Bleak times at Macquarie Uni, as management moves to implement large scale job cuts in arts and science (because who needs that expertise, right?). Amanda’s threat outlines the lies that underpin these changes. We need urgent governance reform now: but is the government listening?

6th annual Erich S. Gruen Prize for best graduate student paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean world. Deadline for submissions: September 30. Spread the word! Or, better: throw your hat in the ring!

The first Augustus themed coin box of enlarged 3D printed replicas is off the manufacturing line and ready to go into a school next week! 🙌 a joint project between classics and design studies at Warwick. ☺️

There's the intrusive/insulting issue here, but it also emerges from completely muddled/siloed thinking. Those REF 4* publications you want necessitate leaving the office. That teaching that funds this place generally and your nonsense management post particularly necessitates leaving the office.

Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsullied…

So I am talking on Agrippina the Younger in one week, 6pm Sydney time, 9am UK time. Sign up here if you are interested! macquarie.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

some of the lead tokens from Rome are really wonderful quality. This piece in the BM shows an empty quadric facing front, and a ram (associated with Mercury) on the other side. www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

The #Manchester Word Square: a piece of Roman pottery with a Latin inscription that is part puzzle and potential Christian symbol. (See the Alt text for more.) Made circa 180, found in the city centre in 1978, now on display in Manchester Museum. #RomanBritain #MuseumMonday #Lancashire 📷 My own.

when you've got all your herms lined up in a row! 🙌 With bonus stick figure 'weary Hercules' on the other side. Token now in British Museum (Rost. 2491), www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

in today's 'where Rostovtzeff feared to tread in the British Museum' we have this piece - two male figures on either side of a very large lit altar and on the other side two figures in some sort of structure..... if only it weren't so worn! www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

ok on this token a nice goddess type figure seated left and on the other side...... ???????????????????????????????????????? Any guesses welcome! www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

a token design that Rostovtzeff overlooked, now in the British Museum. The legend reads FOR (a legend also found with a palm branch and palm tree) and the other side of the token shows a figure walking with a sack or something on their shoulder. www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

Absolutely astounded that the UCU and Unison branches at Kent and Greenwich were not consulted, and that staff only found out about the merger this morning via BBC news and Kent Online. Solidarity to all colleagues.

'Kentwich' is absolutely the superior couple portmanteau.

Bravo Banksy. 👏 “A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy has appeared on the side of the Royal Courts of Justice building in central London.”

An... interesting attempt at an elephant from one ancient #Roman mosaic maker - not sure in this case that they had ever actually seen one before though! 🐘 #MosaicMonday #Archaeology AncientBlueSky

I am fascinated by this guy who was a Higher Ed administrator and has now moved into teaching classes as a faculty member. He is documenting his whole journey on TikTok. Over the summer, he had so much excitement 🧵

Scenes from Bournemouth.

I do love the 'stick figures' on Roman tokens and why here we have stick figure Mercury! Yes, you can just make out his caduceus there in his right hand! Piece now in the British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o... (Rost. 2716 for those playing along at home).

another fun token puzzle from the BM which never made it into Rostovtzeff's catalogue - a male figure with a lagobolon (hunter?) + probably an F (feliciter) before. X countermark on the other side over what might have originally been been a scorpion or caduceus? www.britishmuseum.org/collection/i...

quite an odd token in the British Museum collection here - diamond shaped, it appears to show a fist clutching a spear? Other suggestions and parallels welcome!

A bestiarius, or animal fighter, holds a spear with two hands ready to attack the boar that stands on the other side of this Roman token. (Now British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...)

CfP für den 19. Tag der Antiken #Numismatik (#TAN) in Münster. Der #TAN findet vom 7. bis 8. November statt und insbesondere NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen sind wieder eingeladen Abschluss-, Qualifikationsarbeiten oder laufende und anstehende Projekte vorzustellen.

Yesterday's UChicago email was so enraging that I feared I was being trolled. But nope, it is all fleshed out in this excellent piece published by Clifford Ando. The University of Chicago should be ashamed. Many thanks to Prof. Ando for his willingness to speak up. www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

Truly a brie for lunch kind of day.

This isn’t an impoverished regional school – this is the University of Chicago. Devastating.

Last call for applications to 2 paid, part-time editorial fellowships at History Workshop. Come and work with us! Hands-on training and experience in public history within a supportive and creative team of ECRs. Deadline: this Friday

This week's #AlphabetChallenge is #WeekGforGlass so please enjoy the only known depiction of Roman glass blowing, on an oil lamp. Three have been found: in Asseria, Ferrara and Spodnje Skofije.

Aside from the annoying glitch where my University's authenticator app makes me do approval twice in a row every time I want to access necessary webpages, is the fact that I *have* to use my phone for authentication. I want to research without its distraction but system makes it impossible 😕

Solidarity to all the UCU branches dealing with further cuts and 'reorganisations' while also trying to do some actual work during this month! Extra solidarity to those UCU case workers and negotiators who are all doing their damnedest to keep jobs and support our colleagues. #AcademicSky

UK HE: "where nobody admits how much things actually cost,nobody admits who’s paying for what, research is kept alive on the toil & goodwill of underpaid academics, foreign students...are treated as if they are somehow on the fiddle, [&then there's] graduate debt" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

was reminded yesterday of Buttrey's description of some of the rhinoceroses on Domitian's quadrans series as 'a kind of amiable bug'. Excellent.

For #ReliefWednesday a depiction of a hydraulis – a water organ with a keyboard and pipes, the supply of air was created by water pressure. The instrument on the terracotta relief found in Trier is flanked by gladiators, a retiarius and a secutor. Water organs were used in... 🧵1/2 🏺 #archaeology

this is widely thought to be because on the current trajectory no one believes there will be any people, culture, or environments to measure in 2029

for the numismatically inclined, this term's ACANS Numismatics talks, including one by yours truly aimed at teachers in high school classrooms teaching Agrippina the Younger. Times are given in Australian time, but recordings of the series are also available at www.youtube.com/@ACANSMQ/vid...

From the always stellar voice of Warwick students: "“Real innovation in communication for higher education is not a glossy campaign or a sans serif logo. It means new ideas for how knowledge is created, shared and made accessible to all.”

'The University has paid a private consulting company KPMG to produce a report to justify redundancies, which they are refusing to share with the trade unions. University senior managers are hiding behind this report to hide their own failures and mismanagement, while gutting the workforce.'

Hello UK friends - please, please could you sign this petition against the job cuts at my place of work - 1 in 4 us will be out of a job by August next year if we don't stop the cuts. And once you've signed it, please share. We need your help! www.change.org/p/stop-mass-...

Light relief for #ReliefWednesday Structor ('master builder') Diogenes signed his limestone panel showing tools of his trade, eg trowel, plumb line, cudgel or axe/hammer, scalpel - and the essential apotropaic phallus. Best stick to building I think. From Casa del Marinaio, Pompeii, in Antiquarium

We're now accepting submissions for papers for our 2025/26 seminar series! You can send abstracts of 300 words to [email protected] along with a working title, your preferred term and mode of attendance. Papers are around 45 minutes and can be connected with any aspect of the ancient world!

Can’t help but reflect on the *5 years of strikes* we did to defend our pensions, on this, the day USS announce their £10 billion surplus.

Some odd coins from Sardis showing Drusus and Germanicus seated on curule chairs. After they were issued, 'legend countermarks' were applied. The new obverse legend was the same as the original (!), but the reverse legend now named the proconsul. rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/2995 (and also 2994).

"The company is yet to experiment with creating plus-size women, claiming "the technology is not advanced enough for that". Hail all us plus sized women, go on being uncontrollable. ;-)

Listen now | Mairi Gkikaki discusses her Open Access edited volume Tokens in Classical Athens and Beyond on @leschepod.bsky.social! Listen here:

Finally got to see the Colchester vase, albeit in Northampton. 😆 it's here along with some other lovely pieces until September!

The Warwick 'rebrand' crystallises much of what is wrong with UK higher education today: namely (with honourable exceptions, of course) a fundamental disconnect between senior leaders and the reality of running academic departments and delivering teaching and research 'on the ground'.

Right. Time for lunch!