It is often claimed that no one knows how the tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters representing the proper name of God, were pronounced. In reality, compelling evidence indicates that they were originally pronounced "Yahweh." #Yahweh talesoftimesforgotten.com/2025/11/26/s...

I guess I now have to do a thread on shoes in ancient Mesopotamia in response to this (which happens to be from one of my favourite accounts). I’m not an archaeologist, nor do I really know anything about shoes, but let’s go on this journey together.

An ancient multiplication table in clay by a student named Suen-apil-Urim from the 1800s BCE

BREAKING: We're suing the Trump administration for banning transgender federal employees from using the restroom that aligns with their gender. This needless and discriminatory policy is another effort to push trans people out of public life — but we aren't going anywhere.

Eilmer of Malmesbury, the original air friar

This remains, to this day, one of my favorite stories from ancient Egyptian history: the time when the pharaoh's tomb workers went on strike.

It's some fairly well known etymology that we owe some everyday words to Martin of Tours (d. 397). The most famous episode of his life is when he selflessly cut his cloak (in Latin: 'cappa') in two. That cloak was later venerated in Frankish lands, from which come the words 'chapel' and 'chaplain'.

November is depicted in this mosaic from Sousse, Tunisia, with a priest in the guise of Hermanubis with two pterophoroi. It commemorates the Inventio Osiridis, a week-long reenactment of the death of Osiris and the quest of Isis to recover his body, held in the month of Khoiak (Oct-Nov). 🏺 1/

A tiny but very charming #Etruscan amber pendant in the shape of a squatting #monkey, height 4.7 cm. Found in Vetulonia, #Italy, dating late 8th/early 7th century BC. Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana 🏺 #archaeology

An extraordinary discovery was made in Ibiza: a 30-centimeter wooden sculpture representing Hercules. Considering the scarcity of wooden sculptures preserved from the Roman era, this discovery is truly remarkable. The figure was found in a Roman well that was later reused as a refuse pit. 🧵1/2 🏺

An update on the Getty's APPEAR (Ancient Panel Paintings: Examination, Analysis, and Research) project, which aggregates and studies panel portraits from antiquity—chugging along since 2013. www.getty.edu/projects/app... 🎨🖌️

A remarkably well-preserved early medieval comb, found in Trier, 5th century, made from animal bone with iron rivets. The comb consists of three layers: the central strip with fine teeth is decorated with stylized animal heads and is framed by two side plates. To protect the ... 🧵1/2 📷 me 🏺

Most people assume that the city of Athens is named after the goddess Athena—but intriguing epigraphic and linguistic evidence has persuaded many specialist scholars that the goddess is actually named for the city. #Athens #Athena #GreekMythology #classics talesoftimesforgotten.com/2025/10/20/i...

Most histories of hoodies go with 12th century monks as the originator, but I like to show my students this one from 5th-7th century Egypt.

But this misses out the best part of this mosaic! To the left of Odysseus' ship is a smaller boat with a man holding what looks suspiciously like a gigantic prawn. This man is likely to be the homeowner who commissioned the mosaic. (Mosaic from Dougga, Tunisia; C3rd AD; currently in Bardo Museum)

A president who can tear down 1/3 of the White House can tear down the entire White House. A president who can steal $230M from the treasury can steal $1T from the Treasury. We have both legalized and tolerated Trump’s crimes, so they will only get bigger.

2,700-year-old temple with 'sacred cave' discovered in Turkey — and it may honor the 'mother goddess' | Live Science www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

List of discontinued merit badges (Boy Scouts of America)

A perfect souvenir from a day at the chariot races! This pottery cup or jar has barbotine (liquid clay) decoration, piped on just like cake icing. It depicts four quadrigae (four-horse chariots) in an endless circular race. 🏺 #ancientbluesky 1/ Colchester, 2nd c. CE. 📸 me

So the cool thing about this: there are two scripts here, Bactrian and Brahmi. The Brahmi is a common Buddhist curse formula, the Bactrian appears to be gibberish. No clue if the curse is still active (we'll find out I guess), but the nail can still probably give you tetanus

Fun fact, a “cupa” is a barrel in Latin. People who made a cupa later became coopers. I like to tell this to everyone Cooper I meet whether they want to hear my etymology or not.

The destruction of the Gaza city mosque is a devastating loss to humanity as a whole. A part of our global medieval heritage destroyed in furtherance to a genocide. I despair.

Two adorable Egyptian figurines: a roaring hippo and a baby hippo, dating ca 1,800 BC. Hippos were associated with life and rebirth. On display at Neues Museum Berlin. 📷 me 🏺 AncientEgyptBluesky

A scribe’s effort to correct an omission. The words that were accidentally left out are pulled along by one man who passes them to another who waits between the fourth and fifth lines to receive them - c. 1300, English Book of Hours, Walters Ms. W.102, f. 39v

The level of out-of-touch, craven, dishonest sycophancy among (supposedly) center-left pundits and politicians at this moment is simply unparalleled.

I absolutely condemn political violence in all forms and instances. Nonetheless, Charlie Kirk was an odious person who spent his life fomenting hatred, and it is shameful that media outlets and Democratic politicians are praising and eulogizing him just because he was murdered.

Actually, Frankenstein is an undergraduate at the University of Ingolstadt with an interest in alchemy who created a monster using an unclear scientific principle of his own discovery, suffered a nervous breakdown over the horror of his creation, and dropped out success at the Venice film festival

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

Fufluns - yes, *Fufluns* - was the Etruscan god of wine, happiness, growth, and health, equivalent to the god Dionysos. The male Etrusco-Latin votive bronze statuettes below wear ivy leaf wreaths on their heads and may represent the god’s priests. Or a Frisbee league. #BritishMuseum 🏺

There will be many casualties from UChicago ending ('pausing') PhD admissions in Humantities, but one which I am keenly aware of: this is close to a death sentence for teaching cuneiform in the United States (esp. Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Eblaite, Luwian) and it will affect the whole world.

My God. This is absolutely horrifying. It gets even more horrifying the more of it you read. And yet AI companies are still trying to convince us that AI "therapists" are a good idea.

This is one of the best articles I've read about AI in a while. It points out the many disturbing, if not outright dystopian, ways in which AI has already reshaped our society and culture, which so many people have complacently accepted because it's "the future." www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Bare minimum for conversation: Enḫeduanna, Sappho, Erinna, Phintys, Ban Zhao, Pamphile of Epidauros, Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Anna Komnene, Christine de Pizan, Artemisia Gentileschi, Wheatley, Wollstonecraft, Shelley (Mary obviously), Austen, Dickinson, Alcott, the Brontës, Woolf, Walker, Morrison.

#SaturdayMorningMood: a #Greek skyphos (a two handled drinking cup), decorated with an adorable #owl. Dating second half of the 5th century BC. On display at Museum August Kestner, Hannover. 📷 me 🏺

Have you ever wondered why most ancient Egyptian gods are depicted in art with animal heads? In this post, I explore the context and history of Egyptian gods and their human-animal iconographies. #AncientEgypt #history #Egyptology talesoftimesforgotten.com/2025/07/31/w...

I’ve been reading through Latin curse tablets (defixiones) and thought this one from Roman-period Britain was neat: someone seemingly cursing the person who stole their beehive ‘vas apium’)! 🐝 (Brit. 48.10 10; text and images: romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions...; images by R.S.O. Tomlin)

Depictions of female anatomical cuirasses are relatively rare in the ancient world, even on mythical female warriors. But this Amazon terracotta from Canosa shows that "boob armor" pairs quite well with a Montefortino helmet. Note the drill holes on top for plumes!

Great news! UNESCO adds Minoan Palace sites in Crete, Greece, to World Heritage list! Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, Zominthos and Kydonia, are six archaeological sites dating 1900 to 1100 BC, representing the Minoan civilization, a major prehistoric Mediterranean culture 🏺 📷 by me #Archaeology

Strangely enough, I’ve seen this very thing on the Venice beach boardwalk: a topless woman on a rented scooter. Wheee!! In this case, however, it’s a glassy faience statuette of the Egyptian goddess Taweret, protector of women during childbirth, holding a sa amulet. 🏺 Ptolemaic, #MetMuseum. 📸 me

Companies Companies on during Pride July 1st month

me: I've made a device that stops you scrolling. you save hours out of your day venture capitalist: what's it called me: the codex

Prometheus was the first to be cancelled for a hot take.

Did you know that the first constructed language that is relatively well attested was created in the Middle Ages? In this post, I discuss what it was, as well as its historical and philosophical context. #medieval #conlang #HildegardofBingen talesoftimesforgotten.com/2025/07/07/w...

Upon arrival, my host - an ill favoured, short, swarthy man - affected not to have received my missive via codexing dot com concerning my requirement of early check-in. O blessed before, now how thrice blessed are my usual stays at the Radisson! Liutprand 🇮🇹 589 reviews (average 1.2) Travelled alone

Welcome to the USA of 2025, where condemning genocide is deemed antisemitism and can get you deported, but building concentration camps and calling bankers ‘Shylocks’ doesn’t get condemned by the news media at all.

One of the oldest wheels in the world! A ca. 5.000 year-old wooden disc wheel from Olzreute-Enzisholz. The site is part of the UNESCO World Heritage "Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps." The waterlogged, anaerobic environment provided ideal conditions for the preservation of ...🧵1/2 📷me 🏺

Mamdani must explain his tweet from 1740 BC claiming that Ea-nāṣir had "high quality copper"