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A 13th century granite tombstone carved with a relief of a Latin cross has been discovered in Gdańsk, Poland. It is one of seven tombstones, including two others also carved with Latin crosses, found in the excavation of the site of the former Miś (Teddy Bear) ice cream parlor. The stone has not been lifted … Read the full post →“13th c. cross-engraved tombstone found in Gdańsk”

A complete terracotta Greek theater mask was found in an excavation of the Black Lake cave on Croatia’s Pelješac peninsula. It is has a hanging hole at the top of the head and is hollow in the middle, so was probably designed to be hung, like on the wall of the cave when it was … Read the full post →“Ancient Greek theater mask found in Croatian cave”

A large pre-Roman sanctuary has been discovered in Ponso, in the province of Padua in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy. Archaeologists discovered the remains of a sacred area with the remains of columns, pavements and dozens of stone slabs inscribed in the Venetic language. The inscribed stones have been tentatively dated to between the … Read the full post →“Rare Venetic inscriptions, sanctuary found in Italy”

The first week at work always feels a bit odd. Between getting into a new routine, shaking off the last vestiges of jet lag, and figuring out the variable Cypriot weather, I feel like I’ve been all over the map. Fortunately, I have found a bit of time to take some photos. There’s nothing remarkable… Read More →

A rare prehistoric rock art site has been discovered in northern Oman. Inscriptions and drawings were found at an archaeological site in the Hajar Al-Sinanat area in the Wilayat ​​Al-Khaboura, North Al-Batinah Governorate. Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has not announced the date of the rock art. These sites were added to over the … Read the full post →“Rare rock art found in Oman”

Here’s a short three things Thursday as we wrap up our week of field work at Polis. Thing the First Whenever I’m at Polis I think of walls. Partly this is because my run takes me past the site of A.H9 in the Princeton grid where the course of the Late Cypro-Classical (4th century) fortification… Read More →

I am committed to finishing the article that I started this winter by the end of the upcoming weekend so we can move on to more interesting (or at least less familiar) material at Polis. My current writing has focused on clarifying the structure and chronology of what we have identified as a levigation pool… Read More →

The original mud sealings that blocked the entrances to the tomb of 18th dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun have gone on public display for the first time since their discovery more than a century ago. They may seem ordinary in comparison to the glamour of his iconic gold funerary mask and other treasures, but surviving mud sealings … Read the full post →“Mud plaster blocking wall from Tut’s tomb displayed for the first time”

A tomb containing the remains of eight individuals and offerings of 47 miniature pottery vessels has been discovered at the Ignacio Zaragoza archaeological site in Tula de Allende, Hidalgo, Mexico. The tomb is between 1,800 and 1,900 years old, and is part of a residential complex within the sphere of its economic and cultural dominance. … Read the full post →“47 miniature vessels found in pre-Hispanic shaft burial”

Someone once recommended to me that as an academic, you should always have three projects going: one is a project that is almost done (or deep in the writing phase), one is a project that is just getting started, but has a clear outcome in mind and trajectory, and one project that is speculative and… Read More →

Music is key to my archaeological process especially since so much of the fussy work of archaeology is relentlessly boring. Fortunately, there is more than enough good music in the world. I have been charmed by Alan Braufman’s recent revival. His most recent album, Anthem for Peace (2026) includes Patricia Brennan on vibes, Chad Taylor… Read More →

I am still pretty jet lagged and waking up at odd hours and not getting very good sleep. That said, I did manage to take a walk with my little Ricoh camera yesterday morning in Larnaka and took some decent, if cliche and moderately uninspired photographs. But it’s a start.

I’ve finally reached the end of an exhausting semester and a good and productive year. My teaching has continued to change and I continue to learn things about my students and my own approaches. Here are three things that I learned this year. 1. Classroom Contingency. When I first taught Roman history again after nearly… Read More →

Writing acknowledgements is always gratifying if a bit bitter-sweet. For me, at least, it marks the end of a project and I get more joy from the doing than the having. Yesterday morning, I wrote the acknowledgements for my book on oil, photography, and archaeology in the Bakken oil patch of North Dakota and submitted… Read More →

A first grader out on a field trip with his class discovered a medieval sword in Gran, Norway. Six-year-old Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt saw a rusty piece of metal sticking out of the ground and with the eternal wisdom of his six years, he picked it up to see what it was, thinking it was an … Read the full post →“First-grader on field trip finds 1,300-year-old sword”

Every summer, I put together a reading list that is mostly aspirational. It’s a combination of books I want to read, books I should read, and books that I have to read for my research or just being a good well-rounded person or whatever. By mid-summer, the reading list has collapsed and I’m frantically skimming… Read More →

I’m on the road this week and that means I’m loading up some music for long days in the airport and longer nights in the air. I have a long tradition of putting albums on my phone and when I decide to listen to some music finding nothing that I like. It’s annoying and predictable.… Read More →

A few years ago, back in 2019, I wrote a post about the Breton Crisis. This is an often over-looked period of Tudor foreign policy, with many people much preferring to spend their time reading and understanding more dramatic events, such as the Spanish Armada or Henry VIII’s invasions of France. After all, Henry VII […]

I am so excited to reveal the cover for my fourth book, Richard II: King, Culture and the Court of Venus! This book has been many years in the making, and I’ve given brief, periodic mentions of it before, so I am pleased to be able to finally give you the full run-down. All of […]

It’s the end of a long, hectic semester, and it is time for a University of North Dakota story. Stories like these, that are passed down from generation to generation, are part of what makes our campus a special place: Many years ago — some say the 1950s others the 1920s or 1930s or even… Read More →