Sam Ottewill-Soulsby

It frustrates me that fields such as history are increasingly becoming something of a free-for-all. Imagine the reverse, in which a bona fide history professor publishes a polemic book claiming to ‘lift the veil on secrets’ of, say, structural engineering. It’d be considered absurd, and rightly so.

If you’ve got long legs and haven’t been able to book an emergency exit row, making sure your stuff is in the overhead locker rather than under the seat before you can make a massive difference to your comfort on the flight.

'When we try to understand the Carolingians, we need to keep the fires of hell in the back of our minds.'

The "annalistic section" of Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib The War of the Irish and the Foreigners or 'Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib' is a saga detailing viking activity in Ireland culminating in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Scholars have relied on the early sec...

Today's Knowledge Commons share: The "annalistic section" of Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib - discussing the relationship between chronicles and saga relating to vikings in Ireland #history #chronicle #vikings #ireland #medievalsky
works.hcommons.org/records/j8c6...

Some may know that I mostly write about Procopius and Agathias, but here is a review essay I wrote for Histos on another of my favourite sixth-century authors John Malalas: histos.org/index.php/hi....

New book on early medieval medicine coming down the line: boydellandbrewer.com/book/early-m...

"IT IS AGREED AND MOST EVIDENT THAT ALL MASTERS ARE EVIL..."

So begins the speech of the slave character Pantomalus in the Querolus, the only extant late antique comedy.

It will feature in a slavery sourcebook that we are working on.

Read more in our newest blog post: tinyurl.com/zrmc4a6s

I’m delighted to hear that the translation has been useful! You can find it and many others by myself and @ralphtorta.bsky.social here:

salutemmundo.wordpress.com/primary-sour...

There’s absolutely a huge amount of variance! One of the questions I always wonder about is what being not particularly religious looked like in an age without a clear intellectual secular alternative.

The Fire and the Worms: Infernal Affairs at the Carolingian Court “If I can save 7,000 people a week from getting killed, that’s pretty good. I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole…

Today on the blog, we descend into a dark, dangerous underworld to answer the question, is Charlemagne in hell? #medievalsky

salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/t...

A close-up of terracotta figurine of a dromedary carrying two amphorae, displayed in a museum with other figurines visible.

A terracotta figurine of a dromedary carrying two large amphorae on each side of a load frame.

From Egypt, Roman period, 2nd/3rd century AD.

📷 me

The photo was taken at the Caesar and Cleopatra exhibition in Speyer, having been loaned by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.

Some of the earliest written notes in western musical history discovered in Pennsylvania Ninth-century manuscript for Easter services remained ‘out of sight’ for years in hands of private collector

I'm afraid there's a lot wrong with the expert assessment of this fragment, let alone the claim of supposed uniqueness of finding neums in a late ninth century manuscript that's getting press. Liturgical fragments get sold quite often so auction houses could try a bit harder

Echoes of the Milvian Bridge in the Ninth Century I normally send out a new post every two weeks but today (Oct. 28th) is the anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD so I wanted to be “topical,” (or at least as topical as can be whe...

To commemorate the Battle of the Milvian Bridge which happened on this day, why not read about the echoes of the battle in the reign of Arnulf? #medievalsky

Cover of "Inks & Paints of the Middle East: A handbook of Abbasid Art Technology", with a geometric composition displaying some of the main pigments involved, with brushes and paint pans made of walnut shells.

Is there anyone on Bsky who remembers this book? It's been out of print for a while, because it needs revising in the light of 5 more years of research & experience (including a proper translation of Umdat ul-Kuttab). Being unpaid work, I've simply not been able to prioritise this, so I've decided…

This project examining the materials for Abbasid art looks fantastic! #medievalsky

All fail Caesar: Brisbane high school teaches wrong topic for final year 12 history exam An entire class has made an 11th-hour bid for special consideration due to ‘illness and misadventure’ after studying the wrong Caesar

The feeling when you realise you should have been watching Rome rather than I, Claudius to revise.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

All fail Caesar: Brisbane high school teaches wrong topic for final year 12 history exam An entire class has made an 11th-hour bid for special consideration due to ‘illness and misadventure’ after studying the wrong Caesar

"they studied the wrong caesar" is an incredible thing to discover just days away from final exams

Back in the late twelfth century Al-Baghdadi saw your post about how ancient aliens built the pyramids and is embarrassed for you.

New book / Nuevo libro: 💀

La horca y el fuego. Una historia social de la pena de muerte en Hispania (700-1200), Granada, Editorial Comares, 2025
👉 www.comares.com/libro/la-hor...

Whoops! Thanks for the correctio!

It’s utterly magnificent!

Photo of the fibula, with the head of a lion and lovely animal-style decoration.

Spent ages trying and failing to get a good photo of this gorgeous sixth-century bow fibula found at Bopfingen, on display at the Landesmuseum Württemberg.

Agreed. I enjoyed it, but it did feel like they were scared the audience wouldn’t sympathise with the monster so smoothed out his rough edges.

11th-century Europe: not just the Norman Conquest Podcast Episode · History Extra podcast · 21/10/2025 · 32m

New podcast, in which I explain why the Battle of Hastings doesn't feature in my new book on eleventh-century Europe 💅
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/1...

For those who don't know this story, which I first shared six years ago today....

This one time I got my days wrong at work and ended up alone in a room with my boss and the President of Ireland while I was on ketamine.

🧵

"If something evil is popular, is it still evil?" is basically the defining social question of our time.

The Underestimated Carolingian Obole A study of the production and use of half-pennies in the Carolingian period, showing how the dramatic increase in single finds over the past two decades has transformed our perception of these small c...

The Underestimated Carolingian Obole
works.hcommons.org/records/we1r...

I am of course delighted to take all the undeserved credit @ajaltamimi.bsky.social is willing to give me! #medievalsky

Karl der Große, Vater des europäischen Währungssystems? Revised version of an address given in Frankfurt in May 2025 to mark the award of the Ehrenpreis of the Gesellschaft für Internationale Geldgeschichte (GIG)

Three more recent articles/ chapters have been uploaded to Knowledge commons to make my work available to more people...
Karl der Große, Vater des europäischen Währungssystems?
works.hcommons.org/records/mjmy...

‘Oh aren’t you clever. You swapped around the m and the n in monarch. Where do you get your ideas from?’