Adrián Maldonado
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archaeonado.bsky.social
Adrián Maldonado
@archaeonado.bsky.social
Galloway Hoard Researcher at National Museums Scotland. Author of Crucible of Nations: Scotland from Viking Age to Medieval Kingdom and other archaeology content. https://www.nms.ac.uk/profile/dr-adrian-maldonado See also @almostarch.bsky.social
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Thrilled to say the new Whithorn guidebook by me is now available to buy online!

A Maldonado 2025. Cold Case Reopened: A Guide to Whithorn’s Early Medieval Archaeology. Whithorn Trust

I'll be speaking about it at this year's Wigtown Book Festival - stay tuned!

www.whithorn.com/product/whit...
OK this looks incredible #urbanmedievalism
Was a privilege to be invited to attend yesterday to the opening/reveal of the new mosaic installation in the well at Glasgow Cathedral. The project highlights the oft overlooked feature which is integral to the story of St Ketigern and Glasgow itself

More info etc www.aproxima.co.uk/the-well
November 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
Last night's @thinkuhi.bsky.social excellent Public Seminar by Tom Fairfax is now online. Families, Networks and Informants: The Making of Orkneyinga saga

youtu.be/r2Tgd4HBkzI
Families, Networks and Informants: The Making of Orkneyinga Saga by Tom Fairfax
YouTube video by UHI Institute for Northern Studies
youtu.be
November 28, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
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...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
For anyone interested in vikings: a symposium on the impact of the viking Great Army, to be held at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge on 24 April 2026.
November 27, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
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...
November 26, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
THURS 20th & FRI 21st Nov

See Prof. Steve talk about Govan and Glasgow over the last 1,500 years!

Stones, Saints, Ships and Slaves: an archaeology for Glasgow 850 - Prof. Driscoll of UofG Archaeo for the 2025 Glasgow Archaeological Society Dalrymple Lecture Series - FREE online and in person.
November 19, 2025 at 8:28 PM
The smell of the past
Give us your best #archaeofragrance

Eg: The Celts by Wales Perfumery: 'An olfactory journey through the ancient Celtic world, celebrating the tribes who shaped the identity of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, and Brittany' walesperfumery.com/product-cate...

Hat tip @justrena.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
Game designers bring Scotland's mysterious Picts to life.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Game designers bring to life to Scotland's mysterious Picts
Writers and archaeologists also worked on a new guide to a lost early medieval Scottish society.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
Carved in Stone is HERE!!! @archaeonado.bsky.social called it “the best book on the Picts ever written,” so you should definitely check it out over at www.stoutstoat.co.uk/carvedinstone

🏺 #picts #archaeologysky #rpg #ttrpg #indiettrpg #dnd #pathfinder
November 12, 2025 at 10:25 AM
The phenomenal and enigmatic rock crystal and gold 'jar' of Bishop Hyguald from the heart of the Galloway Hoard is NOW on display for the first time ever. It was held back for Kirkcudbright while the rest of the Hoard continues its world tour in Melbourne (1/2)
Gold jar from Galloway Hoard on display in Kirkcudbright
It resembles a perfume bottle and a Latin inscription on it suggests it had a religious function.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
New shirt alert! Thanks to @northernpicts.bsky.social for being such brilliant nerds npixts.teemill.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:47 PM
The latest from the legendary Prof Sally Foster, who has now tracked down most of the known fragments of the Stone of Destiny as part of her longstanding research on 'authenticity' and early carved stones in Scotland (1/2) www.thenational.scot/news/2560130...
New Stone of Destiny fragments uncovered by Stirling University expert
NEW research led by Stirling University has revealed the existence and fate of many fragments of the Stone of Destiny, including those secreted away…
www.thenational.scot
November 7, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Important stuff from @eddiecstewart.bsky.social with applications to stuff I'm writing about perceptions of early medieval island church sites as well - big recommend
November 6, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
A great opportunity to see Prof. Steve talk about Govan and Glasgow over the last 1,500 years!

Stones, Saints, Ships and Slaves: an archaeology for Glasgow 850 - Prof. Driscoll of Glasgow Archaeology for the 2025 Glasgow Archaeological Society Dalrymple Lecture Series - FREE online and in person.
November 3, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Great wee episode of Gone Medieval on Yeavering and the artefacts on display at the Ad Gefrin museum. Can't wait to hear more about the recent excavations pca.st/episode/bf34...
Ad Gefrin: Anglo-Saxon Palace
pca.st
November 4, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Social media: it was all worth it just for this
New NPixts Furnace of the Damned Band T-shirt just landed in the NPixts store. Touring Northern Pictland in 2026 including Forres, Lossie, Burghead, Findhorn and Johnny Foxes Inverness 🤣🤣🤣
Free UK post till midnight Sunday!
npixts.teemill.com/product/furn...
npixts.teemill.com/product/furn...
Furnace of the Damned! (Women\/Slimmer fit)
Rock on with Northern Pictland's finest!
npixts.teemill.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh! Our ethereal expert Dr Hannah Mac Auliffe @maynoothuniversity.ie guides us through the darkness of #samhain a time for feasting, mischief & terror in medieval Irish literature, when the veil between worlds is thin, & ghastly ghouls abound. open.spotify.com/episode/6gQ6...
Spooky Samhain with Dr Hannah Mac Auliffe
open.spotify.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Exciting time to be studying Picts and Vikings!
A new consideration of the chronology of the key settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney - shows that the buildings here belong firmly in the Pictish tradition. This leads to a wider consideration of the timings and character of the Viking Age in the Northern Isles.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Buckquoy, Orkney: addressing the Pictish-Viking transition in northern Scotland | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
Buckquoy, Orkney: addressing the Pictish-Viking transition in northern Scotland
www.cambridge.org
October 31, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
Hotter than the fires of hell alright, and dramatic when it's being done, heat, smoke, action - images of iron-smelting at UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social @experimentarchaeol.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Just in time for Halloween, a new Pictish vision of hell

In PSAS 153, 2024 @socantscot.bsky.social Jane Geddes argues the weird 'beehive' surrounded by headless corpses on Sueno's Stone, Forres, is the furnace of the damned

Nice shout-out to #CrucibleOfNations as a bonus

doi.org/10.9750/PSAS...
October 30, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Finally got the chance to meet this guy last week. A completely unique and haunting cross from Riasg Buidhe, Colonsay, in the gardens of Colonsay House. Its dating remains up for debate, ranging from the 7th to the 10th century AD www.trove.scot/image/384171
October 21, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
🎯 Our #totaliser reaches 83%!

Can YOU help us get over the line?

🎯 tghts.enthuse.com/cf/graveyard...
October 8, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Publication alert! An all-too-rare collab with Prof Stephen Driscoll, updating his chapter for the venerable old Archaeology of Britain textbook in its shiny new 3rd edition. A snapshot of current work on early medieval Scotland and Wales. Put it on your reading lists!
doi.org/10.4324/9780...
Early medieval Celtic Britain | 12 | v3 | The early historic period |
The vacuum created by the collapse of the Roman province of Britannia created a vortex of movement which would shape the centuries to come. Some Roman citizens
doi.org
October 8, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by Adrián Maldonado
Probably from an early Viking raid, Jonah and the 'whale' feature on this Insular crozier found on the Swedish island of Helgö in Lake Mälaren, that region's central trade hub and productive site before the rise of Birka on neighbouring Björkö.

My 📷 | Ref. Historiska museet
October 6, 2025 at 9:19 PM