Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 1h

#FindsFriday 🏺
Bronze chimera: likely emblem (episema) on C6 BC warrior's shield w lion's head on flame-like mane + scaly fierce snake striking from centre.
From high status tomb w arms, tools, ceramics + iron wheels of chariot excavated in Melfi, Basilicata.
Now in Nat Archaeological Museum there.

A large thin bronze decoration probably for a 6th C BC warrior's shield. At the top the head of a beast with a stylised lion's head and snout, on a long neck with incised flame-like mane, emerges from a scaly circle. This serves as the body of a fierce snake (which probably wrapped round the lion's body), which extends to the top right with a long head and open mouth, with wing below lower jaw.

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 2h

#FindsFriday! A Roman brush found in Bregenz.

Roman brush fragments are sometimes difficult to interpret; in this case, their function may relate to textile production, as suggested for similar finds in Eschenz.The bristled surface is suitable for carding or teasing wool fibers. 🧵1/2

📷 me

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A photo of a well-preserved fragment of a Roman brush in a show case. The object consists of a rectangular base with rounded and scalloped edges, formed from wood into which hundreds of stiff rushes have been densely embedded.

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Linda @linda2.bsky.social · 1h

We need to celebrate every success that comes our way. We know not what may follow. Maria Corina Machado is a success. Protest matters. Essential for democracy. Be the one who stands out from the crowd. See you on the other side of the weekend & thank you. #NobelPeacePrice #Turtles #Photography

Three turtles on top of each other. The one at the top hs raised it's head to the sun.

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Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 2h

⚡️The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Maria Corina Machado.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee awarded it for "her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela."

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 6h

The abstract paintings of Korean American contemporary artist Suzanne Song #WomensArt

Photo of a painting hanging on a white wall, the abstract artwork features a series of ´sharp regular interlocking triangles in purple and green

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

László Krasznahorkai has won the Nobel prize in literature.

In our archive, from 2014:

‘My name is Róbert Valzer and I like walking, not that I have anything to do with the famous Robert Walser, nor do I think it strange that walking should be my favourite hobby.’

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

László Krasznahorkai, translated by George Szirtes · Story: ‘There Goes Valzer’

www.lrb.co.uk

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 3h

The mysterious slab in Written Stone Lane, #Preston, #Lancashire. A #boggart lived beneath it and attacked a man who foolishly scoffed at its existence. After trying to use it as a gatepost, a farmer was also punished by the spook and rapidly put it back: 'TO LYE FOREVER'
#PhantomsFriday #folklore

My photo of the Written Stone (does it always lie in shadow?). The inscription reads: 'RAUFFE RADCLIFFE LAID THIS STONE TO LYE FOREVER AD 1655'. It's been suggested the stone started life as a prehistoric standing stone. There are a number of tales of ancient stones being moved, only for the mover being forced to return it by invisible forces or recurring bad luck.

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 4h

Book Cover of the Day:

THE • TYRANNY OF • THE DARK
• HAMLIN GARLAND Blue cover with full moon with bat across it and taloned hands. Gold lettering.

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 5h

Louise V Durham, stained glass and driftwood sculpture, Shoreham by Sea, UK #WomensArt

Photo of a vertical driftwood sculpture inlaid with rainbow coloured stained glass, the sculpture is sited on a wet looking shoreline by the sea under a sky with silver clouds and pale blue light

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Art History Animalia @arthistoryanimalia.bsky.social · 6h

*immediately adds to shopping list*

Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 10d

An entertaining tour of Old English words for animals, from the author of The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English.

@hanavideen.bsky.social's The Deorhord is now available in #paperback in the United States and Canada! Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

#English #OldEnglish #Language

Paperback cover of The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary by Hana Videen

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 6h

"I just decided, when someone says you can't do something. DO MORE OF IT."

-Faith Ringgold (1930-2024)

#WomensArt #FridayFeeling

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 4d

ABCtales is a brilliant, friendly writing site. Take a look and also give them a follow. There’s a Pick of the Day from writing on the site every day - great poems and stories. @abctales.bsky.social

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BookWormSat @bookwormsat.bsky.social · 5h

‘Sometimes I leaned over till my shadow mingled with that of Miss Sophie; then it seemed to me that we two were one.’ ~ Steen Steensen Blicher, The Diary of a Parish Clerk.

This #BookWormSat celebrates the short story for Blicher’s birthday. Do join us.

🖼️ Émile Friant, 1891.

Two lovers; a man and a woman in black, she is standing, he is sitting, she is looking away, he is looking at her, he is holding her hand, they cast shadows onto the wall behind them. Painting.

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Mary B @beesincampanula.bsky.social · 5h

#PhantomsFriday
According to legend, Sennen Cove was haunted by a mysterious fog which could suddenly descend on clear days, accompanied by a strange whooping sound. Locals referred to this phenomenon as the ‘Whooper’ and believed it to be a warning not to put to sea due to an impending storm…

A view looking across to Sennen Cove from the road

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curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · 8h

In #JapaneseFolklore there is a #yokai known as azuki baba (bean hag). She often appears on rainy autumn nights, glowing white through the mist, singing hoarsely as she shakes and washes beans by the river. She is a more sinister variant of azuki arai who despite singing about...
#FolkyFriday
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An old woman sits beside a river washing a strainer of azuki beans. Trees with autumn leaves above. Swirling mist around her.

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 23h

In ponds, pools and rivers, Stay Belows feel the cooling, notice the littering of acorns and leaves upon the surface. We feel the first chill as desire for gloves, hug of sweater. They feel it as a hunger. An instinct for one final feast before taking to the mud for the long sleep of winter.

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 19h

The tangled dead, root-pulled from above and below, feel scratches upon long vanished, phantom flesh. Their fancy houses have become cells where they wait on visitors who never come. Necropolis bounded and more than half-forgotten, many of them ache for hell. – #CLNolan

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 14h

Goodnight from Alfie Haines, picking up impossible transmissions and wearily reflecting that his home county might not be the best one to be a radio ham in. Goodnight from the ghost of Mercy Lovell, still chasing after the rough kisses of Samuel Midmore. Goodnight from Hookland.

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Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 1d

#AdoorableThursday
In fact a false door, painted to left of tablinium, in house of local #Pompeii official C. Iulius Polybius w early style facade.
Like in recent discoveries in the city, owner was in process of upgrading 2C BC property, hence amphorae + heap of lime piled in the corner.
#Roman 🏺

A painted door, included in the layout of the tablinium for symmetry. It's actually plaster, showing four panels within a red and white doorframe.
The four panels have the appearance of being on two doors, white with red borders bounded by darker outlines, and three circles on the section dividing upper and lower panels on each one.
A heap of building material and some broken amphorae are shown to the left of the false door.

A view showing the layout of the tablinium and the painted false door. The room has white painted walls with a red border at the top, a large entrance through the facing wall leading to other parts of the site. The painted false door is to the left of this, and an empty doorway is on the right - clearly intended to hold a 'real' door.
Remains of an upper level are also evident, with five window openings in the wall over the doors/entrance.

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 22h

Fishing some 5,300 years ago: a Neolithic fishhook made of wild boar tusk, wrapped with a fishing line.
The size of the fishhook is 6.5 cm. It was used to catch pikes.
Found in the lake-dwelling settlement of Arbon Bleiche 3, Switzerland.

On display at Archäologisches Museum Frauenfeld

📷me

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The picture shows a fishhook made of wild boar tusk. Only the curved, pointed end and the upper part are visible. The rest is wrapped in fishing line. The fishing line is made of twisted bast.

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Paintings of London @paintingsoflondon.bsky.social · 1d

'London, a view of Somerset House seen through an arch of Waterloo Bridge' (c.1865) by Henry Pether

(Private collection)

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Liza Adamczewski aka the accidental ecologist @lizaadamczewski.bsky.social · 1d

Get ready to see the smallest tiniest snails I’ve ever found. There are three babies and a mummy snail just wondering about about amongst the lichen on this twig I picked up. It’s a little bit of paradise saved from getting crushed by a car on our farm track. Who needs to go on Safari 😂

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Nobel prize in literature 2025 is announced – live

Follow along as the next winner of the world’s most prestigious literature prize is announced in Stockholm As the 2025 Nobel prize in literature approaches, betting markets are pointing to a tight race. Chinese avant garde writer Can Xue and Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai are currently joint favourites, both with 10/1 odds. Can Xue, age 72, remains a perennial contender – she was also heavily tipped last year – and her experimental, boundary-pushing style has kept her in the spotlight. Krasznahorkai, aged 71, is likewise gaining traction, with his dystopian, melancholic novels enjoying recent translation awards. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Linda @linda2.bsky.social · 1d

I thought I was invisible until spotted by this cygnet which stared into my lens. A face-off commenced. Great symmetry in a bird.

#BirdOfTheDay #Spotted #UKWildlife #cygnet #Birds #Photography

An image of a cygnet which happened to look into my lens at a key moment. This head shot is the result. The symmetry of facial features most evident.

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 1d

Ghost ponces and phantom mongers would call it ‘psychic residue’. Me Nokes, I am a practical man. I call it collywobble echoes or if I am feeling little poetic, a place remembering. – #DICallaghan in conversation with #DSNokes

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