Elgin Museum's archaeology conference has an excellent line-up of speakers and papers, including @northernpicts.bsky.social's Burghead update, Loch Spynie through time, Covesea caves, metalwork and Celtic art, iron production in Agricolan-era Moray... In-person and online, tickets from £5.

Applications are invited for two positions of Lexicographer in the Foclóir Stairiúil na Gaeilge (FNG), a research programme of the Royal Irish Academy. Find out more: www.ria.ie/about/careers/vacancy-two-lexicographer-posts-with-focloir-stairiuil-na-gaeilge/ #DublinJobs #JobFairy #IrishJobs

Hope someone takes a crack at ChatGPT next. These companies are fundamentally built on theft.

@bnenews.bsky.socialBirds thriving, breeding successfully in Germany’s solar parks www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/05/b...

This week's source translation: a tenth-century Carolingian sermon gives advice for life and politics to... well, everyone. salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2025/04/01/t...

In honour of Simon's #FindsFriday post, I managed to excavate my 🧵 from the bad site: In 1865, in a field outside the village of Pîtres, a road worker stumbled on a pair of Viking Age oval brooches (type R.657, c. 850-900 CE), typically used as shoulder clasps on Scandinavian-style dresses. 1/11

initial 'F'(uit) at the beginning of 1 Kings (1 Samuel) depicting the fight between the youth David and Goliath. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 003; The Dover Bible, Volume I; 12th century; f.115v @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social @corpuscambridge.bsky.social

The Melsonby assemblage (not a hoard). 28 (smallish) wheels and 14 harnesses, so potentially seven 4-wheeled carts (2 ponies each). If right then Early Iron Age tradition, as vessel might suggest. Out of fashion in Gaul by 450 BC, slightly later here perhaps. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

This is a great opportunity for younger archaeologist to present their research during National Heritage Week 2025

An important question (and not only for the Middle Ages - government, and no end of communities struggle to get their heads around this, today, too).

Chair in Divinity at St Andrews... with door open for #medieval (I think) #medievalsky www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

The King's Fort • Derry This is one of the best preserved ringforts in Ulster. It likely dates to some time between the 6th-11th century. It is situated on the southern slopes of Benbradagh, commanding spectacular views over Drumsurn in County Derry. #SpéirGhorm #Archaeology 🏺

Historiated initial 'L'(ibrum) at the beginning of the preface to the book of Esther. BnF MS Latin 116; Biblia Latina, pars II; 12th century; Chartres; f.65v @gallicabnf.bsky.social

New paperbacks in the 'Classical Islamic History and Culture' series, published by the good folks at @edinburghup.bsky.social 👇🏻

I'm convinced *far* more prehistoric forest loss was due to livestock preventing regrowth than people cutting down trees. But because a tree seedling getting eaten by a sheep goes unnoticed, so does the resulting deforestation, over 100s of years.

I'm drafting my inuaugral lecture today and have a section on the penitential ordinance, a very interesting document from 170 that deals with the aftermath of conquest. You can read about it here from an old post 1/ #medievalsky #https://normanlandscapes.wordpress.com/2023/11/12/remembrance/

Trump's tariffs threaten Canada's food security. It's time to go local #foodsecurity #Canada #tariffs #DonaldTrump #shoplocal www.corporateknights.com/food-beverag...

The RIA is on Bluesky

The approach to Dunadd Fort at the southern end of Kilmartin Glen in Argyll. Occupied since the Iron Age, the fort was a major centre for the Gaelic kings of Dál Riata from around AD 500 to AD 800. 📸 My own. #HillfortsWednesday #IronAge #Medieval #Dunadd #Argyll

A Latin-English-Gaelic dictionary begun in 1712 by Father Francis Walsh of Dublin. It was purchased by Marsh's around 1743 for £20. We went with the entry on trees as it's #NationalTreeWeek as well as #SeachtainnaGaeilge! See the full manuscript on ISOS: www.isos.dias.ie/MARSH/MS_Z_3...

In 'Cogadh Gaedel re Gallaib' (12th century saga about Battle of Clontarf) the word scelbocodech is a compound from scell 'shield boss' loaned from Old Norse skjöldr 'shield' + boccóitech meaning embossed. So I take it to refer to ornamented shield bosses used in battle #medievalsky 1/2

"The image of the painter and illuminator of this work. Hugh the painter" Hugh, the 11th century artist of Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 717, goes meta and paints himself at work on the manuscript itself.

*** WARNING CONTENT: HUMAN REMAINS *** 🏺 In 1998 the burial of a child was found in a shelter in Lagar Velho (#Portugal). A decade before the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, its skeleton was thought to be evidence for a Neanderthal/Sapiens hybrid.. Image: Nuno Farinha / Museu de Leiria 1/

A 6ft Pictish stone engraved with an axe-wielding figure was ploughed up by farmer Kevin Alston at Barflat, near Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, #OTD in 1978. ‘Rhynie Man’ is believed to date from the 5/6thC.

Words on the Wave is a historic exhibition of Irish manuscripts from St Gall, Switzerland, coming on loan to the National Museum. Some of these will return to Ireland for the first time in 1,000 years! Opens 30 May 2025. Further info to follow… www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museum... mira.ie/index.php?pa...

The fresco of Saints Gallus and Magnus in the crypt of the monastery of St Mang in Füssen shows the two peripatetic monks and monastery founders on a journey together. Dating to around 1000, it lay hidden in the Romanesque crypt under the baroque church until 1950.

Caer Penrhos nr. Llanrhystud,Ceredigion is the only recorded Welsh ringwork castle. It was built by Owain Gwynedd's son Cadwaladr in 1149 & was much fought over up to 1327 when it was possibly the country seat of Sir Gruffudd Llwyd. It lies within a hillfort & has many intriguing earthworks outside.

The Holy Land in the margins St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 621; Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII; 9th century (before 883 CE); St. Gall; p.37 (www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/...)

I'm sorry, WHAT?! A new piece of the Bayeux Embroidery has been found?! OMG!

The early medieval burial from Gammertingen, 6th c. AD. The high-ranking warrior died in his early 30s and was buried with a Byzantine helmet (a so-called Spangenhelm), his weapons, and his mail armour – which consisted of about 45,000 iron rings! 📷Landesmuseum Württemberg 🏺 #archaeology

Clatterbridge, Wirral - silver dirham. Issued by Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi dating to 159 AH (=AD 775-776), minted in Baghdad. A wide range of #coins and finds have been recovered by metal detectors from this area dating from Roman to Modern times suggesting an important routeway #medievalsky #cheshire

Proofs!! 😀🎉 @sarahbaccianti.bsky.social

This week we bring you our very own @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social! On ‘soft power’, what is patronage, the #nuntastic Agnes, ‘An Caillech Mór’ (d.1196), St Mary’s monastery, Clonard, & the study of medieval Ireland. Tiago's work is funded by @researchireland.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/1eEq...

Please spread the word @orkneylibrary.bsky.social @theorkneynews.bsky.social @orkneycom.bsky.social Thanks!

Thrilled to see our forthcoming book now has a website! www.cambridge.org/core/books/l...

Really excited to see this out in the world, open-access ✨ I argue that coloured/enlarged letters (litterae notabiliores) and paragraphs are used in the manuscripts to mark dialogue and the textual structure of Acallam na Senórach. MS pictures and direct links to @dias-isos.bsky.social are provided!

Let there be light. Let there be hope. #AGrandStretch #Speirgorm

”Vikings in the Mediterranean” , a great collection of papers on… Vikings in the Mediterranean! Download it as a free PDF here 👇 bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/h...

From póg to obair, Irish freely adopted Latin vocabulary during the Christianisation of the country, especially to describe religion, education and daily life. By Pádraic Moran @uniofgalway.bsky.social @researchireland.bsky.social www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Recent lecture to Loyola Institute TCD on St Brigit’s early female followers -now on Loyola Institute YouTube channel www.youtube.com/watch?v=44eyeQGHUBU. Argument is that abbess fostered young girls and had lord/client relations with many of their mothers & other female Christians outside Kildare

I will be giving a talk in Cork @ucc.ie on bilingual Greek–Latin Irish manuscripts this Wed 19 Feb 5.15 ORB 2.02. Many thanks to the Seminar for Ancient and Medieval Studies for the Invitation. This will be an expanded version of a paper I gave at the @scs-dias.bsky.social Tionól last November.

Since childhood, one of my very favourite places on earth. Byland Abbey. Founded as a Savigniac abbey in 1135 before being absorbed by the Cistercian order in 1147. The community were nomadic for a while moving five times before settling at Byland around 1177.

I was delighted to record this with Niamh and Tiago, hope you all enjoy!

A Date for the Diary!📆 Hugely looking forward to hosting this workshop in Cambridge next June in collaboration with the excellent eDIL project (www.dil.ie). Bringing together research on medical terminology in medieval Irish, Welsh, English, French, German & more. All welcome! Details to follow...

#Ingleton #Ribblehead remains of 3 farm buildings around a courtyard. Only the foundations survive today. Finds include 4 ninth century coins, spearhead & knives, suggested early site of #Viking settlement, or just economic links with York #medievalsky (coin image not from site but of type found)

A great resource :) “Epistolæ: Medieval Women's Letters… a collection of medieval Latin letters to and from women. The letters collected here date from the 4th to the 13th centuries, and they are presented in their original Latin as well as in English translation...” (epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu)

Want to do a fully funded PhD on medieval English historiography? Well do I have an opportunity for you! See the attached ad and get in touch ASAP if you're interested (and please share widely).

A hoard of British and Roman coins found in Bunnik, near Utrecht thought to be the spoils of war of a Roman soldier from the conquest of Britain. The 44 gold coins, staters, bearing the inscription of King Cunobelin were discovered with 360 Roman coins. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Jan 28: Feast of Cainir of Bantry, a 6thc female saint who argued that Jesus died for women too; I revisited Cainir for the Bantry Historical & Archaeological Journal (link in thread); the editor told me that Cainir's feastday was locally reinstated as a result 😊 ©National Folklore Collection, UCD