Bad Ancient/ Owen Rees
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badancient.bsky.social
Bad Ancient/ Owen Rees
@badancient.bsky.social
3.9K followers 420 following 620 posts
Ancient Historian: Global history, ancient disability, veteran studies, etc. Also runs Bad Ancient: Fact-checking common claims about the ancient world.

Website: www.badancient.com

Newsletter: https://owenrees.substack.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
badancient.bsky.social
Getting ready for the 2nd podcast interview of the day. This morning was all about Xenophon and why he is the greatest writer of the ancient world, with @ancienthistory101.org. Next up, a chat about my book and ancient nomads with @nomadspod.bsky.social!
A black laptop sits on a brown wooden table. A black microphone is in the foreground
February 10, 2026 at 2:07 PM
badancient.bsky.social
It's taken directly from Greek vases. Its use is up for debate - but can't men have pretty things too! Eg:
Red figure Greek vase of a soldier holding a sword, with his shield and helmet propped up on a seat in front of him. Red figure Greek vase of a hoplite in battle holdong a shield and spear. His arm is outstretched and the inside of his shield is visible.
February 3, 2026 at 5:07 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Academics to their students: 'Don't leave things to the last minute, submit your work before the deadline day'

Academics submitting an abstract due on Sunday:
Screenshot of an inbox with many emails all sent on Sunday. Blue text on a black background.
February 2, 2026 at 9:26 AM
badancient.bsky.social
Apropos of nothing, if anyone ever wants help with ancient world building for a game ... I would definitely be up for that! And would probably be the first time I ever impressed my kids
Screenshot with black text on a white background. It is from an game making forum advising the book Far Edges of the Known World for people wanting to build a game focusing on the ancient world.
January 31, 2026 at 1:51 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Just got home from a great talk by the one and only @belovedofoizys.bsky.social who I finally got to meet in person. Took my 13yo daughter too who had a great time!
A woman with long dark hair is standing behind a podium. She is in a red room with a large projector screen behind her on the wall. The rest of the wall has four painting hanging up.
January 15, 2026 at 10:13 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Behold my masculinity on display
Photo of a white Shih Tzu, sat atop a red throw. Photo of a black and white Shih Tzu, sat atop a grey sofa. A section of a red phone case covers part of the photo on the left - oops.
December 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Pleased to announce we are celebrating a new leadership agreement for the Returning Solider Network with a 1-day symposium focusing on 'Forgotten Veterans', at Birmingham Newman University in April. Here is the CfP!
Word document with a white background, black text, and coloured logos along the bottom. It is a call for papers for the Returning Solider Network Symposium, on the 9th April 2026 hosted at Birmingham Newman University. The theme is 'Forgotten Veterans' and they are looking for papers 20mins in length on research related to any relevant discipline and covering any time period. See the second post for a link to the CfP on a webpage with more details.
December 12, 2025 at 8:08 AM
badancient.bsky.social
The German translation has arrived! See the next post for a link to order.
Three books are sat in a light brown box. The covers show a coastal landscape with ancient ships in the sea.
November 15, 2025 at 1:17 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Some houses near me appear to be locked in a battle of faux-patriotism. Whenever one flag goes up, another puts up two. This guy seems to be 'winning':
A red bricked house with cars parked out front. There is a grass verge and a pavement in the foreground. The focus of the photo is a stretch of fencing with has 6 union flags, one saint George's flag, and one flag for the extreme far right group Britain First.
October 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Just received my author copies for the north american version of my book!

Pre-order here (release date 30th Sept): wwnorton.com/books/978132...
Books on a brown wooden table. Three black books lay down, flanked by a black book standing on the left and a beige book on the right. They are all titled 'Far Edges of the Known World'. Behind the books is a full book shelf and white walls.
August 28, 2025 at 1:19 PM
badancient.bsky.social
So great to see my book out in translation. Sandwiched between two great books by @drdragases.bsky.social (thanks for sending this to me!) and @jldraycott.bsky.social.
A table of ancient history books on a shelf surrounded by dozens more. They are written in or translated into Dutch.
July 18, 2025 at 5:21 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Gus has been sat by my side while I learned to be a dad, when I wrote my first book, when we moved across the country, through the PhD and beyond. He was always with me through everything, and today I was with him one last time. Goodbye to the best old dog.
A small black dog (west Highland terrier crossed with a Lhasa Apso) stands on green grass in the sunshine.
June 28, 2025 at 7:19 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Bad Ancient is getting its first public event as part of Chalke Valley History Festival next Weds. The website has been growing since its inception in 2020, can't wait to talk about it. But I will have been on the move since 4.30am and its my 3rd talk of that day, so hoping the adrenaline kicks in!
Screenshot advertising a talk about Bad Ancient. The background is a cream colour with a green banner. An authors photo sits sin a small circle on the left hand side - it is a white male with short dark hair wearing a pink long-sleeved top. Screenshot advertising a talk about being history writers for Bloomsbury. The background is a cream colour with a green banner. Authors photos sit in small circles - one woman and three men. Screenshot advertising a talk about Ptolemaic Egypt. The background is a cream colour with a green banner. Authors photos sit in small circles - all three are white men with short hair.
June 19, 2025 at 3:05 PM
badancient.bsky.social
I am going to guess most, if not all, historians have an origin story. Mine starts around the time I got hold of these two beauties as a kid!
Book cover: orange edging. Title reads - The Greek News: Alexander Victorious. A colour image of Alexander the great on his horse in battle. On the right hand side are 3 small images depicting 'top stories inside'. Book cover: dark edging made to look like inscribed marble. Title reads - The Roman News: The greatest newspaper in civilization. A colour image of Julius Caesar being killed by a crowd of senators wielding knives. On the bottom are 6 small images depicting themes in the book.
June 18, 2025 at 6:16 AM
badancient.bsky.social
Italian translation has just arrived today!
Book cover showing a sunset over grasslands, looking through a stone arch. The book is on a wooden table.
May 30, 2025 at 12:17 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Spotted a new book on the shelves in Manchester @rhigarthjones.bsky.social
A man in black shorts and an orange numper is pointing at a history book on a large book shelf in a shop.
May 23, 2025 at 2:34 PM
badancient.bsky.social
During class yesterday I was asked about Medical Humanities and what they were. It gave me an excuse to wax lyrical about a mentor of mine (@helenking.bsky.social) and her new book, as a good example of what it's all about. Then, this morning, it arrived at my door!
Spine of a book is visible inside an envelope, which is sat on top of a wooden table. The tilte is in blue: Immaculate Forms A coulourful book with a plant based design, which is sat on top of a wooden table. The tilte is in blue: Immaculate Forms: uncovering the history of women's bodies. Orientation of the photo is on its side.
May 8, 2025 at 1:03 PM
badancient.bsky.social
When your two great interests align! The founder of Kosmos offered me the chance to try out their kit, which is ancient Greek themed! The name of the Judo gi is Stoa... I haven't yet asked why, I presume because of the logo?
A black bag with white writing that says Kosmos and a logo which looks like a stylised Greek pillar. A white judo gi top and trousers lie on a brown, wooden table. The gi has a black design of a stylised pillar,and a black and white design on the inside as well.
April 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
badancient.bsky.social
My holiday 'to read' pile. I only get time to read books, cover to cover in one go, about once a year - so I have to make it count!
Three books on a wooden (pine coloured) table: Between two rivers; Plato: a civic life; Men who hate women. On the left is a grey light switch.
April 14, 2025 at 8:23 AM
badancient.bsky.social
The glamorous life of an ancient historian! My last book was mostly written in a car whilst waiting for my wife to run marathons around Yorkshire. My latest work will be written, it seems, while waiting for my daughter to enjoy seeing her friends.
A laptop screen with a work a work in progress up on a split screen - dark mode on the right, normal mode on the left. The laptop is in a car, the black steering wheel is behind it with a Hyundai logo in the centre. Out of the windscreen it is a sunny day with trees visible but out of focus.
April 8, 2025 at 10:10 AM
badancient.bsky.social
It is always nice to get Bad Ancient fan mail. Apparently I need to sack all of the Egyptologists now, so I suppose I should get on with doing that.
a screenshot of an email voicing disapproval about the articles covering ancient Egypt on the website BadAncient.com.
April 7, 2025 at 2:23 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Survived my first literary festival 'author talk' today in Oxford. Seemed to go well. I was really pleased to see @helenking.bsky.social in the audience, who was such a big influence on me early on in my studies.

Bonus: my book appeared in this shop window! Near to @moudhy.bsky.social no less.
Window front for a book shops with a dark brown framing. An array of non fiction hardback books are set out in rows.
April 1, 2025 at 7:03 PM
badancient.bsky.social
Time to indulge a teenage obsession of mine as I spend time in 16th century Japan!
Screenshot of loading page from Assassins Creed Shadows. The screen is read with a male samurai headshot looking to the left, a female shinobi wearing a hood is looking to the right. Between them is the Assassins Creed logo.
March 24, 2025 at 6:17 PM
badancient.bsky.social
I was out in Manchester today and spotted 'Holy Places' by @drkathrynhurlock.bsky.social on the shelf!
White books shelves with a variety if history books in hardback. In the middle is a Blue cover with the main title: Holy Places.
March 16, 2025 at 3:35 PM
badancient.bsky.social
The search brings up images that come close, so we are looking for an exact match. Spotted here: 4/5
A screen shot showing various matches on the Google search. A red arrow points to an exact match, a red circle beneath the image identifies the page the image comes from: a Reddit forum.
February 20, 2025 at 1:38 PM