Augusta McMahon

We’re fine. Concerned about team members stuck in Doha. Plus they have a lot of our kit, forcing us to go analogue.

There are no answers.

Another effect of climate change is the increase in small sand dunes on the site (even since last year), created in part from windblown topsoil. A dune field covered the site through the 1990s but had dispersed recently. Maybe they’re coming back.

#Nippur day off means a walk round the site, including inspection of the ziggurat of Enlil. Erosion is worsening with climate change and we hope to gain funding to restore and conserve it soon. 🏺

T.Rex

Back to work at #Nippur #Mesopotamia. We are continuing research on the southern urban edge, examining variations in occupation density and diversity from 3rd to 1st mill BCE. @ISAC_UChicago 🏺

#Nippur 2026 at last. #Mesopotamia 🏺

Visiting Professor in Anthropology ( Archaeology) – Hamilton, USA | HigherJobz Apply for Visiting Assistant Professor in Anthropology & Archaeology at Hamilton College, USA. Full-time, one-year position.

🧑‍🏫 Visiting Ass. Professor in Anthropology (Archaeology)
📍 Hamilton College, USA
🔬 Teach undergrad archaeology courses, methods & theory, mentor students
🎓 Eligibility: ABD/PhD in Anthropology/Archaeology
⏳ Deadline: 15 Mar 2026
🔗 higherjobz.com/visiting-pro...
#FacultyJobs #Archaeology#AcademicJobs

Egyptology Postdoc Austria 2026 | Fully Funded HigherJobz Fully Funded Egyptology Postdoc at University of Vienna, Austria. 4-year research position in Egyptian Archaeology. Apply by 14 March 2026.

💰 Fully Funded | Egyptology Postdoc 2026 | University of Vienna, Austria
🔬 Egyptian Archaeology research, excavation, GIS & digital heritage methods
🎓 Eligibility: PhD in Egyptology
⏳ Deadline: 14 Mar 2026
🔗 higherjobz.com/egyptology-p...
#PostdocJobs #EgyptologyResearch #AcademicJobs @univie.ac.at

Inscribed clay cylinders reveal Nebuchadnezzar II’s restoration of the Kish Ziggurat

A new study presents two inscribed clay cylinders that bear direct textual evidence of King Nebuchadnezzar II’s restoration work at the ziggurat of Kish...

More info: archaeologymag.com/2026/01/clay...

Board of Peace - Season 1

Cow tools comic by Gary Larson. Upright cow with bench of ‘tools’ sort of like a saw, crowbar and random blobs.

Gary Larson 1982. Well ahead of his time.

I have eaten shark in Yemen (which sounds like a possible title for my memoirs), and it is delicious. It makes total sense that the Neolithic population of the region were onto it.

“It's disappointing to see universities fold under pressure to terminate faculty for expressing themselves online, as if the First Amendment is an expediency to be discarded at a whim.”

Am I a bad person for laughing at this?

Hello!
A little Sunday evening survey... 📝
We're looking for examples where info or resources concerning achievements of 🏺⛏️ #trowelblazing women in archaeology, geology or palaeontology have been removed or vanished from public sources in the past year due to external pressures...
Pls repost!

No no, do all this but stop in Mesopotamia. 😀

I feel seen

At minimum, she needs a decent carving knife and some spices. This ‘feast’ explains a lot.

Can’t believe all these people are running a marathon through "war torn" Chicago today

#WarTorn Chicago

AAUP President Todd Wolfson unpacks the dangerous consequences of the Trump administration’s compact, which aims to exert ideological control over universities and colleges. As Wolfson makes clear, this partisan incursion into higher education affects ALL sectors.

@proftwolf.bsky.social

Maybe twice in 30 years as reviewer, once as editor.

Clay tablet engraved with cuneiform writing and what may be the world's first map: a geometric design made up of circles and triangles representing cities, territories, kingdoms, rivers and an ocean.

Illustrated map depicting a large river with several islands. On its banks are several walled defensive structures and palm trees.

Babylonian map of the world (© The Trustees of the British Museum) and c. AD 1620 Portuguese map of Basra, Iraq (© Hugo Refachinho / CC BY-SA 4.0). Despite both depicting the Shaṭṭ al-ʿArab river, they are completely different, showcasing maps' subjectivity

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

This. Many colleagues want to be helpful but clearly should just say no. Nagging reviewers is the worst part of my editor job.

It’s UChicago. Even an Assoc Prof in 1997 might well still be hanging on. I finished my PhD in 93, and when I returned in 22, well let’s say there were some familiar faces. Problem is which dept? at the moment there are 16 Hums depts (though maybe not for much longer)

The library has bound copies only until ca 1990-1991, unfortunately. Maybe his MA supervisor is still out there?

He might have been in the first cohort of the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH). Even now, paper versions of theses by students in this MA are not normally lodged with a library (main or departmental). They may be placed on Knowledge@UChicago but this is unlikely for 1997.

More UChicago Ph.D. Programs Will Pause Admissions The arts and humanities dean said “nearly all” faculty leaders preferred “a broader pause for the division.” Some social sciences programs also aren’t accepting new students.

No, we’d prefer to accept PhD applicants for 2026, but the previously lucky departments have joined with the unlucky in solidarity. Awesome colleagues! www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

A lot of overlap with subjects for which PhD admissions are paused for 2026 at UChicago. We are not unionised.