Sophie Ploeg
@sploeg.bsky.social
Art Historian. Ancient Rome. Early Modern. Ex artist. Also spaniels, tech and books. 🇬🇧🇳🇱
https://history.sophieploeg.com
https://history.sophieploeg.com
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
Mycenaean bronze daggers, inlaid with scenes featuring animals, sea creatures, birds and a lion hunt, made about 3,500 years ago (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)
December 4, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Mycenaean bronze daggers, inlaid with scenes featuring animals, sea creatures, birds and a lion hunt, made about 3,500 years ago (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
🇳🇱 BREAKING: Netherlands withdraws from #Eurovision 2026, following the results of the EBU General Assembly today.
December 4, 2025 at 5:24 PM
🇳🇱 BREAKING: Netherlands withdraws from #Eurovision 2026, following the results of the EBU General Assembly today.
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
The Women's Institute has been forced into excluding trans women too
"Not doing so would leave us at risk of costly legal challenge and potential regulatory action from the Charity Commission. We have a public duty to ensure our charity is not in breach of the law."
www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre...
"Not doing so would leave us at risk of costly legal challenge and potential regulatory action from the Charity Commission. We have a public duty to ensure our charity is not in breach of the law."
www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre...
Press Releases
www.thewi.org.uk
December 3, 2025 at 10:55 AM
The Women's Institute has been forced into excluding trans women too
"Not doing so would leave us at risk of costly legal challenge and potential regulatory action from the Charity Commission. We have a public duty to ensure our charity is not in breach of the law."
www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre...
"Not doing so would leave us at risk of costly legal challenge and potential regulatory action from the Charity Commission. We have a public duty to ensure our charity is not in breach of the law."
www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre...
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
It's official: 400 redundancies and a campus closure. At-risk staff will get a letter next week. Absolutely no serious consideration of any of the union's counterproposals.
Please share widely.
Please share widely.
December 2, 2025 at 4:52 PM
It's official: 400 redundancies and a campus closure. At-risk staff will get a letter next week. Absolutely no serious consideration of any of the union's counterproposals.
Please share widely.
Please share widely.
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
Dear BBC
Watching the programme *Civilisations: Rise and Fall - Egypt* and wanted to know what in the name of zarking fardwarks are these outfits?
If only there was a way of knowing what Roman legionaries in the late 1st century BC actually wore 🤔
#Archaeology
Watching the programme *Civilisations: Rise and Fall - Egypt* and wanted to know what in the name of zarking fardwarks are these outfits?
If only there was a way of knowing what Roman legionaries in the late 1st century BC actually wore 🤔
#Archaeology
December 2, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Dear BBC
Watching the programme *Civilisations: Rise and Fall - Egypt* and wanted to know what in the name of zarking fardwarks are these outfits?
If only there was a way of knowing what Roman legionaries in the late 1st century BC actually wore 🤔
#Archaeology
Watching the programme *Civilisations: Rise and Fall - Egypt* and wanted to know what in the name of zarking fardwarks are these outfits?
If only there was a way of knowing what Roman legionaries in the late 1st century BC actually wore 🤔
#Archaeology
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
all academic applications should have consolation prizes.
doesn’t have to be much, like a mug that says “i applied for leverhulme 2020”
or a t-shirt “UKRI reject 2023”
doesn’t have to be much, like a mug that says “i applied for leverhulme 2020”
or a t-shirt “UKRI reject 2023”
December 2, 2025 at 8:33 AM
all academic applications should have consolation prizes.
doesn’t have to be much, like a mug that says “i applied for leverhulme 2020”
or a t-shirt “UKRI reject 2023”
doesn’t have to be much, like a mug that says “i applied for leverhulme 2020”
or a t-shirt “UKRI reject 2023”
I start reading a gazillion books, academic or otherwise, and while reading remember I should/want/need to be reading that other book. I forget which ones I started and lose interest in some. The urgency fades and I start something new….
December 2, 2025 at 8:07 AM
I start reading a gazillion books, academic or otherwise, and while reading remember I should/want/need to be reading that other book. I forget which ones I started and lose interest in some. The urgency fades and I start something new….
So instead of taking notes I am reading another book on note taking.... 😂
December 1, 2025 at 6:05 AM
So instead of taking notes I am reading another book on note taking.... 😂
Just went to the local garden centre to soak up some bargain-basement desperately-need-shop-display course, no-atmosphere-whatsoever Christmas spirit and now decided to go mad at home 🌲🌲🎄🎄🎄🤶🤶 (maybe)
November 30, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Just went to the local garden centre to soak up some bargain-basement desperately-need-shop-display course, no-atmosphere-whatsoever Christmas spirit and now decided to go mad at home 🌲🌲🎄🎄🎄🤶🤶 (maybe)
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
Arch of Constantine in a very bucolic Rome, 1645. By Alessandro Salucci with Jan Miel, whose day is today.
November 29, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Arch of Constantine in a very bucolic Rome, 1645. By Alessandro Salucci with Jan Miel, whose day is today.
On my watch list, but here are some interesting short reviews of the ancient Civilisations episodes: theconversation.com/does-bbc-civ... #AncientBluesky #BBCCivilisations
Does BBC Civilisations get its four stories of collapse correct? Experts weigh in
The new series attempts to chart the fall of four major empires but doesn’t always get it right.
theconversation.com
November 29, 2025 at 12:22 PM
On my watch list, but here are some interesting short reviews of the ancient Civilisations episodes: theconversation.com/does-bbc-civ... #AncientBluesky #BBCCivilisations
Oh damn, the croissants at uni (cafe Nero) are really nice….
November 21, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Oh damn, the croissants at uni (cafe Nero) are really nice….
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
11 November 1904 | Dutch Jew, Marcus Koster, was born in Amsterdam.
He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork and registered in the camp. He perished there on 22 September 1942.
---
Jews deported from the German-occupied Netherlands to Auschwitz: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/32_en/
He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork and registered in the camp. He perished there on 22 September 1942.
---
Jews deported from the German-occupied Netherlands to Auschwitz: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/32_en/
November 11, 2025 at 6:00 AM
11 November 1904 | Dutch Jew, Marcus Koster, was born in Amsterdam.
He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork and registered in the camp. He perished there on 22 September 1942.
---
Jews deported from the German-occupied Netherlands to Auschwitz: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/32_en/
He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork and registered in the camp. He perished there on 22 September 1942.
---
Jews deported from the German-occupied Netherlands to Auschwitz: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/32_en/
This is just fascist evil. Hope the Dutch can do something about this. Utterly disgusting. 🧵
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 1:12 PM
This is just fascist evil. Hope the Dutch can do something about this. Utterly disgusting. 🧵
Is it creepy if male ancient historians start to describe the sensuality of ancient female sculpture a little too suggestively? 🤣🤣😂🤨
November 9, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Is it creepy if male ancient historians start to describe the sensuality of ancient female sculpture a little too suggestively? 🤣🤣😂🤨
The BBC says COP30 is now a joke
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Amazon rainforest cut down to build highway for COP climate summit
The infrastructure required to host COP30 in Belém is undermining the cause, campaigners say.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 7:16 AM
The BBC says COP30 is now a joke
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
Interesting look at the social, economical, and environmental factors affecting the "decline" of the baguette.
"86% of French people admit to eating industrial, sliced white supermarket bread."
#food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜
"86% of French people admit to eating industrial, sliced white supermarket bread."
#food #foodsky #cooksky 🍜
The baguette faces an uncertain future. How France is rethinking its iconic loaves | CNN
With the French cutting back on bread and experimenting with longer-lasting loaves, the beloved baguette is under threat.
edition.cnn.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
The Roman empire built 300,000 kilometres of roads: new study.
theconversation.com/the-roman-em...
theconversation.com/the-roman-em...
The Roman empire built 300,000 kilometres of roads: new study
A new comprehensive map reveals the true scale of the ancient Roman road network – but it is still incomplete.
theconversation.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:45 PM
The Roman empire built 300,000 kilometres of roads: new study.
theconversation.com/the-roman-em...
theconversation.com/the-roman-em...
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
'A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire. Combining historical records with modern mapping techniques, researchers mapped hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads. The findings nearly double the known length of Roman roads.'
‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network
A high-resolution digital map nearly doubles the known length of the ancient road network.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:33 AM
'A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire. Combining historical records with modern mapping techniques, researchers mapped hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads. The findings nearly double the known length of Roman roads.'
Reposted by Sophie Ploeg
Today, a friend involved in the Esna restoration project has shared with me his latest stunning photos of the restored ceiling and columns of the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper #Egypt. During a multi-year restoration project, the dirt and soot that had obscured the ...🧵1/3
📷 D. v. Recklinghausen
🏺
📷 D. v. Recklinghausen
🏺
November 7, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Today, a friend involved in the Esna restoration project has shared with me his latest stunning photos of the restored ceiling and columns of the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper #Egypt. During a multi-year restoration project, the dirt and soot that had obscured the ...🧵1/3
📷 D. v. Recklinghausen
🏺
📷 D. v. Recklinghausen
🏺
Oooh brilliant Alan!! 👻👻😁🤓 #TheTraitors
November 6, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Oooh brilliant Alan!! 👻👻😁🤓 #TheTraitors