James Harland
banner
jmharland.bsky.social
James Harland
@jmharland.bsky.social
Late Roman & Early Medieval History & Archaeology @dependencybonn.de,

Exploring what happens when empires die.

Book available at http://t.ly/LfaV

http://jmharland.hcommons.org/publications
Pinned
The paperback of Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum is now available to pre-order. There is currently a Black Friday discount of 25% available with the code BF2025S, making it < €39/£33!

www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum: A Modern Framework and its Problems
For centuries, archaeologists have excavated the soils of Britain to uncover finds from the early medieval past. These finds have been used to reconstruct the alleged communities, migration patterns, ...
www.routledge.com
Reposted by James Harland
I've written a few, mostly scholarly, but this is probably the most publicly accessible. A short book written to introduce readers to how archaeologists get stories out of dirt, bones, and broken things
November 27, 2025 at 3:15 AM
New office.
November 25, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by James Harland
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by James Harland
This is not the way, and @cnygren.bsky.social and I lay out in detail why it isn’t in this essay here. static1.squarespace.com/static/55577...
November 24, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Reposted by James Harland
And engaging in this kind of pedagogy is simply the entry-level version of when scholars do this, which I wrote about here. www.artforum.com/features/gen...
November 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by James Harland
Call for Applications!
The Ottoman Slavery Working Group invites submissions for the conference “Ottoman Slaveries and Typologies of Unfreedom.”
📍 Bonn, 24–26 June 2026

More info: buff.ly/IvFb1wS
@unibonn.bsky.social
@dfg.de
November 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Something I have long struggled to understand is what on earth exactly did people find so controversial about the Stuttgart 21 project in the first place?

www.dw.com/en/stuttgart...
'Stuttgart 21' high-speed rail opening delayed once more – DW – 11/19/2025
Conceived more than 30 years ago, Stuttgart's new high-speed rail connection and station project is billions over budget and years behind schedule. The latest planned opening date, December 2026, is n...
www.dw.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by James Harland
The paperback of Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum is now available to pre-order. There is currently a Black Friday discount of 25% available with the code BF2025S, making it < €39/£33!

www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum: A Modern Framework and its Problems
For centuries, archaeologists have excavated the soils of Britain to uncover finds from the early medieval past. These finds have been used to reconstruct the alleged communities, migration patterns, ...
www.routledge.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Does the TAG programme offer any means of seeing the individual papers?
November 20, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by James Harland
Deutschlands Hochschulen im Stresstest: Wenn Populismus auf Wissenschaftsfinanzierung trifft
Das Wissenschaftssystem ist weniger geschützt, als viele glauben. Programme könnten durch einfache Haushaltsbeschlüsse gestrichen werden. Justus Henke im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/11...
Deutschlands Hochschulen im Stresstest: Wenn Populismus auf Wissenschaftsfinanzierung trifft
www.jmwiarda.de
November 18, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by James Harland
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.

I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by James Harland
Science fraud is on the rise, facilitated by for-profit, open-access journals (Richardson et al, 2025, PNAS). These same journals are accelerating author and reviewer burnout by profiting from quantity while neglecting quality. Choose society journals where reputation and community are everything!
November 19, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by James Harland
ok folks! big announcement! AusTAG 2026 call for papers is open! so is registration! are you an archaeologist doing neat theory things and in Australia 22-23 May 2026? come to Adelaide for AusTAG!
Call for Papers: AusTAG 2026
Every business has a unique potential waiting to be tapped. Recognizing the keys to unlock this growth can set an enterprise on the path to unprecedented success.
austag.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by James Harland
Ich. Kann. Das. Verstopfungsargument. Nicht. Mehr. Hören. #IchBinHanna
November 17, 2025 at 11:59 AM
So Merz is turning out to be the German Boris Johnson and/or Berlusconi huh.
November 19, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by James Harland
Here at Exeter we are offering three fully funded AHRC PhD places in humanities subjects. Please get in touch if you are keen to come and do research with us! Closing date 23 February 2026: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
PhD: AHRC Studentship | University of Exeter
Project descriptionThe University of Exeter is offering up to three fully funded AHRC doctoral studentships and training and development opportunities across a range of the AHRC’s disciplines for cand...
www.exeter.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
This is who the man has always been, and his refusal to offer contrition or admit it shows that it is who he, and his party with him, will always be.
‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school
Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM
What a joy it is to be facing the prospect of this a second time before barely getting out of my mid-30s.
"We divorced the stock market from any real reflection of value by hyping up how our bogus product will change humanity. Now you have to bail us out when this all comes crashing down, because it'll screw you too."
November 18, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Here it comes.
November 18, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Reposted by James Harland
I miss new tech being actually interesting and exciting, instead of just the latest in running series of scams and/or spyware.
I miss when technology used to be fun.
November 16, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by James Harland
I have contributed to the debate!!

Academic Philosophers and “Writing Clearly”
open.substack.com/pub/axdougla...
Academic Philosophers and “Writing Clearly”
Cold, limp, lifeless prose is not clear
open.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Reposted by James Harland
My publisher for Forgotten Vikings recently told me that the book - and by extension me - are classed as ‘bestselling’, which means I can do that thing authors do and write ‘bestselling’ in my bio now
November 13, 2025 at 6:58 AM
The paperback of Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum is now available to pre-order. There is currently a Black Friday discount of 25% available with the code BF2025S, making it < €39/£33!

www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum: A Modern Framework and its Problems
For centuries, archaeologists have excavated the soils of Britain to uncover finds from the early medieval past. These finds have been used to reconstruct the alleged communities, migration patterns, ...
www.routledge.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by James Harland
An interesting time to be thinking with Wikipedia, the only "social media" to be designed to generate consensus, not division.
on.ft.com/3LNokFM
Why American-style polarisation is spreading across the west
New research shows how incentives in the modern media ecosystem help explain rising division and negativity
on.ft.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Nice to give a paper in my own institution for a change!
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM