iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 11/09/2026

Not to mention Cuthbert Cringeworthy in the same comic (Cuthbert from Anglo-Saxon meaning "bright of fame")...

A panel from the Beano showing the nerdy character Cuthbert Cringeworthy

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 11/09/2026

In some ways Dennis the Menace embodies the total cultural victory of the Norman conquest... The irrepressible hero Dennis (from Old French Denis, name brought over by the Normans) persecutes the softie Walter (from Anglo-Saxon Wealdhere, in turn from Proto-Germanic meaning "ruler of the army").

Panel from the Beano in which Dennis the Menace lies in ambush for Walter.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 07/09/2026

It's so cool we have this depiction from just after 1066, and then this photograph 920 years later in 1986.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 12/08/2026

The eclipse is casting eclipse-shaped shadows through this tree in our garden...

The shadows cast on the wall in the shape of lots of little eclipses.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 11/08/2026

Look upon my jerks, ye mighty, and despair

The big stupid statue of Prometheus they are building at Elon Musk's SpaceX launchpad

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 05/08/2026

Not sure how to feel about this historian of Indonesia using a very visibly AI image on the cover of his upcoming book. If he's telling the truth then he's been conned by this "Indonesian artist". And if not...

The cover of Herald van der Linde's upcoming book Srivijaya. It features an AI image of Borobudur and a volcano, with the ocean incorrectly placed right behind it.

Instagram comments: I cannot wait to read the book, but I am disturbed by Candi Borobudur on the cover. (Also by the brownish design resembling Al graphics.)

Van der Linde replies: the Borobudur is an incredible creative representation of all the ideas that floated around in the region. So it's connected. As for the brown glow, it aims to mimic the style of the front cover of the Majapahit book. An Indonesian illustrator did all the drawings that you will find inside the book.

I Love your writing so much! But I hope the final cover for the book is created by a human artist instead of Al.

Van der Linde replies: Drawings are done by an Indonesian artist.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 26/07/2026

Forget "Seven ate nine" - this is the number rivalry that must really sting.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 25/07/2026

Always find it so funny that Charles Dickens got so red and mad about this painting. He stomped all the way home from the viewing and wrote this, still angry.

Dickens also accused Millais of portraying Mary as an alcoholic who looks

so hideous in her ugliness that ... she would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 23/05/2026

Amazing video of the construction of the Kusuma Neolithic Hall, a recreation of a 4,500 year old structure found near Stonehenge... More: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 16/05/2026

Important thing to remember about the Homeric epics is they were already historical fiction when they were written down. It was people in the Greek iron age telling stories about an imagined bronze age past, and recording much more about their own time than the bronze age reality. Basically this...

Perry Bible Fellowship cartoon about people in the future seeing a movie about the second world war where the soldiers rode zebras.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 16/05/2026

I've been spitefully looking through the full list of votes to try to find the culprit, and nobody voted for this book. It must have crept onto the list with only a handful of votes. Ian McEwan said he wrote Atonement partially as a homage to the Go-Between, and even he didn't vote for it!

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 16/05/2026

Colm Tóibín wrote an introduction to the Go-Between and didn't even vote for it!

The NYRB edition with Colm Tóibín's introduction.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 15/05/2026

I love walking with my son around this old Victorian cemetery. It's cool as hell in every season and right now we've got the bluebells out.

A wee boy standing in a cemetery with bluebells.

An old red beech tree with a path going between graves.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 04/05/2026

Very cool. Can you make it so the menu overlay is smaller on mobile?

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 29/04/2026

Our cat Hugo is in his silver fox era

A handsome and distinguished cat sitting on a wall.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 29/04/2026

Readers of All Our Broken Idols remember...

The cover of my book, All Our Broken Idols

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 29/03/2026

This iron age man buried in Sussex was so proud of his awesome helmet that he developed an archaeologically detectable neck injury from wearing it so often.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 23/01/2026

Knowing all the thousands of texts that have been lost from the ancient world, it must sting to be Pelagius and have one calling you a "portly Scot, stuffed with Scottish porridge" survive into the archive

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 13/11/2025

I'll be at the Folkestone Book Festival next week talking about Fall of Civilizations, my book and why societies rise and fall. Come and join me! www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/whats-on/pau...

Picture of me, with text: Folkestone Book Festival 2025

Paul MM Cooper: How Our Civilisations Fall

Tue 18 November, 4pm Tickets: £12 / £8 / £5

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 10/10/2025

Sitting down today to record for Fall of Civilizations Episode 20!

Me sitting at my desk with a microphone.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 23/09/2025

Really proud Fall of Civilizations has been named a Waterstones paperback of the year. Get it at your local Waterstones! LINK: www.waterstones.com/book/fall-of...

Image of the Fall of Civilizations cover, with Waterstones Paperback of the Year written beside it.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 11/09/2025

Yes certainly a factor! Yew is great for bows because the heartwood and sapwood act differently under pressure, so it forms a kind of natural composite if you cut it right.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Some further reading: - Caligula's Floating Palaces: archive.archaeology.org/0205/abstrac... - Divers to scour lake for Emperor Caligula's ship: washingtonpost.com/news/worldvi... The Nemi Ships (U Chicago): penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyc...

An old photograph showing some of the deck timbers of the Nemi ships.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Today, the ghosts of the Nemi ships live only in their photographs, and the few remaining artefacts that survived the fire. They form a haunting parable for those who would use the remains of the past for their own ends, while taking no heed of their warnings.

An old photograph of a man standing dwarfed by the hull of the ships.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Only some bronzes survived, along with a handful of photographs of the colossal wrecks. Like Caligula, Mussolini met an ignoble end. Less than a year after the ships burned, he was shot while fleeing Italy in disguise. Two days later, Hitler followed by shooting himself and the war in Europe ended.

A reconstruction of some of the timbers of the ships, showing the massive 11m quarter oars used for steering.

1925

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

On the night of May 31 1944, less than 4 years since Mussolini entered WWII in support of Hitler, Italy was on the brink of defeat, propped up by the Nazis. It's not known whether the fires started as a result of US artillery or German arson. Either way, the Nemi ships burned.

An old photo of the burned out wreckage of the Nemi Ships Museum, with nothing left.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

He had a huge museum built in 1936 to house the wrecks, so that the public could visit and revel in his triumph. But Mussolini, like Caligula, would soon face a fitting downfall. And tragically the Nemi ships would follow him into the ashes of history.

An old photo of the vast Nemi ships sitting in their concrete museum space.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

For Mussolini, the recovery of the ships had been a significant triumph. The Italian dictator had long claimed that he would revive the legacy of ancient Rome in the modern day. As the mud-soaked wrecks rose out of lake Nemi, it seemed a good metaphor for this revival.

A fascist propaganda photo showing Mussolini touring the Nemi Ships Museum.

1773

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Attempts to restore the Republic after Caligula's death failed. The Roman military ignored the senate and reinstated Imperial monarchy. But Caligula's barges, at least, went the way of their creator. Their hulls were pierced, they were weighted with stones, and they sank to the lake bottom.

An old photograph showing the wreckage from above.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Despite their expense, these opulent palaces were afloat for only the briefest time. It seems they were only in use for about one year before Caligula's 4-year reign came to a violent end. Eventually an alliance of senators and the Praetorian Guard ambushed him in a tunnel and stabbed him to death.

An illustration from a manuscript showing Caligula assassinated by the Praetorian guard.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

The expense of the vessels was enormous, with ornamental oar rings and joints in copper and bronze. The wood was even coated with lead, a costly treatment designed to protect the wood of sea-going vessels from shipworms—here useless, since shipworms don't live in fresh water.

An old photograph of a bronze moulding in the shape of an arm, in situ on the wreck.

The same bronze moulding now in the museum site.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

While excavating at Lake Nemi, Italian archaeologists uncovered vast anchors, bronze mouldings and marble statues from the wrecks. They found carvings and mosaics, even gilded copper roof tiles that would have shone spectacularly in the sun.

A marble statue of Minerva recovered from one of the ships

Bronze head moulding taken from the wrecks.

Bronze wolf-head mouldings from the wrecks.

An old photograph showing the excavation of one of the giant anchors.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Until the discovery of the Nemi ships, it was thought that the Romans were incapable of building such large vessels. Historians had assumed that measurements given for grain-carrying vessels in some ancient sources were exaggerations. The Nemi ships show they may have been real.

A 3D reconstruction of the two Nemi ships together.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Roman historian Seutonius described the sight of such ships: "ten banks of oars, with sterns set with gems, particoloured sails, huge spacious baths, colonnades, and banquet-halls, and even a great variety of vines and fruit trees; that on board of them he might recline at table from an early hour”

An artist's illustration of the Nemi pleasure barges.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Caligula had two ships built. The largest, dubbed the "prima nave" (first ship) was an enormous vessel, steered with 11m oars. The 2nd was a giant floating platform replete with marble palaces, gardens, and even a system of plumbing for baths. (📷Carlo Cestra carlocestra.com/home.php)

A 3D reconstruction of the smaller of the Nemi ships.

A 3D reconstruction of the larger of the Nemi ships.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Caligula may have built his ships on the tiny Lake Nemi due to its sacred significance, a fitting place for a living divinity. The lake was known as "Diana's Mirror" since the reflection of the moon on its water could be seen from a temple onshore.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Caligula was Emperor for only 4 years, from 37-41 CE. While the first 6 months of his rule passed without incident, he soon became known for his sadism, hedonistic excess and brutality. He demanded to be worshipped as a living God, and reportedly emptied the imperial treasury in only one year.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

From inscriptions on lead pipes and tiles, it soon became clear that what had been discovered were the pleasure barges of the infamous first-century Roman Emperor Caligula.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

The ships were vast, far larger than any vessel that had ever been recovered from the ancient would. The largest was 73 meters (240 ft) in length, the same as an Airbus A380, and measured 24 meters (79 ft) across. (see workmen in foreground for scale)

An image of the vast structure of the Nemi ships.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

In the mud, slowly emerging from the waters, the Italian engineers found not one, but two enormous shipwrecks. The excavations would take years, with the second ship not brought up until 1932.

Image of the enormous construction work required to excavate the ships - people pushing mine carts through the mud. Credit: British Pathé

Image of the enormous construction work required to excavate the ships - people working among the massive timbers. Credit: British Pathé

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

It wasn't until 1929, under the orders of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, that what lay beneath was finally exposed. Mussolini ordered the whole lake to be drained. As part of the process, engineers reactivated an ancient Roman cistern that together with a pump reduced the water level by 20m.

Old photograph of the vast wreck of one of the Nemi ships.

1967

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

In 1535, Italian inventor Guglielmo de Lorena and his partner returned to the wrecks. With them they brought the latest technology: a diving bell. Descending through the gloom, they saw an enormous superstructure, and brought up artefacts made of marble and bronze from the lake floor.

Illustration of an early diving bell, used by 16th Century divers during salvage operations. From Regola generale di soleuare ogni fondata naue & nauilii con ragione" by Niccolo Tartaglia.

1893

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Sailing over the waters of Lake Nemi, Colonna confirmed that there was indeed a wreck, a sprawling lattice of wooden beams just visible at a depth of 18.3 meters (60 ft). His men tried to tear off planks with hooks, but didn't succeed in bringing up anything else of value.

1872

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

Still, the stories about the gigantic ship persisted. In the middle ages, fishermen even used grappling hooks to bring up ancient artefacts from the supposed wreck to sell as curiosities. In 1446 a young Cardinal & nephew of the Pope, Prospero Colonna, decided to investigate the rumours.

1863

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

But Lake Nemi was tiny and landlocked, a steep-sided volcanic caldera with an area only 1.6km². And with no other body of water connected to it, what would a vessel of that size be doing there?

A map showing the location of Lake Nemi. 📷 Google

Satellite image showing the small size of Lake Nemi.

1883

Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 01/09/2025

For centuries, the fishermen who sailed in the placid waters of Lake Nemi, 30km south of Rome, knew a secret. Legend had it that the rotting timbers of a gigantic ancient wreck lurked below the water's quiet surface.

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