Abi Baker

Troy on Display This book explores what visitors saw at the Trojan exhibition and why its contents, including treasure, plain pottery and human remains captured imaginations an…

My book is under £30 as an ebook and usually well under that in print from the publisher’s site. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/troy-on-d...

This is also the article in which I gently suggest that Pater scholarship needs to treat Schliemann as the massive weirdo that he was.

Thanks!

I've free access links for people who want them. Let me know in the replies or message me.

Plus Pater never saw it, so there's an intriguing mystery here. Plus I'd really like to get more historians of archaeology into Pater, who sees Bronze Age material as art in its own right very early while everyone else was mocking it

A black and white photo of a little metal flower. There is a short stalk of corroded black metal with a small ring of petals around the top. It has seen better days.

The object itself is not making anyone's top 10 list of exciting finds from Mycenae (image from Karo Die Schachtgräber von Mykenai)

Searching for Pater’s Gold Flower on a Silver Stalk in Schliemann’s Mycenae Abstract. The archaeological discoveries made by Heinrich Schliemann were highly controversial, with implications for the discipline of archaeology and wid

My new article is up. It identifies an object that was important in the early reception of Mycenae and explores why Walter Pater picked such an obscure object as a key example. academic.oup.com/jvc/advance-...

A couple of places for our event on Friday have become available. Join us to talk about sensory experiences of the ancient world!

Upcoming Events Colour, Texture and Sound: Experiencing the Ancient World The Classical Collections Network, in partnership with the Hellenic Society and the Great North Museum: Hancock, is delighted to announce t…

Still a few places left for the Classical Collections Network's event on Friday 19th September, at the Great North Museum in Newcastle. A great programme of speakers! Grateful for funding from Hellenic Society.

Colour, Texture and Sound: Experiencing the Ancient World

share.google/gP5MtTh7N7LJ...

If we want museum workers, precarious academics and others to be able to make knowledge, we need at least an understanding that academic publishing is designed to exclude them. Meanwhile the government wants to give my book to AI companies that will use it to make money.

Disaster averted on current article. I’m so careful to design my research around materials that are in the public domain and things I can guarantee access to. But still a reviewer can demand I use an edition of a 19th century source that costs more money than is in my bank account.

So great that we have a machine for killing the planet that also steals and is rude

CALL FOR PAPERS

On 19 Sep 2025 the Classical Collections Network in collaboration with Newcastle University and the Great North Museum: Hancock, will be hosting a conference on Colour, Texture and Sound: Experiencing the Ancient World.

Supported by the @hellenicsociety.bsky.social.

Looking forward to reading this. Congratulations

They should sell t shirts of this

Troy on Display This book explores what visitors saw at the Trojan exhibition and why its contents, including treasure, plain pottery and human remains captured imaginations an…

Hi new followers! My book is 30% off right now. If you’re interested in weirdly heated debates about the past or what it was really like to visit a museum in the 19th century, now might be the time to treat yourself. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/troy-on-d...

Could you add me? I’ve not been posting much lately but want to get back into it.

Could you add me. Not in a big posting mood right now but I’ll find my way there eventually.

Greek Pottery Day On Friday the 13th of September, the Classical Collections Network ran a training day on Greek pottery for anyone working with collections in UK museums including (or thought to include) ancient Gr…

Do join our network to participate in this kind of event!
classicalcollectionsnetwork.co.uk/2024/10/25/g...

I’m making my “I’m not sure about that, Thomas” face and I’m not the only one

I hope it’s a Ratatouille situation

It’s all four volumes of Pattern Magic and both volumes of Thus Spake Rohan Kishibe, fanned out.

Got the deluxe fashion weeb book package for my birthday.

The frame is completely filled with black silk crepe de chine fabric, spread flat on a table top. The fabric is printed with a pattern of tumbling Greek vases, depicted in a blobby painted style. The figures on the vases race, fight lions and engage in more intimate activities

Once again, my carefully laid sewing plans are disrupted by the need to turn a cute fabric into a little top.

Can recommend “they don’t make plus sized spacesuits” by Ali Thompson as a set of short stories on this

Definitely. I thought it was Cupid when I first saw it.

I wonder if it’s also a nod to all those stories of children befriending dolphins in Pliny? www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?...

It’s an anime style drawing of a pretty girl with short red hair, a Tyrolean hat, a safari shirt, short shorts and thigh highs. She has a notebook and a rope and it looks like there might be a fluffy tail poking out of her shorts. Of course there are pink sparkles and a Trojan horse background.

Unfortunately I was made aware of magical girl Schliemann last night and now I have to share her with you.

Every curator has a small weird object they want to make people love and I’m proud this baby figurine made the big leagues

Islanders making this top ten exhibitions of the year list is a nice early Christmas present. t.co/2xhmAKK0m6

A beautiful brown long haired dachshund, wearing a Christmas hat and a red knitted jumper with bands of reindeer and stars on it.

The same dog sitting up for a treat. The dog is wearing a red Christmas jumper and a harness with a pattern of Christmas puddings.

Today I bought a felt dachshund in a Christmas hat for my friend who wants a real one, joked with the salesperson that it is probably more ethical to get her one that is just for Christmas. Then I turned around and saw the irl version walking towards us. #TinyJoys