Alex Harvey
@alexharvv.bsky.social
Best-selling author, artist, archaeologist; I write about the ‘Dark Ages’. Views my own.
New book, LITTLE KINGDOMS, out now!: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingdoms-Hardback/p/56542
Published w/ Cambridge Uni, Pen & Sword, Amberley
New book, LITTLE KINGDOMS, out now!: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingdoms-Hardback/p/56542
Published w/ Cambridge Uni, Pen & Sword, Amberley
Pinned
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, my next book, releases on the 30th of November 2025
As of today it is now available for preorder, at a discounted early price of £20 (RRP £25)
Why should you pick up this book...? 🧵
LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, my next book, releases on the 30th of November 2025
As of today it is now available for preorder, at a discounted early price of £20 (RRP £25)
Why should you pick up this book...? 🧵
Little Kingdoms
Before England, Wales, and Scotland were created, before Alfred the Great and the Great Viking Army, before even a raid on Lindisfarne, the kingdoms that…
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
To celebrate the looming release of my next book, LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, I thought I’d do an A-Z!
1 letter per day, 26 days to go!
A stands for Aechse, the first ‘kingdom’ from my book, mentioned in the Life of St Cuthbert….
1 letter per day, 26 days to go!
A stands for Aechse, the first ‘kingdom’ from my book, mentioned in the Life of St Cuthbert….
Reposted by Alex Harvey
@lollardfish.bsky.social has set in motion a positive social media trend urging authors to advertise their own book! too often it can feel like we do this too much, but perhaps it is never enough
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
Little Kingdoms
Before England, Wales, and Scotland were created, before Alfred the Great and the Great Viking Army, before even a raid on Lindisfarne, the kingdoms that…
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:24 AM
@lollardfish.bsky.social has set in motion a positive social media trend urging authors to advertise their own book! too often it can feel like we do this too much, but perhaps it is never enough
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
So many emails, so little time…
November 27, 2025 at 2:19 PM
So many emails, so little time…
And in answer to that last question, we still don’t know!
Q is for the myriad questions any explorer of early medieval polities must have - I had loads whilst setting out to write it:
‘did each kingdom have its own sense of identity?’
‘do people triumph over place, or vice versa?’
and ‘where on earth is Rheged!?!?’
‘did each kingdom have its own sense of identity?’
‘do people triumph over place, or vice versa?’
and ‘where on earth is Rheged!?!?’
November 27, 2025 at 11:38 AM
And in answer to that last question, we still don’t know!
@lollardfish.bsky.social has set in motion a positive social media trend urging authors to advertise their own book! too often it can feel like we do this too much, but perhaps it is never enough
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
Little Kingdoms
Before England, Wales, and Scotland were created, before Alfred the Great and the Great Viking Army, before even a raid on Lindisfarne, the kingdoms that…
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:24 AM
@lollardfish.bsky.social has set in motion a positive social media trend urging authors to advertise their own book! too often it can feel like we do this too much, but perhaps it is never enough
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
Anyway, my new book! www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...
Reposted by Alex Harvey
www.ypsyork.org/events/10265...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
Little Kingdoms. An A-Z of Early Medieval Britain | Yorkshire Philosophical Society
promoting the understanding of science since 1822
www.ypsyork.org
November 26, 2025 at 5:53 PM
www.ypsyork.org/events/10265...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
Reposted by Alex Harvey
Reminder: you don't have to engage with AI as an instructor. You can talk about AI--even build AI literacy, if you want to call it that--and still not engage directly with a brutal, unethical, ecologically disastrous bundle of technologies. Regardless of institutional pressure, you can refuse.
November 26, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reminder: you don't have to engage with AI as an instructor. You can talk about AI--even build AI literacy, if you want to call it that--and still not engage directly with a brutal, unethical, ecologically disastrous bundle of technologies. Regardless of institutional pressure, you can refuse.
www.ypsyork.org/events/10265...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
Little Kingdoms. An A-Z of Early Medieval Britain | Yorkshire Philosophical Society
promoting the understanding of science since 1822
www.ypsyork.org
November 26, 2025 at 5:53 PM
www.ypsyork.org/events/10265...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
Eforwicingas! I shall be talking about LITTLE KINGDOMS at 7pm in York Cityscreen Picturehouse for the @ypsyork.bsky.social on Wednesday, December 3rd. One needs only purchase a drink from the bar to gain admission...
The Fourth Dorestad Congress proceedings by the legendary Annemarieke Willemsen and Hanneke Kik spotted out in the wild!
containing my paper on 'Placing the Early Medieval Kingdom of Lindsey in the North Sea'
containing my paper on 'Placing the Early Medieval Kingdom of Lindsey in the North Sea'
November 26, 2025 at 5:46 PM
The Fourth Dorestad Congress proceedings by the legendary Annemarieke Willemsen and Hanneke Kik spotted out in the wild!
containing my paper on 'Placing the Early Medieval Kingdom of Lindsey in the North Sea'
containing my paper on 'Placing the Early Medieval Kingdom of Lindsey in the North Sea'
Reposted by Alex Harvey
Seeing a fair few academics saying things like ‘sure I know AI is terrible and the people who designed it are terrible and the impact it has on the planet is terrible…but how might *I* be able to use it in a non-terrible way?’
November 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Seeing a fair few academics saying things like ‘sure I know AI is terrible and the people who designed it are terrible and the impact it has on the planet is terrible…but how might *I* be able to use it in a non-terrible way?’
Reposted by Alex Harvey
As someone who worked (albeit briefly) in archaeology, I find it weird how many people cling to things and say they should be retained because its our heritage.
Like, just "old" =/= of value, IMO
Like, just "old" =/= of value, IMO
November 24, 2025 at 9:34 AM
As someone who worked (albeit briefly) in archaeology, I find it weird how many people cling to things and say they should be retained because its our heritage.
Like, just "old" =/= of value, IMO
Like, just "old" =/= of value, IMO
Bergen! Bjørgvin! You may postdate the Viking Age, but you have my heart
November 24, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Bergen! Bjørgvin! You may postdate the Viking Age, but you have my heart
Nice to see In The Loop (2009) make the cut, and I’ll accept The Holy Grail at no.6, but no Hot Fuzz is an absolute travesty - its simply the best movie ever made, let alone comedy
It is imposdible to make a Top 100 list everyone agrees with…
BUT THIS LIST IS SO WRONG!!!!
variety.com/lists/best-c...
BUT THIS LIST IS SO WRONG!!!!
variety.com/lists/best-c...
The 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time
Variety's list of the 100 best comedy movies of all time includes 'Annie Hall,' 'Pretty Woman,' 'Waiting for Guffman' and 'Young Frankenstein.'
variety.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Nice to see In The Loop (2009) make the cut, and I’ll accept The Holy Grail at no.6, but no Hot Fuzz is an absolute travesty - its simply the best movie ever made, let alone comedy
Reposted by Alex Harvey
The FORGOTTEN VIKINGS keeping good company in Norli, in Bergen, Norway, alongside the great works of Peter Sawyer, @profcarolyne.bsky.social, Neil Price, and Else Roesdahl!
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 AM
The FORGOTTEN VIKINGS keeping good company in Norli, in Bergen, Norway, alongside the great works of Peter Sawyer, @profcarolyne.bsky.social, Neil Price, and Else Roesdahl!
Reposted by Alex Harvey
I find it very pleasing that sometime around 1040, an Icelandic skald addressed the king of the Norwegians as "sinjórr", showing that already at this early stage the French vocabulary for lordship had entered the Nordic world.
November 24, 2025 at 10:50 AM
I find it very pleasing that sometime around 1040, an Icelandic skald addressed the king of the Norwegians as "sinjórr", showing that already at this early stage the French vocabulary for lordship had entered the Nordic world.
Reposted by Alex Harvey
Just published in Studia Celtica Fennica is Fangzhe Qiu's (@ucdscoilglcb.bsky.social) review of K. Carella's 'The Ideological Foundations of Early Irish Law and Their Reception in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600 — c. 900'. Available, open access, here: journal.fi/scf/article/...
Review of K. Carella, The Ideological Foundations of Early Irish Law and Their Reception in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600 — c. 900.
journal.fi
November 24, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Just published in Studia Celtica Fennica is Fangzhe Qiu's (@ucdscoilglcb.bsky.social) review of K. Carella's 'The Ideological Foundations of Early Irish Law and Their Reception in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600 — c. 900'. Available, open access, here: journal.fi/scf/article/...
Now signed!
The FORGOTTEN VIKINGS keeping good company in Norli, in Bergen, Norway, alongside the great works of Peter Sawyer, @profcarolyne.bsky.social, Neil Price, and Else Roesdahl!
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Now signed!
The FORGOTTEN VIKINGS keeping good company in Norli, in Bergen, Norway, alongside the great works of Peter Sawyer, @profcarolyne.bsky.social, Neil Price, and Else Roesdahl!
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 AM
The FORGOTTEN VIKINGS keeping good company in Norli, in Bergen, Norway, alongside the great works of Peter Sawyer, @profcarolyne.bsky.social, Neil Price, and Else Roesdahl!
I see the #Vikings are trending again, and much like last time, I know I should stop expecting the historical pirates of the 8th to 11th centuries, but every time it happens I always do
November 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I see the #Vikings are trending again, and much like last time, I know I should stop expecting the historical pirates of the 8th to 11th centuries, but every time it happens I always do
Reposted by Alex Harvey
Environmental DNA evidence of settlement in Iceland from c. 810 rather than the 870s - and much more besides. Summarised in the New Scientist but that's behind a paywall. Here's the original research.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 23, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Environmental DNA evidence of settlement in Iceland from c. 810 rather than the 870s - and much more besides. Summarised in the New Scientist but that's behind a paywall. Here's the original research.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Happy 62nd birthday to #DoctorWho 🌀
November 23, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Happy 62nd birthday to #DoctorWho 🌀
Reposted by Alex Harvey
📚 Foyles, THE actual Foyles, will be selling my Amber Books Treasures of the #Vikings!
The Charing Cross Foyles is one of my favourite spaces in the world, and I recommend losing oneself there for a day at least once.
The Charing Cross Foyles is one of my favourite spaces in the world, and I recommend losing oneself there for a day at least once.
November 22, 2025 at 8:45 PM
📚 Foyles, THE actual Foyles, will be selling my Amber Books Treasures of the #Vikings!
The Charing Cross Foyles is one of my favourite spaces in the world, and I recommend losing oneself there for a day at least once.
The Charing Cross Foyles is one of my favourite spaces in the world, and I recommend losing oneself there for a day at least once.
Touchdown in Bergen, for the last leg of our Norwegian adventure, back in the south where the sea kings sleep…
November 22, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Touchdown in Bergen, for the last leg of our Norwegian adventure, back in the south where the sea kings sleep…
Reposted by Alex Harvey
Read the original research in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Tell Abraq: cross-cultural connections in the Persian Gulf from the Late Bronze Age to the early centuries AD
Tell Abraq (United Arab Emirates) is a key site in south-east Arabian archaeology, evidencing over three millennia of continuous human occupation. Recent discoveries highlight its inclusion in trade networks across the Persian Gulf and beyond and illustrate how the nature of the site changed through time.
doi.org
November 21, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Read the original research in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Reposted by Alex Harvey
Bronze pennanular brooch with inlaid terminals, circa AD 450-550, was the latest object deposited in the Spring at Bath.
Late Roman, probably made in Ireland; birds and fish on the terminals might be associated with the goddess Sulis Minerva.
#FindsFriday #RomanBritain #Archaeology
📸 my own
Late Roman, probably made in Ireland; birds and fish on the terminals might be associated with the goddess Sulis Minerva.
#FindsFriday #RomanBritain #Archaeology
📸 my own
November 20, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Bronze pennanular brooch with inlaid terminals, circa AD 450-550, was the latest object deposited in the Spring at Bath.
Late Roman, probably made in Ireland; birds and fish on the terminals might be associated with the goddess Sulis Minerva.
#FindsFriday #RomanBritain #Archaeology
📸 my own
Late Roman, probably made in Ireland; birds and fish on the terminals might be associated with the goddess Sulis Minerva.
#FindsFriday #RomanBritain #Archaeology
📸 my own
Good haul from Tromsø
November 21, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Good haul from Tromsø