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earlymedievalist.bsky.social
Early Medievalist
@earlymedievalist.bsky.social
91 followers 100 following 2 posts
Tim Clarkson. PhD, FRHistS. Historian and author.
Early medieval history and archaeology.
See my books at http://senchus.wordpress.com/my-books/
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Reposted by Early Medievalist
pictishartssociety.bsky.social
Important new paper on the early development of Pictish symbol carving.
northernpicts.bsky.social NPicts @northernpicts.bsky.social · 1d
OPEN ACCESS - 'Stone and the gods: religious cognition and stone carving in first millennium AD northern Britain'. This World Archaeology article examines the origins of naturalistic stone carving in Northeast Scotland. Download, read, and share widely!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Stone and the gods: religious cognition and stone carving in first millennium AD northern Britain
Archaeology often adheres to established periodisations, sometimes overlooking long-term societal transformations. One such shift in Northern Britain during the first millennium AD was the emergenc...
www.tandfonline.com
January 26, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
neilmcguigan.bsky.social
New publication from myself, 'Haraldr Maddaðarson and Scoto-Orcadian Politics before 1222':
www.academia.edu/149771345/Ha...
Haraldr Maddaðarson and Scoto-Orcadian Politics before 1222
Haraldr Maddaðarson and Scoto-Orcadian Politics before 1222
www.academia.edu
January 23, 2026 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
antiquity.ac.uk
Did Viking Age rune-carvers have distinct 'handwriting'? #NationalHandwritingDay ✍️
Experienced rune-carvers had their own styles and techniques, allowing researchers to pinpoint runestones to the specific carvers who made them using 3D-scanning.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
3D-model of a section of a runestone, the Læborg-stone, which reads: þurui : trutnik : sina ‘Thyra, his queen’.
January 23, 2026 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
katefarrantshaw.bsky.social
A magnificent hidden treasure of Irish legal history - the Bechbretha ('bee-judgments') of the Brehon law manuscripts composed in the seventh century (TCD MS 1316/2 page 25)
#medievalsky
January 23, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
tcfairfax.bsky.social
Delighted to have this project out there for people to read! I'm very grateful to all the contributors and the team at @apardjon1.bsky.social. A special thanks goes to @medivalist.bsky.social for all her hard work in turning our Bishop Adam conference into this special volume! #MedievalSky
apardjon1.bsky.social Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies @apardjon1.bsky.social · 4d
Apardjón is pleased to present its newest special volume, Connections and the Church in Late Norse Scotland, edited by Caitlin Ellis and Tom Fairfax. We would like to thank all authors for contributing, and Caitlin Ellis and Tom Fairfax for their work. #MedievalSky

www.abdn.ac.uk/dhpa/researc...
January 22, 2026 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
alexharvv.bsky.social
tickets.royalarmouries.org/events/royal...

25th Feb 2026 - ROYAL ARMOURIES, LEEDS

I'll be there, being square and all, talking about Leeds after the Roman Period and how it slots into the web of polities that made up Yorkshire between the 5-7th centuries

Free lecture, 2-3pm!
Book now – Lecture | Little Kingdoms – Royal Armouries Museum
Lecture | Little Kingdoms – Royal Armouries Museum, Wed 25 Feb 2026 - Little kingdoms: Leeds and West Yorkshire after the Romans Speaker: Alex Harvey, author of Little kingdoms: An A-Z of early mediev...
tickets.royalarmouries.org
January 22, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
pseudo-isidore.bsky.social
Delighted the new book has made it to Slovenia!
barbarianniche.bsky.social Mark Hudson @barbarianniche.bsky.social · 7d
A sighting of the new book by @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social in the wild in Ljubljana
January 22, 2026 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
norseincork.bsky.social
OUP have published the first chapter of my Runes book (on the earliest period of runic writing) open access until 19 Feb. Do have a look if you're interested! academic.oup.com/book/61598/c...
January 20, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
judithjesch.bsky.social
Special offer on #SagaoftheEarlsofOrkney extended to the end of this month! shop.orcadian.co.uk/product/sign...
The Saga of the Earls of Orkney – The Orcadian Bookshop
shop.orcadian.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
pseudo-isidore.bsky.social
The inkless doodles of Eadburg, an 8th-c. nun, discovered by new technology: now published by Jessica Hendy-Hodgkinson in EME doi.org/10.1111/emed... (Open access)
Sketch of a person (?)
January 19, 2026 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
ecroberts.bsky.social
Plus reviews of recent books on the Three Chapters controversy, King Liutprand, Hincmar, 11th-century León & Galicia, Alfred the Great, the Regnum Italicum, Ernst Kantorowicz, and cartularies!
January 13, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
monumenta.bsky.social
Throughout Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, a vast corpus of potentially dangerous texts was dismissed as unorthodox and unauthorised by Christian scholars and policy makers. Yitzhak Hen explores some of the mechanism that allowed the dealing with such texts.
see mgh.de/en/blog/post...
January 19, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
judithjesch.bsky.social
Birka grave #Bj581 continues to reverberate in scholarship (see e.g. the latest issue of Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, where it crops up in two articles). There are some very thoughtful reflections on how it all came about in this paper by Andreas Nyblom direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edi...
The Lagertha Complex: Archaeogenomics and the Viking Stage
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public LicenseThe open access edition of this book was made possible by generous
direct.mit.edu
January 19, 2026 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 "Princely" Anglo-Saxon grave in Suffolk contains two people alongside a horse. Grave goods such as a sword, spear, silver vessel and more indicate it was a high-status burial with possible links to Sutton Hoo.

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via BBC News

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Sizewell princely cemetery reveals more Anglo-Saxon secrets
"Fancy grave goods" were found with a princely burial, but other finds are also amazing experts.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
earliermiddleages.bsky.social
Our first seminar of 2026 will be this Wednesday at 5.30pm (IHR, Wolfson Room NB02), when we welcome @helengittos.bsky.social to speak on "Christianity before Conversion: The women who led the way". All welcome, please register in advance: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... #medievalsky
Christianity before Conversion: The women who led the way
www.history.ac.uk
January 19, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
govanstones.bsky.social
🐕 A Very Good Boy guards one of our favourite sister sites of early medieval Scotland, but can you tell us which one?

Thanks to @bexphotos.bsky.social 📷
Cute wee dog on a hillfort in Scotland
January 19, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
royalhistsoc.org
Closing date 31 January: applications are now invited for the Society's new Applied History Fellowships with @ihr.bsky.social & DC Thomson: bit.ly/4ijiuII

Fellowships support recent post-doc historians and demonstrate the appeal of historical skills for employers. £12,000 for 6 months #Skystorians
Society launches call for new Applied History Fellowships, with the Institute of Historical Research and DC Thomson - RHS
In November 2025, the Society joins with partners the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and publisher DC Thomson to launch a new Applied History Fellowship programme to support recent post-doctor...
bit.ly
January 16, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
trixranderson.bsky.social
We're going to keep on looking at swords for today's Viking camps #FindsFriday - or, more specifically, sword hilts.

A surprising number of hilt fittings were found at our Great Army camps: pommels and guards, separated from swords. This pommel is Torksey DB 2582, recorded as LIN-D69EBE on the PAS.
A finds photograph showing all sides of an iron sword pommel found at the site of the Viking Great Army winter camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire.
January 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
xuthal.bsky.social
1/2: Delighted that this handsome volume of fourteen of my essays on Cluniac history has now been published by Cornell University Press.
January 16, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
judithjesch.bsky.social
Learn more about @northernpicts.bsky.social at @britishacademy.bsky.social on 21st May www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectu...
The Northern Picts: the citadel project, rescue and research-led investigations at a Viking age power centre
This lecture explores major advances in Pictish archaeology arising from the University of Aberdeen’s Northern Picts project, shedding new light on a people long obscured by limited historical and arc...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
January 14, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
archaeodeathprof.bsky.social
Viking Archaeologies of Death: my public talk at the 2025 Jorvik Tattoo Moot www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKCs...
Viking Archaeologies of Death
YouTube video by Archaeodeath
www.youtube.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
alisonfisk.bsky.social
A small and exotic Buddha found far from home in #VikingAge buildings on the Swedish lake island of Helgö.

Probably made in the Swat Valley, the Buddha travelled some 5,000 km from its place of origin, encapsulating the idea of long-distance trade during the Viking Age.

#Archaeology
My photo shows a bronze Buddha statuette sitting on a double lotus flower against a grey background in a glass display case. The bronze is now light green in colour, but would originally have appeared like burnished gold. The Buddha is sitting cross-legged with feet upturned. His right hand rests against his knee and his left arm is raised holding his monastic robe. A raised dot on the forehead represents Buddha’s third eye. His expression is serene, with smiling lips, and eyes gazing ahead. His facial features were highlighted with silver, tin, and black niello. There is glass residue in the eyes and the raised dot on the forehead was highlighted with a layer of gold. Height 8.4 cm, width 6.4 cm. It was probably made in the Swat Valley (present-day Pakistan) in the late 500s-mid 600s. It was excavated from Viking-age settlement buildings dated AD 800. It isn’t known how it arrived at its final destination but this exotic object travelled far, hinting at far-flung trade routes. I saw the Helgö Buddha on display at the British Museum’s ‘Silk Roads’ exhibition in October 2024, on loan from Historiska Museet, Stockholm.
January 14, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
medievalists.bsky.social
This 8th-century depiction of the biblical figure David—shown carrying a spear and shield—comes from a manuscript of Cassiodorus’ writings. Produced in Italy, the book later travelled to northern England. #medievalmanuscripts
January 12, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
downham.bsky.social
New Knowledge Commons upload from 2022 THE WIRRAL ARCHAEOLOGY "SEARCH FOR THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH" PROJECT AN INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PROJECT TO DATE ON BEHALF OF WIRRAL BOROUGH COUNCIL (ECC31). #medievalsky
works.hcommons.org/records/s8y6...
THE WIRRAL ARCHAEOLOGY "SEARCH FOR THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH" PROJECT AN INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PROJECT TO DATE ON BEHALF OF WIRRAL BOROUGH COUNCIL (ECC31).
works.hcommons.org
January 9, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Early Medievalist
undisscot.bsky.social
Some of the amazing Pictish and other early Christian era carved stones at the St Vigeans Museum of Carved Stones near Arbroath. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland #Angus #Arbroath #StVigeans
Some of the amazing Pictish and other early Christian era carved stones at the St Vigeans Museum of Carved Stones near Arbroath. The image shows the interior of the museum and is dominated by a large Pictish cross slab in the foreground. Other carved stones are se up in the background and to the right.
January 9, 2026 at 5:02 PM