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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 18h

Not shabby, but I've done better. A couple of tricky ones today; I was generally correct on location, but off a bit on period. Anthropeum.com · Oct 5 2026 🟦🟦🟨🟦🟩🟨🟨🟩🟦🟦 78,688 · top 12% of players today!

anthropeum.com

Anthropeum

A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Think it's only fair to share days where I don't do quite as well... And can I just say that the West African ones are sometimes weirdly specific with the geography. Anthropeum.com · Oct 4 2026 🟨🟩🟩🟩🟦🟩🟦🟩🟩🟨 70,887 · top 19% of players today!

anthropeum.com

Anthropeum

A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Picking this up again after over a week away in Bhutan with almost no internet access, and... Not bad; would have been _much_ better if I hadn't confused elephant ivory with walrus ivory. Anthropeum.com · Oct 1 2026 🟦🟩🟩🟦🟦🟦🟩🟦🟥🟩 79,094 · top 4% of players today!

anthropeum.com

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 30/09/2026

Fact. Also its Æ.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Two brothers in their mid to late 50s wearing their (borrowed) ceremonial formal ghos to attend the Thimphu Tsechu (festival).

Two brothers standing in the courtyard of a Bhutanese dzong, or temple-fortress, wearing colourful ghos and a white scarf each. Mountains can be seen in the distance. A gho is a sort of Bhutanese kilt that comes down just below the knee, with multicoloured but still somewhat dark stripes and abstract designs. Knee-length black socks cover the legs. The elder but shorter brother on the right is svelte, debonair, and holds a UK passport. The younger but taller brother on the left is, well, somewhat plumper, and alas holds a US passport. We'll forgive him.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

View from my hotel window this afternoon. Interested to see if anyone can guess the city...

The view from my hotel window. 5 or 6-storey buildings in a distinctive architectural style that I can't describe without potentially giving the game away, but some of the buildings have Buddhist animal paintings on them, and there are a lot of tall tree-covered mountains in the background, with clouds hiding the peaks of the tallest. So the scene is urban, but also obviously in a mountainous areA with nearby nature.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

What better way to waste time an airport? Likely my best effort yet; particularly pleased with getting the last one spot-on. Anthropeum.com · Sep 17 2026 🟦🟦🟦🟩🟦🟨🟦🟨🟩🟦 84,567 · top 2% of players today!

anthropeum.com

Anthropeum

A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I'm not embarrassed this time. This is all your fault, incidentally, @artefactual.eurosky.social. I wouldn't have found this without you. Anthropeum.com · Sep 15 2026 🟩🟦🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟦🟩 84,463 · top 1% of players today!

anthropeum.com

Anthropeum

A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The Bayeux Tapestry is no doubt amazing, but it continues to bother me that 1066 is so often presented as the last successful invasion of England. See Henry Tudor via Pembrokeshire, 1483 or William of Orange at Brixham, 1688. These things are often a matter of national narrative convenience.

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology (SPMA) @postmedarch.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

We're planning the SPMA PhD group's programme of workshops, training & other events for the academic year. Have your say & design a programme that meets your research & training needs by filling out the planning form by 16 October 2026! QR code or click here: tinyurl.com/SPMAPHDgroup #archaeologyPhD

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Seven months for my personal academic library to travel from the UK to Amman due to the 'regional situation' and getting stranded off Hormuz... Boxes finally arrived today. Packed very poorly; several books badly damaged; went to try and complain, and the removal company went bankrupt in July. 1/2

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Deeply saddened to learn of the death of North American colleague Pat Garrow. My first job in archaeology after my undergraduate degree was with Garrow & Associates back in 1990. For over 30 years Pat continued to be a supportive mentor, and in time a friend.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I had forgotten that Monty Python did a satire of Thor Heyerdahl-style hyperdiffusionism. Emigration from Surbiton to Hounslow: Mr. & Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular, inspired by the expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl, explores the mysteries of suburban London. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgHs...

youtube.com

Monty Python: Emigration from Surbiton to Hounslow

YouTube video by Klagemuren

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I'm going to miss today's solar eclipse as I'm in Jordan. I just wanted to share that I witnessed the 1999 eclipse standing at an Iron Age hillfort in Wales while a Canadian danced around the site clinging to a giant inflatable lobster. Not sure what this says about #archaeology, but there you go.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I now officially have a visa to visit Bhutan at the end of September. Not the sort of thing I would usually share in public, but I'll admit to being quite excited (even if I'm not entirely looking forward to the effort it's going to take to get there via Jeddah and New Delhi).

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Back in Jordan after a week back in the UK. Slightly surreal to see that the grass is currently almost the same shade of brown in both Amman and Lichfield; and it's not _that_ much cooler in the latter. It's still greener overall in the UK thanks to the trees, but still...

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Stoke and Staffordshire friends and colleagues, alerting you to the below. Highly recommend!

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A daye wythout anachronism ys lyke Emily Dickinson wythout her lightsaber.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

1982 references are surely tiresome; real aficionados of UK-Argentina conflict cliches should be comparing the first half to the 1806 & 1807 British invasions of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. It's almost exactly 220 years since the UK occupied Buenos Aires.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This is a bit of a shot in the dark, but does anyone know of any good images and/or collections of Ethiopian Orthodox icons of the baptism of Jesus? Either historical or contemporary. It's for a concept document for the museum (see my profile). #Ethiopia #Orthodox #Christianity

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Currently dipping into medieval representations of the Baptism of Jesus for work. Am particularly taken by these two illuminated manuscript illustrations from the 10th-century Benedictional of St. Aethelwold and the 12th-century Tétraévangéliaire bohaïrique Copte 13.

Miniature of the Baptism of Christ from the c.970 Benedictional of St Æthelwold (British Library, Add MS 49598). At the centre, John baptises a nude Jesus (his modesty protected by the River Jordan, which rises hillock-like at the appropruate moment) while choirs of angels sing their praises and a gilded dove descends from heaven. At the four corners of the gilded miniature are stylised floral designs vaguely resembling 4-leaf clovers. No doubt an expert in 10th-century English art (which I am very much not) could unpick the symbolism of the latter a bit more carefully; I'm mainly just admiring the design.

A page from the c.1178-1180 Tétraévangéliaire bohaïrique Copte 13 (Bibliothèque nationale de France; this page f.6v). It's the full illuminated page, written in Bohairic Coptic. The main decoration takes up slightly over a quarter of the centre of the page, showing the batpism of Jesus by John the Baptist, with a white dove and the hand of God the Father descending from Heaven. Two angels also sing their praises. Slightly unusually, the illustration is wider than tall, so you do get a bit more of a sense that the baptism is in a river, complete with some riverside vegetation and four fish.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

There seems to be something very specifically English about the discourse that the national football team must obviously somehow still be a bit crap - this despite having reached the World Cup semifinals for the second time in three tournaments.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

So, I assume that Quansah won't now need to serve his red card suspension if King Charles just rings up Infantino to have a quiet word.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Wishing my American friends and family a solemn commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on 4 July 1826. Apparently another anniversary was taking place yesterday, but it somehow seems safer to just stick to Jefferson and Adams.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Still slightly surreal to see someone else listed as CEO of @re-formheritage.bsky.social, but absolutely delighted to read the below news, and that One Bethesda, Hanley, is being brought back to use this summer while longer-term options are being worked on. bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Hanley historic building reopens as pop-up exhibition space

The listed building has been empty since 2008, with longer term uses for the site being worked on.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

#mosaicmonday The central design of the 8th-century mosaic at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Madaba, Jordan. Madaba is best-known for the famous Madaba Map, but the city's two archaeological parks contain glorious - and more complete - mosaics of their own. #archaeology #jordan

The central roundel of the 8th-century Church of the Virgin Mary, Madaba, Jordan. The design consists of an outer circle, within which is a ring made out of interlocking circles. There is then an inner circle which encompasses two interlocking squares at a 45 degree angle from each other. At the very centre is another circle with an inscription to the Virgin Mary in Greek in four verses of hexameter. Translated, this reads (or at least according to a translation from people who know better than me it reads): "Beholding Mary, the virginal mother of God (theometor), and the one she bore, Christ, the King of All, the only son of the only God, purify your mind and body, and acts, so that by pure prayers you the merciful God himself"

See also this (admittedly very long) link:

https://portal.sds.ox.ac.uk/articles/online_resource/E02477_Floor-mosaics_with_Greek_inscriptions_from_the_rotunda_church_of_Mary_Mother_of_Christ_S00033_in_Madaba_Roman_province_of_Arabia_Jordan_with_a_poem_praising_Mary_as_the_Mother_of_God_and_possibly_indicating_the_presence_of_her_image_/13822214

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"Alasdair, we need you to write up a denominationally neutral museum text explaining the Annunciation in no more than 80 words - and which Muslims and other non-Christians can also understand." Well, I suppose no one said the new job would be easy.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

It's going to warmer back home in Staffordshire this week than it will be here in Amman, Jordan.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Looking at the state of British politics right now as we cycle through yet another PM - and to think we used to laugh at Italy for their prime ministerial instability - the only sane response seems to be to listen to either the last movement of Mahler's 9th, or maybe Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Just been alerted to a fraudster attempting to impersonate the Society for Historical Archaeology journal Historical Archaeology (which I edit), using a superficially convincing fake journal submission portal to solicit submissions, and then requesting payment for publishing papers. 1/5

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Attacking the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra isn't just an abomination from an Orthodox perspective - utterly reprehensible from a country that so overtly claims an Orthodox heritage - it's also very likely a war crime under the 1954 Hague Convention. 1/3 www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Ukraine war: Russian strikes kill nine and historic Kyiv cathedral damaged

A Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian city of Tula, south of Moscow, killed three people and wounded three others.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Trying to demonstrate to a junior colleague earlier today the dangers of using ChatGPT for, well, just about anything. But thought I would share the two maps of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1180 it generated for us so I could prove the point since it proves the point so well... Abominations both.

ChatGPT-generated map purporting to show the borders of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1180. I don't know where to start with the mistakes, but Tyre appears twice, the County of Edessa (which collapsed in 1144) borders the kingdom to the north, the Fatimid Caliphate (which ended in 1171) still exists, while the County of Tripoli has vanished, and the Principality of Antioch seems to have become a Muslim territory that's moved inland and lost its Mediterranean coast. Also, the Dead Sea, Sea of Galiee, and River Jordan are not quite the right shape, not quite in the right place, and not quite correctly shown in relation to each other. It's appallingly bad.

The second of two ChatGPT-generated maps showing the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1180. It's just as bad as the previous one, though in very different ways. The Fatimid Caliphate (abolished 1171) still exists. The Great Seljuk Sultanate still seems to control the vast majority of the region. Latakia seems to have gone for a wander. Antioch and the Principality of Antioch are now landlocked and east of the County of Tripoli. While the Dead Sea and Red Sea are mostly the right shape and the right location, the Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberas has shrunk and has some exciting new rivers flowing into it from the north. God knows what psychedelic fever dream this has been conjured out of.

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Archaeology Magazine @archaeologymag.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Archaeologists have discovered an eighteenth-century shipwreck nearly 2,000 feet underwater off the coast of Norway, and its cargo of Chinese porcelain is nearly intact! archaeology.org/news/2026/06/04/18th-century-shipwreck-discovered-in-deep-water-near-norway/

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Writing as someone who's worked on archaeological glass from much more recent periods, one of the things that fascinates me here is that - so long as you remove the handles - these could easily pass for 19th-century medicine and perfume bottles.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Alright, I do rather like Norway's pre-World Cup team photo. And not a horned helmet in sight anywhere. @fakehistoryhunter.net will likely be pleased.

It's the Norwegian men's football team. Except it's also a group of Vikings holding Viking weapons and colourful round shields posing by a small dock in a dramatic mountain-lined fjord, with three Viking longboats visible on the water (one close, one in the distance, one inbetween)

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Here's everyone's chance to vote Team Hedgehog (other inferior animal species may also be available). Of course, the exclusion of any species of wild haggis is easily explained by this being a Bank of England consultation; there are no wild haggi in England or Wales (nods sagely).

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

#5debutalbums2026 Surprised I haven't seen anyone else nominate Ethel Cain's extraordinary 2022 debut Preacher's Daughter yet. Calling it 'Lana Del Rey meets dark Southern Gothic concept album' might be doing it a disservice, but will have to do. And when I write 'dark', I mean _really_ dark.

The cover of Ethel Cain's 2022 debut album 'Preacher's Daughter'. It's a deliberately out of focus photograph of a young white woman with black hair sitting in a chair while leaning on a small side table, and in front of wood-panelled walls, directly under a picture of Jesus. She is wearing a white dress and white shoes. Her body language looks awkward and defensive - which is entirely in keeping with the mood of the concept album, which is about a preacher's daughter running away from home. Spoiler: it doesn't end well.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Sunset over Palestine/the West Bank, from the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea. No ecological or political metaphors intended. Just a really spectacular sunset.

Sunset over Palestine as seen from the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. In the centre, the last rays of the sun form a bright orange semicircle. The rest of the sky is varying shades of deeper orange. The hills of the West Bank from a dark band in the middle of the photo. The waters of the Dead Sea dominate the foreground, the low waves a sort of dark blue-orange-grey in colour.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

#5DebutAlbums2026 : La Symphonie des éclairs by Zaho de Sagazan. It's possible you only know her for singing Édith Piaf's 'Sous le ciel de Paris' at the start of the 2024 Olympic closing ceremony, but her 2023 debut album is a triumphant merger of electronic Krautrock and French chanson.

The cover of Zaho de Sagazan's 2023 debut album 'La Symphonie des éclairs'. A drawing of a young woman wearing a blue top, with pale blue skin and greenish-blue hair is playing what appears to be a Moog synthesizer, with lots of complicated knobs, dials, and buttons. She's twisting one button with her left hand while pusing another at a lower level with her right hand. The synthesizer is photo-realistic but is almost entirely black, with the the controls in white. The synthesizer merges into the background of the album cover, which is almost all black, with some dots and circles of white; its unclear if these are stars, lights, or just a design feature. The album name is written in large red font directly above the woman's head, with the artist's name in much smaller font directly below the word 'éclairs'. The name of the album translates to 'the symphony of lightning'.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

This was a completely new one to me (and I'm married to a Russian...)

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Give me your favourite non-Trek performance from a Star Trek actor: LeVar Burton, the video to Cameo's Word Up. Give us music, we can use it We need to dance We don't have the time For psychological romance (It's like, how much more 80s could this be? And the answer is none. None more 80s).

A young Geordie La Forge - sorry, LeVar Burton - at the start of the video to the 1986 Cameo song Word Up! He's dressed as a detective in a trenchcoat and fedora, and wearing a tie. He's holding a microphone, and demanding that Cameo give themselves up because the police have the place surrounded. He's standing in front of two police officers in uniform (one of whom will later show himself to be a surprisingly good dancer), and next to a crowd. Spoiler: Geordie - sorry, LeVar - will not be successful in arresting the codpiece-wearing Larry Blackmon.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

I've met David Attenborough twice. Alright, the first of those was more along the lines of 'I was in the same room as David Attenborough for 30 minutes', but the second involved actually briefly exchanging words with Sir David. Vaguely feel that this now qualifies as a religious experience.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

It does make me wonder how well Davros would do running on an 'exterminate all other sentient life in the multiverse' ticket. Why not give him a chance? All of the traditional parties have so far failed to bring about an apocalypse despite their best efforts.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Yes, it's completely safe to visit Jordan right now. We've barely been impacted by regional events. Amman, Petra, Jerash, Madaba, the Dead Sea, and all of the other amazing sites in the country are completely safe. Visit now, and you'll likely have many of those sites almost to yourself. 1/3

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Orion🌈&sm9eb @sm9eb.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Very sorry to see that the last undergrad archaeology class at Uni #Sheffield was taught yesterday. The wanton destruction happening now in academia on both sides of the Atlantic will be widely seen as the violence it is one day. #SaveSheffield #SaveSheffieldArchaeology

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

#5DebutAlbums9599 Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot Mark Linkous left us an extraordinary body of work before his untimely death.

The cover of Sparklehorse's debut album Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. A slightly out of focus picture of blue sky and clouds, with the edge of something more out of focus and green to bottom left. Prominent to the right is a slightly unsettling smiling clown mask that seems to be floating in the air. The whole is framed in such a way to look a bit like an old slide photograph. The name of the band is written in uneven font towards the bottom at an angle, mixing font size and lower case and upper case letters. Parts of the album name are also visible. Sparklehorse leader Mark Linkous battled with depression and addiction for much of his life; the album cover almost feels like an expression of both.

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