Robert Frost

Our next season for The Oxford Seminars in Cartography ... #TOSCA @bodleian.ox.ac.uk @oxfordgeography.bsky.social Register at: visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/tosca
More info at: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/tosca @bcsmaps.bsky.social @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social
1st speaker is @drpragyaagarwal.bsky.social

Legend has it that one of the departmental geographers liaised with the architect who designed the Nottingham room, because he (cynically?) suspected estates might remove freestanding cabinets to free up space. So he had them built into the walls, floor to ceiling, making them hard to take away.

Robert Morkot is sadly no longer with us. Three months ago he was as energetic as ever, sharing research on forgotten byways on the history of Egyptology, keen to talk about anything I wanted to do so. His Black Pharaohs, was a key postcolonial work before we came up with the term. Rest in peace.

Not many of these places left unfortunately. Nottingham is an exception and the brilliant cartographer there, Elaine Watts, was showing me some maps last summer. It got "rediscovered" a few years ago after central timetabling tried to get their hands on the room...

Can you give a clue to the nearest order of magnitude?

At least they have got Ukraine correct.

Brilliant! Do you mind sharing who you went with and whether you needed extra insulation? Asking for a friend.

Congratulations Richard!

I certainly had no idea that author names get translated before today!

AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.

The absurdity of their argument is basically: "It's too hard to figure out how to pay everyone we stole from." arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Congratulations to @issegyptomania.bsky.social for hosting a great conference this weekend. Conferences always bring new insights: pyramids in Ukraine; faux Pharaonic fantasies at the British seaside; and the popularity of ancient in modern Egypt. Look forward to more to come in the future.🎉

Louvre's Surprise Closure Sparks Tourist Outrage | Artnet News Thousands of angry tourists waited for hours outside the Louvre on Monday morning after the Paris museum's staff staged a surprise strike.

Staff at the Louvre go on strike due to too many visitors. The Louvre is a first-class museum in many ways, but having only one entrance and exit doesn't help visitor flow. And the Mona Lisa doesn't just need its own room, it should be in a separate building.

news.artnet.com/art-world/lo...

I was about to write "not again!", but entirely understandable at the moment.

10/10 agreed for this case.

That sounds plausible and makes me wonder what's happening in areas that look like they're doing well in Europe. Very much hope the edgelands you've been studying are a special case, but clearly there's a warning here that they might not be. Thanks also for the news article.

This International Archives Week (9-13 June), BILNAS is celebrating the #ArchivesAreAccessible campaign by spotlighting the Libyan Archive Project, focused on enhancing the Archive’s descriptive metadata to better reflect Libyan cultural contexts and lived experiences.

1/3

V interesting, thanks for sharing. Do you think the conclusions are applicable elsewhere too? In Mediterranean Europe (esp N Italy) the opposite trend of succession is occurring and biodiversity is increasing, esp with headline species like wolves and other large mammals. Unsure about other species.

This article makes some good points about the need to review human tissue samples on display in museums (e.g. in some anthropological collections), but I don't think it's useful to piggyback this onto Egyptology. The picture also shows coffins and not human remains.

If only...

Senior Tory MPs and peers break ranks to call for recognition of Palestine Exclusive: Conservatives ask Keir Starmer to stand ‘against indefinite occupation’ and ‘reinforce international law’

Some quite extraordinary scenes in the House of Commons: former hardliners denounce Israel's actions. The ground is shifting. A chance for the government to take leadership www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

40% of Britons haven’t read a single book in the last 12 months | YouGov The median Briton has read just three books in the past year

Some interesting stats on reading. Not much of a gap (as is sometimes reported) between men and women for amount of reading, but a more significant one for fiction vs non-fiction. 45% don't have an organizing system, see the page for size of personal libraries.
yougov.co.uk/entertainmen...

New images reveal extent of looting at Sudan’s national museum as rooms stripped of treasures Only a few statues remain, with thousands of priceless artefacts from Nubian and Kushite kingdoms missing

Sad to see damage to Sudan's National Museum in Khartoum as a result of the civil war: traces of the ancient kingdom of Kush, indigenous to Sudan, have been destroyed alongside Egyptian artefacts.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

More details for London’s new Roman Basilica museum revealed More details have been shown for a new museum of Roman London's history following the recent discovery of Roman ruins in the City of London.

Exciting plans for displaying the newly-discovered parts of the Roman Basilica in London.
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/mor...

Can't wait to visit this new exhibition, especially as our colleague Sophus zu Ermgassen is featured there in a short film about biodiversity, humanity's role in biodiversity loss, and the policies of the future which are needed to turn the tide on nature loss.

Trump's tariffs on China, EU and more, at a glance A 10% rate of import tax will apply globally - with higher rates for a list of Trump's

The rationale behind the tariffs is nonsensical and not remotely reciprocal. Running a year-on-year trade deficit signifies a strong currency and hence a privileged position. No other country can buy the world's labour at cut prices on such a huge scale.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a big problem, and not just for books. What to do when the companies that own the big academic journals which we want to publish in have AI harvesting written into the Ts & Cs?

Indeed! I found the picture of Ephesus before + after excavation that it made me think of.

Fascinating! You wonder how a theatre could be lost, but then it just looks like part of the hillside in that last photo.

Fellowships! The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, Het Scheepvaartmuseum, has published a new Fellowship call for research proposals, for maritime historical research relating to objects in the museum's collection.

Deadline: 20-5-2025.

Call texts: www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.com/collection/r...

Silhouette of the Oxford skyline - with the domed Radcliffe Camera roof and tall Old Bodleian tower - against sun rays coming from behind clouds

A roof line view of buildings including the Clarendon Arch, Old Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre

The Weston Library’s Blackwell Hall is the festival hub for this year’s Oxford Literary Festival.
We're running extended opening hours at the Weston from Sunday 29 March to Sunday 6 April. Blackwell Hall & the café will be open:
Monday – Saturday: 9am – 6pm
Sunday: 9am – 4pm.

Image: Joby Sessions.