Ardent Archivist
@ardentarchivist.bsky.social
Nasty woman (and occasionally proud of it). Dog mom, citizen of the Earth, history & archaeology afficionada, all-around observer, faithful commentator on the ridiculous.
Warning: there will be puns.
Also at: @[email protected]
Warning: there will be puns.
Also at: @[email protected]
Pinned
Serious Q: anyone else detest BlueSky’s habit of automatically jumping to the most recent post instead of keeping your place in your timeline?
So either you miss everything or you have to scroll back to find your place - as more ppl join, that becomes ever more impractical.
Only thing I don’t like.
So either you miss everything or you have to scroll back to find your place - as more ppl join, that becomes ever more impractical.
Only thing I don’t like.
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Starmer is a liar when he says he didn't know the extent of the relationship.
MI6 Warned Starmer that Mandelson would not pass vetting for the post of US ambassador. They said his links to Epstein would compromise him. It was on the fucking news.
youtu.be/r54U-cxVCD8?...
MI6 Warned Starmer that Mandelson would not pass vetting for the post of US ambassador. They said his links to Epstein would compromise him. It was on the fucking news.
youtu.be/r54U-cxVCD8?...
February 4, 2026 at 1:13 PM
Starmer is a liar when he says he didn't know the extent of the relationship.
MI6 Warned Starmer that Mandelson would not pass vetting for the post of US ambassador. They said his links to Epstein would compromise him. It was on the fucking news.
youtu.be/r54U-cxVCD8?...
MI6 Warned Starmer that Mandelson would not pass vetting for the post of US ambassador. They said his links to Epstein would compromise him. It was on the fucking news.
youtu.be/r54U-cxVCD8?...
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Vendel Helmet 1. Iron helmet with bronze fittings from a boat grave in Vendel, Uppland, Sweden, c. 550–793 AD.
📷 Swedish History Museum samlingar.shm.se/object/F0DD4...
#Archaeology
📷 Swedish History Museum samlingar.shm.se/object/F0DD4...
#Archaeology
February 4, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Vendel Helmet 1. Iron helmet with bronze fittings from a boat grave in Vendel, Uppland, Sweden, c. 550–793 AD.
📷 Swedish History Museum samlingar.shm.se/object/F0DD4...
#Archaeology
📷 Swedish History Museum samlingar.shm.se/object/F0DD4...
#Archaeology
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 9:
However familiar you are with the characters, world and plot of your book, remember: your readers don't know anything unless you've told them. How you tell them (quickly, slowly, using suspense, in passing, by implication) - and whether they care - is up to you.
However familiar you are with the characters, world and plot of your book, remember: your readers don't know anything unless you've told them. How you tell them (quickly, slowly, using suspense, in passing, by implication) - and whether they care - is up to you.
February 4, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 9:
However familiar you are with the characters, world and plot of your book, remember: your readers don't know anything unless you've told them. How you tell them (quickly, slowly, using suspense, in passing, by implication) - and whether they care - is up to you.
However familiar you are with the characters, world and plot of your book, remember: your readers don't know anything unless you've told them. How you tell them (quickly, slowly, using suspense, in passing, by implication) - and whether they care - is up to you.
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
And this morning the Shed is a violin, made from the bones of a murdered girl; the pegs from her teeth; the neck from her spine; the bow strung from her golden hair…
February 4, 2026 at 9:35 AM
And this morning the Shed is a violin, made from the bones of a murdered girl; the pegs from her teeth; the neck from her spine; the bow strung from her golden hair…
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Balm to the mind for my creaking knees! “noise alone is not a reason to stop being active…Movement is essential for joint health. Cartilage relies on regular compression and release to receive nutrients, as it has very limited blood supply.”
theconversation.com/why-do-our-j...
theconversation.com/why-do-our-j...
Why do our joints crack, pop and crunch and should we worry about it?
Joint noises are common and often misunderstood. A physiotherapist explains why they happen and what they do, and do not, mean.
theconversation.com
February 4, 2026 at 8:07 AM
Balm to the mind for my creaking knees! “noise alone is not a reason to stop being active…Movement is essential for joint health. Cartilage relies on regular compression and release to receive nutrients, as it has very limited blood supply.”
theconversation.com/why-do-our-j...
theconversation.com/why-do-our-j...
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
For #ReliefWednesday a representation of Minerva, the #Roman goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, and warfare. She's carrying the helmet, a lance and a shield. The deity is accompanied by an #owl, her sacred animal.
Found in Burgstall an der Murr.
📷 Landesmuseum Württemnberg
🏺 #archaeology
Found in Burgstall an der Murr.
📷 Landesmuseum Württemnberg
🏺 #archaeology
February 4, 2026 at 7:27 AM
For #ReliefWednesday a representation of Minerva, the #Roman goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, and warfare. She's carrying the helmet, a lance and a shield. The deity is accompanied by an #owl, her sacred animal.
Found in Burgstall an der Murr.
📷 Landesmuseum Württemnberg
🏺 #archaeology
Found in Burgstall an der Murr.
📷 Landesmuseum Württemnberg
🏺 #archaeology
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
You can donate to Oxfam here 10/ www.oxfamireland.org/impact/oxfam...
Oxfam’s impact in Gaza, one year on
www.oxfamireland.org
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
You can donate to Oxfam here 10/ www.oxfamireland.org/impact/oxfam...
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
“Gaza’s starvation is not incidental—it is deliberate, entirely engineered - and has now created the largest population facing starvation anywhere in the world—a preventable famine unfolding in real time. It is unconscionable and is being allowed to happen.” 9/ www.oxfam.org/en/press-rel...
Oxfam reaction to the Gaza IPC hunger figures | Oxfam International
www.oxfam.org
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
“Gaza’s starvation is not incidental—it is deliberate, entirely engineered - and has now created the largest population facing starvation anywhere in the world—a preventable famine unfolding in real time. It is unconscionable and is being allowed to happen.” 9/ www.oxfam.org/en/press-rel...
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
There are already children starving in Gaza. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the entire population of Gaza - 2.1 million people - is at risk of famine. 8/ www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/...
Palestinian health minister reports 29 ‘starvation-related’ deaths in Gaza
Majed Abu Ramadan says 29 Palestinian children, elderly people killed as hunger grips bombarded enclave.
www.aljazeera.com
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
There are already children starving in Gaza. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the entire population of Gaza - 2.1 million people - is at risk of famine. 8/ www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/...
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
The people of Gaza are facing into a famine, that is absolutely the creation of the Israeli government. There has been food sitting in trucks on the border that can save starving children. It is an enforced starvation of a people, which is a war crime. 7/ www.bbc.com/news/live/c8...
UN says Gaza in 'cruellest phase' of war as 9,000 trucks' worth of aid ready at border
After Israel eased its 11-week aid block this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says Gaza's entire population is at risk of famine.
www.bbc.com
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The people of Gaza are facing into a famine, that is absolutely the creation of the Israeli government. There has been food sitting in trucks on the border that can save starving children. It is an enforced starvation of a people, which is a war crime. 7/ www.bbc.com/news/live/c8...
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
The Great Famine is baked into our bones in Ireland, we know its consequences for our population decline for over a hundred years, our native language, our history and politics, and our landscape. Some argue there was no famine, that it was genocide. I don’t think that. But it was political. 6/
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The Great Famine is baked into our bones in Ireland, we know its consequences for our population decline for over a hundred years, our native language, our history and politics, and our landscape. Some argue there was no famine, that it was genocide. I don’t think that. But it was political. 6/
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Back to our time, we all sat in that cottage, fallen quiet, well-fed, contented, our children safe, and thought of the horror of that life-long memory, of the desperate sight it must have been, that it was real and that it happened in the landscape outside the cottage window 5/
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Back to our time, we all sat in that cottage, fallen quiet, well-fed, contented, our children safe, and thought of the horror of that life-long memory, of the desperate sight it must have been, that it was real and that it happened in the landscape outside the cottage window 5/
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
This elderly man, at the end of his life, told Mr Caulfield the local teacher, that as a small child he sat on a cart going west to Belmullet to buy “Indian meal” a coarse grain for food. And in the ditches by the road he saw corpses of the starved who had died in their own desperate flight 4/
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
This elderly man, at the end of his life, told Mr Caulfield the local teacher, that as a small child he sat on a cart going west to Belmullet to buy “Indian meal” a coarse grain for food. And in the ditches by the road he saw corpses of the starved who had died in their own desperate flight 4/
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
But I always come back to this personal story heard years ago in this cottage, by this fireplace. We were a bunch of middle class Dubliners, our cars outside, gathered in August for fun, listening to Prof Seamas Caulfield telling a story about how his own father talked to an old man, in 1930s 3/
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
But I always come back to this personal story heard years ago in this cottage, by this fireplace. We were a bunch of middle class Dubliners, our cars outside, gathered in August for fun, listening to Prof Seamas Caulfield telling a story about how his own father talked to an old man, in 1930s 3/
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
It was worst in the west, and I’ve - like many people - seen the abandoned house ruins, the abandoned lazy beds for potatoes high on the mountain sides from the time before, and even walked through a village with no trace above ground. So in population and landscape terms, its defining 2/
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
It was worst in the west, and I’ve - like many people - seen the abandoned house ruins, the abandoned lazy beds for potatoes high on the mountain sides from the time before, and even walked through a village with no trace above ground. So in population and landscape terms, its defining 2/
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
The Irish Great Famine; “Gorta Mór” (Great hunger); “Drochshaol” (the bad times) is a defining disaster in Irish history. It’s the before and after of our understanding of our country. Generally accepted estimate is 1 million died, and millions fled, and the Irish population fell for generations 1/
May 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The Irish Great Famine; “Gorta Mór” (Great hunger); “Drochshaol” (the bad times) is a defining disaster in Irish history. It’s the before and after of our understanding of our country. Generally accepted estimate is 1 million died, and millions fled, and the Irish population fell for generations 1/
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 111:
Criticism comes with having readers. If you can't handle criticism - be it fair or unfair - then you should keep your work strictly private.
Criticism comes with having readers. If you can't handle criticism - be it fair or unfair - then you should keep your work strictly private.
February 3, 2026 at 10:56 AM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 111:
Criticism comes with having readers. If you can't handle criticism - be it fair or unfair - then you should keep your work strictly private.
Criticism comes with having readers. If you can't handle criticism - be it fair or unfair - then you should keep your work strictly private.
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
And this morning the Shed is a silver thread, glimmering through the trees…
February 3, 2026 at 8:38 AM
And this morning the Shed is a silver thread, glimmering through the trees…
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
For #EpigraphyTuesday a Roman infantery helmet (Weisenau type) with an owner’s inscription formed by punched dots on the neck guard: the helmet belonged to Lucius Lucretius Celer, legionary in the centuria of Gaius Mummius Lolianus of the legio I adiutrix. 🧵1/2
📷me
🏺 #archaeology
📷me
🏺 #archaeology
February 3, 2026 at 7:46 AM
For #EpigraphyTuesday a Roman infantery helmet (Weisenau type) with an owner’s inscription formed by punched dots on the neck guard: the helmet belonged to Lucius Lucretius Celer, legionary in the centuria of Gaius Mummius Lolianus of the legio I adiutrix. 🧵1/2
📷me
🏺 #archaeology
📷me
🏺 #archaeology
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
I was a White House ethics lawyer.
I used to advise people not to even accept a free cup of coffee from someone who had interests before them. And staff followed those rules.
I can’t even find the words to describe the scale of Trump’s corruption here.
I used to advise people not to even accept a free cup of coffee from someone who had interests before them. And staff followed those rules.
I can’t even find the words to describe the scale of Trump’s corruption here.
Foreign countries are bribing our president to sell out the American people.
Trump family businesses made $187 MILLION from this deal, and just months later he gave the UAE some of our most top-secret AI tech.
They are selling our national security to the highest bidder.
Trump family businesses made $187 MILLION from this deal, and just months later he gave the UAE some of our most top-secret AI tech.
They are selling our national security to the highest bidder.
February 2, 2026 at 7:28 AM
I was a White House ethics lawyer.
I used to advise people not to even accept a free cup of coffee from someone who had interests before them. And staff followed those rules.
I can’t even find the words to describe the scale of Trump’s corruption here.
I used to advise people not to even accept a free cup of coffee from someone who had interests before them. And staff followed those rules.
I can’t even find the words to describe the scale of Trump’s corruption here.
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 42: Not every noun needs an adjective. Keep your adjectives for when they are really needed…
February 2, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 42: Not every noun needs an adjective. Keep your adjectives for when they are really needed…
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
For #MosaicMonday a #Roman mosaic showing the labyrinth of the Minotaur on Crete. The monster’s head is depicted in the centre. The simple depiction is alluding to the myth of Theseus, in which the Greek hero slays the Minotaur in the labyrinth with the help ... 🧵1/2
📷🏺
#Archaeology
📷🏺
#Archaeology
February 2, 2026 at 9:27 AM
For #MosaicMonday a #Roman mosaic showing the labyrinth of the Minotaur on Crete. The monster’s head is depicted in the centre. The simple depiction is alluding to the myth of Theseus, in which the Greek hero slays the Minotaur in the labyrinth with the help ... 🧵1/2
📷🏺
#Archaeology
📷🏺
#Archaeology
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
And this morning the Shed is a secret door, from behind which comes the sound of laughter…
February 2, 2026 at 7:16 AM
And this morning the Shed is a secret door, from behind which comes the sound of laughter…
Reposted by Ardent Archivist
Ethnic Cleansing in Ohio?
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...
Ethnic Cleansing in Ohio?
Nazi Lies in Vance's America
open.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Ethnic Cleansing in Ohio?
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...