Christian Cooijmans

Plan approved to build Scotland's first broch for 2,000 years The tall, double-walled drystone towers have only been found in Scotland.

Some great news coming out of Caithness!

A picture of a book with a blue cover, titled 'Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology: Contributions in Honour of Anna Ritchie'. It is edited by Kelly Kilpatrick.

Coming soon...

Yes, the Bullion Stone.

Close-up of a Pictish stone slab, containing an armed horseman drinking from a horn - from Bullion, Invergowrie, Angus (first half tenth century) - now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh (X.IB 229)

Checking up on an old friend over lunch

Is the train moving, though?

A 60m-long Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre, in green surroundings

A 60m-long Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre, in green surroundings

A decorated internal archway in the Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre

The main internal space in the Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre, with various furnishing surrounding a central firepit.

Checking out the Viking-Age hall reconstruction in Lejre, Denmark

A 60m-long Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre, in green surroundings

A 60m-long Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre, in green surroundings

A decorated internal archway in the Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre

The main internal space in the Viking-Age wooden hall reconstruction in Lejre, with various furnishing surrounding a central firepit.

Checking out the Viking-Age hall reconstruction in Lejre, Denmark

The article you posted disclaims that 'an earlier version of this post appeared on our site in 2017', but it's tucked away at the bottom.

Yes, since 2015 or so, and lower-res versions have been available since the mid-90s. Hardly a new development.

A medieval manuscript page from the tenth century, on vellum. Text outlined in tables using black ink and red rubrication, written in Carolingian miniscule.

A medieval manuscript page from the tenth century, on vellum. Text outlined in tables using black ink and red rubrication, written in Carolingian miniscule.

Yes, they are all lovely! 😊 Such a shame most of the MS has been lost.

A medieval manuscript page from the tenth century, on vellum. Text in black ink and red rubrication using Carolingian miniscule.

A marginal annotation on a manuscript, containing the (abbreviated) Latin sentence: 'Eodem anno destructum est monasterium sancti winualoei a normannis' (translation: 'In the same year, the monastery of saint Winwaloe was destroyed by Northmen').

Very happy to finally see this in the flesh today: the remains of an early tenth-century calendar from Landévennec, Brittany, whose entry for the year 913 contains an annotation that the local coastal monastery of Winwaloe was attacked by vikings during that year.

Copenhagen, KB Thott 239 2°, f.10r

A medieval manuscript page from the tenth century, on vellum. Text in black ink and red rubrication using Carolingian miniscule.

A marginal annotation on a manuscript, containing the (abbreviated) Latin sentence: 'Eodem anno destructum est monasterium sancti winualoei a normannis' (translation: 'In the same year, the monastery of saint Winwaloe was destroyed by Northmen').

Very happy to finally see this in the flesh today: the remains of an early tenth-century calendar from Landévennec, Brittany, whose entry for the year 913 contains an annotation that the local coastal monastery of Winwaloe was attacked by vikings during that year.

Copenhagen, KB Thott 239 2°, f.10r

A low angle of a runestone in front of a medieval church building, with the church spire rising from behind a tree in the background.

A large decorated runestone replica in front of a brick wall

Today's vikingism: the replica of the Jelling runestone of Harald Bluetooth that was gifted to Utrecht University (Netherlands) in honour of its 300-year anniversary in 1936.

Der IGEL!

Lothar Meggendorfer really knew how to evoke lifelike movement! This book from the Olin Library special collections at Wash U is only one spectacular example! #movablebooksociety
#Hedgehog #paperengineering

The festival ground of Wilde Furda, Elewijt , Belgium, featuring a range of tents, crafts, and reenactors on a green, sunny field

A white dog outside a tent at a viking reenactment festival

The Great Viking Survey is at the Wilde Furda festival in Belgium today, catching some final summer sunshine. ☀️ Don't be a stranger!

Clarence cares

KCommons has been under a lot of strain due to the influx of new users - it seems any downtime is usually resolved within a few hours.

Reform will apparently pledge today that they'd abolish indefinite leave to remain - including retrospectively, to people already granted it. Obviously this is a moral abomination but it is also a practical and legal impossibility.

Some people argue that 'the British Isles' isn't political and we shouldn't be bothered by it, which is why they're invariably so open to my suggestion that we should switch to 'the Irish Isles' for the next few hundred years while we work out a solution.

A paragraph from the new T&C from Linkedin: 'Generative AI Model Training: We are now including these regions in the locations where we use and share member data and content to train generative AI models that create content. Starting on November 3, 2025, we’ll start to use some data from members in these regions to train these content-generating AI models that enhance your experience and better connect our members to opportunities. Our GenAI features can help hirers find and reach you more easily, and assist members in creating content such as profile updates, messages, and posts. This may include data like details from your profile, and public content you post on LinkedIn; it does not include your private messages.'

I've never really used LinkedIn, as it was always a very privacy-averse place, but they'll now also be hoovering up your personal data to train GenAI models (as per their new T&Cs). The fact that this is opt-out rather than opt-in speaks volumes.

YouTube video by Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song (Official Audio)

Today's vikingism: the widely popular 'Immigrant Song', from Led Zeppelin's third studio album (III), released in late 1970. Its lyrics famously reference themes from Norse mythology and describe viking groups journeying overseas ('from the land of the ice and snow').

A paragraph from the new T&C from Linkedin: 'Generative AI Model Training: We are now including these regions in the locations where we use and share member data and content to train generative AI models that create content. Starting on November 3, 2025, we’ll start to use some data from members in these regions to train these content-generating AI models that enhance your experience and better connect our members to opportunities. Our GenAI features can help hirers find and reach you more easily, and assist members in creating content such as profile updates, messages, and posts. This may include data like details from your profile, and public content you post on LinkedIn; it does not include your private messages.'

I've never really used LinkedIn, as it was always a very privacy-averse place, but they'll now also be hoovering up your personal data to train GenAI models (as per their new T&Cs). The fact that this is opt-out rather than opt-in speaks volumes.

Knowledge Commons logo

🧵 (1/5) We have a bunch of new followers today so we thought it was a good time for an introduction! 👋

✅ We're a nonprofit network that allows users to build profiles, websites, and discussion groups. Our repository, KCWorks, is fully open access and anyone can upload items & receive DOIs!

Brilliant, congratulations!

There is @kcommons.bsky.social, which is non-profit and open-source.

By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???

This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

In light of recent changes to academia.edu, I have deleted my account. It used to be a good way for an early career scholar to be relatively visible across various overlapping fields, but I do not want to contribute to its harvesting of data for commercial purposes.

A verdant, sunny scene in the Royal Library Garden in Copenhagen, with various trees and rose hedges among historical buildings.

Wouldn't mind a garden like this for every library 🌼📚

(Royal Danish Library Garden, Copenhagen)

Breaking news: The new, revised, updated Ogham in 3D website is now live:

ogham.celt.dias.ie

Choose "inscriptions" in the menu.

For the record, and to quote another post:

I don't condone what happened to Charlie Kirk, but Charlie Kirk would have condoned what happened to Charlie Kirk.