archive photo: dawn entrance to piazza san marco at high tide, 2011

I want this tawny sky and to be paddling in this turtle pool The gazalle makes friends, Kalila wa Dimna, 16th c MetMuseum 1981.373.61

found in the files today--Chiangmai elephants, 2017

kid in the middle ages seeing a dead body dug up:

the metal macpherson motto on this ex libris in Bede's Vita Cuthberti... also, youre not the boss of me i touch the cat

look war is bad and plunder is also bad but if i was a marauding Pisan in the 12th c i would not be able to leave this chonkster behind, no court in the land etc etc

chomp (Xigoupan, tomb M2, 4-3rd c BC)

Caspar David Friedrich 1824// Guillermo del Toro 2025

one has not really read The Nature of the Gothic until one has read it typeset by William Morris

and this amazing zoom talk tomorrow! events.berkeley.edu/CMES/event/3...

!!! Due to snow this great talk today is now on zoom! mesaas.columbia.edu/events/forgi...

Ara Harutyunyan working on the now-dispersed Banvori Ardzan (Worker Statue)- which still gives its name to an intersection and bus stop, confusing young dumb archaeologists trying to catch a bus to Vayots Dzor back in the day...

I wrote about the patty melt, about not fitting into molds, and about the pain & joy of a life that doesn't fit a predetermined menu: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

the tetramorph shimmering in the air, from Rylands Library MS Latin 30 f 123r

sharing the delight of the textile details from ROM www.artoftheancestors.com/blog/the-clo...

beautiful work from Ani Shahinian! hmml.org/stories/seri...

NYC- colleagues and friends! I'll be in the Columbia History Dept on 20 February to talk about ongoing work on relics, ruins, and rocky landscapes in medieval Vayots Dzor--come join! 6pm 208 Knox Hall

so excited that this fabulous issue of <Études arméniennes contemporaines> is finally out in the world. my weird little interview is some unguarded + chaotic thoughts on materiality, on archaeology, and on making medieval things--- journals.openedition.org/eac/3552

listening to the waves crash outside as I write about the medieval idea of pearls conceived by oyster-wombs from the cascading of heavenly dew, or the strike of lightning

We're now advertising for open-ended Lectureships in Medieval Studies and in Art History, based in @bbkhistorical.bsky.social in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. See cis7.bbk.ac.uk/home.html Please repost!

so moved by the incredibly curated and intimate Arshile Gorky exhibit at the Armenian Museum of America— it is perfect and it was amazing to see the whole community out celebrating !

living the actual dream of my 20 year old self, writing about Seamus Heaneys Bog Queen for my job

me and who

obsessed with the woodblock cut illuminated letters from the first Armenian printed bible, 1668, of which the NAASR Mardigian library miraculously has a copy

TIL that the grapes of wrath are a figure from Revelations 14:10, here are some angels checkin that vintage (MS Douce 180 fol 41v), honestly an image i am vibing with today, hashtag nec habent requiem die ac nocte, qui adoraverunt bestiam

weird little guys on an arm reliquary MetMus 47.101.33

i have never clicked so fast, what a nightmare

obsessed with this little peek of block print fabric in the early modern binding of the 14th c Gladzor gospel

to the girl on the bike in the witch hat who just adjusted her headphones and pedaled away singing Sally’s Song from Nightmare Before Xmas: I love you

i’m in a crowded bar and the time warp just came on and no one time warped, i am an ancient being out of time

amazing www.emptysetmag.com/articles/blo...

Astghik wrote this excellent discussion of the trajectory of medieval archaeology in the Republic of Armenia, from the perspective of our project. And the rest of this issue is awesome also! journals.ysu.am/index.php/hi...

boosting the signal for this excellent conference in Yerevan: 📌International conference “Fortresses and Defense System in the Middle East” | October 23-25, 2025 ➡️The conference program is presented below: ➡️You may also join the conference via the Zoom platform: us05web.zoom.us/j/8200944272....

doomed opinion but it’s a weird vibe hearing people w cancelled nsfs congratulating themselves on being mostwoke martyrs when, babes, actual critical postmodern shit didn’t get nsfs before, we’ve been poor this whole time

me and who

smiles, retitles syllabus topic heading from "anchoresses and anchorholds" to "Living Dead Girls"

bow to our varmint queen

as an inveterate lawn hater but also a human-landscape-entanglement story lover, im so excited to head to this later today--- humanities.tufts.edu/events/unive...

ugh, a new favorite panel by Vayots Dzortsi T'oros Sarkawag -- famous for putting himself into his paintings, this one of the Dormition, with a little T'oros sweetly censing in the foreground

looking for lecture slide pics and finding only a tiny version of myself, taking dusk selfies at the arena of Siena

hmm should i work, or should i design my own ex libris book plates, a thing i cant believe i havent done

despite walking by this monument a million times, I learned today that it commemorates the saving of the Mush Homiliary by two unknown women, who cut the massive manuscript in half and carried it on their backs out of the genocide from Arakelots to Yerevan

millennials, this is a sober reminder to check in on those people you knew in college who were clearly poised for a villain arc. are they in safe containment? could they be appointed the ceo of anything?

tracked down the news article covering the SCANDALOUS purchase of the unicorn tapestries by Rockefeller Tues Feb 27, 1923

a beautiful thing that didnt make it into the lecture today: a paradise carpet, 17th c Isfahan

back on my bullshit (reading Hafez at work)

i spent 7 years with no bluejays and i missed you you yelly little jerks

new favorite Layla/Majnun illustration: Walters 611 Khamsah of the 13th c, f92b

hoooboy that douay rheims song of songs really hits

as it steadily rains all day, i am loving the watery gurgling wash of marbling in the margins of this perfect painting of nightingale and rose, lover and beloved ('Abdullah Bukhari, Ottoman Istanbul, 18th c, metmuseum 2023.217)