Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, planting millions of trees across Africa. She believed protecting the environment also protected communities, especially women, who relied on it for their livelihoods. She was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. #WomenInSTEM

The empire of Segu (1712-1861): ethnic ambiguity in a pre-colonial African state www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire...

Displacement of local populations in the name of safeguarding World Heritage is a practice that should be discouraged. I’m surprised it is still being done anywhere. We have come a long way since this was common practice, but I guess we still have a way to go. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

A sad story of the distruction of historic buildings in Yemen. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

So fantastic to see that @preservinglegacies.bsky.social is in the running for this @gcadaptation.bsky.social award. The team is doing incredible work. #climateheritage #resilience #climatejustice 🌏 HT @andrewspotts.bsky.social

James Marston Fitch argued that the reuse of existing buildings should be prioritized over construction of new ones. His simple yet radical thesis is more relevant than ever. For our “Future Archive” series, Places Editor Nancy Levinson writes an introduction to a paper delivered by Fitch in 1978.

Participation in museums: a complex and challenging topic expertly taken up by @helengraham.bsky.social 🙌 Open access: uclpress.co.uk/book/deconst...

📣 Call for Abstracts Do you have a story of how risk to heritage was reduced or resilience strengthened in your community, institution, or country? Submit here: iccrom.org/news/call-ab...

Importantly, looks at indirect costs of fire impacts, and is probably still an underestimate. 🔥🌍 #climatechange

Blue Shield Annual Report 2024

“In 1944, a soldier on Australia’s most remote northern coastline discovered a handful of copper coins that were originally minted in the medieval Swahili city of Kilwa, Tanzania, between 1150 and 1330 CE.” www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/africans-i...

UNESCO adds the Diy-Gid-Biy stone ruins of Cameroon to the World Heritage List www.france24.com/en/live-news...

A deeper challenge: First nations underwater cultural heritage in #Australia. The possibility of underwater archaeology from Australia's deep past. share.google/kCcIOzt1k28H... #IndigenousPeoples #underwaterculturalheritage #heritagelaws #fishtraps

Secret charity postcard… none of you will be there… Egg tempera on postcard-sized board with casein gesso. #roosters #watermelon #charity #painting #art #eggtempera #stilllife #rose #green

The city states of the Yoruba: a history of pre-colonial West African urbanism (1000-1900 CE) www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-city-s...

Repeopling vrs Rewilding is an unhelpful polarisation of views in contemporary land regeneration debates. Reintroducing past social, env. & economic complexity can open up new conversations & options. A topic central to my current research & taken up brilliantly here by @eddiecstewart.bsky.social:

Excellent article on Tanzanian archaeology and rock art. The rock art at Kondoa is really exceptional. To be clear, Tanzania has always had a strong group of archaeologists and heritage professionals but the focus on community centered approaches is fundamental.

Arena Stage kicks off its 75th anniversary season with a bold “revisal” of Damn Yankees. Moved into the 21st century, Joe is reimagined as a Black man with ties to the Negro Leagues, and the women get autonomy.

When Vasco da Gama first reached the Swahili coast in 1498, he was astounded to find well-developed urban centres with buildings of “stone and mortar, with windows and terraces like those of Spain.” Origins and Development of Swahili Architecture www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/origins-an...

Walls were thick and substantial, and Rooms were long and narrow due to the spanning capacity of the mangrove poles and squared timbers. Houses followed a standard plan and arrangement of rooms as a contiguous sequence of parallel spaces www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/origins-an...

The ancient Megalith builders of Africa www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-ancien...

The ancient megaliths of Turkana (Kenya): 5,000-year-old stone pillars at the end of the Green Sahara. www.patreon.com/posts/ancien...

Tomorrow's article is about Africa's ancient megaliths

Finishing this later today, hopefully! Slow Boat to China, egg tempera on panel 30 x31 cm, August 2025. I was thinking about this romatic song! #art #music #colour#painting #eggtempera #stilllife paint your worries away! youtu.be/uTmLYySHHTY?...

Despite all of this, ot maybe just alongside all of this, New Orleans remains the greatest city on earth. Maybe that is also our collective future. But that isn't guaranteed. It requires actually caring about one another and joyfully celebrating life. That's harder sometimes than marking death.

Excellent new paper led by Dr Bart Hill in Nature Comms “Market-based instruments to fund nature-based solutions for flood risk management can disproportionately benefit affluent areas” #NbS #NFM #equity #IMD #England (free to download) 👇🏼 rdcu.be/eCWd9

This is a beautifully written, devastatingly accurate piece. Rest of the country, y’all should probably take note.

Leveraging archaeological knowledge in designing for climate change adaptation.

In 1966, Ed Ruscha drove a car rigged with a motorized camera to capture Los Angeles’ most iconic street: Sunset Boulevard. He created a time capsule of its famed facades, beginning a sixty-year-long commitment to documenting the changing urban landscape of postwar Los Angeles.

Historic Environment Scotland have just published published Conserving our Underwater Heritage. Non statutory guidance note. www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and...

I had the good fortune to visit this site 20 years ago. I am hopeful that the local community along with the government and international community can find solutions to protect this place of outstanding universal value. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Yellow Flowers Brimming with Sun,egg tempera on panel, 20 x 26 cm,2025. Am in awe of my sunflowers this year. This lemon yellow beauty is bringing me good luck and happiness! #bird #books #eggtempera #art #painting #stilllife#sunflower #pattern #happiness #cat

Italy has lost one of its fiercest cultural guardians, and ARCA has lost a brilliant friend, mentor, and ally. art-crime.blogspot.com/2025/08/ital...

Know Your Emergency Manager

A thoughtful guideline for AI use in History Education by @historians.org insisting on the fundamental role of expertise, uncertainty, & creativity in historical work *BUT* the guideline approves « Ask[ing] generative AI to produce a historical image for a paper or presentation » This is an issue.

My first thought… working class Romans could never afford to live near Piazza Venezia today. How times have changed in 2000 years. 😁 My second thought… my God, I am going have to deal with traffic chaos for 9 more years before the project ends??? 😱 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Homes of ‘working-class Romans’ discovered during Rome metro dig. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

in going to step in here and suggest that historians might find value in the rich archaeological literature about reconstruction drawings, their ethics and perils as well as the scholarly work they do. I'll list a few in skeets below for folks interested.

ICYMI The ornamented architecture of pre-colonial Asante www.patreon.com/posts/orname...

Trump administration pulls US out of UNESCO again buff.ly/JRt7WyE UNESCO Programs and Their Value to the World Today buff.ly/mUu6PnP Withdrawal of the United States of America from UNESCO: statement by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General buff.ly/5piSp2F

Lavori per la nuova Metro C a Roma: sotto Piazza Venezia riaffiorano ritrovamenti romani e medievali www.artribune.com/arti-visive/...

205 essays in 4 years My only regret is having to leave so much on the cutting room floor for the sake of brevity (a comprehensive history of African explorers, for example, would fill at least five volumes) There's little excuse to be ignorant of African history

Perspectives and outcomes of Africa's age of exploration www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/perpsectiv...

Decolonizing museums is complicated but progress is being made, as at @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social.

Dr Andrew Jennings, @thinkuhi.bsky.social Associate Professor in Island Studies, examines the unmistakable cultural identity of Cornwall in his latest substack article. Arguing that the county has the attributes of an island culture #research #islands #culture open.substack.com/pub/resilien...

“Previous research on West African architecture often stressed the foreign influences of its more complex forms, But recent studies have shown that West African construction styles were products of endogenous developments unique to the region.” www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-indege...

Gullah Geechee burial grounds are not just at risk from climate change and sea level rise, but also from land development. #climateheritage

Yes!! It's a fantastic place and a brilliant restoration story. I was there at the opening and revisited last week. 🌏