Sarah E. Bond

The words are purposes. The words are maps.

- Adrienne Rich

Figure 22. The luminance value in the main reading room of the Timgad library on 21 June, at 10 a.m.: (a) two large openings located on the same entrance wall, facing west; (b) enclosed space receiving diffused light from zone (a); (c) reader stands to consult the documents in the wooden bookcase.

How were ancient Roman public libraries lit? ☀️ Hana Djouadi, Azeddine Belakehal & Paola Zanovello have a new OA study of the library at Timgad, Algeria (Vici.org: vici.org/vici/7884/). Great points about library architecture & marble choices shaped by needs for daylight. www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/8/...

Always! Really glad uva will soon have you back.

I made an open access, archived version here: archive.ph/2025.08.03-1...

Correct.

An aerial view of what the Gaza City area looked like this week. Taken from a Jordanian military aircraft, by our colleague Heidi Levine.

That’s a good novel, for sure.

Yeah… I can’t blame CD for that but the foreword about information ethics is like 😬

When you’ve even lost O’Leary…
And one observation: you don’t need to go back to Ancient Rome (as O’Leary does) to find analogues. There are much more recent cases of authoritarians axing (or even executing) statisticians when the numbers proved inconvenient.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

Visited a very special friend today! Possibly a once in a generation exhibition in Chantilly, showcasing the recent restoration of the most magnificent medieval Book of Hours.

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Musée Condé MS 65, 15th century

Agreed! Totally.

YouTube video by flipped prof Artemision of Ephesus by night 3d reconstruction

Anyways! Big fan of all of these studies of day / night / time and how people are using digital humanities tools to facilitate a better understanding of its impact on daily life.

Lux fiat! 🕯️ youtu.be/rFKGimxw3dc?...

Virtual Meridian of Augustus: Presentation at the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Archeology | IDIA Lab IDIA Lab virtual celestial simulator and 3D interpretation of the Meridian of August in ancient Rome. Project commissioned by the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory at Indiana University, directed by B...

To an extent, this was also pioneered by reconstructions of the Horologium ⏳ of Augustus as well. idialab.org/virtual-meri... Virtual Meridian of Augustus: Presentation at the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Archeology | IDIA Lab

The House of the Faun Free essays, homework help, flashcards, research papers, book reports, term papers, history, science, politics

But between this new study and the one on the 3D modeling of lighting of the Parthenon (See: phys.org/news/2025-05...), I think we are starting to see a great use of 3D modeling to re-form ancient light / shadow 🪔 studies (just as John Dobbins & @ewg118.bsky.social did for the 3D House of the Faun).

Creating A Public Space: Open Access, Book Theft, and the Epigraphy of Ancient Libraries During the reign of the emperor Trajan (ca. 100 CE) an inscription was placed on a marble block for those visiting the public Library of Pantaenus to read. The library was itself built by the son o…

Public Libraries were often open only during the day (see my prior post: sarahemilybond.com/2016/02/26/c...) and depended heavily on natural light (e.g. library of Celsius) since candles and lamps were highly flammable near papyri and parchment scrolls even if private libraries had more lamps.

Inside Roman Libraries | George W. Houston | University of North Carolina Press Libraries of the ancient world have long held a place in the public imagination. Even in antiquity, the library at Alexandria was nearly legendary. Until now...

I am not a scholar of Roman libraries, but as I wrote my dissertation at UNC, I sat in the Davis Library epigraphy room with George Houston (one of the best epigraphers of our time) who wrote my favorite book on them at the same time for @uncpress.bsky.social: uncpress.org/book/9781469...

Figure 22. The luminance value in the main reading room of the Timgad library on 21 June, at 10 a.m.: (a) two large openings located on the same entrance wall, facing west; (b) enclosed space receiving diffused light from zone (a); (c) reader stands to consult the documents in the wooden bookcase.

How were ancient Roman public libraries lit? ☀️ Hana Djouadi, Azeddine Belakehal & Paola Zanovello have a new OA study of the library at Timgad, Algeria (Vici.org: vici.org/vici/7884/). Great points about library architecture & marble choices shaped by needs for daylight. www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/8/...

Pottery is sexy!

But why did so many men look great in jeans in the past? And why do so many look terrible today?

A big change has to do with how denim is woven. For much of the 20th century, denim was woven on shuttle looms, which produce narrower width fabric finished with selvedge (self-edge).

Today in unsolicited facts that no one cared about: a kid at the pool asked me why my husband paints his toenails and I noted that ancient Babylonian warriors painted their nails. And that historically, nail polish was for all in many places, making the term “malepolish” dumb. no one cared—again. 💅

one of the single best deals in streaming. i've been paying for PBS Passport for years. it rules

It’s official: Italy and Sicily will finally be linked by a bridge A €13.5 billion construction project will begin this year

I do hope someone in the underworld goes and tells Charlemagne that someone else is finally gonna do what he said he would over 1200 years ago. www.timeout.com/news/italy-m...

Just remember, guys: the Roman Empire had a lot of pottery too.

FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF EUGENES, C3. CLOISTER OF S. LORENZO FUORI LE MURA D. M. / EVGENETI MA / RITO BENE ME / RENTI QVI V. A. XXXV ATHEN / VS CONIVNX / FECIT "To the departed shades. To Eugenes [my] well-deserving husband who lived 35 years. Athenus [his] spouse made [this]." This simple inscription in elegant epigraphy unambiguously commemorates a male couple. The two men were probably Greek with Latinised names (Eugenes transformed into Eugenetus), possibly slaves, and Eugenes was buried in the catacombs of Cyriaca in the tufaceous cliffs along the via Tiburtina, where the deacon Laurentius was buried. As the cliffs were cut away to build a church over the tomb of S. Lorenzo, the catacombs were devastated and many inscriptions from them were preserved in the cloister. This is a rare testimony to the existence of formal same-sex couples in ancient Rome, but the language of the epitaph is clear: "maritus", husband, and "coniunx", spouse.

#EpigraphyTuesday brings us into the peaceful cloister of #SanLorenzofuorileMura in #Rome where we find a simple #epitaph from a man to his husband. #gayhistory #gayclassics #ClassicsBluesky 🏺 @barrytorch.bsky.social @joonasvanhala.bsky.social

Just remember, guys: the Roman Empire had a lot of pottery too.

Oh, you know, just the New Yorker quoting Sarah :) @sarahebond.bsky.social

Her name (as she is a newborn) almost seems like an epigraphic pun

My understanding is we don’t have enough of the pigment from that area to know. This is a reconstruction (a famous one) based on surviving pigment remnants after spectroscopy

Alexander the Great, detail of Alexander Mosaic at Pompeii Date circa 100BC Source Wikipedia

Gotcha but let’s compare with the polychromatic linothorax of the Alexander mosaic. Also quite colorful!

Well the breastplates often also have abs in the Greek and Roman contexts. It’s about idealized and heroic bodies projected through armor.