Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset on 22 September. Here is the ram caught by its horns. Bodleian Library MS. Michael 619; Maḥzor for the High Holidays (Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kipur), Western Ashkenazi rite (Tripartite Maḥzor, volume 3); 1320–1330 CE; f.5v @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Imagine in a few years, you come across an online video of yourself - your face, your voice, presenting a garbled version of your research or ’in conversation’ with another scholar saying things you don’t agree with, you have no control to stop it 1/3 #academia

The Ohio State University is now requiring students to become "fluent" in AI. It's a perverse metaphor, and as always, the wisdom of Star Trek proves useful in understanding its perversity. sonja-drimmer.squarespace.com/blog-1/2025/...

Critical thinkinge ys vitallye ymportant and manye academic fieldes rightfullye clayme that thei teache it. Englisshe majors learne critical thinkinge too, but thei also learne creative thinkinge and compassionate thinkinge.

AI data scraping is causing major problems for digital archives. Many publishers of cool historical material (free for the public), like @hagleycenter.bsky.social, are being hit w/ bot swarms akin to denial of service attacks. Latest in The Lint Trap linttrapofhistory.substack.com/p/when-ai-da...

HORIZON application submitted! Many amazing collaborators & absolutely brilliant people in our digital medievalist consortium. What do we have in common? Saints of course! Fingers crossed we get support for our work linking our linkable "silos" for sustainable intangible cultural heritage.

Big day tomorrow: The #Oseberg ship will be relocated to its designated spot in the new Museum of the Viking Age. You can follow a live stream on NRK nrk.no, showing how this happens, minute by minute, cm by cm. #MuseumoftheVikingAge #vikingships

Hi #Medievalsky, Michaela and I have decided to put together a last minute #IMC2026 session proposal: *Dead Reckoning in the early medieval [?world]" If you've anything on interactions with the dead (literary, historical, legal, etc.) and are looking for an (unfunded) session to join, let us know!

Star Trek doth teache us that linguistiques, historye, workinge togethir, science, music, mythologye, poetrye, friendshippe, selflessnesse (except Kirk), a capacitye for wonder, and celebrating Infinite Diversitye yn Infinite Combinaciouns are what trulye make the future bettir. #StarTrekDay

I just found my own name here, an article I wrote that they have stolen.

We are proud to announce that 1,000 manuscripts are now published on manuscripta.se, advancing our mission to make #medieval and #earlymodern manuscripts in Sweden accessible worldwide. #iiif #MedievalManuscripts #MedievalSky

The database from my PhD-dissertation is finally publicly available! Detailed data from 3250 south-Swedish probate records, both urban and rural, from between 1570 and the 1860s, free for anyone to use for your own projects. www.lusem.lu.se/organisation...

Thread! It summarizes many good points. Swedish universities should also take note and look beyond the hype.

So come along, or dial in, to hear me and others discuss what humanities can do for data science, as well as how humanities uses data science. I'm sure I may go on a patented rant about the potential ramifications of stopping listening to arts and humanities voices in AI development. Sign up here!

My main professional organization, @medievalacademy.bsky.social, has just pub'd a statement about the use of AI in its journal. Basically, DON'T! "AI tools cannot take ethical or legal responsibility for their output or enter into legal agreements." www.medievalacademy.org/page/AIPolicy #MedievalSky

We're kicking off our #DH lecture series next Tuesday 😊 Don't miss out on it! mshl.is/vidburdir/dh-after-hours

This was a great way to follow along for part of Saga Farmann's voyage this year!

In future stories shared about the #Viking ships, September 2025 will be a significant month. Today, Sept 1, colleagues at the Museum of Cultural History have started final preparations for moving the Oseberg ship to its new home in the Museum of the Viking Age.

This is an excellent thread that highlights why I have no patience for the idea that generative AI has any place in academia. Academic work relies on community. These communities are shaped in part by randomness - e.g. chance encounters, or new hires at the work place. (1/n)

Great thread* containing many important points regarding issues with this recent article! *Even for historians (who sometimes are tempted by nr 1).

A plea from me, as someone who trained as an archaeologist, worked in clinical trials & is now a data steward: if you're working with historical data, get an historian involved who has expertise in the period! It'll save so much embarrassment & stop erroneous work entering the research record 🧪📊

there's an easier way to disable this feature, using the right-click menu: bsky.app/profile/zynt...

For the feast of Saint Louis IX, here is a Swedish calendar produced before his canonisation in 1297, where a scribe has added his feast to the entry of August 25. This provides a rare piece of evidence of Louis' cult being actively spread in medieval Scandinavia. [Sveriges Riksarkiv Fr. 25599]

PLEASE REPOST 🥺🙏 The Canadian Letters & Images Project is an online digital archive of Canadians’ experience during wartime at home & in battle. It contains thousands of personal letters & photos that reveal people’s experience through their own words & eyes. www.canadianletters.ca/content/abou...

Back at work this week and back online. Starting off with the Congress of Nordic Historians this week in Reykjavík (which today is thankfully showing itself its sunny side).

Worrye not about 'being productive,' for thou art not a product. Thou art a star daunsinge yn a hopeful skye. A signal blinking across centuryes and worldes. Thou art a song performid just once and perfectlye.

This.

Gamers out there (particularly with a historical bent!), can you help me find video games that feature the Tudors? I’ve been searching and coming up with very little! #videogames #historygaming #tudors #gaming

Note that if you have an Academia·edu account, you've signed an agreement with a commercial entity that profits off your personal research. This includes trawling and regurgitating your uploaded work as derivative AI slop (which they are doing at scale now). Time to leave.

10. "Repair of fortifications & bridges & the preparation of ships & the equipment of military forces likewise shall be diligently undertaken for the common need". Expansion of royal power to command these things can be traced from 8th cent. onwards, esp. in response to viking attacks #medievalsky

Girls on the move! Our special number in Zapiski Historyczne is out and in open access! Thank you #PiotrKołodziejczak for his wonderful work with this project and editing the issue. #AntiSelart #CordeliaHeß #AnnaStinaHägglund #SofiaGustafsson www.zapiskihistoryczne.pl/en/issues/126

This. And why would you want to replace teachers anyway?!?!

Nytt inlägg på Scandia blogg: "En orkan i det udenrigspolitiske spil: Katastrofehåndtering og salget af Dansk Vestindien til USA" journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/anno...

Runologist Henrik Williams, quoted in the article, has also done a lot of work on other North American runic finds, see some other examples here: www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/di...

There's an exciting new 3-year job in Göttingen (Germany) available as part of our project! www.uni-goettingen.de/en/644546.ht... We need someone with experience in manuscript studies and early medieval Germanic vernaculars. Digital humanities skills an advantage! Deadline: 14 July. #palaeography

Cool! 19th century runes found in Ontario. Someone very dedicated (or bored?) must have spent ages (even according to Henrik Williams) carving this! Ping @skrivafel.bsky.social !

THIS is key!! The point of the work is at least in substantial part the doing of the work. AI is robbing students of their critical thinking abilities. Writing is hard. It's meant to be hard because doing the writing develops how you think and then how you express those thoughts.

The basic issue here is that I would never consider using AI that claims to summarise books for me because *I can’t be sure the summary is accurate*. It’s my responsibility as a historian to read and interpret books for myself. If I get it wrong, it’s on me. But I’ve done it myself at least

And of course *actual historians* aren’t just mindless machines who read everything - the whole point of an academic training is to develop the *discrimination* you need to work out what sources are and aren’t relevant to what you want to write

Thread on another consequence of "text extruding machines", heavy demand by their web crawlers. Incidently, a colleague has noted a similar issue at her uni library. Ping @skrivafel.bsky.social

1/3: This isn't fake news: Transkribus can now be taught to identify the documents in a collection written by a specific person 😲

The Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (a European organization dedicated to enhancing and supporting digitally enabled research and teaching across the arts and humanities) leaves X (10.092 followers) Bluesky: @dariaheu.bsky.social

I like the way Will puts the critique of AI here: “mistaking confidence for accuracy” That’s what I’ve seen as well.

This. In writing, and all of its steps - whether reviewing, copyediting, giving feedback, etc. - professional human beings are essential and absolutely irreplaceable.

Quite please to hear that 'Mapping Saints' is one of GRIDH's top 3 most visited sites since January 2025! (And that's not just page-hits.) So happy that it's being visited and explored! If you haven't found it yet, please take a look here: saints.dh.gu.se

Naomi Tutu, daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu (and an Episcopal priest herself) fully addresses the lie at the heart of the claim of that white South Africans are “refugees.” Amplify her voice. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb... www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Sounds about right.

Höstens nummer är OA! Läs om trolovningar i 1500-talets Danmark och förgöring i Vasatidens Stockholm, till 1960-talets utbildningspolitik och danska missionsutställningar. Sätt dig sedan in i debatt och utblickar om sannings- och försoningskommissioner respektive Nordisk förintelseforskning.

Looks like an actual good ECR job! 1-year, includes 3rd year Vikings module, inc research time, proper lecturer salary www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DND030/l...