Early Medievalist

Love Hayley's rendition of the Rosemarkie Pictish cross-slab here. This is a very puzzling monument. Why does it have no figural elements, like the Tarbat slabs with their hunters, or the Conan Stone with its mythological figures? Is it because Rosemarkie was a bishop's see, not (just) a monastery?

Cold archaeologist in an advert for A Whole Lot of History, the Newsletter.

A Whole Lot of History - The Twice-Weekly Newsletter about History and Archaeology Worth Getting Cold and Wet (and Up a Cool Hillfort) For.

A small wooden boat and broken wooden sword on display in the National Museum of Ireland

As long as there have been children, there have been toys. As it's the #LateLateToyShow we thought we'd share some of our favourite toys in the @nmireland.bsky.social

Many toys through history copy adult life, like this wonderful toy boat and sword from Viking Dublin

#archaeology #SpéirGhorm

My photo collage shows a selection of bishop and warder chess pieces finely carved from creamish-coloured walrus ivory, dated c. 1150-1200 AD. Found in a large gaming hoard on the Isle of Lewis. On display at the British Museum. Photo top left: Two bishops and a warder. All standing. The bishops wear long garments, mitres, and hold a crozier with both hands. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and a conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces. He’s armed with a sword and kite-shaped shield inscribed with a lozenge shaped cross. Photo top right: A so-called ‘berserker’ warder chess piece. Standing, wearing a long garment and hood, armed with sword and a shield decorated with an interlaced saltire. The warder has large, wide-open eyes, and large upper teeth which bite the top of the shield. Height 8.2 cm. Photo bottom left: A standing warder and two seated bishops, one of which is partly obscured by the warder. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment and conical helmet with neck and ear-pieces, is armed with sword and shield. The seated bishops wear long garments, mitres, and each holds a crozier and book. Photo bottom right: A warder and a bishop, both standing. The bearded warder wears a long pleated garment, and conical helmet with neck, ear-pieces and ornamented head-band. He is armed with a sword in right hand and kite-shaped shield in left hand. The bishop wears a long garment with cloak, and mitre, and holds a crozier in his left hand and a book in his right hand.

The Lewis Chessmen

These 12th-century chess pieces are packed with personality, and have such charmingly expressive eyes! ♟️ 👀

From a large gaming hoard discovered on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in 1831.

📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology

Forgotten Vikings in a bookshelf

Forgotten Vikings on a bookshelf

The chunky FORGOTTEN VIKINGS paperback well-remembered and prominently displayed in @waterstones.bsky.social York!

@flindersuniversity.bsky.social ARC DECRA Fellow in Medieval History, @mattfirth.bsky.social speaking at @anzamems.bsky.social on political friendships in Wessex!

Illustration of a Pictish hillfort

Who would you meet travelling from one place to the next in 7th-century Pictland? What could you eat at a feast? And what would the bard be singing about? 🤔

Dig into early medieval Scotland with 'Carved in Stone', one of the ideas in our archaeology gift guide: www.digitscotland.com/scottish-arc...

Ceramic moulds for penannular brooches with the text 'last chance to pre-order' overlaid

LAST CHANCE TO PRE-ORDER: ‘Rhynie, A Powerful Place of Pictland’

Thanks to everyone who helped us surpass our crowdfunding target and every stretch goal, we will be printing and enhancing this nationally important monograph.

Want to pre-order the book? Visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/soc...

Recently published - open access! Full of good stuff to read. #medievalsky #vikings
books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de//propylaeum/...

New book review Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland: Church-Raiding, Politics and Kingship, by Colmán Etchingham url: academic.oup.com/ehr/article-... #medievalsky #ireland #history

Carolingian Normandies: Shatter Zones, Small Polities, and Continuity in Maritime Neustria (c. 800–1050) Abstract. The “continuity” of the eleventh-century duchy of Normandy with the ninth-century Frankish world is examined through the concept of a “shatter zone,” as developed in Southeast Asian anthropo...

Does the concept of a 'shatter zone' help us understand 11th-c. Normandy? Looking forward to reading this by @ralphtorta.bsky.social direct.mit.edu/jinh/article...

The harbourmaster's office in the lovely village of St Abbs in the Scottish Borders. The office is a wooden hut, and there are fishing nets piled in the foreground, with the village is rising in the background. A lifebelt is handing on a wall on the right of the frame.

The harbourmaster's office in the lovely village of St Abbs in the Scottish Borders. The name has ancient origins. In 635 a Northumbrian Princess who later became St Aebbe founded a monastery close to what is now St Abbs Head. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland #ScottishBorders

Some of our funding schemes will close for submissions this Friday (5/12)! Whether you're thinking of doing fieldwork, organising a conference or workshop, or could use financial support in attending a relevant event, make sure to get your application in!

ALFRED JEWEL The Alfred Jewel is a masterpiece of goldsmith's work formed around a tear-shaped slice of rock crystal. Its inscription: AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN – 'Alfred ordered me to be made’ – connects the jewe...

Offline, I've been asked why the Dark Ages isn't an appropriate term for the Early Medieval period. Bottom line, you'd be hard pressed to make something as stunning as the Alfred Jewel if you couldn't see what you were doing. End of. www.ashmolean.org/alfred-jewel

A lap of used books including Before France and Germany, From Memory to Written Record, and Communities of Violence.

Alright which one of you dumped a bunch of good stuff at your local used bookstore

Our next seminar is tomorrow - 2nd December with the superb @archaeonado.bsky.social on his recent research into Whithorn

6pm in the Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...

My third book, LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, is now out

I couldn’t find a better way of explaining it than the old thread I made - so here it is preserved in amber! Happy reading! 🧵

3D reconstruction of the early medieval timber churches of Northumbrian-period Whithorn monastery, by Smart History, University of St Andrews, available on Open Virtual Worlds https://stage.openvirtualworlds.org/reconstruction-page/?itemid=4113

Me, tomorrow!

How to (re)build an early medieval church: new light on the Whithorn ‘minster’ and shrine

@firstmillennia.bsky.social 18:00, Tuesday 2 Dec
Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre, University of Edinburgh, Old Medical School, Teviot Place (enter via doorway 1)

An exciting moment last week meeting the @rialibrary.bsky.social Cathach manuscript (MS 12 R 33)! Dated c. 560-600 CE and traditionally ascribed to St Colmcille, the manuscript is Ireland’s oldest surviving copy of the Latin Psalter 📜🎉

I'm asking for a moratorium on cool stuff to read until I've made it through my backlog, this looks great

The cover of Pre-Conquest History and its Medieval Reception: Writing England's Past with a depiction of the 7th c. Mercian king, Offa, by Matthew Paris in the 13th c.

Just in: the first review of my edited collection, Pre-Conquest History and its Medieval Reception: Writing England's Past. The reviewer states 'the variety of approaches and diverse materials discussed in this collection spark exciting possibilities and avenues for future research'. Perfect! (1/2)

50 percent off advert for the book, The Viking Age in Scotland

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The brilliant Prof. Alex Woolf @standrewshist.bsky.social is back on the podcast to tell us what the Scandinavian diaspora got up to in the Middle Ages & why 'The Vikings' is a problematic concept. @maynoothuniversity.ie @researchireland.ie @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/3ljZ...

Just out!

As @sarahsemple.bsky.social says, '544 pages and 190 images of pure sculptural joy!'

A fantastic cast list and a tremendous achievement @ascorpus.bsky.social.

boydellandbrewer.com/book/early-m...

Image taking in Scotland and part of the island of Ireland.

Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid, styled king of all Ireland in his obituary, died #OTD in 862. In 856, he had battled ‘heathens’ with the help of the Gallgoídil, ‘foreigner-Gaels’, a group thought to have been of mixed Scandinavian and Gaelic origin in both Scotland and Ireland. #medievalsky

Happening today! Still time to sign up!

It it helps, I can promise that a picture of a walrus will feature in the presentation.

Image of guide to 'Joining the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society'. Full abstract: "Fellowship is one of several ways to join and belong to the Royal Historical Society. Fellows are elected to this position by the Society in recognition of their work for the historical discipline and profession. There are many different routes to Fellowship, just as there are different kinds of contributions and careers within the discipline of history. Today’s RHS Fellows are history practitioners from a very wide range of backgrounds (within and beyond higher education) who have contributed to historical understanding and knowledge through a body of work. These contributions take many forms: from academic publications of different formats, to editorial and curatorial work, history programming and public history. This post addresses common questions asked by those considering applying to join the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society. If you are interested in making an application, we hope this helps."

Fellows of the Society are elected for their 'original contribution to historical scholarship'.

Our new guide provides more on the many ways Fellows achieve this - with activities going well beyond publications bit.ly/48mpcJa We welcome Fellowship applications from historians of all kinds 1/2

Little Kingdoms Before England, Wales, and Scotland were created, before Alfred the Great and the Great Viking Army, before even a raid on Lindisfarne, the kingdoms that…

@lollardfish.bsky.social has set in motion a positive social media trend urging authors to advertise their own book! too often it can feel like we do this too much, but perhaps it is never enough

Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...

Economic Change, Silver, and the Plague of 664–687 in England* Abstract. Bede and other authors describe a destructive wave of plague sweeping across Britain and Ireland in the period 664–87. In the decades around and

Looking forward to discussing academic.oup.com/past/advance... by @rorynaismith.bsky.social at the next @cmrsedinburgh.bsky.social Medieval Reading Group on Tuesday...

The cover and contents page of The Journal of Irish Archaeology Vol.34, 2025.

Delighted that our co-authored paper on Woodstown is in good company in the new Journal of Irish Archaeology! Thanks to Dr Kerri Cleary, Wordwell & @iaiarchaeo.bsky.social

It details what the recent geophysical surveys have revealed about Woodstown ... including *spoiler alert* 61 structures!