Jo Cogan

Tom Johnson · Supereffable: Mysteries of the Pearl Manuscript Any book made by hand is unique, but the Pearl Manuscript’s claim to uniqueness is unparalleled: the manuscript...

‘There is no getting around the weirdness. We don’t really know what it is or what it was for.’

@tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on the Pearl Manuscript, which includes the only copy of ‘Gawain and the Green Knight’: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Une université américaine lance une enquête sur un professeur d’archéologie suspecté d’être un « antifa » L’université américaine Marshall a annoncé lancer une enquête approfondie concernant les activités suspectes de l’un de ses enseignants, aujourd’hui décédé, une renommée du monde de l’archéologie, le ...

Une université américaine lance une enquête sur un professeur d’archéologie suspecté d'être un « antifa » www.legorafi.fr/2025/09/19/u...

Teaching grammar 😳

BnF MS Français 574; Gossouin de Metz, Image du monde; c.1320 CE; France (Paris); f.27r @gallicabnf.bsky.social

Happy #FindsFriday Bluesky! 🏺

We couldn't decide if we wanted a cute animal or a cool lamp so here's both!

This Late Roman terracotta statuette depicts a bear holding an oil lamp (or so we're told).

Yes, very true!

Genuine question: how do we know it WAS meant to represent a human rather than, say, a bear, or some mythical creature?

#FindsFriday

One of my favs - Found at Corinium (Cirencester) a knife handle, in the form of a lion eating its prey.

📷 My own.

#Roman #Archaeology #History

Artificial Intelligence

'Arriviste Illumination. / Assiduous Immobility. / Allegorical Interpretation. / Aphoristic Idiocy.'

Artificial Intelligence by Michael Hofmann

Love's Sting - a charming little poem ascribed to Anacreon (6th cent BC), in my new translation.
I read it here in ancient Greek and in English:
armanddangour.substack.com/p/loves-sting

Our BBC, Our Future - Audiences asked to help shape BBC’s future From 27 March BBC account holders across the UK will start to receive an online questionnaire to help identify what they want from the BBC now, and what they want from it in the future

The Shape the Future of the BBC survey is still open - if you’d like fairer political coverage, or more funding for the World Service, or anything else, you can let them know (link to survey is at the bottom of this page):

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Reform loses nine councillors in 6 weeks. This isn’t being mentioned by the broadcast media. Why not? @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social @itvnews.bsky.social
Sign our petition for no over platforming of any party and plural fair coverage of ALL parties all year round. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

Possibly the only Dartford Warbler musical box in the whole wide world and I wish you a very good day

Incense burners (Greek thymiateria) were important cult implements throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. This South Italian terracotta example of the second half of the 4th century BCE is exceptionally complex and rare: five women (clothes painted in tones of reddish orange and deep yellow) crowned with flowers are shown around a wellhead. The iconography reflects a local cult, probably that of Demeter and Kore who were widely worshipped in Southern Italy and Sicily at the time. Each of the women carries different objects: a phiale (libation bowl), a pomegranate, a mirror, a skein of wool, a bird, et al. Greek, South Italian, Tarentine, second half of the 4th century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2012.546)

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 scene shows a bride surrounded by attendants. The vase was made for the tomb. The background of the bride scene is a brilliant pink, the women’s clothing painted in a multitude of colors, from lilac, to yellow and red. Note that 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)

Two magnificent reminders of the intense colors of the ancient world. The thymiateria (incense burners) depict women sitting on a well head, each holding unique objects. The tholos-shaped vase depicts three women surrounding a fourth. 🏺 #ancientbluesky 1/

📸 me

I suppose trees and plants aren’t safe for kids in certain situations (like eating them or falling out of them - most learn not to do these things), they could chop/dig things that really bothered them? But I admit I am on the side of trees, and think they’re nice things for children to be around!

Personally I would very much rather a garden with trees, privacy and places for wildlife! Besides, if someone wants to buy your house they can easily change the garden to lawn, but it would take a long time to recreate what you have if that’s what they prefer.

The sadness of war

BL Add 10292; Lancelot-Grail (The Prose Vulgate Cycle): 1316 CE; France, N.; f.213r

A year ago, I found this 1940s photograph of a London vegetarian restaurant on eBay.

The restaurant, known as the Vega, was a popular hang-out run by a German-Jewish couple and their refugee staff.

It was also a front for a Europe-wide and today little known anti-Nazi resistance network 1/

I worked for the BBC about 20 years ago. One of the sessions in the induction was on how we needed to appeal not just to Guardian readers but also to Daily Mail readers. They’ve certainly gone above and beyond their ambitions in the last two decades.

A novel idea for men’s emotional growth | Letter Letter: Boys are rarely encouraged to read fiction and talk about its ability to open up inner worlds, writes Vincent Straub

“If we want to steer young men away from isolation or online extremism, we need more men to speak publicly about the books that moved them – and to reach out, to each other and to their sons. Dear men, when was the last time you read something to another man? “
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The Romance of Alexander beautiful illustrated manuscript in the Treasures exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford

I saw the Romance of Alexander manuscript today in the brilliant Bodleian Treasures exhibition - open on a different page (I didn’t notice any fish) but just stunning.

The Hellenistic Age Podcast History Podcast · Every two months · Podcast by The Hellenistic Age Podcast

This podcast covers it in more detail, across several episodes: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Carthage's Destruction Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Destruction of Carthage

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

It is excellent. I picked up a copy a few years ago quite by chance, from a second-hand bookshop in a cafe in a plant nursery in a tiny village in the English countryside. An entirely unexpected, happy discovery!

Legal challenge against Badger cull licences in England Wild Justice is a not-for-profit company which takes legal cases on behalf of wildlife. CEO: Bob Elliot. Co-Directors: Chris Packham CBE & Dr Ruth Tingay.

STOP PRESS!

We have launched a crowdfunder to help support our legal challenge against the badger cull licences, which will be heard in the High Court later this year.

Any help you can manage would be massively appreciated.

Thank you! 🦡⚖️🔽

www.crowdjustice.com/case/legal-c...

Black wolf looking straight at the camera. Pine forest behind. Yellow eyes.

We were seeing a 98% drop in exposure over on Twitter. The censorship was so extreme we thought it best to start over somewhere else. We chose Bluesky.

Help us gain our following back
Follow
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Repeat

Join the park side
@altyellonatpark.org

Litotes

'Though it wasn’t until 411 BC he took up the oar / in the Peloponnesian War / against “man-loosening” Lysander, // our hero was not unknown / to Thucydides ... '

Litotes by Paul Muldoon

RSPB reserve - yellow grass, blue sky, very peaceful!

Lake at RSPB reserve - blue sky above, light cloud, very peaceful! Lots of birds on lake barely visible on photo.

And even more blissfully peaceful… @rspbotmoor.bsky.social

Foal nuzzling its mother - semi-wild (very friendly) horses on a meadow.

The peace of wild things: semi(?) wild, very friendly horses enjoying the sunshine in their meadow. The woolly foal was especially sweet!

The accidental Shrimper: American student becomes Southend fan after boarding wrong boat — The Guardian A 21-year-old student from Arizona accidentally became a Southend United supporter on Saturday after boarding the wrong boat in London

Here it’s doing its bit for Anglo-American friendship AND football: apple.news/A2y_t9GcRSqm...

Title: Just in time for Mother's Day: Classic literature with added Mums Panel 1: Moby Dick "Ahab! Moby! Enough of this nonsense. Apologise to each other and if you can't get along, stay apart." says Ahab's mother, standing in a little boat and looking sternly into Moby's eye, while her son sits chastened behing her. Panel 2: Casino Royale. "Vodka martini, shaken not stirred... And a sweet sherry for my mother." says James Bond. His mother calls over feom their table "Just a little one." Panel 3: The Lord of the Rings. "You can look for your ring after you tidy your room and walk the dog, Sauron." says Sauron's mother, holding out the dog lead to her son, who replies "Aw, mum!".

Happy Mother’s Day!
(My cartoon for @theguardian.com books)