3D scan of the Jelling 2 Stone, a Viking runestone erected by Harald Bluetooth in honour of his mother, Queen Thyra. Research in Antiquity from 2023 suggested women held more power in Viking Denmark than previously believed 🏺 #Archaeology 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 📷 Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt

great book on this topic www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...

Good #runic news for the New Year: Futhark vol. 14 is now published: journals.uu.se/futhark/issu...

Pleased to say that my book review of ‘Runes Across the North Sea from the Migration Period and Beyond’ has finally been published in Futhark 14-15. You can read it here: uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record...

A while ago I had the pleasure of attending the 36th Field Runologists Meeting, held on the Orkney Islands 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 . It was good to be back in my favourite place doing my favourite activity… figuring out what those pesky runes say #runes #runology

Next week I'm on the brilliant #BBCCountryfile Plodcast with Fergus Collins (out 2nd Dec). For now, here's a teaser--a soundscape episode recorded there. Big up the Essex marshes! link.chtbl.com/8j_GMQQa @essexbirdnews.bsky.social @esbr-essex.bsky.social #EssexMarshes #birdsandplace

Delighted to say I’ll be presenting in session 1348 at @imc-leeds.bsky.social IMC 2026! #imc2026

A tiny starter pack of #runology: go.bsky.app/2GTwP8M

Lovely to give a talk at Southwell Women’s Institute with @jaztherunologist.bsky.social and Francesca Squitieri on Women in the Viking Age. A very kind and enthusiastic audience!

Linguist friends… any help with script identification and possible interpretation? #mystery #mysteryscript #icon #orthodoxicon

Gorgeous glass gaming pieces from the Late British Iron Age. This unique set of 24 coloured glass domes with a flattened base and spiral decoration may have been used for a game similar to ludo some 2,000 years ago. British Museum 📷 by me #Archaeology

Very delighted to say that I graduated with my PhD in English on Monday.

In usual IMC fashion, now that #IMC25 has concluded we are searching for papers exploring New Perspectives on the Viking Diaspora. Please get in touch if you are interested and share widely! #IMC26 @imc-leeds.bsky.social

Great to be in Düsseldorf for #ISSEME , where I’ve presented on my PhD topic. Lovely to see old friends and make new ones!

Ooh, this month's #ogham #ogam has a possible #rune and apparently #viking connections. #runology

Happens all the time

Exciting Early Medieval news! A new inscription of Wittiza, one of the very last Gothic kings of Spain (c. 694-710), has been discovered.

Cat in a finds tray. 1997.

In the seventh century, it became a thing for women across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to wear pieces of old Roman glass framed in gold settings as pendants on necklaces. Top left is a new find recorded this week on @findsorguk.bsky.social with others on PAS & the necklace from Sarre.

Delighted to announce that I passed my viva with minor corrections! #runes #runology #phd

Good to see #Wardruna again after a few years 🙏

Five days without being able to check words and facts on Wikipedia and Wiktionary is excruciating

My article/note, ‘A Modern Runic Inscription from York’, Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies 3: 56-63 is out now! #runes #runology #modernrunes

I have my PhD viva in two weeks. What advice would you give me? 📚 #phdviva #viva #phd #medievalbluesky

I’m delighted to be presenting at the 17th Annual Midlands Viking Symposium in May #mvs17 . Come join us for academic talks, panel discussions and a creative writing workshop! #vikings

We should just come back to old tested academic traditions. Articles should have titles like "Some More Thoughts on Medieval Kingship" (87 pages), "Merovingian Gaul. A History" (3 pages, no footnotes), and "An Interesting Pendant from Paris" (unknown pagination, published in village-based journal).

The last big 'reveal' of the Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard AHRC-funded project: the reading of the long runic inscription. Proud to say I played a small part in cracking it by spotting the two puncts around the final rune. The Hoard has now begun its worid tour! www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Office vs WFH 👩🏼‍💻 🐈

Ring with runic inscription found in Lincolnshire, now recorded with PAS! Martin and I had the pleasure of viewing this after I saw a picture of the ring on a metal detecting magazine’s website. finds.org.uk/database/art... #runes #newfinds #runicinscription

Short trip to Derby Museum @derbymuseums.bsky.social this weekend. Such a fantastic array of finds, from the prehistoric to the early medieval, all in one room!

I have a new job! I have a short term contract with Research Consulting Ltd, where I’ll be working on a report of research integrity activity and good practice at higher education institutions in the UK. Here’s my from home vs in office set up 😌 #research

Happy 'It's finally cold enough to wear your lopapeysa' to all in the UK who celebrate!

To welcome 2025, I’m reflecting on the new runic inscriptions I’ve had the pleasure working on in 2024 (and before)! A thread 🧵 [photos for attention because I think they’re really cool] #runes #runology #newrunicinscriptions

How delicately a Romanesque angel uses the lightest touch of a finger to wake one of the magi, snuggled with the other 2 under their crochet-trimmed circular blanket at St Lazare, Autun, c1130 (& how beautifully the textures of pillow & blanket are represented). Season's greetings to you all!

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume? Runologist: My resume? Why do you think it’s mine? The name is illegible.

Happy #Solstice! The Nebra Sky Disc is considered to be the oldest known material representation of cosmic phenomena in the world, dating around 1600 BC. On display at Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle. Further information: www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky... 📷 me 🏺

I had the pleasure of examining this with @judithjesch.bsky.social and it’s always a relief when we read the same thing 😆 check out this lovely spindle whorl with a puzzling #runic #inscription!

All I want for Christmas is… for enough #runologists to join BlueSky so I can create a starter pack 🎄😅

To break up the #runes, here’s some #cat content 😌 🐈 . Her name is Sigrid!

Our online short course focusing on #runes – a writing system that developed in western Europe in the first millennium AD - gets under way in January 2025. Open to all. archaeologyorkney.com/2024/12/17/r... #ThinkUHI #UHIOrkney #Viking #Norse #Runology

Yes, even church bell clappers can get some #runes!

Now I’ve got some free time post-thesis, I’m very interested in getting to grips with #ogham. Any reading or website suggestions?

Happy 15th birthday to Uppsala #Runic Forum! www.runforum.nordiska.uu.se/blog/uppsala... #runes #runology

It’s too late to do an advent calendar 🎄 about early runic inscriptions, but since you’re all following me, you can’t expect to remain runes-free for long. So, welcome to a little 🧵 about some of the inscriptions I’ve studied during my PhD… #runes #runicinscriptions #runology

Today I submitted my PhD! It is titled ‘Determining the Functions of the pre-Old English Runic Inscriptions’. 📚 Phew!

Fellow runologists and others interested in Norwegian #runic inscriptions. The scanning of the Runic Archives in Oslo has been going on for some time now, with good progress. We have also started uploading images of runic inscriptions on ALVIN: www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/home.j...

Optimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half empty. Runologist: After much debate, the most likely interpretation of the inscription on this cup is that it says "cup".

Stop! If you see this post, repost with your cat! Here’s my Sigrid 🥹🧡

I got a ‘good luck!’ from another pharmacy patron today when I mentioned I’m submitting my PhD in a week. Let’s hope his good wishes can banish my tonsillitis 🙃

A recent piece on new medieval #runic finds from Tønsberg, Norway, by Science Norway. A gaming piece and a piece of wood. #runology #runes: www.sciencenorway.no/archaeology-...