David Roberts

Men studying a dragon

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE
My home department at Uppsala University is advertising an endowed professorship in the history of science. This is the best position in the field in Sweden, and probably in all of Scandinavia. Apply before 30 April 2026. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Two Roman lead pigs on a forklift in a farmyard

This was the scene when I arrived to collect the lead pigs from the landowner in Oct 24, for safe transfer to the National Museum 😮

It's not often Roman finds are so heavy they're carried on a forklift

The pigs are extraordinary..each weighed around 85kg & had to be lifted by two people 💪

📷 TD

: Half of UK universities face a deficit next year. Up to 50 could close.

That is a sector in crisis. Simply blaming a tuition fee freeze and nudging fees up with inflation is not a plan. Where is the long-term strategy for higher education?

#Universities #HigherEducation

SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect In this post, we explain what to expect from the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer in 2026. We also share the list of the 71 actions available in the new offer, with payment rates.

Good lord this is damaging.

I’m not talking about farming, I’m talking about nature.

This is insane stuff.

defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/24/s...

A special #MosaicMonday announcement – Save the Date - Free ASPROM Symposium, Saturday 7 March 2026, 13.50-17.30 (UK time) to be held on Zoom. Speakers on mosaics in Aquileia and Tunisia, plus Coralie Turpin and Jeremy Deller on the Roman-inspired mosaic on Marine Drive in Scarborough. 1/2

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

A retired British primary school administrator with a British passport and a valid visa was shackled, chained and detained for six weeks by ICE

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The students claiming uni Covid compensation 'for the principle' Dozens of universities have received legal letters over what students say they missed out on during Covid.

Yet again we in Higher Ed get everything bad from being private institutions, and everything bad from being seen as part of the public sector. We can be sued and sued again for actions which we didn't cause, which hit *us*. And yet ppl think we are backed by govt. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We're delighted that Dr Anwen Cooper, who heads the @rewildarch.bsky.social project, will be delivering this year's de Cardi lecture for the @archaeologyuk.bsky.social AGM!

📍 The Milner York
📅 21st February | 12:20
🎟️ FREE

Read more about the AGM and how to book tickets here: tr.ee/CBA-AGM

Birkbeck, University of London, is seeking a Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics to join our dynamic team within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Autumn 2026. As Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics, you will contribute to the teaching of ancient Greco-Roman history and Classics in the School of Historical Studies - this includes our BA Ancient History and Archaeology, BA Classics, BA Classical Studies, as well as MA Classical Civilisation and MA Classics. This post is offered on a permanent contract at Birkbeck, full time, 35 hours per week, with a salary of £44,247 rising to £60,858 per year. Teaching hours will vary from 6-9pm Monday to Friday. To be successful, you will bring research expertise in ancient Greek history, broadly understood (this could include the history of Greek-speaking lands under the Roman empire), as well as ancient Greek literature, and demonstrate a capacity to contribute to interdisciplinary research and teaching, participate actively in curriculum development, supervise doctoral students, and help shape the intellectual life of our vibrant academic community. We would also welcome applicants who could contribute to collaborative teaching programmes or research in the Faculty, in areas such as identity, race/ethnicity, or gender - experience of collaboration with cultural institutions, whether through research or teaching, is also welcome. The postholder could potentially take advantage of Birkbeck’s new Immersive Learning Centre for teaching or research. As Lecturer, your core responsibilities will initially include programme/module administration, teaching, supervision, assessment, student support and pastoral care. You will also be equipped to supervise doctoral students. With a PhD in any area of Ancient History/Classics relating to the ancient Greek world,...

We're hiring at Birkbeck!

Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics, full-time and open-ended. Closing date March 18th.

Details here: cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

New!
The first comparative, international, cross-disciplinary study of silver in late antique Europe. And includes full catalogues of major UK hacksilver hoards: Norrie’s Law (Fife), Gaulcross (Aberdeenshire), Tummel Bridge (Perthshire) and Patching (Sussex).
www.sidestone.com/books/silver...

British Museum’s A.I.-Generated Post Sparks Online Backlash The British Museum has been called out for posting images containing A.I. generated content on its Instagram and Facebook.

This is just...weird.

It's not like the BM don't have enough stock images of people looking at stuff?

Or is the classic case of someone higher up paying an AI company money for whatever reason, then they have to use it?
news.artnet.com/art-world/br...

Demanding for academics to be subjected to a ‘strategic research management regime’ is one of the most idiotic and ignorant things I’ve heard in some time. Only someone with no understanding of what universities are for could come up with such utter shite.

OPEN LETTER TO THE GUARDIAN Dear Editors, We write in reference to a recent article published in the UK online edition of The Guardian on Friday, 23 January 2026, which carried the following misleading headline: "British crown was world's largest buyer of enslaved people by 1807, book reveals." The article in question, by Chris Osuh, showcases a new book by Dr. Brooke Newman, The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of Slavery and the British Monarchy (Harper Collins, 2026). But Newman's book is not the original source of that claim. That claim derives from earlier scholarship, the painstaking archival work of a Black historian of Caribbean heritage: the late Roger Norman Buckley. It is unfortunate that the silencing of his original scholarship appears in the profiling of a book advertised as uncovering silences. While it is great to see public attention brought to the history of the Crown's involvement in slavery through the new book and its profiling in The Guardian, the headline compromises The Guardian's efforts to address the legacies of slavery generally and its own institutional links when it extracts and reframes earlier work by a Black scholar as a revelation new to this book. The relevant passage in The Crown's Silence draws on original scholarship by Roger Norman Buckley in Slaves in Red Coats: The British West India Regiments, 1795-1815 (1979). Dr. Brooke Newman repeats Buckley's figures, which she cites (referencing page 55 of Buckley's book, see attached) while changing his "British government" to "Crown." She then converts his careful "perhaps the largest individual buyer" to a more conclusive claim, changing his "British government" to "king" but without citing Buckley for that claim which is on page 56 of his book (see attached) and which, uncited in Newman's book, is the Guardian headline. There is room for popular histories that rely largely on the secondary scholarship of other historians. But other historians have not been silent.

Page from Buckley’s 1979 book

2nd page from Buckley’s 1979 book

An open letter to @theguardian.com about their article last week about the Crown’s Silence, requesting that the Black scholar of Caribbean heritage who did the years of archival research behind this claim, and published it in 1979, Roger Norman Buckley, be acknowledged as the source of this reveal:

Looking for a postdoc opportunity outside the UK/US? I'm happy to support up to two JSPS postdoc applicants for the coming round for two-year posts starting from Sep./Oct. 2026 onwards at UTokyo. The application to be submitted before the end of March. 1/n

Thanks, let me know what you think!

Really proud to see this out. A fantastic achievement that rests heavily on the hard work, expertise and dedication of all those mentioned here, not least @davidrobertsarch.bsky.social ! An excellent summary of all our contributors and of the overall findings. Now go read the book!

Has anyone spotted any Heritage analysis around this yet? Another couple of months.

Thanks to our reviewers SEC & TB for drastically improving the book, and to John, Judith and Penny for illustrations. And finally, thanks to our brilliant, super-capable site team of professionals, volunteers and placements, for excavating in winter in the Somerset Levels, back in 2018. 10/10 End

The publication was majority funded by Historic England, with further funding from the Pilgrim Trust, the Association for Roman Archaeology, Roman Research Trust, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, & the Association for the Promotion of Study & Preservation of Roman Mosaics. 9/10

Anyway, go read the book! Its free to all online, or £40+P&P from Pen and Sword in hardback. Huge thanks to Rachel for pushing it to publication, Roger & Rachel as joint authors, Denise and Nicola for personal support, all our many specialists, & Catrina, Cath, Eva for prep for publication. 8/10

Densely packed distribution map of Roman sites, Roman PAS finds and landscape types in central Somerset / westernmost Wiltshire / north-westernmost Dorset. Low Ham is approximately central, amidst a dense cluster of villas and other sites, on an island of higher ground projecting between possibly drained, and possibly undrained, wetlands.

My final chapter sets the villa in its landscape context, and reviews settlement in the region, postulating that we need to diversify our interpretations of villas, and arguing for the importance of state supply networks, hunting and elite interaction in site location choice. 7/10

Complicated colour coded phase plan of the main buildings of Low Ham Roman villa, showing gradual expansion from several small buildings in Phase 1, through to a very large and complex courtyard villa in Phase 3.

The villa gradually developed from the 3rd century until at its mid 4th century height it had internal floor space of 5,000 sq. m. across about 80 rooms. It is the largest and most elaborate of the dense concentration of villas around the Roman town of Ilchester, a key node in Roman transport 6/10

Pages from Chapter 6, showing an image of a large trench being opened by heavy plant under archaeological supervision, and an excavation plan of the same trench, drawn by John Vallender. The plan shows parts of four roundhouse ring gullies, two of which are cut through by a very large early Roman ditch, which also has a narrow V-shaped ditch to the exterior.

Our work discovered the site's prehistoric precursor, an unenclosed farming settlement, and demonstrated very early Roman activity at that site, including a massive rectangular enclosure ditch cutting through roundhouses (v likely already abandoned!). 5/10

Illustrated small finds from the 2018 excavations. Copper-alloy bracelet fragments SF 31110 and SF 31112; copper-alloy penannular brooch SF 31111; copper alloy tack SF 32007; iron stylus SF 30110. Drawing by Judith Dobie, Historic England.

Rachel Cubitt has done an exemplary job of drawing together material narratives of lives at the villa, from finds and enviro evidence, bringing the place to life. This project felt like a real partnership between 'field' and 'finds' archaeologists, trying to enrich and diversify villa stories. 4/10

Image of a page from Chapter 3 of the Low Ham monograph, illustrating an interpretive plan by Radford, director of the original excavations, and in a lower image, Leech's detective work working out where the sections Radford drew are located on part of the plan of the villa.

Building on detective work from fragmentary (mostly absent) records and photos of the 1940s excavations, and R Leech's extensive archival work into these sources, we suggest a sequence for the villa, grounded in the 2018 excavations I directed for Historic England, and HE's geophysical survey. 3/10

A photograph of Mosaic II, 207.1, from Low Ham, showing aspects of the story of Dido and Aeneas in pictoral form. Each scene is within a box formed by a twisting guilloche pattern. The left hand side shows a hunt, the right Aeneas' ships at sea, the lowest panel Dido and Aeneas embracing, the uppermost in the image Dido and Aeneas' first encounter, the central panel Venus nude with attendant cupids; a cloth or perhaps a towel is behind her, possibly in allusion to the placement of this mosaic in front of a plunge bath. Venus, in Steve Cosh's words, presides over events around her.

Low Ham is primarily famous for its extraordinary mosaic telling the story of Dido and Aeneas in 'story board' form, unparalleled in Britannia until recent finds at Boxford and (especially) Ketton. Here S Cosh sets the mosaic in its bath house context, along with the many others from the site. 2/10

The purple cover of a large book entitled 'The Romano-British villa and prehistoric settlement at Low Ham, Somerset'. A blurb explaining the contents is on the back, along with sponsors logos. A reconstruction of the villa is the cover image. This image and all others from the book.

Our @antiquaries.bsky.social Low Ham book (myself, Roger Leech and @thepostexcox.bsky.social ) is now available OA - library.oapen.org/handle/20.50... - the first synthetic publication of one of Britannia's largest villas, with reports on strat, finds, & enviro remains, & fully contextualised. 1/10

Senior Research Technician at University of Exeter Explore professional services job openings, including the Senior Research Technician position, on jobs.ac.uk. Apply today and discover more about this role.

Senior Research Technician post in our department at Exeter! Closing date 4 Jan - be quick! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPV452/s...

I will add that even after that time I was obviously statistically much more likely to get a permanent job and the reason for that is very clear: I’m a straight white male and the child of comfortably off baby boomers. I went to private school. These things insulate you to a great extent.

Experience in #archaeological #proteomics?
Interested in #Roman economy / organic artefacts?
Background in data analysis for #ZooMS?

Then apply for a 3-year RA post working to join PELLIS project with the wonderful @gtaylortu.bsky.social to investigate Roman leather economy

Apply by 12/01/2026