already know, and written an extension assignment to translate into Latin a happier alternative ending for queen Dido in which she is delighted to get rid of Aeneas and sails off to be a pirate. Had to get pirates in somehow 😄

Call for help from Latin teachers: does anyone know a textbook w/ passages using only 1st decl. nouns and pres and/or impf verbs?? Otherwise I'm going to have to start writing silly stories featuring a cast of women, girls, daughters, farmers, poets & pirates... #ClassicsBluesky #AncientBluesky

If you or anyone you know is a PGR or ECR working on the Aeagan LBA/EIA, come to this online conference, chaired by Dr Yannis Galanakis (Cambridge) on the 27th of Nov. Proposals on any topic within the remit of the group are v welcome - forms.gle/PJN5cw4HbkiC... Please share widely!

Second package of Women's Classical Committee UK merch arrived today! www.etsy.com/uk/shop/WCCU... #AncientBluesky #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

First day of term vibes 😄

First piece of Women's Classical Committee merch has arrived, and joined some of my other classical stickers! #AncientBluesky #ClassicsBluesky 🏺 www.etsy.com/uk/shop/WCCU...

That’s it, it’s out! YOU ARE ODYSSEUS, officially available wherever you order your books! Enjoy your weekend adventures if you’ve already got your copy! laurajenkinsonbrown.co.uk/publications...

This afternoon's coworker: keeping an eye on things and checking out the latest research into Cretan Hieroglyphic #AncientBluesky #NotMyCat

#ClassicsBluesky #AncientBlueksy

The Women's Classical Committee UK now has merch! Get your stickers, mugs, and tote bags here and help support our work, including our Small Grants fund Shop here: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/WCCU... More info on the WCC & what we do: wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk #AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky 🏺

Proquest has started automatically displaying an AI summary when viewing ebooks

One of the pirated material sources Anthropic AI trained on is LibGen, the other database is PiLiMi (can't found a search for). So, if you're an author, submiting your info to the lawyers (prev tweet) is the best way to kill genAI like Anthropic. Search LibGen: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Anthropic AI class action lawsuit used multiple libraries, so if you're an author, send your book titles and information confidentially to the lawyers: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au... This does not apply to illustrations. Thanks to my lit agency KOMM for the info.

Looking at reconstructions of Mycenaean palaces online for teaching purposes and my absolute "favourite" has to be this one. Just...wow, spot the problems with this view of the megaron at Mycenae? (A real elephant in the room...) 🏺

🏺😂 xkcd.com/3129

Normally spam emails asking me to submit a paper to a random predatory journal are annoying, but I'm quite delighted by the sign-off in today's: "Your email within 24 hours will boost a hope in me. Awaiting your rapid come back" Tomorrow: my academic come back as an expert in "education and AI" 😄

This effort is UK-based, but I signed at my desk in Chicago, so we can clearly sign it here on this side of the ocean. C'mon c'mon fellow cis women! Not In Our Name - we support trans women & the broader trans community. Don't put your hatefulness on us.

Stand up for trans rights 🏳️‍⚧️ Join me and @GoodLawProject and help us fight the Supreme Court’s harmful decision: goodlawproject.org/s/c41bb8

"This proposed guidance goes far beyond what the For Women Scotland judgment requires. It amounts to a bathroom ban for trans people, violating people’s right to privacy in their everyday lives" www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

UK academics - please sign this open letter to the UK government: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Classicist problems: when you Google CMS online to find the Corpus of Minoan & Mycenaean Sealings, forgetting that most people using that search term are looking for the UK's Child Maintenance Service...

Lovely to see this out in the world: cucd.blogs.sas.ac.uk/files/2025/0.... My report of a workshop I organised at the 2024 CA on the intersection between EDI and Latin language teaching, out now in the @cucdbulletin.bsky.social Read for an overview of the discussions had, but also for a lot of 1/2

Exciting post today! (Open-access version of Ester's and my chapter: works.hcommons.org/records/sd1t...) #AncientBluesky 🏺

Things are about to get a bit ancient. I baked these biscuity sherds on a hemisphere cake tin in an attempt to recreate Ancient Greek pottery fragments in all three dimensions. The originals, dating from c.1600-435 BCE, can be found in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum.

In the light of recent news from Cardiff University it seems timely to re-post this letter championing the work of colleagues in Ancient History and Religion from CUCD, CA, FIEC, @ics.bsky.social @theromansoc.bsky.social @hellenicsociety.bsky.social Update at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#TinyJoys of today: napping seals

Next-level trolling from a university management team proposing to shut down its actual ancient history programmes.

We're running a live Zoom event for Durham students next Tuesday, 2-3pm BST, for students to talk to us directly, face-to-face (video feeds permitting!) about the ongoing industrial action :) If you're a student at Durham, come along to ask your questions! us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Close to TWO THOUSAND academics and educators say TRANS RIGHTS NOW. (Sorry if you've seen this (and the historians' letter!) too many times. The lack of an algorithm means we have to keep reposting it to catch people, and this really matters.)

Heartened to see that close to 900 fellow academics and educators have already signed our letter in support of trans rights, trans wellbeing & trans inclusion, and against essentialist, anti-scientific, racialised & regressive views of womanhood. Please do read, share & sign! tinyurl.com/mud7va29

New picket day, new sign. As cuts go up, services go down. Upset by the cut in library hours? Just you wait until cuts take effect! Anise pine nut cookies ready to go for the morning! @ducu.bsky.social #veganpickets #NoCuts #SaveOurStaff

No to compulsory redundancies #Durham @ducu.bsky.social

Great turnout today on @ducu.bsky.social pickets. On strike to protect professional services staff jobs. An attack on one is an attack on all! Management tried to pit academics against professional services staff - they've failed! We are *all* the university!

Thank you Caleb! This action, along with many others, would be made easier if Unite UCU were being treated fairly and with respect, in the same place way UCU members demand for ourselves. #SettleTheDispute

Apropos of current 🏺 Discourse, another rant: we always try to get people interested in studying ancient societies by saying look, these people were Just Like Us! Whether via facial reconstruction or whatever else. Which - yes, on one level, people have always been people! 🧵

Perhaps @theguardian.com would like to consider some of the issues uncritically presenting reconstructions like this bring up — like are you supporting ethnic nationalism and fascist narratives about population genetics

Refusing to share the "reconstruction" of the face of a woman buried in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae. No, this doesn't let us "look at the face of the past". No, it's not surprising a modern reconstruction (ignoring all the actual grave finds discussed in the article!) looks "incredibly modern" 🏺

Glad to see more and more archaeologists being critical of this. Can we also interrogate this idea that visualisations like these "humanise" the past.

Today I'm writing about Mycenae, and stumbled across these lovely photos on @camunivmuseums.bsky.social website. They're from 1955, taken by Robert McCabe during an archaeological excavation of the ancient Bronze Age city museums.cam.ac.uk/story/mycena...

Thank you to everyone who has signed our petition, 6,000+! Authors deserve to have a livelihood and compensation from their work, if you haven't signed do so now 👇

Today, we'll be joining the @societyofauthors.bsky.social outside Meta's offices to protest the use of pirated works to train their AI models. Join us if you can! More info: societyofauthors.org/2025/04/03/u...

Hello! I'm looking for work in teaching post 16 - FE, HE, and/or continuing ed. I can teach Classics, Ancient History, English Literature, and Art History. Short term or visiting lecturer work welcome!

WORLD-FIRST: Ground-breaking research published today in the Ornithologist Journal has, for the first time, translated common UK bird vocalisations into equivalent phrases in the human language. The results tell us a lot! Extracts below... 🧵

Almost everyone from @ucu.org.uk Northern region office is on strike today with @uniteucu.bsky.social. We picketed this morning, joined in solidarity by several previous UCU staff & comrades from the NASUWT staff Unite branch & Mary Foy’s office. See uniteucu.wordpress.com for updates on the dispute

Full solidarity! We're struggling without you, which is of course entirely the point.