"Great workshop last week discussing landscape change & conservation with the LCCM team! Exciting conversations on connecting historical maps, computational methods, and land protection in UK National Parks. Looking forward to the next steps! #MapReader #Conservation #UKLandscapes"

Sneak peak: MapReader data created by @kirstylilley.bsky.social for vegetation & more on historical OS map sheets in @peakdistrict.bsky.social & @southdownsnp.bsky.social for the "Landscape Change & Conservation with MapReader" project w/@natlibscot.bsky.social @dataculture.bsky.social & both parks

Up and out early to walk with Sing Thrush and Carion Crows. A beautiful day.

👀 Funded PhD @ Coventry University: Uses and Abuses of the Past: the Role of Presentism in Cultural Memory. 'The inquiry ... will select and investigate a series of objects or sites to explore the use of history as a tool for debating contemporary social and cultural issues' tinyurl.com/4zksy84y

Heritage delivers so much for nature, as havens and homes. Sitting in the church yard, just four minutes and so many birds shared their song. I walked by the pond to get here and saw a kingfisher and a heron. Heritage preserves more than earthworks and mortar.

Doh! I meant @antiquaries.bsky.social - although The Society of Authors are also wonderful!

Over the moon to have been made a Fellow of @societyofauthors.bsky.social I am eternally grateful to the person who nominated me, who saw something in me that I didn’t, and to all those who supported my nomination. As a peer nominated membership, this has meant a lot to me. Thank you.

We welcome the £270m investment announced today - a vital recognition of the direct benefit of heritage on people and places. Much of our cultural infrastructure, from museums to theatres, is also part of our heritage that will benefit from this funding. www.gov.uk/government/n...

www.gov.uk/government/n... Hot off the press, funding announcement for arts & culture. Some is funding we are familiar with such as MEND, but worth a read - heritage at risk also boosted for built heritage and funding for community ownership of heritage assets . #museums #arts #culture #heritage

Museum job! The Clockworks is looking for an experienced curator to run its unique London museum: world-class objects, wonderful premises, stable funding, great people. Full-time, £45k. Interested? Find out more and come meet us! www.museumjobs.com/jobdetails.p...

Walk today. A march up the hill and then a saunter around the church yard. Snowdrops out. Leaves turning from brown to green. Moss on stone. Birds building.

Using some timber reviver to give a beam above a window some love. It had been encased in layers and layers of unbreathable paint over 30 years or so, and there was a concern it was rotting underneath. Gentle chemical removal of the paint and some beeswax love, and it’s looking so much happier ❤️

Archaeologists find 'significant' Viking building www.bbc.com/news/article...

New discovery underneath the basement of an office block in London: Archaeologists have found a substantial piece of the ancient city's first basilica - a 2,000 year old public building where major political, economic and administrative decisions were made. 🏺

Saw “Maria” this evening. Angelina Jolie absolutely everything in this role. An unexpected historic parallel made when Maria shown trying to recreate her role as Anna Bolena, ended by holding her neck as her voice goes. Amazing film. Surprised Jolie not up for an Oscar. Many tears in the audience.

www.gov.uk/government/n... A glimmer of hope ...

Got in two hours of archery practice this morning. This end was going well until my last shot, when I lost focus and I moved my foot and dropped my shoulder. Consistency is tough, but so is losing focus and letting worry seep into a calm mind. Definitely need a bit more practice. 🏹🏹🏹

Hey everyone, I have been asked to speak to a class of primary school children about the Romans. I have ideas about what I could cover, but wanted some reflections on what messages you’d think would be good to share. Any insights, let me know! #Romans #museums #learning #ancient

"A wall is all that could divide you between two different worlds." @pompei79.bsky.social #archaeology #Roman #museum #Pompeii www.bbc.com/news/article...

Trees consuming metal. Deer trails. Natures barrow builders. Mud. Leaves. Edgelands. Todays walk.

⚠️ Iron Age OPEN ACCESS research klaxon alert⚠️ Our joint @tcddublin.bsky.social @bournemouthuni.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social article *Continental influx and pervasive matrilocality in Iron Age Britain* published in @nature.com today can be found here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Good summary (there’s a nice video display on this in room 2 at the moment (? the small one on the right of the front door for temporary exhibits)

View over the valley from the back garden fence.

Yesterdays walk. Heady heights. Icy chalk.

The big man always has to have the last word. He’s good at gentle warnings when she is being annoying. #malamutes #alaskanmalamute

Do you know what the broken sword in this portrait represents? ⚔️ In this posthumous portrait of Richard III, the weapon that Richard holds against his left shoulder is doubtless intended to represent a sword of state - a symbol of royal authority with almost as much significance as the crown.

PhD @goldsmithsuol.bsky.social and Public Health exploring the cultural associations of coastal Sussex & suicide. Assoc. with suicide here dates back at least to 7th c (Bede) but past lens explore future solutions. Be part of the work to change the future narrative: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

New @nationaltrust.bsky.social strategy is looking awesome! An integrated approach to nature recovery & heritage, commitments to greater partnership, ongoing focus on equitable access/relevance, and another great strapline to join Forever, For Everyone! ❤️ www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/o...

Happy new year from these gorgeous hooligans. Hope 2025 is a kind year to all.

I find this time of year very hard, so have been getting out for a daily walk. Living somewhere else, I am finding old paths in new places. Today I explore chalk pits, rope swings, railway bridges.

Yesterday’s walk a bit bleak but ended wandering around the churchyard, where every life is an unread story. One tragically, the grave of a boy killed by a fallen tree aged 7 in 1874. His parents write in sorrow “we leave our home in health and joy” a reminder we can never know what lies ahead.

Ponies on Butser Hill this morning, making up for the grey skies. Merry Christmas!

Mum makes me two lovely floor cushions and as soon as they’re down, they’re skillfully modelled by Nanuk…. These may no longer be my cushions….

Where are you going to view the winter solstice sunrise, sunset or zenith on Saturday? Find your own special place, or just observe the sun from a window at home. How far south has it travelled on your horizon? 🔆❄️

An adorable late Roman/early Byzantine infant's sock or bootee (length 11,5cm). It has been remarkably preserved because of Egypt's arid desert climate. Made of wool, nalbinding technique (single needle looping). Found in Egypt, dating 4th/5th c. AD. 📷@romtoronto.bsky.social 🏺AncientEgyptBluesky

I don't see many long threads on here, but I'll try one - it's about Holbein's Ambassadors, his 1533 masterpiece in the National Gallery. It's often presented as a great mystery, but I think once we understand the circumstances in which it was made, its meaning becomes clearer. 1/

Really great to see the work of the University of Exeter and National Trust cited (@hannahfluck.bsky.social). @southdownsnp.bsky.social is part of this research, which is already proving potential valuable to our people & nature work. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Ever find yourself at home, hungry, & wishing for an eel delivery service? Well you're not alone! In the 1580s Queen Elizabeth had cartloads of eels & pike delivered weekly to her castle at Hertford from Cambridge by a man named William Raven. Why eel out when you can order in? 🗃️🧪

Right, it's #TWANG* day, so we're going to twang a load of stuff with our mini-catapult. Pay attention it's science. First, a tennis ball. By way of calibration, if you will. But we know what you're all asking... What would happen if we filled that tennis ball with concrete? *Not a thing.

Return to #archery after four months off and boy do I need the practice. Realise it’s tough to remember everything needed for accuracy, core, draw, release, breathing, shoulders, finger position… I need to make more time to practice in 2025. Lovely to see people though at the last shoot of 2024. 🏹

Unlike the majority of Roman tombstones, this inscription is decidedly humorous suggesting a sense of fun in both of the named individuals – Calidius Eroticus and Fannia Voluptas, which may be understood as ‘Mr Hot-and-Sexy’ and ‘Mrs Party-Queen’.

#EpigraphyTuesday – I’m in the mood for something a little fun today, so let’s take a quick gander at the 'epitaph' of Lucius Calidius Eroticus and his wife, Fannia Voluptas, from Isernia (CIL IX, 2689). #Latin 🏺🧵 Image: Louvre Collections (Ma 3165). Link - collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/c...

Lovely chance to catch up with Katrina Burton at Amberley and see the conservation work to address Heritage at Risk, thanks to MEND funding. A reminder of just how critical this fund has been. A quirky, unique one of a king site with something of everything.

We're thrilled to announce the forthcoming Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund, a £1.5m programme of grant-making, networking and learning dissemination for health and wellbeing programmes in museums, funded by the Julia Rausing Trust. Look out for more details in spring 2025!

Collections management folks, I feel like there were some really great posts (and articles?) on found in collection, missing, audits, etc. museum object stats the last time the discourse went around on Twitter- does anyone have faves to share?

Magical Roman cup filled with bacon fat in a 6th Century grave in Lincolnshire.

The Association for Heritage Interpretation journal has featured an article written by myself and colleague Emily Summers Mileman on the experience of creating site #interpretation with a writers community, reframing the #landscape through diverse experiences and perspectives of belonging. #museum

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas…. (Predicting that the dogs will have the tree over before today is out….)

Thank goodness the roof is still on despite the wind!