Two perforated altar reliefs from the Mithraeum at Mundelsheim. One depicts Sol, the sun god, with the radiant. the other shows Luna, the goddess of the moon, with the crescent. In Roman times, they were illuminated from behind, creating a striking play of light and shadow that must ...🧵1/2

More South Asian epigraphy in Egypt!

Reorganizing the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin. Announced today by the president.,

Trainspotting

In mid-2023 I was invited to speak about the 3rd Century Crisis at a conference in Copenhagen. By the time I was writing the paper later that year, the irony of writing about ancient crises from a position of safety in a world full of real violence (in the very same places) was almost too much.

Today is our last day at the @archaeological.org & @scsclassics.bsky.social meeting, but you still have time to stop by our booth (113)! Not only do we have fascinating new classics titles, but we’re also giving out code EXH30 for 30% off (in the US & Canada) through 1/31! #AIA2026 #SCS2026

It is indeed on the banner 😊 bsky.app/profile/prin...

Hey historians, if you're sick of AI and digital slop then come to our Jan 9th #AHA2026 panel at the Field Museum to explore artifacts of the Java Sea Shipwreck collection! 🌊 12th-13th cen recovered objects will be on special display for the session. aha.confex.com/aha/2026/web... @historians.org

People keep writing me that the cover for my book (out later this year) is on the @princetonupress.bsky.social booth's banner at the AIA/SCS, so I thought I'd share it here! Just overjoyed and so grateful to the PUP team for bringing it to life

I sadly won't be at AIA/SCS this year, but I hope to follow along from afar. This feed I made last year should hopefully still work (it collects #AIASCS and similarly tagged posts)—in case it's of use to anyone else! bsky.app/profile/did:...

I sadly won't be at AIA/SCS this year, but I hope to follow along from afar. This feed I made last year should hopefully still work (it collects #AIASCS and similarly tagged posts)—in case it's of use to anyone else! bsky.app/profile/did:...

Studying history and reading novels both get us out of our own heads, the first by helping us to imagine different worlds, and the second by prompting us to inhabit different subjectivities. Those who do neither are forever imprisoned in the here, the now, and the self.

The search for the next director of the Classical Summer School at the AAR, to start in 2027-28, is now open. Be my successor! www.aarome.org/about/open-p... Please share with anyone who might be interested in applying. You’d get to shadow me for a week in 2026. Happy to answer any questions!

📖 Feiertags-Lesetipp: Jahrbuch des DAI Die aktuelle Ausgabe 140/2025 des #JdI wartet u.a. mit indischen, größtenteils lokal hergestellten Artefakten auf, die im ptolemäisch-römischen Berenike am Roten Meer in Ägypten ausgegraben wurden. 👉 Das und vieles mehr: publications.dainst.org/journals/jdi

today is all about watching people come up with entirely new ways of being wrong like we're experiencing breakthroughs in the field of error studies nobel committee rushing to cobble together a Prize for Inaccuracies epistemologists' heads spontaneously exploding from the falsity vibrations

Managed to stop by the Met’s “Divine Egypt” exhibit. Some of my favorites were on the later side!

Some important monkey business!

Excited to dive into this new book by @berangere.bsky.social on the routes through Egypt's Eastern Desert! #AncientBlueSky 🏺 books.openedition.org/momeditions/...

Nice to see all these recent finds—including an edition of the inscription—in a single publication!

This essay by @johannawinant.bsky.social is beautiful on what can happen in the classroom, and on the importance of *argument* to literary studies. I especially like how she writes about helping students to "believe in their own significance" www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

End of an era in American Jewish history.

Happy start to the autumn quarter to all who celebrate!

This is much more comprehensive than my own list, and reassuringly familiar from my experience of marking. I’ll be sharing the list with my students, both to think about writing for different audiences (encyclopaedia articles) and being aware of the weakness of LLM generated text.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

Another important review

An important review

After the Roman Republic fell in 27 BC, the Roman Empire flourished for another 450 years. Could the same thing happen here?

I did it the other way

Considering getting this passage from the NYT article printed on totes for our art history majors. Too much?

So, if humanities produce good job outcomes, humanities have a secure ROI that bring in more than they cost, and STEM now has an even lower ROI due to grant cuts…. shouldn’t we invest more in humanities where less $$ goes a longer way? Apparently not. We should ask why not. /9

as someone who doesn't have to imagine, let me tell you that it's ass

Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.

We certainly did *not* have Pompeii to ourselves—hot, crowded, and too much touching (had to tell off someone reaching for plastered human remains in the antiquarium!). But we managed to see some old and new favorites, as well as a friend who is excavating there

We (amazingly) had a lot of ancient stuff all to ourselves today. First, a series of *spectacular* hypogea, tombs in (re)use from the fourth c. BCE on. Such amazing details preserved on the walls and funerary couches. I got a kick out of the modern lamp bases next to the ancient painted candelabra

Had a bit of a time getting here (a wild flight delay), but started strong with some treats in Naples and on Ischia

We’re off to the Bay of Naples for some much needed R&R—with plenty of ancient sites and delectable eats @heintgestae.bsky.social

Congrats to the newly minted Dr. @heintgestae.bsky.social! So proud of her 😊

The linked article lists Classical Studies as one of the departments at Indiana University that "could lose its main offerings." This is a major US university with a distinguished tradition in Classics. Dire news.

In my book on the polis, I argue that despite of nativist ideology, the realities of citizenship, based on communal acceptance & successful performance of duties, meant a certain porosity. I.e. precisely not the maximalist cruelty of Miller's immigration policy, carried bout by ICE thugs.

A few new followers, so wanted to mention that Mercator will be a part of the upcoming June Steam Next Fest! It's a shopkeeper game about ancient trade from India to Rome and in between. Check out the trailer and the Steam page: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1pp... store.steampowered.com/app/3268870/...

We are pleased to announce that the 2025 Erich S. Gruen Prize is now open for submissions! All graduate students in North America are invited to enter the annual competition for the best graduate research paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean www.classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...

A student brought me baklava (yiayia-endorsed no less) 😋