Sissel Undheim

YouTube video by ReligionForBreakfast Who Were the Last Pagans of Europe?

An interesting video from @andrewmarkhenry.bsky.social exploring Europe’s last pre-Christian religions inspired by my ‘Silence of the Gods’ m.youtube.com/watch?v=drA6...

This "Cursed!" Exhibition Reveals How Magic Ruled the Ancient World [Interview] "I hope visitors will recognize that magic in the ancient world was not an illusion or sleight of hand but a serious, deeply held belief system that helped people navigate uncertainty and suffering."

This New Exhibition Reveals How Magic Ruled the Ancient World
mymodernmet.com/cursed-exhib...

#OnThisDay in 12 BC, Augustus became pontifex maximus, the most important position in the ancient Roman religion.

The Pontifex Maximus led the Collegium Pontificum, overseeing state cult, religious laws, worship, and the calendar. The pontiffs managed sacred sites and public morality.

"The challenge to produce authentic yet engaging versions of Roman women in screen media is even greater now than before, given the proliferation of anti-feminist rhetoric
in contemporary media culture." (p.15)
From the warmly recommended introduction by Woźniak and Wyke.

Did I mention it's OA?!

Audio-Visual Roman Women This open-access book is an interdisciplinary and transnational study of how screen media can shape our perception of Roman women and project present gender ine…

Admit I was looking for something else when I came across this great, new book: Audio-Visual Roman Women. Gender, History and Screen Media. And it's Open Access! Guess I'll just have to postpone the other plans I had for today.

www.bloomsbury.com/us/audiovisu...

The deadline for applications has been extended to March 23rd to allow a bit more time for candidates to work on their application materials.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion (289814) | University of Bergen Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion (289814), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2026

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Study of Religion, University of Bergen, Norway. Specialization in Rabbinic literature 2nd – 7th century CE. NB Short deadline: 6 March. nt4ox.link/BergenPDF26

Description from the Art Institute of Chicago: “Female temple attendants, whose costumes and hairstyles recall fashions worn at least 200 years earlier by the Greek occupants of southern Italy and Sicily, kneel before a tall incense burner, upon which they place an offering. The scene is bordered by an egg-and-dart pattern above and a lotus pattern below. The presence of four nailholes indicates that these panels were likely affixed to a wall.”

✨Relief plaque of temple attendants✨

This #ReliefWednesday we are enjoying this beautiful terracotta relief thought to date from the C1st CE but emulating the style of southern Italy and the influences of Magna Graecia.

The ‘Pilgrim Hare’ from St. Mary’s Church at Beverley in East Yorkshire. Dating to the mid-14th century, the hare is dressed as a pilgrim, hence the title. It is thought that the carving was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit. 📸 My own. #StoneworkSunday #Beverley

The National Year of Reading celebrates the ‘joy’ of books. But let’s not forget they can also be deeply troubling, too | Charlotte Higgins Encounters with great art can be absorbing, unsettling and even painful. How has this been tamed into ‘reading for pleasure’, asks Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s chief culture writer

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... my friend Charlotte here on why reading for “pleasure” is NOT the be all and end all of reading. With a shout out for non fiction too which hasn’t got too much of a look in during this year of reading.

me teaching religion and politics for over a decade

Huge congratulations to my colleague prof. Nils Korsvoll!

Bjørgelien, Vassteigen og deler av Fyllingsdalen uten vann: Anbefaler koking (Åpen for alle lesere)

Ironien i at jeg aldri i mitt liv har opplevd så mye trøbbel med vannforsyningen som etter at jeg flyttet til Bergen. 🌊☔️ www.bt.no/nyheter/dire...

Todd H. Weir and Lieke Wijnia, eds., "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

So many interesting points raised in this conversation about The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe. And the whole volume is open access! open.spotify.com/episode/5Qsb...

A fundamental feature of Greek ceramics and their offshoots is that they could be used. By contrast, this vase, with its lid fixed onto the body, serves a purely symbolic function. It belongs to a class of pieces associated with the site of Centuripe in Sicily. They are characterized by elaborate and delicate applied decoration and by refined polychromy executed after firing. The vase was made for the tomb. The scene shows a bride surrounded by attendants. The background is a deep, vibrant pink, and the colors of the women's clothing includes cream, yellow, blue, green, orange, lilac, and red. Their skin is very pale. One female attendant wears a grape-leaf wreath on her head and bangs on a tympanum (hand drum). The bride is veiled. The sealed vessel resembles a tholos-style tomb or temple, with lion-headed waterspouts, triglyphs and metopes. Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe, 3rd-2nd century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (53.11.5)

This Greek terracotta vase from Centuripe, Sicily (a Greek colony) is brightly painted with a scene depicting the mostly-naked red-haired enthroned god Dionysos cradling a thyrsos in his right arm. A female figure veiled in a white himation - a priestess? - stands next to him, her face lost to time. A shield is propped up against the side of Dionysos' throne. The background here is a vivid pink madder, and the skin of the god is very realistically portrayed - pale, with reddish toning, and highlights and shadows. Even in its partially ruined state, the painting technique is obviously wonderfully realistic while the intensity of the colors make it look fantastical. The top of the vase includes architectural features, including a Lesbian kyme cornice (with remains of gilding) below lion-head waterspouts. The base is an open acanthus plant, as if the vase were growing out of its center. Probably made for the tomb. Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe, 3rd-2nd century BCE. Terracotta, gilding, and pigments. H. 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.); diameter 14 1/2 in. (36.83 cm.) Met Museum, New York (29.131.2)

Ancient #polychromy is rarely more vibrant than this type of Greek painted pottery from Centuripe, Sicily. Both vases here are funerary and have architectural elements at top, looking like small tholos-shaped temples (lion head waterspouts!). The colors are blazingly vivid. 🏺 1/

📸 me

If ever a series made us feel our age, it's this one! We return to Riordan's fantastical world of teenage demi-gods with the 2nd season of Percy Jackson. We are joined by @lexie-henning.bsky.social, who helps us navigate the world of prophecies and Party Ponies.

Listen now at movieswedig.com!

Dark greenstone polyhedron, on which we can see capital Greek letters (20 sides to the polyhedron), with only the last four letters (phi, chi, psy, and omega) missing. It looks identical to modern RPG dice. Greek, 2nd-1st c. BCE. Met Museum (27.122.5)

Blue-green faience polyhedron (which probably means that it originates in Egypt, but no findspot is known) with a capital Greek letter on each side/facet. A number of polyhedra made in various materials are known from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. They may have been used in conjunction with an oracle inscribed on a pillar set up in a public place. The polyhedron was thrown in order to choose a letter at random. One consulted the inscription to find the matching letter and read the oracle's response. There would be twenty oracular messages, each beginning with a letter of the alphabet that corresponded to one side of the dice. Roman, 2nd-3rd c. CE. Met Museum (37.11.3)

Two ancient 20-sided polyhedra inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabet. Now known as 'divination dice', they were used for cleromancy, a form of divination where casting lots determined divine will, sometimes in conjunction with an oracle. 🏺 1/ #ancientbluesky

#MetMuseum
📸 me

Child’s Play, by Sam Kriss Tech’s new generation and the end of thinking

This article was truly hilarious/disturbing & also, ratified one strong approach to tech journalism, which is, "go talk to the craziest, most quotable lunatics you can find" harpers.org/archive/2026...

Hey! Scholars! If you're using someone's work in your class, sometimes it's nice to email them and tell them, because then they might feel good about their research instead of entirely crushed by the academic humanities' ongoing descent into the grave

Anna Bonnell Freidin, "Birthing Romans: Childbearing and Its Risks in Imperial Rome" (Princeton UP, 2024) - New Books Network Support H-Net | Buy Books Here | Help Support the NBN and NBN en Español on Patreon | Visit New Books Network en Español!

A new podcast episode with Anna Bonnell Freidin. "Birthing Romans sheds critical light on the diverse ways pregnancy and childbirth were understood, experienced, and managed in ancient Rome during the first three centuries"

PhD Research Fellowship in the Study of Religion (296027) | University of Bergen Job title: PhD Research Fellowship in the Study of Religion (296027), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Monday, March 9, 2026

PhD opening in Bergen. Come and work with me on my NFR project looking at violence and warfare in antiquity: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Enjoying reading "Egeria’s Views From the Mountain:
Female Agency and Biblical Stylization in the Itinerarium Egeriae" by Klazina Staat. I have thought deeply about the geography of Egeria, but now I am seeing her as a literal mountain climber in new ways! 🗻

Only complaint: Where are the maps?!

Ancient Roman altars to go on display in Edinburgh Two Mithraic Roman altars are to be displayed as a part of an upcoming exhibition after being acquired for the nation.

Two ancient Roman altars found near Edinburgh and acquired for the nation are set to go on public display for the first time as part of a new exhibition at the National Museums of Scotland (NMS).
www.bbc.com/news/article...

The photo shows a black and white mosaic depicting a lying large guard dog chained to a double-winged door.

For today's #MosaicMonday a #Roman guard #dog chained to the door, a detail from a mosaic at the entrance of the House of Paquius Proculus in #Pompeii.
Dating 1st century AD.

Cave canem - Beware of the dog 🐶🐕🦮🐕‍🦺🐩

📷me
🏺 #archaeology

Ancient Romans loved their dogs. Here's what their heartbreakingly beautiful epitaphs said about them. ​ "My eyes were wet with tears our little dog, when I bore you to the grave."

Ancient Romans loved their dogs. Here's what their heartbreakingly beautiful epitaphs said about them. - Upworthy
www.upworthy.com/roman-dog-ep...

I'd watch a muppet show movie where the muppets infiltrate an academic conference.

10 years ago today, Beyoncé released “Formation.”

Hurra! 🎉

Reading suggestion:

Cowan, D. E. (2004). Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet (New Ed edition). Routledge.

I've recently been in La Sapienza, Rome, to talk about digital religion and magic, for a project led by Marinella Ceravolo

FRESCO OF THE WATER BRIDGE, 65-68 CE. DOMUS AUREA The cryptoporticus of the Oppian pavilion of Nero's Golden House is 60 metres long and 6 metres tall. It runs along the edge of the bedrock of the Oppian hill. Despite its position at the back of the palace, it's richly frescoed, probably by the palace's famed artist Fabullus. This detail of the huge frescoed space shows the underside of the bridge that carried water across the cryptoporticus to feed a fountain in the Octagonal Hall. The whole room is decorated with delicate frames against a white background and the bridge is no different. At centre within a strangely incomplete frame is a scene with a hippocamp and a sort of nautical centaur with a crown and staff. The sound of flowing water pouring over the bridge would draw attention, the gaze would lift, and the eye would confirm the presence of marine divinities.

#FrescoFriday in the #DomusAurea of #Nero takes us into the immense #cryptoporticus, which is divided by this bridge. It carried water down into the central bay of the great Octagonal Hall, and its #fresco decoration is a delicate series of #frames and nautical motifs. #AncientBluesky 🏺