Chris Callow

búðarvist (sb. f.): 3 cits, e.g. stay in a booth/(fisherman’s) hut // ophold i bod/(fisker)hytte ‘Bǫðvarr hafði búðarvist með Þórólfi Sigmundarsyni ok hafði meiri ráð yfir þingmǫnnum ok búðarliði en Þórólfr’ (Stu in AM 440 4°) onp.ku.dk/o12013 #OldNorse

To bring some sunshine to your timeline, an imitation gold solidus minted in Frisia in the 860s/870s, probably by Scandinavians, and ending up in Bickmarsh (Worcs.) in a hoard with coins of Burgred of Mercia. 📷 Treasure Hunting magazine

Ill be clear about why I am so angry and critical about it: Im seeing a good portion of my students who have imbibed the notion that they dont have to read, think or write for themselves because ChatGPT/CoPilot will do their thinking for them, and its terrifying. It should scare all of us.

A street scene dominated by a building on the left of the photo with a neo – classical frontage including columns and a pediment. A union flag aloft the top of the building. Other buildings further along the street. Crowds of people on either side of the road.

#PhotoFriday today is this photo of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists when located on New Street. Photographed by Percy J. Deakin of 19 Digbeth at precisely 10.12 hours on 27 June 1902. Ref: WK/B11/113 #LibraryofBham #Brumpic @rbsagallery.bsky.social

Jenny Wormald Junior Research Fellow in Women’s History at University of Oxford Discover an exciting academic career path as a Jenny Wormald Junior Research Fellow in Women’s History at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!

Fellowship Opportunity!

Jenny Wormald Junior Research Fellow in Women’s History
University of Oxford - St Hilda’s College

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQL341/j...

Susie Dent: Foreign languages help children decode English Britain’s best-loved wordsmith cautions against the decline in the study of French and German — try our quiz to test your knowledge of etymology

Foreign languages help children decode English says @susiedentwords.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/article/4730...

Silver Crucifix

✝️ The Viking Age 'Birka Crucifix'. Decorated in silver filigree, it may have originally been gilded.

A grave find from Bj 660, it's one of the oldest cross pendants known from Scandinavia.

Note how the Christ figure is tied to the cross with ropes.

My 📷 Historiska museet

I feel like I should have asked you this before. Who counted the eels?

Stop a Canadian corporation harvesting huge forests of seaweed from the west coast There should be a public consultation on this plan opening soon but lets gather signatures to demonstrate the fact that up and down the west coast, thousands of people don't want our seaweed rights gi...

''Acadian Seaplants, a massive Canadian corporation and owner of Arramara Teoranta, has put in an application to harvest tens of thousands of tons of wrack from huge swathes of the west coast.''

Sign the petition and lets stop this from happening ✊️

#SpeirGorm

my.uplift.ie/petitions/st...

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

A red hat, inspired by a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation, gains traction in Minnesota A Minneapolis knitting shop has resurrected the design of a Norwegian cap worn to protest Nazi occupation. Its owner says the money raised from hat pattern sales will support the local immigrant community.

A Minneapolis knitting shop has resurrected the design of a Norwegian cap worn to protest Nazi occupation. Its owner says the money raised from hat pattern sales will support the local immigrant community.

Front cover of a book. Title at the top of the page is The Narrative of the Life of James Watkins. Below this, an illustration of a male figure wearing a top hat and frockcoat typical of the mid – Victorian era. The figure is holding a piece of paper with the words Now I Am Free on it. Beneath this are details of the publication date, edition, printers and location.

#BlackBritshHistory James Watkins was an American fugitive slave. He lived in Birmingham for several years in the 1850s, lecturing against slavery. The Narrative of the Life of James Watkins’, c. 1852-3. Ref: AX 310, Birmingham Vol. 10 #LibraryofBham #BlackBritHist

Can you spare a minute to help this campaign? Save Classics and Medieval Studies at the University of Calgary!

I know that these things generally make little difference, but I would advise medievalists to sign the petition to save Classics and Medieval Studies at the University of Calgary. #medievalsky c.org/gGvyrHcwYt

Oh God, What Now? Podcast | Podmasters Oh God, What Now? combines top-quality guests, expert analysis and poor-quality jokes to make the unbearable bearable. Launched from the anti-Brexit movement in 2017, Oh God, What Now? is on a mission...

I've been busy this week... third and last, I've been talking on the @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast. A bit about my book, a lot about the disaster now unfolding in Britain's universities. It's an hour, but it's fun: www.podmasters.co.uk/oh-god-what-...

YouTube video by Marsh Family "Minnesota" - Marsh Family adaptation of "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"

We hope the good people of #SanFrancisco will forgive us for adapting a song about their city in 1967 to address the shocking and tragic events in #Minnesota in recent weeks. This is dedicated to Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and in solidarity. Our version is called "Minnesota" ❤️

youtu.be/BRHxXHZmVAM

Depictions of the intricately ornamented Borre-styled bridle cheek piece with from Dig Site 15, Troitsky Excavation, Novgorod. It feature two animal heads, one in each end and a central entwined animal. Source: "Археологические открытия. 2022 год/Archaeological discoveries. 2022" (Moscow 2024). 1) Outermost left: Analytical drawing of the front side 2) Second from the left: Photo from the same point of view 3) Middle: Photo from above, displaying the secondary bending of the piece 4) Second from right: Photo of the rear side, displaying that the animal heads are accentuated also there. 5) Outermost right: Photo of the cheek piece from below.

A Borre-styled bridle cheek piece from Dig Site 15, Troitsky Excavation, Novgorod. Bent and pierced secondarily for some unidentified purpose. Found in 2022.

From p. 75f in "Археологические открытия. 2022 год (Moscow 2024).

More here: archaeolog.ru/media/ao/AO_...

#FindsFriday

Happy to see that there is no need to worry about the historical accuracy of new 1776 AI slop because it happens in the mystical land of Λamereedd.

What gets lost when the first draft is always polished? The emails are clearer, the tone is better, and staff can respond more quickly. Nafisa Baba-Ahmed asks what higher education loses when students no longer struggle through the messy process of finding...

'As sector guidance increasingly frames AI literacy as part of students’ digital capabilities, there is a risk that communication is treated as a technical skill rather than a relational one – something that can be optimised rather than learned through reflection and support.'

Lecturer in Early Medieval History | King's College London

Very exciting job announcement! Permanent early medieval (Britain and/or Europe) teaching post at KCL. I know first-hand that this is a great opportunity to work with amazing colleagues and students. www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/136727-...

Inspired by a colleague saying she’d like a lesson on how to read a runic inscription, here’s a lesson!

open.substack.com/pub/jasminhi...

Karikatur: zwei uniformierte und maskierte ICE-Beamte führen zwischen sich den Umriss eines Mannes ab. Auf dem Umriss steht: „Your photo here“ (Dein Bild hier).

Mit ALT-Text:

*or mills

I know. There were no mines in Norfolk.

My family moved into a new build house in 1975 that didn’t have central heating. We’d had it installed by about 1980. I remember us using an electric fan heater sometimes in the winter.

Norske historiedager 2026 - Institutt for arkeologi, konservering og historie Velkommen til Oslo! Tema for konferansen er Kritiske stemmer | Critical Voices.

Det er fortsatt litt tid for å sende inn fremlegg til Norske historiedager i mai i Oslo.
Fristen er 25. januar 2026.
www.hf.uio.no/iakh/forskni...

One day, if we are lucky, the erasure of American history will itself be remembered as a shameful chapter in American history

Silk Roads and So. Many. Mountains. | Surprised Eel Maps Get more from Surprised Eel Maps on Patreon

This week I wrote about one of my favorite commissioned maps: a 2022 map of the silk roads in Muslim lands. In this week's post, I write about how I drew the mountains. And there are so many mountains on this map!

The post is free to read, so have at it!
www.patreon.com/posts/silk-r...

NYT headline: "Trump seems to confuse Greenland and Iceland."

He didn't "seem to" do it. He did it, repeatedly.

TRUMP: I invented electricity. did it one day, turned on a lamp and a scientist gasped and said wow how did you do that and I said I just flicked a switch and he started crying and saying "sir you've just saved Africa from ebola"

BBC NEWS: a sober reflection on healthcare from the President

Thousands of gannets swoop off the towering cliffs of the island of Boreray, Outer Hebrides, photo by Jim Richardson, National Geographic photographer.