Author | Lightnews

Doc McCullough

@marginalviking.bsky.social

260 followers 200 following 160 posts

Erstwhile archaeologist and historian. Musings on Vikings/Norse, Greenland, archaeology of religion, mythology, and magic. Also on Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@MarginalViking

mastodon.world

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Feb 5

Good day! I am a #medievalist with an MA in #History and a PhD in #Archaeology who specializes in Norse Greenland. I’m here to muse and learn!

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · 1d

It is a windy, dark October day, I am listening to some loud Pink Floyd, and the coffee at work is weirdly good today. It ain’t all bad.

#PinkFloyd #Coffee

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · 12d

Raise your hand if you are adorable. #CatsOfBluesky #Buttercup

A reclining diluted tortoiseshell cat asleep on her back with one paw extended above her head

1 4

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · 26d

For what it is worth, I suspect that the #Vinland Sagas contain some historical memories of actual #Norse exploration in North America, but they also contain numerous tropes of the time and shouldn’t be read as historical accounts. “Where was Vinland?” is probably not the right question.

Reposted by Doc McCullough

Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · Sep 19

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit.
Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil.
1🧵
#PlaymobilÖtzi
#PlaymobilInfestation

Playmobil figure kitted out as prehistoric iceman Ötzi.

18 320 940

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Sep 11

There’s a meme about one’s #ancestors being disappointed by one’s modern neuroses that I see sometimes.

To be clear: your ancestors would be proud and in absolute awe of your ability to navigate this unprecedentedly stimulating and interconnected world.

#history #showerthoughts

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Sep 11

1) I knew someone who did experimental Bronze Age combat at Leicester probably 10 years ago but I don’t know if they’re on Bluesky.

2) These look superficially like modern broadhead arrows which are designed for blood loss, for what it’s worth!

Reposted by Doc McCullough

Christian Cooijmans @ccooijmans.bsky.social · Sep 10

At a breakneck speed of 0.008 knots (or 25cm/min), the Oseberg ship is once again on the move today, for the first time in almost a century.

The Relocation of the Oseberg Ship Is Underway - Museum of the Viking Age

Finally, the day has come for Norway's most spectacular moving project: The Oseberg Ship is entering the new museum building. This article will be updated regularly throughout the day.

www.vikingtidsmuseet.no

15 46

Reposted by Doc McCullough

Dave Berthiaume @daveberthiaumephoto.com · Sep 1

Night sky on northern Minnesota's Gunflint Trail.

#photography #landscape #landscapephotography #nightsky #milkyway #minnesota #reflection

29 130 1.1K

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Aug 27

In continuing #Greenland news of the most idiotic sort…

www.cnn.com/2025/08/27/e...

Denmark summons US envoy over report on covert American ‘influence operations’ in Greenland | CNN

The US envoy to Denmark was summoned by the Danish foreign ministry on Wednesday, after the country’s public broadcaster reported that a number of American men have attempted to conduct “influence ope...

www.cnn.com

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Aug 25

Sometimes I wonder what became of that teenage couple I saw making out in the railroad bridge somewhere in Pennsylvania while on a road trip in like 1994.

I hope they made it.

Reposted by Doc McCullough

Fiona Campbell-Howes @fortrenn.bsky.social · Aug 20

Looking forward to reading this! Evidence for smaller kingdoms within Pictland is often neglected in favour of a narrative that treats the whole region as one political entity. Nice to see @alexharvv.bsky.social bringing in some balance.

Alex Harvey @alexharvv.bsky.social · Aug 20

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...

With the 9th draft approved, that's a wrap on my next book: LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, releasing on the 30th of November 2025

To celebrate, currently the price has been lowered to £17.50 for preorders via my publisher's website

The first page of Little Kingdoms: An A-Z of Early Medieval Britain, stating the title of the book, the author's name (Alex Harvey), and the publisher imprint (Pen & Sword History), in black font on a white background.

1 3 13

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Aug 15

Context for how/when/where I grew up:

There was an active debate about if Paula Cole’s “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” was sarcastic or not.

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Aug 15

Great post!

Trix @trixranderson.bsky.social · Aug 15

We've been looking at little amulets (and could-be amulets) for our last few Viking Camps #FindsFridays, so I thought I'd take a risk and continue the theme today.

Why's it taking a risk? Well, even though it's fascinating, today's find isn't very much to look at! This tiny fragment is TDB2353. /1

A finds photograph showing DB2353 from the Viking Great Army camp at Toeksey, Lincolnshire. The find is a small piece of broken silver, roughly 15mm long, with a roughly cross-shaped outline.

Reposted by Doc McCullough

Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · Aug 14

📰 'Youths buried in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries carried West African DNA'

#AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @science.org @spoke32.bsky.social

www.science.org/content/arti...

Youths buried in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries carried West African DNA

Despite bearing remarkably far-flung genetic origins, a girl and young man were buried just like their peers

www.science.org

1 12 34

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Aug 15

Introducing the new family #kittens: Buttercup (left) and Westley (right)!

1 4

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Aug 14

Increase a band

Red Floyd

Noor @noorlovelace.bsky.social · Aug 14

Increase a band

Cathedral Roan

Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · Aug 14

Increase a band

100,000 Maniacs

Reposted by Doc McCullough

Sadie Hartmann (Mother Horror) @sadiehartmann.bsky.social · Jul 31

Beach bodies are OUT. Bog bodies are IN. We just wanna rot.

29 160 870

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 29

For scale and also for fun I had my friend stand anonymously next to “Thorkell’s Cairn” in #Greenland in a nod to Aage Roussell’s Sandnes photograph from 80 years earlier.

We thought that someone 80 years later asking “who the hell is that guy?” was pretty funny. Still do, really!

#Archaeology

Page 192 of Death in a Dread Place’: Belief, Practice, and Marginality in Norse Greenland, ca. 985-1450
J. A. McCullough

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 29

The guy who taught me the expression “ask forgiveness, not permission” got fired from a Renaissance festival for firing a gun in the air in the middle of a crowd. #truestory

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 28

While it’s not a bad idea to finish #gradschool before you have #children, you also won’t get a drawing of you and your three year old as #Vikings that way.

A child’s drawing of two stick people on a Viking longship

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 25

One upside to leaving #academia- my studies tended to give me a kind of “spooky” feeling that was difficult to articulate in a scientific way. Now that I’m not expected to publish, I can just enjoy the *frisson* of it. #altacademia #archaeology #history

A Neolithic phalange resting on my finger during an excavation

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 23

You’re a world leading expert!

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 22

Dancing a jig for five centuries vs. entering my authentication code for the rest of my life…

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 22

Don’t you threaten me with a good time!

1 1

Doc McCullough @marginalviking.bsky.social · Jul 22

I would sprint full speed into that thing and nobody would ever see me again.

Dr Alan Montgomery @classicalalan.bsky.social · Jul 22

All the art in my Etsy shop is currently on sale, including this drawing of the beautiful ancient tomb in Brittany known as Ty-ar-Boudiged ('House of the Fairies'), which featured in Wendy Mewes' book 'Brittany: Stone Stories'. #TombTuesday
Find original artwork from just £20 here: shorturl.at/HDzSI

A black and white pencil drawing of an ancient burial mound beside a tree

2 3