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Michael Kiefer

@mvipsaniusa.bsky.social
275 followers 437 following 21 posts

PhD candidate at the University of Heidelberg, Late Antique and Byzantine Art History

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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Please consider signing and sharing this petition against the self-destructive university cuts at Dundee (on the table: everything from complete abolition of English for International Students, to maths, the chaplaincy and the nursery).
c.org
Sign the Petition
Oppose University of Dundee mass cuts
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
History without historians is doomed to fail. With an interdisciplinary team of scholars we show how the purported link between late Roman conflicts and drought has been misunderstood. We also outline a path forward in the use of sources in paleoclimatic research. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Drought, Conflict and the Use of Historical Data and Methodologies in Interdisciplinary Palaeoclimatic Research - Climatic Change
Climatic Change - A major challenge in the interdisciplinary study of past climates is ensuring that evidence and data relating to different disciplines are analysed effectively using appropriate...
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Carausius @carausius286.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
This mosaic depicts snails in a basket (presumably waiting to be cooked and eaten). This may explain why one has already escaped and another is making a break for it. 🕰️4th century AD 🏛️📷Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, Aquileia #MosaicMonday
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Online version: www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
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Cresnoir - Comm Closed @cresnoir.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
I also have a youtube channel about history and historical event teaming up with my Husband. the follower is about to reach 200 so please spread the love guys❤️❤️ This episode we explore the life of Pocahontas "the Playful one"
youtu.be
Pocahontas - Curihistory Season 3 Episode 9
YouTube video by Curihistory
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Michael Edward Stewart @mikeaztec.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
I know my recent and forthcoming books are a bit pricey, but my first book is available open access: kismet.press/portfolio/th...
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Michael Kiefer @mvipsaniusa.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Dem Institut für Klassische Archäologie der HU Berlin droht die Schließung! Hier gehts zur Petition, die das verhindern will. The Institute of Classical Archaeology at HU Berlin is facing closure! Click here for the petition to prevent this from happening. weact.campact.de/petitions/sc...
weact.campact.de
Schließung des Instituts für Archäologie an der HU-Berlin
Die Archäologie gehört seit fast 200 Jahren zur wissenschaftlichen Tradition der Humboldt-Universität. Ihre Schließung bedeutet den Abbruch einer gewachsenen Forschungstradition und eine dauerhafte Sc...
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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
One of the best examples of ancient #polychromy that I know of is this terracotta thymiaterion - incense burner - in the form of a group of colorfully dressed women sitting around a wellhead. The iconography reflects a local cult, perhaps of Demeter and Kore. 🏺 1/ 4th c. CE. #MetMuseum 📸 me
This thymiaterion has five individually hand-made women sitting on the edge of a red-painted wellhead, with one sitting in her own high-baked chair. All are brightly painted, and each woman has a 'hat' with a cup on top for the burning of the incense. All painted slightly differently - three with orange-yellow tunics, two with red tunics; two red himatia (cloaks), two purple-black himatia, and one yellow himation. They each once carried an attribute in each hand, but several are missing. In this photo, one woman carries a yellow (meant to be gold) phiale, an offering plate, and a pomegranate; the other woman facing us carries a spindle with wool. 

Met Museum (2012.546)
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Christian Rollinger @drcrollinger.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Always excited when new work on the Great Palace comes out - this is based, as far as I can see, on an extensive (Spanish) PhD the author submitted in Madrid in 2023. www.cambridge.org/core/element...
cambridge.org
The Great Palace
Cambridge Core - Middle East History - The Great Palace
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Scott McDonough @sjmcdonough.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Some Sasanian-ish hunters on a lovely example of the shared luxury culture of late ancient and early medieval Eurasia. “Brocade with Four Heavenly Kings,” Tang dynasty silk brocade (jin 錦) from the Hōryū-ji (法隆寺) Buddhist temple in Ikugara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Mid-7th century CE.
Closeup of medallion with four bearded and mustachioed hunters wearing Sasanian-style (?) crowns, riding winged horses, facing rear, drawing bows to shoot at rampant lions. Surrounding a central fruiting tree.Medallions of silk textile.
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Michael Edward Stewart @mikeaztec.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
A fantastic-and better yet-Open access book by Susanna Elm : www.ucpress.edu/books/the-im...
ucpress.edu
The Importance of Being Gorgeous by Susanna Elm - Paper
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
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Arash Zeini @arashzeini.com · 01/12/2025
The Formation of the Sasanian Empire: Administration and Elites in Comparison with the Roman Empire Purwins, Nils. 2025. Der Aufbau des Sasanidenreiches: Administration und Eliten im Vergleich zum Römischen Reich (Ancient Iran Series 18). Leiden: Brill. The work provides in two volumes the first…
biblioiranica.info
The Formation of the Sasanian Empire: Administration and Elites in Comparison with the Roman Empire
Purwins, Nils. 2025. Der Aufbau des Sasanidenreiches: Administration und Eliten im Vergleich zum Römischen Reich (Ancient Iran Series 18). Leiden: Brill. The work provides in two volumes the first comprehensive overall concept of the administrative and social structure of the Sasanian Empire (5th-7th century). In more than 1.000 contemporary leather documents, seals, ostraca, inscriptions and texts, which are brought together here for the first time, the subjects of the king of kings report in words and pictures on their lives in the various provinces of the empire, on the organisation of the military, civil and religious administration and on the circles of power at the court of their ruler.
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Film Noir UK @filmnoiruk.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Tatsuya Nakadai, one of Japan’s most celebrated stage and screen actors who was a frequent collaborator of director Masaki Kobayashi and led Akira Kurosawa titles such as “Ran,” “Kagemusha” and “High and Low,” has died. He was 92: variety.com/2025/film/ob...
variety.com
Tatsuya Nakadai, Japanese Film Legend That Starred in ‘Ran,’ ‘Harakiri’ and ‘The Human Condition’ Trilogy, Dies at 92
Tatsuya Nakadai, one of Japan's most celebrated actors who was a frequent collaborator of Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi, died. He was 92.
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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
This unassuming #Roman ceramic floor tile from ancient Londinium (London) sports a sketch of a pharos, a lighthouse. It's very much like the two lighthouses that flanked ancient Dover harbor, where the Roman fleet was based. Those, in turn, were based on the pharos of Alexandria. 🏺 1/ 📸 me
Orangish ceramic floor tile with a sketch of a pharos (lighthouse) scratched into its surface before firing, the sketch lines appearing dark grey against the lighter ceramic. Two such lighthouses flanked the Roman harbor at Dover, the main base of the British fleet. Those lighthouses, in turn, were based on the design of the pharos of Alexandria. 

1st-4th century CE (the period of Roman occupation), probably from London. British Museum.
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 16/10/2025
A real globe-trotting cat for #GlobalCatDay 🐈 Isotope analysis of the Winged Lion sculpture in St Mark’s Square, Venice suggests it began life as a tomb guardian in Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907) China, travelling to the floating city via the Silk Roads. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
Illustration of a lion with wings in profile, coloured with six different colours on different sections. The colours represent phases of casting, and phases 1 and 2 (the majority of the main body) are ascribed to the original Tang sculpture.
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Things I found on my laptop, an occasional series [Ad Reinhardt, How to Look at Modern Art in America (detail), 1946]
A cartoon of a man in a suit pointing and laughing at an abstract painting with the caption НА НА WHAT DOES THIS REPRESENT?
In the next panel, the painting angrily points back at the shocked man with  the caption WHAT DO YOU REPRESENT?
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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
✨Perseus and Andromeda, the villa at Boscotrecase✨ This fresco captures moments from the myth of Andromeda and Perseus. Perseus swoops in stage left to rescue Andromeda—trapped on a crag at centre stage—from the sea monster Kêtus. The monster takes up most of the lower left of the fresco panel.
From the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase, now held at the Met. Description from the museum: “Perseus is about to rescue Andromeda from the ketos, a snaky sea monster painted in a brilliant blue-green palette. The creature raises his head with gigantic open jaws and frightful teeth toward Andromeda, who stands with outstretched arms in the center of the panel. One hand appears to be chained to the crag; the other elegantly placed on the rocks. Perseus flies in from the left with his lyre in one hand, winged shoes on his feet, and a windblown cloak over his shoulder. In the upper right portion of the fresco, he is greeted by Andromeda's grateful father, a scene that alludes to the myth's “happy ending” the marriage of hero and princess.“
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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
#ReliefWednesday - Apotheosis of the Emperor Claudius on a Roman sardonyx cameo: ca. Mid-1st century AD (mount: 1686). He is crowned by Victory and borne aloft by Jupiter's eagle. #Roman #Art 🏺 Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France (Cameo.265). Link - medaillesetantiques.bnf.fr/ws/catalogue...
Apotheosis of an emperor who, carried by the eagle, rises towards the sky. The bird's body is seen from the front, its three-quarter legs to the left, its head turned towards the heart of the emperor who, in his right hand, holds a lituus, in his left a double cornucopia. The emperor looks at a flying Victory who, with her two outstretched hands, is preparing to place on his head a laurel wreath with flowing bands.
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History Cafe ☕ Ottoman Heritage @ottomanhistory.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
✏️ An Ottoman Miniature Portrait of Francis I, King of #France, 16th Century
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Julia Hillner @writinghelena.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
And now attention, late antique people! Today in Trier I was shown the Trier Ivory up close, from the front and - unseen before, at least by me- from the back! Note the strange markings, apparently by the craftsmen, and the hole for the elephant’s nerve reaching into the tusk
A carved ivory relief showing a relic procession towards a church with buildings behind and people looking out of the windowsThe back of the ivory relief and hands in white glovesThe back of the ivory relief criss crossed by black markings and a triangular shaped indent at the right hand side
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Sobesos site sheds light on urban history of Cappadocia 👉 www.hurriyetdailynews.com/sobesos-site...
Person cleaning a mosaic floor with intricate patterns and a central circular design, surrounded by stone walls.
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Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use
openculture.com
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use
Update: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put online 492,000 high-resolution images of artistic works. Even better, the museum has placed the vast majority of these images into the public domain, mea...
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Dr. Verena Krebs @krebsverena.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
...and it's out! "‘People and Things Have Always Been Mixed Up’: Notes on the So-Called Global Middle Ages", my very short essay for the Journal of Medieval History's 50th-anniversary special issue, is now published; limited free access at the link below! www.tandfonline.com/eprint/RAEXD...
tandfonline.com
‘People and Things Have Always Been Mixed Up’: Notes on the So-Called Global Middle Ages
This essay takes the 1429 execution of a Persian merchant in Mamlūk Cairo, sent by a Christian king in the Horn of Africa to procure relics in Latin Europe, as a point of departure for reflecting o...
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Michael Edward Stewart @mikeaztec.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
plekos.jimdofree.com/2025/07/09/c...
plekos.jimdofree.com
Christian Rollinger/Nadine Viermann (eds.): Empresses-in-Waiting (2024)
Review of: Christian Rollinger/Nadine Viermann (eds.): Empresses-in-Waiting. Female Power and Performance at the Late Roman Court. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press 2024 (Women in Ancient Cultures). Reviewed by: Liz James, Brighton Read in PDF: [Review Rollinger_Viermann] Language: English
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Paolo Cignoni @aloopingicon.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Please help us understand what experts expect from digital reconstructions of ancient color! We're running a short (10 min) anon survey for professionals in archaeology, art history, architecture, conservation/restoration, museums, and digital humanities. 👉 forms.gle/aEhYwGiveiNi... Please Share!
Various examples of color reconstruction on ancient statues
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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
For #WorldBeeDay - Attic Black-Figure amphora, ca. 540 BC, showing the four men who attempted to steal honey from the hives that fed the infant Zeus - Laios, Keleos, Kerberos, and Aigolios - being punished by the bees! 🐝 Image: BM (1847,0716.1). Link - www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
Black-figure amphora. Designs black on red panels, with borders of lotus-buds along the top; accessories of white and purple. In the main panel, four male figures stung by bees, all nude and bearded - the men, not the bees!
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Franziska Davies @efdavies.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
The last few days were so stressful (on my own with our son without childcare!) that I forgot to promote the newest addition to my newsletter. This time I wrote about the myth of Kyvian Rus as the first Russian state and why the success of this narrative is linked to Russian colonialism in academia.
open.substack.com
The legacy of Russian colonialism: the case of Kyivan Rus'
The traditional privileging of Russian colonial perspectives contributes to our (mis-)understanding of the history of Eastern Europe to this day. The medieval period is no exception.
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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
It was a delight writing this article in response to Alexander Demandt. Together with other colleagues we were invited to reflect on a recent essay of his. An opportunity to engage in "courteous polemic". The entire theme-issue is open access, but give a shout if you like a PDF of this piece!
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CurihistoryOfficial @curihistory.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Happy (Latin) Easter to everyone who celebrates! I got a little Easter Egg for you, a new Curihistory Episode! Today's subject is Saint Elena, also known as Olha of Kyiv! #history #Youtubers www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNl...
youtube.com
Olha of Kyiv - Curihistory Season 2 Episode 2
YouTube video by Curihistory
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Robert Wiśniewski @relicsclerics.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Warsaw Late Antique seminar on 10 April: Zachary Chitwood (München), Eastern Roman Law, Islam and the First Millennium: Prolegomena to a ius commune orientale. As always, in person and online.
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CurihistoryOfficial @curihistory.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
When I scripted this episode I didn't think a conflict between the US and Canada would be topical again, but he we are in this wacky timeline. Fortunately this one didn't end up so bad! Also: Curihistory is back, baybay! #history #youtubers #Canada #USA youtu.be/eiQoo8FXdGY
youtu.be
Pig War - Curihistory Season 2 Episode 1
YouTube video by Curihistory
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Jens Notroff @jensnotroff.com · 19/03/2025
Okay, this is big. Really. New finds from SE Anatolia suggest that at Gre Fılla, #Diyarbakir, Neolithic hunter-gatherers experimented with copper #metallurgy ... 9,000 years ago! Yes, that's the Pre-Poettery Neolithic we're talking about: 🏺 www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/how-...
turkiyetoday.com
How Anatolia’s last hunter-gatherers pioneered copper metallurgy 9,000 years ago - Türkiye Today
New findings in Anatolia show that hunter-gatherers were experimenting with copper metallurgy 9,000 years ago, reshaping our understanding of early technology.
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Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
The Look of Love Detail of Dionysus (Bacchus) and Ariadne from the 4th Century triclinium mosaic at Chedworth #Roman villa #Gloucestershire Found in 1864 and now looked after by @nationaltrust.bsky.social @nattrustarch.bsky.social #MosaicMonday
Detail of from a 4th century AD Roman mosaic showing the Greek god Dionysus (Bacchus) kissing Ariadne from Chedworth in Gloucestershire
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Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
On Monday 24 March 17.30 @victoriawhitworth.bsky.social will be talking about her new book at the #historyofliturgy seminar in London @ihr.bsky.social (in person & online): 'Making the familiar strange again: the unconventional text and script of the Book of Kells' www.history.ac.uk/events/makin...
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Michael Kiefer @mvipsaniusa.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
"Forschende haben in Jerusalem das Grab einer Nonne aus byzantinischer Zeit freigelegt. Ihr Körper steckte in Eisenringen, die sie schon zu Lebzeiten getragen hatte. Freiwillig" www.geo.de/wissen/weltg...
Ein Archäologe kniet in einem Grab und legt ein einzelnes Skelett frei. Dieses steckt in einer Vielzahl schwerer Eisenringe.
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Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture @mjcbac.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
TOMORROW, March 11, we welcome Georgios Makris! His lecture "Luxury for All? Jewelry and People in the East Roman Empire" will take place at 12:00 pm EDT (UTC -4) on Zoom. More information & registration: maryjahariscenter.org/events/luxur...
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Jeffrey Kotyk @jeffreykotyk.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Open Access Book: Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity: China and the Parthians, Sasanians, and Arabs in the First Millennium. Download here: brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com
Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity
"Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity" published on 15 Aug 2024 by Brill.
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Dejan Mihajlović @mihajlovicfreiburg.com · 01/02/2025
Ein ausführlicherer (imo bisher bester) deutschsprachiger Beitrag (von Andrej Ivanji) zu dem, was in Serbien zurzeit geschieht, der nicht nur eine Chronologie der Ereignisse, sondern auch einige politische und gesellschaftliche Einordnungen bietet (die ich teile). Sehr lesenswert:
mdr.de
Rücktritt des Ministerpräsidenten: Was ist in Serbien los? | MDR.DE
Die serbische Auktokratie schine unantastbar. Nun zwangen Studentenproteste den Regierungschef aber zum Rücktritt. Wie kam es dazu und wie geht es weiter? Ein Kommentar.
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Heidi Reichinnek, MdB @heidireichinnek.dielinkebt.de · 31/01/2025
Simple Mathematik: Ohne Die Linke hätte die Union heute mit der AfD und FDP eine Mehrheit gehabt.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Proofs! It's essentially a longer piece that tries to give an overview of how our thinking about late antique and early medieval cities has changed in the first quarter of the twenty first century. Loads of urban sociology and contemporary context but also loads of theory!
RESEARCHING THE POST-IMPERIAL CITY IN A
POST‑TRANSFORMATION WORLD, 2000–2023
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Heidelberg School of Education @hse-heidelberg.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Willkommen auf Bluesky, liebe @uniheidelberg.bsky.social! #followfriday #edusky #highered #bluecampus #edubw
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Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
'Sutton Hoo & Syria: The Anglo-Saxons Who Served in the Byzantine Army?' This is one of the most exciting things I've written (so far..!). Thanks to everyone who helped. academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...
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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
I feel privileged to have finally seen the bronze portrait head of the Thracian king Seuthes III, discovered in 2004 in the Golyama Kosmatka tumulus in Bulgaria. It was ripped from the body of a statue, no trace of which was found in the tumulus. 🏺 #ancientbluesky 1/ ca. 310-300 BCE 📸 me
Slightly over life size bronze head of a bearded man with a large handlebar mustache and a prominent hooked nose. The skin of the face has a beautiful green patina with a smattering of golden orange spots. The eyes - a composite of alabaster and glass - are intact and striking. The beard is almost alive, rippling with detail, somewhat long, and sticking out forwards at an angle. One of the best-preserved large scale ancient bronzes to survive from antiquity.
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Dr. Verena Krebs @krebsverena.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Yesterday, I shared a photo of the Garima Gospels taken over a decade ago, during my PhD work in Tigray. Today, this excellent article on Garima in 2024 was published. It's nominally about the Gospels, but so much more than that: grief, trauma, and a devastating war. newlinesmag.com/reportage/th...
newlinesmag.com
In Search of Ethiopia's Garima Gospels
The world’s oldest Christian manuscripts are in hiding from the violence that has ripped through their region
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Maroula Perisanidi @maroulix.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Hard copies of my book are finally here along with the first book review by my 3-year old 😅! She has learnt the words “hagiography” and “hegemony” and is apparently finding the book hilarious 😊 www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
My little girl sitting on her dad’s lap and reading my book.The cover of my book: Masculinity in Byzantium, c. 1000-1200, including two miniatures: one of a warrior on a horse and one of a man holding a reed and a book.
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