There’s a big and underappreciated rift between what liberation means to people shaped by Eastern European history, where the US did not intervene but was often yearned for, and elsewhere, where it did intervene, often with disastrous consequences.

New in Early Medieval Europe: what role did animals play in early medieval medicinal and well-being practices? A study by Holly Miller and Christina Lee (£) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Criminally funny, but also I'm crying inside Norway comes for the #TechBros www.forbrukerradet.no/breakingfree vimeo.com/1168468796?f...

Interested in the settlement history of the Baltic Sea region? There’s a free online course with the University of Tartu, starting next week: sisu.ut.ee/eestijuured/...

Eating your own words BnF MS Latin 16744; Bible; 12th century; f.81r @gallicabnf.bsky.social

Most read news in some Nordic countries today. Norway: "Royal family" Denmark: "Parliament election" Iceland: "THEY CHANGED THE BUTTER AT THE HOSPITAL CAFETERIA"

Would a rollout of runes actually be bad for the economy?

For those who need some inspiration to slay their own personal dragons today. [Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, D1267; previously in Stokkemarke Church, c.1500]

Og hva med Trandum i dag? Det som de kaller “utlendingsinternat”. Kjent for umenneskelig behandling og fortsatt i drift. www.nettavisen.no/tvangsretur/...

One of Rǫgnvaldr Kolsson's ships was named Fífa, see ch. 85 of #Orkneyingasaga #SagaoftheEarlsofOrkney and his lausavísa 8: skaldic.ku.dk/q?p=skp/skal... #arrows #ships

Radiocarbon dating shows these prints date to the late Iron Age — moments in the lives of people who walked this landscape two millennia ago, a few centuries before the first reference to the Picts. #Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen! More to follow! www.abdn.ac.uk/news/25127/?...

I have written a bit about how to use runes when writing modern languages (in Norwegian). Overall, my approach is flexible because modern runic uses are adaptations. But I do give some advice e.g. regarding the use of older vs. younger runes. sprakprat.no/2026/02/19/h...

Just because I keep seeing those "I checked this piece and it's written by AI" - this is an old article of mine, before AI was available. So could we not?

Researchers have used artificial intelligence to model possible rulesets for a Roman board game, concluding it was a kind of game previously unknown in Europe until the Middle Ages, pushing back evidence of their play by several centuries. A playful #AntiquityThread 1/13 🧵 🏺 #Archaeology

Wrote three separate posts, chose to discard each one. Often best so, except for this one, for some weird reason.

Do you like cloudberries? Learn this:

This stanza is about one of the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, Bjǫrn Ironside. Some daring 'sons of [a feminine] Loðbrók' are mentioned in #Maeshowe runor.raa.se/inscription?.... Clearly a topic of discussion in #medieval #Orkney #runic #skaldic

Some who joke about sending Norway’s athletes to other countries, so that these could also win medals, could read this about belonging and not-belonging. Especially now when so much public discourse is again about how to “fix” immigrants and make sure they know they’re not Norwegian enough.

Hedgehogs rolling on grapes to take to their young for food BL Royal MS 12 F XIII; 'the Rochester Bestiary; 13th century; f.45r

A door from a 13th century building on my ancestral farm in Voss, Norway, for #aDoorableThursday - with imitation wooden pillars and evil spirits thoroughly warded off with tar crosses.

Fortsatt kritisk for Vikingtidsmuseet: “Regjeringen kuttet funksjoner i prosjektet tilsvarende 250 millioner i 2022 og sa at disse kunne tas inn igjen ved eksterne midler. Det har vist seg å bli omtrent tre ganger så dyrt å hente inn igjen disse funksjonene.” www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2026...

I don’t really manage to follow fully what’s happening in places that are “also home” but all the more reason to use one’s imagination.

Helt sikkert, ordføreren i Oslo. Helt sikkert. www.tv2.no/nyheter/ette...

Nå får vi håpe at Steinberg får tilbake alle togavganger. Det har virkelig ikke vært greit å miste avganger som togpendler: www.stortinget.no/no/Saker-og-...

Available Oslo PhD positions – heritage conservation, archaeological & paleoenvironmental geochemistry, & on the POLYCHROME project (concerning historical sources on changing attitudes to medieval objects after the Reformations in the Scandinavian countries) #jobfairy www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...

Nice to see some very cool images from my ‘Classicizing the Gaelic’ chapter on the visuality of Irish manuscripts included in this Irish Times write-up of the book Irish Migrations and Classical Antiquity 👇

Over the years, there’s been a lot of talk about Russian-speaking minorities in countries formerly occupied by the Soviet Union. For a change, a look into the many indigenous languages in the territory of the Russian Federation: oc-media.org/a-quiet-cree...

I get that everyone who is in the know knows this already but I am quite happy for a publication to be surfacing it again, especially for readers who may not be aware

The First American Cookbook: Sample Recipes from American Cookery (1796)

Everywhere, our communities have been poisoned by nationalism & cruelty. You can live in our communities, on sufference, but you may not love in them.

Not surprisingly also Arbeiderpartiet in Norway.

Those who want to have a closer look at the "Wayland Stone" from Sherburn find a rather good 3D-rendition here: sketchfab.com/3d-models/wa...

Utterly amazing work as always from Adam @eblueaxe.bsky.social here: I've been keenly watching these coming along - particularly as a pair of these brooches are replicas of a find from near Bedale, very much on my patch! I'm always stunned at the insights such things can give us.

Fixing the academic funding system wouldn’t eliminate the problem of academic creeps. But it would mean that creeps couldn’t hide behind the prestige of bringing large private donations to universities, and thereby preserving their positions in the academy

Stile with added chesspiece. #Lewis

Icelandic uses various animal poop in insults. Examples: Sparðatíningur (lamb poop picking) = you’re nitpicking. Kríuskítur (arctic tern poop) = you’re super pale. Tittlingaskítur (small bird poop) = doesn’t matter/small fry. Taðskegglingur (horse poop beard) = you’ve such a bad/nonexistent beard.

Read about Ruhnu: “Covering just 11.9 square kilometres, Ruhnu lies in the Gulf of Riga, geographically closer to the Latvian coast than to mainland Estonia.” estonianworld.com/life/ruhnu-c...

Radokuu in the Estonian folk calendar, with "rado" meaning "storm" in the southern Estonian Võro language. "Kuu" is "moon" — though the month has other names depending on dialect. According to my calendar, tomorrow, the 2nd, is Pudding Day. "The sun on this day […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Toute une découverte! Une équipe d'archéologues a découvert en Syrie des cylindres comportant des inscriptions ressemblant à des caractères alphabétiques. Ces objets dateraient de 2400 av. J.-C. et seraient ainsi 500 ans plus vieux que les premières écritures alphabétiques connues.

I know many things are happening but please take a minute to read this: we are in full blackout in Kyiv, metro stopped, for the 1st time like this, power outages for the whole Ukraine and even in neighbouring Moldova now too. all because of Russia bombing our power stations , while it’s -19 outside

February is the time to be sitting in front of a roaring fire. #MedievalCalendar BSB Clm 835; Psalter, 1st quarter 13th century; England (Oxford); f.1v

When prominent Norwegians feature rather heavily in certain files, some still seem to think that this speaks of their stupidity & naivety. Why this underestimation based on vague ideas about famous people - fully capable of getting involved knowingly and willingly, expecting to get away with it.

I över 200 år har hällristningar från bronsåldern väckt forskarnas intresse. Trots det vet vi fortfarande förvånansvärt lite om de individer som högg dessa figurer i berget. En ny avhandling riktar fokus på personerna bakom ristningarna. svenskhistoria.se/mastarna-bak... #svhist

Academic publishing: A volume that’s been delayed for six-seven years (yes, six-seven) is to be published later this year, and on short notice, you’ve been given the generous amount of six days to send in your changes and corrections.

And this: “In recent weeks, over 10,000 images and videos from Iranian state-owned or controlled media outlets—most related to the recent protests—have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.” www.neutralpov.com/p/a-flood-of...

Battles over words may seem insignificant, but they do have power in shaping how history is understood. Small nations are especially vulnerable and have much to lose in an uncertain present and future when their histories are purposefully reframed. One example: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...

While we celebrate the persistence a community-driven online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia, we should pay attention to what is happening within these spaces. A case in point is the ongoing activity targeting the representation of the history of the Baltic countries.

While we celebrate the persistence a community-driven online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia, we should pay attention to what is happening within these spaces. A case in point is the ongoing activity targeting the representation of the history of the Baltic countries.

Many thanks to everyone in Oslo for a fantastic seminar and a great opportunity to meet others working on similar epigraphic material, to discuss challenges, share methods and plan collaborations @kristelzilmer.bsky.social @researchireland.ie @maynoothuniversity.ie