Food in Pompeii - happy memories of an amazing place

A fascinating article on how it is that AI (and Google) are making us dumber rather than smarter. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Always love to get a new set of proofs! But it's still embarrassing to find typos in text that you had read and reread umpteen times! 😳🤓

For #FindsFriday a sneak preview of my article in the next Numismatic Chronicle on Carolingian hoards from Drenthe (NL). This is the Balloo hoard of 1855 (just nos 1-5), 1 Dorestad coin of Lothar I and four Christiana religio coins of Louis the Pious Group S2, attributed to Saxony.

Fascinating! #medievalsky #vikings

For lovers of things Roman...

A fabulous short film on some of the wooden secrets of the Gokstad ship (sorry, it seems to be only on Facebook). In Norwegian but with English subtitles www.facebook.com/reel/1490598...

Happy to report that our book 'Local Priests in the Latin West, 900-1050' has been published! It is Open Access, so you can read (or download) it here: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Delighted to add this article to my publications available to download: Who ruled Frisia in the mid-ninth century? works.hcommons.org/records/n3a9...

13th century statues destroyed in the early 18th century 📸 INRAP www.inrap.fr/les-archeolo...

Astonishing finds from the excavations at Notre Dame in Paris! www.inrap.fr/les-archeolo...

For #FindsFriday the Bredfield Brooch, solid silver weighing 36g, found in 2009. The Anglo-Scandinavian Urnes style of decoration dates it to the second half of the 11th century. It's on display in the newly refurbished Norwich Castle. 📸 My own.

New on History for Atheists: my long awaited and rather long critical review of Alice Roberts' new book *Domination*: historyforatheists.com/2025/10/revi...

Here is the answer to my conundrum over whether to order hardback or .pdf! With postage, still only £50. One very happy academic reader 🤓 Order yours today! #medievalsky #vikings

Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland: Church-Raiding, Politics and Kingship by Colmán Etchingham boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...

For a limited time only - a digital offprint of our interdisciplinary article rewriting the early history of Bruges and the coast of Flanders, and proposing it and Boulogne as mints of Charlemagne. shs.cairn.info/revue-revue-...

For those following the saga of the Herefordshire hoard - www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The first find of Viking age dirhams on the Danish island of Falster - in 🇩🇰 www.tv2east.dk/guldborgsund...

Three more recent articles/ chapters have been uploaded to Knowledge commons to make my work available to more people... Karl der Große, Vater des europäischen Währungssystems? works.hcommons.org/records/mjmy...

The Underestimated Carolingian Obole works.hcommons.org/records/we1r...

Ein karolingischer Denar Pippins III. (751-768) aus Dorestad works.hcommons.org/records/mt0f...

Anyone out there going to argue with this claim to Britains's oldest door? www.westminster-abbey.org/history/expl...?

Since beads were so popular last week, for #FindsFriday here are a few of the bead types from Dorestad, catalogued by Mette Langbroek in her fascinating article in Dorestad and its Networks, open access here: www.sidestone.com/books/dorest...

Call for papers: craham.unicaen.fr/call-for-pap...

Après le braquage… #Louvre

For #mosaicmonday dolphins in the House of Mars and Venus, Pompeii. 📷 my own

I've just added another recently published article: The Carolingians and their coinage works.hcommons.org/records/t2xp...

Following the lead set by @downham.bsky.social I have now joined Knowledge Commons and uploaded my first file. It's just out: "The coinage of Pippin III (751-768) in the light of a new hoard from Limburg (The Netherlands)". works.hcommons.org/records/vcgk... More will follow!

For #FindsFriday just a few of the fabulous Viking age beads discovered at Haithabu/ Hedeby - 📷 Schloss Gottorf Museum.

Love it! Seems to have first appeared on X in 2019: a dynamic equivalence translation may be 'Belgian archaeologists discover the tomb of Toutancanwho'

Today the Church of England remembers Edward the Confessor, depicted here on the Bayeux tapestry Source: Bayeux Museum share.google/Ar3ptoTbiKrH...

Clearly Wikipedia uses a different definition of “city” to me

For #FindsFriday some of the lovely objects in the Ilanz hoard from Switzerland, buried during Charlemagne's reign, in the early 790s. Gold Lombard and Carolingian coins, silver Carolingian, Anglo-Saxon and Arabic coins, as well as gold jewellery. See more here: raetischesmuseum.app/extras/highl...

Excavations of the church of St Philibert in Dijon have uncovered an earlier church building and even - below that - graves going back to the Merovingian period. www.inrap.fr/sous-les-pil...

A thread by @wpezemed.bsky.social, on a recent French tv programme on Charlemagne, which doesn't pull its punches (via @andreloez.bsky.social) threadreaderapp.com/thread/19755...

@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social has moved into the early modern period, I see 🤓

One of my favourite quotes of all time: "But the Dark Ages, we discovered, had not been truly dark. On the contrary, it quickly became apparent to us that someone had deliberately obscured them." Baigent & Leigh, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

Just published in Revue du Nord 451: an interdisciplinary article setting out the arguments for seeing one of these coins as the earliest historical evidence for Bruges (BVRGES) and the other as a coin of Boulogne (BONONIA), both key elements in Charlemagne's North Sea defences.

For #FindsFriday the jewellery from the Féchain hoard, found in 1967 but still unpublished so not as well known as it should be. 441 Carolingian coins, the most recent of Odo and Arnulf, date it to c. 890. Image from Périn and Feffer, La Neustrie.

A feast for the eyes! 😍 One of the finest Carolingian coins ever seen, à gold solidus of Louis the Pious, minted in the 810s, in an auction with Jean Elsen. 💯% genuine as die-linked with previously known coins. elsen.bidinside.com/en/cat/156/2...

A feast for the eyes! 😍 One of the finest Carolingian coins ever seen, à gold solidus of Louis the Pious, minted in the 810s, in an auction with Jean Elsen. 💯% genuine as die-linked with previously known coins. elsen.bidinside.com/en/cat/156/2...

I have a raft of articles and book chapters on the point of publication, but I have just got my hands on a printed copy of my 100th published article on medieval coinage and history! Definitely a cause for celebration 🥳 It's a beginners' guide to my field. drive.google.com/file/d/1xeJG...

I saw the first, and couldn’t help thinking of the second 😜

Enjoyed visiting the London Mithraeum with my son in law. It is well presented and a number of small finds are displayed, including this fabulous lion. The three major finds are reproduced as casts as they’re in the Museum of London. And it’s free!

I was just dictating an email as I walked along from taking a school assembly to the coffee shop, and it is always wise to check what it has written. I said “it is a coin of Charlemagne” - it wrote ‘it is a queen of chow mein’ 😂😂😂

Like many others I have just deleted my academia edu account. I have done so with great regret because it’s been a great place to share my work and find other people’s. But the new ToS are just ridiculous. I still passionately believe in freely sharing research!

Woo hoo! Now available on Open Access - the Proceedings of the 16th International Numismatic Congress in Warsaw in 2022: www.brepols.net/products/IS-...

I haven’t even read Dominion yet but I won’t be asking for Domination for Christmas thecritic.co.uk/getting-chri...

For #FindsFriday the small hoard of monogram coins of Charlemagne, minted between 793 and 814, found at Montmain near Rouen. Coins of Mainz, Melle (2), Orléans and Rouen (2). Small but precious, as there aren't many hoards from this period!