Napoleon director Ridley Scott is calling on us historians to ‘get a life’ – and he has a point. Art is about more than historical facts theconversation.com/napoleon-direc… via The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand

A new @SocAntiquaries newsletter brings sad news of the death of Graham Connah, an archaeologist who did pioneer work in Benin City, Nigeria (among other things) as I wrote about earlier this year in British Archaeology. RIP

An outstanding way to present how archaeological excavation works in practice.

I wish I had half the wisdom and authority of political scientist Professor John Keane: - That word terrorism… - johnmenadue.com/that-word-terr…

Nomadic peoples dwelling on the Eurasian steppes played a major role in shaping the civilizations of the Near East. Read this week's Ancient Near East Today feature "Migrations and Invasions: How Steppe Nomads Shaped the Near East" asor.org/anetoday/2024/…

Only met him once but a great man.

A serious warning! Whereas a 15th century book may still be easy enough to find and read? Millions of research papers at risk of disappearing from the Internet nature.com/articles/d4158…

Never an easy issue but for non-academics a crucial one. And then the issue of access to monographs …! Australia’s chief scientist takes on the journal publishers gatekeeping knowledge theguardian.com/australia-news…

So sad to learn of the death of Christopher Tilley the author of immensely influential works such as A Phenomenology of Landscape. We also co-edited a book and closely collaborated in Material Culture Studies at UCL. He will be much missed by his students, friends and colleagues.

Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Inaugural Lecture 2024, University of Cambridg... youtu.be/tfvgQnmKLes?si… via YouTube

Interesting ideas … if not entirely convincing, certainly worth reading and thinking about? An Anarchist Archaeology of Equality: Pasts and Futures Against Hierarchy | Cambridge Archaeological Journal | Cambridge Core - bit.ly/3TTnrgH

Very sad news about Barry Kemp’s passing. One of the great figures in transforming Egyptology into a modern discipline. And a very nice guy. museoegizio.it/en/explore/new… #ME

Amarna Trust tribute to Barry Kemp Egyptologist amarnatrust.com

Interesting research on heritage after war in Syria: Reconstructing heritage after war: what we learned from asking 1,600 Syrians about rebuilding Aleppo theconversation.com/reconstructing… via The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand

British Science Museum Forced To Return Fire Exhibit Originally Plundered From The Gods theonion.com/british-scienc… via The Onion

sloppy churnalism: with just 60% voter turnout - nearly the lowest since 1945 - and only 33.8% of votes cast for the winning party - 20.3% of eligible voters - Keir Starmer UK Labour’s victory is hardly a ‘landslide’ - more a symptom of first-past-the-post Westminster decadence

Acclaimed Egyptologist Donald Redford passes away at 90 | Penn State University psu.edu/news/liberal-a…

An accessible and important summary of Jerusalem in the Persian period by Oded Lipschits:"Those who live in these ruins in the land of Israel" (Ezekiel 33:24): . In: Barnea, G. and Kratz, R. (eds.). Yahwism under the Achaemenid Empire: (BZAW 548). Berlin: 279-303.

Sad news of a great scholar and a fine man In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Merrick Posnansky (1931-2024) history.ucla.edu/?p=14722

Good people posting on X keeps me following them, despite the unmitigated evil of its ownership.