it's Christmas Eve but it's also the 16 year anniversary of the time an art historian for the Hungarian National Gallery spotted a long lost painting while watching Stuart Little with his 3-year-old daughter, recognizing it in the movie set

From our archive ~ Abraham Werner's wonderful 19C book Nomenclature of Colours gives swatches of all colour tones, & where to find them in nature. So, for example, Bluish Green is the colour of thrush’s egg, underside of rose leaves, & the mineral beryl mymodernmet.com/werner-nomen...

Bee-autifully crafted gold ornament in the form of a little bee 🐝 ❤️ Length 1.90 cm. From Minoan Crete, circa 1700-1600 BC. 📷 British Museum www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o... #Archaeology

Celebrating Winter Solstice, a part of a datavisualization that I once created. It shows where in the world the solstice is/was a ritual celebration, for me personal it reminds me to aim for light in my heart. #dataviz #wintersolstice

I’ve just realized @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social hasn’t made his usual annual posts but others are on it and re-reading “The Dark Is Rising”. I’m actually in the UK at the moment, traveling through the book’s landscapes and it’s wonderful.

I just passed the part of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising (my tri-annual re-read) where the rooks are attacking Will on Midwinter's Eve! It might have gone better if more were like this fellow.

Yesterday I saw this incredible trompe l'oeil painted in 1771 by Jean-Étienne Liotard, a painter I love but whose work I too rarely encounter.

I slipped out of the TAG York party last night and found this beauty waiting patiently for me, a little blessing on the proceedings.

CONGRATULATIONS to the @trowelblazers.bsky.social for their incredible contributions to the field. Praxis baby, praxis

🧪 Digital reference collections like this are such a godsend 🙏

This was tons of fun and great to meet @apolitopoulos.bsky.social and Stu Eve after months of zoom meetings (@clmorgan.bsky.social and I go waaaaay back but seeing her in person is wonderful too).

Excited to be doing TAG UK after many North America TAGs. Although juggling two kids I do hope to see many unmet Bluesky archaeologists in York this week!

Would you like to know how to make a zine? Here's easy step-by-step instructions on how to make your own without the use of a computer by @thorazos.bsky.social

Hello! A little Sunday evening survey... 📝 We're looking for examples where info or resources concerning achievements of 🏺⛏️ #trowelblazing women in archaeology, geology or palaeontology have been removed or vanished from public sources in the past year due to external pressures... Pls repost!

I’ve been in London for 24 hours and my Californian accent has already relocated to the mid-Atlantic. My children are mortified.

Great story on the collaborative work between my colleague Lindi Masur, my MA student Rylan Godbout, and colleagues at the Woodland Cultural Center. news.mcmaster.ca/mcmaster-and...

'The perfect brand collaboration doesn't exist.' Agatha Christie/Mr Men:

Esmarch bandages with DIY first-aid instruction diagrams printed on them are amazing and little known! I'll feature one made in Chicago in my Printing on Fabric exhibition at #NewberryLibrary (opens Dec. 2026), but they started as wartime aides in late 19th c. Germany, and were printed 2 at a time!

An extremely cool map

Palate-cleanser: just one stunningly beautiful AND accurate human-made archaeological image (by the extraordinary @tombjorklundart.bsky.social) 🏺 "Lola", a girl whose DNA was extracted from c. 6000 yr old chewed birch tar (& she's in #Matriarcha!) museumlollandfalster.dk/en/stiftsmus...

Just to show you a few recent, cool entries. The blank expression is key, but as to where you pose, you can see a lot is acceptable. (This is not yet a comment on what will be accepted for the book, since we can only use a few.) (Claim your photo if u want, but did not want to preemptively ID.)

SOUTHERN REACH READERS and weirdlings in general, here's a call for lighthouse photo submissions if you want a chance to be in the forthcoming Area X: The Southern Reach Files book. Starts Nov. 1, ends Jan 21. PLEASE read thoroughly. Questions, weirdos? www.jeffvandermeer.com/lighthouseph...

Jallalla companeros, jallalla! www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVuE...

So Pitchfork's alum of the year is by a Bolivian band, not on any streaming services? Tracking down ASAP! pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Literary Maps: Real Maps for Imaginary Places blogs.loc.gov/loc/2025/12/... Treasure Island at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/searc... #books #literature

New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’). thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...

In this house we stan women in science illustration

Principles: respect, self-determination, communication, consultation and consent, interpretation, cultural integrity and authenticity, secrecy and confidentiality, attribution, benefit sharing, continuing cultures, recognition and protection I'm looking forward to digging into this more, so good.

Tiwanaku popping up in surprising places, @aroddick.bsky.social spotted the Gateway of The Sun motifs decorating a treasure chest in “Pirates of the Caribbean” while watching with our sick kid. It makes vague sense as the bulk of Spanish treasure was silver, mined in Potosi, Bolivia. #archaeology

For #NationalIllustrationDay, we're spoilt for choice by the illustrations we could post! We've settled on this hand-coloured lithograph of Strelitzia reginae by Francis Bauer who was employed as first resident botanical at Kew in 1790 with the grand title of ‘Botanick Painter to His Majesty’.

To celebrate #HillfortsWednesday, here's a fantastic recreation of the ramparts of Cadbury Castle in #Somerset under construction in the Iron Age, painted by the late great Victor Ambrus 🤩 From the cover of *Drawing Somerset's Past* published by #HistoryPress and @museumofsomerset.bsky.social

Yes! This is so important! Machine Learning is doing wonderful things like mapping Martian craters and analyzing microbe genomes. LLMs are a very specific form & it’s them doing these huge amounts of harm. I also sometimes say “Gen AI” when I mean both LLMs and art generators; I try to never say AI

#DHmakes 💀💟

Looking for an osteo experienced (2+ years would be great) in excavating commingled burials who digs single context for an 8 week project in January. Paid, obvs. Email me: [email protected] (you people are like freaking golddust, yeeesh)

An amazing Christmas story, perfect for the current social and political moment.

Hey, it’s #WorldAnteaterDay and I’m coincidentally working on a digital painting of a giant anteater (as well as some relatives). #SciArt

WE FOUND IT! We trekked day and night through tiger-patrolled Sumatran rainforests accessible only under permit for this: Rafflesia hasseltii. Few people have ever seen this flower, and we watched it open by night. Magic.

2/2 A Brazilian Fox, drawn around 1640, in Brazil, by Dutch artist Frans Post.

A cheery alpaca, drawn in Brazil by Dutch artist Frans Post. He was born in Haarlem on this day in 1612.

Calling all archaeologists who can help with this project by skyping into a classroom!

Can I share this curious bit of Faroese art factoid. The first Faroese artist Díðrikur á Skarvanesi died in obscurity, but his illustration of Faroese breeding birds (approx 1830s) is truly unique and (mayb biased) but I think this great skua is particularly beautiful 🌍🧪 #ornithology #teamskua #art

Just filled out my ethics application for our (me, @kjkillackey.bsky.social, @apolitopoulos.bsky.social & Stu Eve) play session on Worldbuilding at @tag2025york.bsky.social. Not particularly exciting in itself, but I love taking the little steps that make research a bit more real.

Super excited to use this fabulous ‘Behind the Paper’ article by @petravaiglova.bsky.social and @kjkillackey.bsky.social to teach my undergrad theory students about how good visualisations are well-theorised ones. Such a wonderful piece of sci comm! 🏺🧪 communities.springernature.com/posts/making...

Well done Zohran! And of course the real victor of the day - typography.

this is such a fantastic example of the transformative power of design when used collaboratively and intelligently. the visual design of this campaign is deep-rooted in history and culture and is thoughtful and beautiful

This is streaming live tomorrow at 1 pm EST!

Is @nkjemisin.bsky.social going to use this as a plot point in a third Great Cities novel?

Tres artefactos de ocre de Zaskalnaya (Crimea): posibles lápices para uso simbólico por neandertales. Evidence for symbolic use of ochre by Micoquian Neanderthals in Crimea

Can you imagine what our ancestors thought of these? Pure magic.

Last day to get early bird rates for #TAG2025 in York.