Join us Nov 25 for Engaging Publics in Media, Cities & Space -free online conference on research impact in media and urban studies. Talks on monographs, journals, podcasts, walking tours + networking, incl. a special session for ECRs. 👉 Full programme & register: docs.google.com/document/d/e...

Item on the Damascus Museum thefts, including quotes from @bbkhistorical.bsky.social’s own Adnan Almohamad

Proper treat yesterday listening to Dr Ana Vale of Uni of Porto speaking on her incredible research into social lives in Late Prehistory. Thank you to @bbkhistorical.bsky.social and @lesleymcf.bsky.social for the invitation, the Carena Institute for Sustainable Archaeologies is up and running 🌟

Speaking about my/Adnan Almohamad’s work in Greenwich tomorrow evening if you’d like to come along

Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future / Lisa Brody, Anne Hunnell Chen (eds) #openaccess @brepols.net www.brepolsonline.net/action/showB... @julietsamsonconlon.bsky.social @jenbaird.bsky.social @lrbrody.bsky.social

University Archaeology Day is at the @britishacademy.bsky.social this year! Here with @lesleymcf.bsky.social and lots of premium Birkbeck owl swag!

I'm so proud of what we're building! www.bbk.ac.uk/news/meet-th...

How has paperwork served as a tool of empowerment for people who often find power elusive? In our latest podcast, a group of historians, archivists, and activists met at the Raphael Samuel History Centre (@rshc.bsky.social) to discuss the hidden history of paperwork 🗃️🎙️

Term is coming up, time to decorate those office doors

What are the relationships between local communities and major heritage sites in Syria, and why do they matter? Adnan Almohamad and I attempt to begin to answer -- out now, open access. www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1...

Massive congrats to Juliet, of @bbkhistorical.bsky.social, on her first publication, documenting the important corpus of bone dolls from Dura-Europos. Juliet's PhD is exploring the archaeology of childhood from the archives of the site. 🥳

Join us in Aarhus for RAC/TRAC 2026! Rubina Raja and I have organised a session on "Archival Fieldwork" in archaeology and welcome submissions Details on how to apply and attend here: www.romansocietyrac.ac.uk/ractrac-2026... (Deadline October 10)

Come along to a gathering around contemporary art and archaeology on Arran at 4pm- 6pm on the 8th August!

Talked to @nature.com last week about scientific conferences in the past, present and future

Thanks to an incredibly generous former student, we have some wonderful news for archaeology at Birkbeck: a new institute. The Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies will enable research projects, support global collaborations, and fund studentships as well. www.bbk.ac.uk/research/cen...

So pleased that we have MA funding available this year for our MA Archaeology & Heritage Programme. Please spread the word (or get in touch if you have questions)! www.bbk.ac.uk/student-serv...

In seems that my review of Ariella Aïsha Azoulay's exhibition in Bristol last year has been include in e-flux's Index #6, alongside the writing of many wonderful people. You can read the review here.

*Master's funding claxon* Did you know that we have a range of scholarships for our MA programmes, including funding specifically for Archaeology, Heritage, and History of Art? Links below!

Also! At the @socstudyofthepast.bsky.social we’re holding an emergency meeting about this at 7pm UK time (9pm Gaza) TOMORROW. All welcome - please come and please share. Zoom link via our website: societyforthestudyofthepast.com/events/

Out today, my review of a recent two volume work on Sculptures from Roman Syria. TL; DR -- Important, but frustrating, work. The words that will stick with me are "current location unknown".

So proud of my brilliant colleague Esther!

📢 June Event coming up at the PEF! "Rethinking Preservation: Diversifying Engagement with the Middle East's Material Past," with Mirjam Brusius. 🗓️ 19th June, 2025 🕕 6pm 📍 5-6 Dreadnought Walk, Greenwich SE10 9FP RSVP by emailing [email protected] ✍️

Another delight of my fieldwork at #Knossos was the opportunity to stay in the Villa Ariadne, Sir Arthur Evans' palatial dig house. He gifted it to the BSA, who gifted it to the Greek government after WW2. It has a history of ghosts, Nazis, and echoes with old-skool colonialism. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

We are fundraising to support #archaeology #students in #Gaza to settle their tuition fees & complete their degrees. We've worked with them at the #GAZAMAP project monitoring vulnerable #culturalheritage. Please donate and share: gogetfunding.com/help-gazan-s...

Some of our lucky archaeology students @bbkhistorical.bsky.social spent last summer excavating in Greece with the Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica of Tarragona. It's a lovely community-oriented project in an exciting Roman landscape and they're looking for support. vkm.is/arsalia

Love the point in the assessment year where the official university position on time management shifts to “simply invent more hours in the day”

UK ARCHAEOLOGISTS Please sign this open letter to UK Archaeological associations to urge solidarity with trans archaeologists and action in light of the horrendous EHRC guidance: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Such a wonderful day on the foreshore crashing @lesleymcf.bsky.social’s beautiful fieldschool with spectacular MOLA colleagues

Thames through Time @bbkhistorical.bsky.social with MOLA/TDP - morning was survey of the foreshore, afternoon was processing and collections tour and environmental archaeology at MOLA office by the canal. A very big thank you to @drclaireharris.bsky.social, Louise Fowler and Eduardo Machicado!

Have just come from the opening of the wonderful ‘Cursed Objects in Museum Shops’ at the Peltz gallery in @bbkhistorical.bsky.social. Absolutely brilliant and with a programme of events too! www.bbk.ac.uk/research/cen...

Couldn’t be prouder of these brilliant archaeologists who graduated from our MA yesterday! I love Birkbeck grad so much. They’re already on to such wonderful things, and an honour to be there on the first day of ceremonies for our new President, Shami Chakrabarti (!)

❤️🍁❤️

Our fieldschool is so amazing it has the power to conjure a heatwave no matter what month of the year it is scheduled for. London, you're welcome for the sun, it's the doing of @lesleymcf.bsky.social!

I'm really pleased that this is finally out: "Archaeological entanglements: Palestinian refugee archaeologists in Cyprus, Libya and Jordan" traces the experiences of the Palestinian archaeologists of the Mandate Dept of Antiquities after 1948: Open access at www.sidestone.com/books/empire...

Back at Drumadoon fieldwalking with islanders! Neolithic flints were found!! Thank you @bbkhistorical.bsky.social for the strategic research fund. @gavinmacgregor.bsky.social @urbanprehistorian.bsky.social @fossilbeetle.bsky.social

So proud of @bbkhistorical.bsky.social’s MA grad Lexi Diggins and her work at Verulamium

#FieldArchaeology Old Masks I (after John Stezaker)

Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

My incredible colleague Esther Breithoff isn't on here, but you should still read her new article "From Bombs to Bracelets" looking at the tangible waste of war www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Accidental self portrait at the wonderful @palexfund.bsky.social today. From looking at stereograph cards to the grants committee, always a busy and fun time in Greenwich

Morning coffee and bun in London, afternoon barrow and standing stones at Stonehenge with @bbkhistorical.bsky.social students!

We are offering two FREE, online semi-intensive short courses in #Phoenician and Punic #language in April 🏛️ 🏺 Elementary course info: ics.sas.ac.uk/events/eleme... Intermediate course info: ics.sas.ac.uk/events/inter... Share and Apply by 22 March!

Apropos of nothing, here's some posters I made for outside my office in case anyone wants them. Text on one edited from @blacktrowel.bsky.social, the other from an Eco article (both cited of course). If you'd like the PDF files, just email me. #antifascist #AncientBluesky 🏺

#AncientHistory seminar 6 March, 4:30pm in Senate House, Room 261 Corisande Fenwick (UCL): The Making of the Islamic World: the view from below and the margins https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/making-islamic-world-view-below-and-margins

I’m glad Labour is supporting these workers, who are at risk of losing 400 jobs. Would be nice if they were also supporting university workers, where 10,000 jobs are at risk. In the first week of February alone 1,000 job cuts were announced. Nothing from Labour at all in response.

Really looking forward to tomorrow's class on Religious and economic life at Palmyra. We’re building on readings by @ehseland.bsky.social on the Caravan Trade, and Rubina Raja on religious objects. Yes, there will be camels.

Please sign and share this student-led petition to save Ancient History here at Cardiff University www.change.org/p/save-cardi...

Tonight my Palmyra students from @bbkhistorical.bsky.social are in for a treat: a visit to @joliheroics.bsky.social and the Wood Archive, to see some of Borra's original drawings, and other gems!