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Mateusz Fafinski

@calthalas.bsky.social
6.9K followers 284 following 1.1K posts

Late antiquity, early Middle Ages, manuscripts, cities and monasticism. A bit of digital humanities and maps as well. Assistant Professor at the University of Erfurt

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Reposted by Mateusz Fafinski
And-Boo 👻 Jacobs (he/him) @drewjakeprof.bsky.social · 13h
you could say "Caecilianist" to keep it in parity with "Donatist," I've seen folks do that
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Robert Wiśniewski @relicsclerics.bsky.social · 21h
Warsaw Late Antique Seminar on 15 October: Mateusz Fafiński (Universität Erfurt), Governing the Ungovernable? Administering Church Patrimony in Late Antique Italy. In person and online.
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Giulia Zornetta @gzornetta.eurosky.social · 19h
Next week, as part of my course "Italy in the Middle Ages", we'll host Nicola Luciani (DiSSGeA, University of #Padova): 🏛️ "Reconfiguring Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages" 📅 Mon 19 Oct 2026, 2.30 PM 📍 Aula 6, Complesso Beato Pellegrino Open to all interested! #medievalsky
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The passing of Chris Wickham is hard to take in. Few have made a bigger contribution to their field, with such personal warmth. He's going to be missed by a lot of people.
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Sam Barber @barber-samj.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
For me as for so many others, Chris Wickham has been fundamental for how I think about the early medieval world--I'd even go so far as to say how I think about history writ large. An enormous loss.
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Rory Naismith @rorynaismith.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
(Shared from various people on FB) RIP Chris Wickham
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Michel Summer @leafandstream.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The paperback version of my book is released today! Many thanks to @livunipress.bsky.social, who have again done a fantastic job! Hard to believe it's been out for 2 years already! Very grateful for the reviews & feedback it has received so far: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
Hand holding a book in front of a book shelf.
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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I’m thrilled that the first Element in my new series for @universitypress.cambridge.org (co-edited with Tabitha Stanmore) is PUBLISHED! And free to read for the first few weeks. It’s by top folklorist (and now @folkloresociety.bsky.social President) Jeremy Harte! www.cambridge.org/core/element... 📚🥳
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Peter Frankopan @peterfrankopan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Well. Here it is: a new book that has been keeping me busy for a while. The Seventh Continent: Antarctica and the Southern Oceans. Past, Present and Future 1/5
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John Ma 🇺🇦 @nakhthor.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This thread is a required reading for today:
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Julia Hillner @writinghelena.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Submission from ancient and medieval studies very much welcome!
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A new blogpost, on how "sorry" really did seem to be the hardest word for late Carolingian kings. blogs.ed.ac.uk/cwest3/2026/...
blogs.ed.ac.uk
Holding kings to account in late Carolingian Francia: the council of Metz, 859 – Earlier medieval history
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Yeah, just got off the phone. Turns out we've lost the Mandate of Heaven. We're still an accredited archive though so it's not all bad.
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Robert Wiśniewski @relicsclerics.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Warsaw Late Antique Seminar. For the beginning of the new semester we have this: 8 October, 4.45 p.m. CET. Jakub Urbanik (UW) Temples Sold and Restored to the Gods. I. Kyme 17
and the Emergence of the ‘Imperial’ Law. In-person and online.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Mona Lisa of Faras, an eight-century masterpiece of late antique African art. This wall painting of St Anne, mother of Mary, comes from the cathedral of Faras in Nubia. Today in the National Museum in Warsaw.
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Laury Sarti @laurysarti.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Proofs!! “Bearded and long-haired kings. Representations of rulership on seals and coins”, hrsg. von Nadine Viermann und Johannes Wienand, Reading the Late Roman Monarchy, Studies in Ancient Monarchies, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner 2026, 97–118.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Dark Ages didn't happen
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Well, given that Wales was the last direct successor state of the Western Roman Empire (up until the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282) nothing here comes as a surprise!
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Dark Ages didn't happen
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Giulia Zornetta @gzornetta.eurosky.social · 30/09/2026
when the only reason you agree to do reviews is the financial incentive of getting your friends’ books
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Julia Hillner @writinghelena.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
On tour with my lovely students and colleagues from ancient history @unibonn.bsky.social in Venetia et Histria. Day 6: Concordia Sagittaria, Grado and a small part of Aquileia (back there tomorrow)
View from above of a triconch structure with a cross shaped hole for relics in the centre, 5th century, Concordia SagittarisRelief with three male figures holding fasces, 1st century CE, museum of Concordia Sagittaria at PortogruaroThe Iulia Felix, a 2nd century CE wooden shipwreck found near Grado (and in a brand new museum)A sixth century manuscript of the Gospels from Forum Iulii, currently on display atAquileia
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Dr Danny Bate @dannybate.com · 28/09/2026
Greetings from the path from Prague to Stará Boleslav, where Czechs (and at least one Englishman) are gathering in honour of that "good king" from the carol. For the day that's in it, here's a new piece about why his name in English has an N, but not so in Czech. dannybate.com/2026/09/28/g...
dannybate.com
Good King Václav
Every September 28th, thanks to a brutal fratricide over a thousand years ago, the Czech Republic gives itself a day off. The victim of that crime was Wenceslaus, ruler of Bohemia from 921 to maybe…
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Francois Soyer @fsoyer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
First proofs of the forthcoming book have arrived in my email inbox from Bloomsbury. In classic fashion: in the middle of frantic marking and at the start of the school holidays. 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Ellen Muehlberger @emuehlbe.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I am convinced that the way out of this isn't to make the humanities easier, endlessly flexible to meet the demands of people who might otherwise blow them off---it's to make them harder and more disciplined in effort
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I can’t believe my ancestors are badmouthed as hicks for making moonshine in bathtubs but it’s all *totally cool* if Romans do it.
labrujulaverde.com
A Roman Bathhouse Was Secretly Turned Into a Wine and Olive Oil Factory in Late Antiquity at Antiochia ad Cragum
A modest Roman bathhouse on Turkey's southern coast spent its retirement very differently from how it began. Constructed in the late 2nd or early 3rd century CE, it stopped functioning as a bath somet...
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The village of Waldenbuch, including the castle, which belonged to the Dukes of Württemberg and the fourteenth-century church of St Vitus, a site of pilgrimage for those suffering from St Vitus’ Dance.
Photo of the castle from above under a blue sky, with white plaster walls, red tile roofs and a tower peaking behind it.Photo from the small but charming town square, with a fountain in the foreground and a yellow stone church in the background with a red-tiled roof and a white tower.Photo of the town square from the other side. The fountain is surrounded by red flowers. In the background are traditional historic timber buildings.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Axiomatic
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 26/09/2026
Stick to Polish fermentation.
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"The pope is visiting the basilica of St-Denis"
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Crikey, hadn't realised this was already happening.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
And yes, this also means to teach students how to use a word processor, look up information on the internet or prepare a basic plot in the coding language of their choice. We have arrived at a point where those skills are as important for their cognitive development as palaeography or statistics.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In the time of enshittification of, well, everything the role of higher education is not to teach students how to enshittificate more efficiently. It is to provide them with hard skills like source criticism, languages, writing or critical reading that will allow them to survive all of this.
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Alex West @ajw87.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Finished reading this today and I can only recommend it. A very good introduction; changed my perspective on several topics. Otoh, I'm far from an expert in these things, so ymmv.
The cover of The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy by Jan Westerhoff, a publication in the "Oxford History of Philosophy" series by Oxford University Press.
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Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran @sasanianshah.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Two recent publications, on the more “public facing” side of academia, thanks to the good graces of a couple of friends, including @rhigarthjones.bsky.social
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A great opportunity for Timothée Chalamet!
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Julia Hillner @writinghelena.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
On tour with my lovely students and colleagues from Ancient History @unibonn.bsky.social in Venetia et Histria. Day 2: Verona
Roman Marble Arch, Arco dei GabiView of Arena, Verona from outside View over Roman theatre, the river Adige and the city of VeronaRoman city gate, Porta dei Borsari, Verona
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I know that climb, not bad!
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
We will always share our publications with you! For free! And you might even ask questions!
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Sita Steckel @steckel.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
1/2 Heute sind tolle Sachen passiert. Gerade schon geteilt: Unser Band zu ‚Political Medievalism. Gebrauch und Missbrauch des Mittelalters bei der extremen Rechten‘ ist erschienen und Open Access zugänglich: www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/... #medievalsky #skystorians #rechtsextremismus
degruyterbrill.com
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I will be teaching with this piece and this collection next semester and so should you!
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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 23/09/2026
please to see that my latest academic article is out now: "Ghost in the Machine. Crusade Medievalisms in the 21st-century United States" I take on the ghost of Samuel Huntington and some right-wing tropes in scholarship open access so free to read --> www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
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Linda Duits @lalalalinder.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Interessant voor iedereen (zoals ik) die het gevoel heeft dat we nu een soort eindtijd leven
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Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
POV: You've just very loudly and confidently said something that's not true about a historic site.
Jay looks through a hole in a ruin. He has a disgusted look on his face.
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
There is a Reddit user who made went 🏺 to the Met and polycam 3D scanned various Greek amphorae. Now they are making one to scale completely out of gingerbread. This is truly delectable reconstructive archaeology. www.reddit.com/r/blender/s/... Greeks did love imported ζιγγίβερις from India!
reddit.com
From the blender community on Reddit: we used blender to make a greek vase out of gingerbread
Explore this post and more from the blender community
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Great news, and looking forward to a book historian becoming Chief Exec of the UK Space Agency sometime soon in this brave new world!
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Jon Dell Isola @medievaljon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
#medievalsky
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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 18/09/2026
this is such a good article. Mateusz was kind enough to send me an early PDF and it's really good!
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Sarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is a delightful essay, and quite accessible to non-specialists (like me)
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I still have hopes
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