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Esther Addley

@estheraddley.bsky.social
13K followers 615 following 170 posts

Guardian senior news writer, Derry Girl. Likes old stones and potatoes.

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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Bon voyage to my dear friend and (obviously) idol Marina Hyde who has written her last column for the Guardian. We will miss her terribly but after an incredible 25 years' service she has more than earned her wings... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
It's true: this is my final column. You have exactly 24 hours to complain before my inbox self-destructs | Marina Hyde
Yes, after 25 years I’m signing off, and I’ve cherished every moment – especially storming the French embassy with a (toy) AK-47, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Let's hear it for "dynamic minorities" of older people, who can just Get Stuff Done www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Hugely exciting’ finds on tiny Scottish island shed light on spread of Christianity
Community-funded archaeological excavations of ‘really important’ sixth-century monastery also rewrite story of Lismore
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
😆
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
😄
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The incredible legacy of Martha Mills continues. Bravo @meropemills.bsky.social @paullaity.bsky.social and credit to NHS England @england.nhs.uk www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
Martha’s rule to be expanded to every A&E in England
System gives patients, loved ones and health workers the right to ask for a second opinion on care
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Mark McIntyre @markjmcintyre.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Love this. Can I chip in with another? The @govanstones.bsky.social in Glasgow, a collection of 1000+ year old Viking age carved stones and sarcophagus, dug up from Govan Old Churchyard on the edge of the River Clyde. On display a two minute walk from Govan subway station.
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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I enjoyed talking to @estheraddley.bsky.social about the #BayeuxTapestry. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
theguardian.com
Why the Bayeux tapestry and Franco-British relations are natural bedfellows
Tapestry’s loan to UK is just another chapter in the love-hate relationship that has spanned the centuries since it was created
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I wrote about some stuff to see if you have #bayeuxtapestry Fomo - an entirely random selection of mine that could have been 10x as long - and have already have had plenty of submissions about things that should have been on the list... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Feeling Bayeux tapestry Fomo? Check out these ancient artefacts instead
From iron age knitwear to stone circles, the UK has a wealth of alternatives if you missed out on British Museum tickets
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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
#FindsFriday Bronze portrait of an unknown sitter, with inlaid eyes, dating from the hellenistic period (1st century BC). Found in the Lake Palestra at Delos. Currently on display in the National #Archaeological Museum in #Athens. 📷 by Giovanni Dall'Orto #Art #History #artwork
#FindsFriday

Bronze portrait of an unknown sitter, with inlaid eyes, dating from the hellenistic period (1st century BC). Found in the Lake Palestra at Delos. Currently on display in the National #Archaeological Museum in #Athens. 📷 by Giovanni Dall'Orto
#Art #History #artwork
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
There's 'surprise', and then there's =SURPRISE!= and the tropical royal flycatcher (Onychorhynchus coronatus) knows the difference. This video is by wildlife photographer Stefano Ianiro (stefano.ianiro on IG). Let's learn about these regal, colorful birbs.
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
🦉 🗡️
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
👱
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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The painted decoration shows an #octopus, swimming in an abstract seascape. The jar comes from the #Minoan palace at Knossos, on the island of Crete, and was created in the 15th century BCE., would have been used for storing agricultural produce such as olive oil or wine. #FindsFriday
Compared to the earlier, more naturalistic depictions of octopuses in Minoan art, this octopus is rather stylized, notably in the number of arms. Despite the less realistic approach, the animal's open eyes and curling limbs bring it to life. The jar seems to indicate the importance of the sea to the palace, either because of the marine products used by the people who lived there, or due to the significant impact of overseas trade on their daily lives.


See it on display in Gallery 20 on Level G. Knossos storage jar, 1450-1400 BCE. Ceramic, 75 x 54 cm. AN1911.608 Ashmolean Museum Collection Found in 1911 under the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans.
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This incredible 3,400-year-old wig is made from locks of human hair! It belonged to an ancient Egyptian woman named Merit. Styled with ringlets and braids, it’s astonishingly well preserved and offers a remarkable glimpse into the hairstyles of her time! Museo Egizio, Turin. 📷 by me #Archaeology
My photo shows a well-preserved ancient Egyptian wig crafted from locks of dark brown human hair. The locks were sewn together and braided. The hair is parted in the middle and curled into ringlets that end with braids on either side of the face and on the back of the neck. Dimensions 30 cm x 45 cm. Dated c. 1425-1353 BC. This type of hairstyle was often decorated with flowers and diadems, which were very fashionable in the mid-18th dynasty, as can be seen in paintings and statues of the period.

The wig belonged to a high-ranking woman called Merit. She was the wife of Kha, the chief of works who supervised the royal tomb construction workers. The intact tomb of Kha and Merit (TT8) was discovered in 1906 by Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in the Theban Necropolis at the royal tomb workers’ village of Deir-el-Medina. The wig is on display at the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin.
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Great column by @jaseokundaye.bsky.social on the unhappy Jason Arday affair. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake-up call for the left | Jason Okundaye
The Cambridge academic has rightly now resigned. But that won’t end the targeting of senior black figures or the lazy way institutions promote faux equality, says Guardian columnist Jason Okundaye
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Flint Dibble @flintdibble.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Everyone's comparing Nolan's Odyssey to Homer, but I think there's much more richness The ancient Greeks adapted the Odyssey into ART While these images might appear static to us, I want to walk through how an ancient Greek saw art: AS DYNAMIC STORYTELLING like our films 1/13
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Carausius @carausius286.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
This beautiful Bronze Age hoard was found in Villena 🇪🇸 in the 60s. It consists of gold & silver bowls, vases & bracelets. More recently scientists have established the iron used in 2 items (incl this spiked demisphere) came from a meteorite that hit earth 1m years ago. Wow 🕰️c1300BC 🏛️📷Villena Museum
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Tamsin Lewis @passamezzo.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Today's marginal musicians are a selection of #bagpipers drawn by Jean Pucelle, in the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, Queen of France, c1324-28. @metmuseum.org #MarginaliaMonday #marginalia #ManuscriptMonday #earlymusic #medievalmusic #medieval #bagpipe
medieval bagpiper
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Celtic chieftain’s bird helmet! An astounding military helmet from some 2,200 years ago! The bird’s wings are hinged so that they flapped when the wearer moved! From Ciumești, Satu Mare County, Romania 📷 by me #Archaeology
My photo shows a remarkable helmet of a Celtic warrior chieftain dated c. 250-175 BC. The helmet body is made of iron, now brown in colour, with some fragments missing. On top of the helmet perches a large bronze bird of prey, now greenish-grey in colour, with outstretched wings made of sheet bronze. The wings are attached to the bird’s body by hinges, allowing them to flap up and down when the wearer moved, likely suggesting flight. There are coral-red and white enamel inserts in the eyes. There is a modern blue support frame beneath the wings and a modern blue replica beak for display purposes.

It was found in a warrior’s grave at Ciumești in Romania, in 1961. Other military equipment amongst the grave goods of the Celtic warrior’s tomb included an iron coat of chainmail and two of its bronze appliques, two bronze greaves and an iron spearhead, as well as clothing accessories (an iron fibula and iron belt buckle) and two pottery vessels (a biconical vase and a bowl).
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
WOW, I crossed 20k followers! Huge thanks to each one of you for your interest in archaeology. To celebrate this milestone, here's a highlight of our collections,an #IceAge masterpiece: The so-called Venus of Hohle Fels (a cave on the Swabian Jura) was carved in mammoth ivory some 40,000 years..🧵1/2
An ivory figurine with a weathered surface, shown in a museum setting, with exaggerated breasts, rounded hips, short limbs, and a small ring-like loop at the top where the head would be.
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Medieval Military Medicine @medmilmedicine.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
A scribe’s effort to correct an omission - The words that were accidentally left out are pulled along by one man who passes them to another who waits between the fourth and fifth lines to receive them - c. 1300, Walters Ms. W.102, f. 39v
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C20 Society @c20society.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
The people spoke, their local council ignored them. Shameful. In Dec 2025 a remarkable 9-day occupation of the humble 1950s Sheringham Bus Shelter thwarted an attempted demolition by Norfolk County Council. This week, their beloved streamline moderne shelter was unceremoniously flattened.
Image credit: Art UKImage credit: Gareth Gabriel
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Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
🏺 LOVING THIS! (I don't love the apparent need to still qualify that the axe with her might have been used to kill animals not people; nor the persistent trend of describing what look like magical specialists as "shamans", but that's another issue)
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Last time @ledbydonkeys.org put a poster about Farage's outside earnings in Clacton it was ripped down by supportive locals. Will be interesting to see if the message is now having more more cut-through www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘He could be here more’: Clacton split over Nigel Farage’s first months as MP
Many remain positive about their high-profile politician but others complain that he ‘got his seat and disappeared’
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Loved working on this story about a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence found in the UK National Archives - and seized from a captured American privateer in 1776. On board, a crew of multiple nationalities including a freed black man, Daniel Cottle 1/x www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Vanishingly rare’ copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives
One of 11 surviving copies of ‘Exeter printing’ and only one known outside US was taken from American privateer ship
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medieval marginalia @medievalmarginalia.com · 30/06/2026
update from this week’s heat dome bodleian library, ms douce 134
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A Roman #glass flask in the shape of a #fish. We don't know what flasks in the shape fishes were used for, maybe the shape relates to the content (garum/fish sauce), maybe they were used to hold oil. On display at Pierides Museum, Larnaka, Cyprus. Photo: Jeff Amadon via Flickr
The picture shows a flask in the shape of a fish made of translucent light green glass. The vessel is decorated with spiral thread in the same colour.
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Ten years to the day since the Brexit vote, and thank goodness for all that political stability it brought. This oral history of the referendum campaign, from those who were behind it, is a pretty bracing reminder of the farce and tragedy of it all. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘Geldof started flicking Vs at Farage’: the story of the Brexit campaign, told by those with a front-row seat
How five months in 2016 that encompassed Boris Johnson siding with Vote Leave, Jo Cox’s murder and David Cameron’s resignation shaped the UK’s future
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
😧
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
✋🐙
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Two post holes in the soil 150m apart (and now under a housing estate) revealed to be one of the oldest solstice-aligned monuments in Britain. Archaeology is magical. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Solstice-aligned 5,000-year-old monument ‘once in a lifetime find’, say archaeologists
Wessex Archaeology suspect they have uncovered a prototype for world-famous Stonehenge site in Wiltshire
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Byzantine Mosaics @byzantinemosaics.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Apse Mosaic (deatil) www.wikiart.org/en/byzantine-mosaic…
Apse Mosaic (deatil)
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Joyful
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Michael Savage @michaelsavage.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
NEW: A positive TV story..! ‘Men and boys need to see this’ How Jo and Kush have countered toxic masculinity - and Race Across the World has quenched a thirst for uplifting TV. PS: Casting and producers work hard on this one... www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
theguardian.com
‘Men and boys need to see this’: Jo and Kush and the joy of Race Across the World
The BBC series and its breakout teen stars have been lauded as a much-needed antidote to crueller, more toxic entertainment
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
🐰😈
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Tuatha @tuatha.ie · 12/05/2026
An alignment of standing stones near Cloghane on the Dingle Peninsula, West Kerry, Ireland. I wonder how many tides have ebbed and flowed through the estuary in all those years since the stones were erected during the Bronze Age? #Ireland #WildAtlanticWay #SpéirGhorm #Archaeology 🏺
Sheep visit a series of four standing stones on a green hillside, overlooking an estuary at low tide, while pools of sunlight break through the cloud to illuminate patchwork fields on the opposite side of the estuary in the background.
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Ah, the days when people bought newspapers to get a free copy of an interview with Francis Bacon from 1963
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
To bring a smile to your face, here’s an ancient Egyptian dog figurine, a very good boy for some 3,400 years! 🐾🐕❤️ This lovely leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest. The Met 📷 by me #Archaeology
My photo shows a three quarter left profile of an ancient Egyptian figurine of a leaping dog. Carved from ivory, now a warm caramel brown colour with a glossy surface sheen. The dogs eyes are outlined in black, the ears are floppy, the mouth is slightly ajar (the inside of the mouth is painted red - not seen in my photo). The front and back legs are outstretched as if running at full speed. A lever under the dog’s chest opens and closes the mouth so that the dog looks as if it is barking. Dimensions: L 18.2 cm × H 6.1 cm × W 3.6 cm. Dated to Late Dynasty I8, I400-I350 BC, reign of Amenhotep III who was Tutankhamun’s grandfather.

The dog is mounted on a thin metal rod in a display case. In the background in the same display case is a ‘galloping’ brown horse, which is the handle of an ancient Egyptian fly whisk or light whip.
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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
A "chain-link" column on the south portal of the western facade of the church of Saint-Lazare D'Avallon, in north-central #France. c.1160. #architecture #art #History #medieval
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Minoan jug with a big, bold flower design. 3,800 years old, and still blooming lovely today! 🌼 From Phaistos, Crete. Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me #Archaeology
My photo shows a ceramic pouring jug with a bold white-on-dark floral design viewed from the side with handle at left. It is decorated with a white, many-petalled flower with a round centre, like a stylised daisy. The flower fills the surface of the side of the vessel, radiating in sunburst style against a dark background. Further white painted decoration includes a band just above the base of the jug, two bands on the neck; at the base and in the middle of the neck, and thinner white bands on the handle and on the beaked spout.

The jug has a rounded body which tapers gently to a narrow flat base. From the top of the rounded body rises a short neck that angles upwards into a narrow ‘beaked’ spout, which is slightly chipped at the end. There is a single loop handle attached between the shoulder and the top of the neck. This type of jug is known as a beaked eye-jug, due to the two relief knobs under the beaked spout. Height approx 26 cm. From Phaistos.
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
media.tenor.com
a cartoon character is waving while standing next to a can of paint
ALT: a cartoon character is waving while standing next to a can of paint
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
So I'm reading about the giant extinct penguin Kumimanu fordycei & I had a realization. Bear with me. At 150 kg (330 lbs) & 1.5 m (5 ft) tall, this Eocene tuxedoed terror-bird represents something important about birds. Their size is constrained by flight. Flightless birds, on the other hand...
nhm.ac.uk
The largest ever penguin species has been discovered in New Zealand | Natural History Museum
Kumimanu fordycei weighed an estimated 150 kilogrammes.
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
😁
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Can't help thinking what a woman Martha Mills would have become with @meropemills.bsky.social and @paullaity.bsky.social for parents.
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Martha's rule has saved more than 500 lives in England since 2024. Thank you to David and Karen Osenton for allowing us to tell their story. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘I am invoking Martha’s rule’: how a woman saved her father from near death in hospital
David Osenton almost died because of medical mistakes and delays, but new rule allowed Karen to demand a second opinion
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Ticia Verveer @ticiaverveer.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Until the 1970s, fellows from the American Academy in Rome were permitted to walk upon the Pantheon's ancient dome, peering into the temple's heart through the open oculus. www.nybooks.com/online/2016/...
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Esther Addley @estheraddley.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Alongside Catherine of Aragon! This is utterly wonderful.
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 10/04/2026
NEW Archaeologists uncover one of Scandinavia's oldest ship burials at Herlaugshaugen, Norway, indicating cultural connections around the North Sea prior to the Viking Age. Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
A striking Hellenistic/#Roman glass bowl, made about 2100-2200 years ago. It has an almost hypnotic blue, green, & clear spiral pattern #AncientBlueSky
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