Tom Elliott
@paregorios.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.1K following 490 posts
Roman Historian and Human Digitalist. Works for NYU's https://isaw.nyu.edu, but lives in Pittsburgh. Editor/PI of the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places (https://pleiades.stoa.org). Primary social account: https://hcommons.social/@paregorios/
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Reposted by Tom Elliott
kenwhite.bsky.social
On the 18th we need to be vigilant for increased violence and provocation by both law enforcement and counter-protestors, both of which will be used to try to justify more violence and authoritarianism.
paregorios.bsky.social
Route to US in aftermath of WWII determined for Roman tombstone recently found in New Orleans:
paregorios.bsky.social
New pleiades place record queued for editorial review.
Reposted by Tom Elliott
drnwillburger.bsky.social
#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

🏺
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.
Reposted by Tom Elliott
kgeographer.bsky.social
Trump, Miller, and now random senators are trying to make the case that participants in #NoKings demonstrations are antifa. They will try very hard to provoke violence to get their true Reichstag equivalent.
atrupar.com
Sen. Roger Marshall: "October 18 is when the protest gets here. This will be a Soros paid-for protest for his professional protesters. The agitators show up. We'll have to get the National Guard out. Hopefully it will be peaceful. I doubt it."
paregorios.bsky.social
yeah, I'd have thought the analogy is with epigraphic databases, where individual inscriptions have fields like "findspot" or "last observed location" or "presumed original location" and populate it with something that maps 1:1 to a Pleiades URI. Pleiades sidebar can aggregate these from a dump.
paregorios.bsky.social
You're making me think about cross-linking Pleiades
Reposted by Tom Elliott
gaerhf-bot.bsky.social
There are now 450 entries in GAERHF. So I made a video of scrolling through the "List" view. And paused to click on a few along the way. That was a bit random. This all neither here nor there yet. Much work to do! I had to compress it a bit to get under 100 mb. #GlobalAntiquity #GlobalDH gaerhf.org
Reposted by Tom Elliott
carlosfnorena.bsky.social
📢 New SCS Blog Post

Amy Norgard and Joshua Nudell -- in the first part of a two-part series -- explore the deep roots of our thinking about the nature of human relationships with artifical companions, stretching from Hollywood to Ovid and back again.

Great reflections on classical reception here!
SCS Blog: Part 1 of 2: Pygmalion in the Age of AI Companions | Society for Classical Studies
www.classicalstudies.org
Reposted by Tom Elliott
quinnanya.me
It's looking like I've got several projects that need language detection as part of the workflow. It's been a few years since I've used that and I assume there's been some (possibly vast?) improvements. Anyone have a favorite library / model / etc they'd recommend? #MultilingualDH
paregorios.bsky.social
I came here to say this but you said it. Or so you claim.
paregorios.bsky.social
"they make a desert and call it peace"
Reposted by Tom Elliott
ewg118.bsky.social
Hopefully now that one of these universities has taken a stand, the others will as well.
chanda.blacksky.app
MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions. • MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree. These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education. As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley
paregorios.bsky.social
Hey, Roman military historians! Are "tutela", "armicustos", and "duplicarius" offices/roles/assignments/ranks on Roman navy ships? I'm thinking so, but see what you think .... (via this open-web thread on my Fedi account)
paregorios.bsky.social
If you liked this, then you should check out the "Index of Ships' Names" (pages 439-441) in Casson, Lionel. Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

h/t scholar.social/@bookandswor...
Reposted by Tom Elliott
sebhth.bsky.social
A thread on the current state of coverage of the Arabian Peninsula in "Global Approaches to Early Representations of the Human Figure". Though I missed this one, which was staged in GitHub: gaerhf.org#female-khor-... . #GlobalAntiquity 🧵
Reposted by Tom Elliott
gaerhf-bot.bsky.social
GAERHF is beginning - though only that! - to capture the range and time depth of representations of human figures from the Arabian Peninsula. Here's a thread in chronological order of what's been entered so far. With more lined up... #GlobalAntiquity #Arabia
paregorios.bsky.social
Fair. But what if you pronounced it like the mice pronounce the cat's name in the Disney Cinderella?