I’m just sitting here now all warm and fuzzy at the thought of the satisfying plinking sound of picking up a capsule

Ohhhh my goodness I played this obsessively.

Agreed that even if recruitment panic is the driver, the messaging instantly becomes “state school students not welcome”, and nothing is ever worth that price

State schools will offer languages but usually limited in choice and the move from 4 to 3 A levels I imagine has affected recruitment immensely, same as it has done for classics A levels. Language recruitment plummeted over the last years at Lancaster, and the degrees have just been cut 😢😓

(To be clear - I’m NOT blaming students for not picking languages or classics to study at degree level! And I REALLY hope - probably in vain - there is WP messaging going out from all colleges about those subjects. But I just wish all kids had the option to fall in love with these things at school)

Obviously the optics are terrible. And unis should ABSOLUTELY give students ways to study subjects they couldn’t at school (as cam classics does!!) But that alone doesn’t solve declining student interest as a result of lack of exposure at school. If that’s the driver, the problems are downstream.

The subjects are telling. These are subjects which are not catered to in most schools, and which are under existential threat at many unis as a result. I would hope that Cambridge was (relatively) immune from recruitment issues, but I think that must be at least part of what’s happening here.

The project and discovery of the whetstones has been led by Gary Bankhead and the Vedra Hylton Community Association, with support from @arcdurham.bsky.social staff and students. We’re looking forward to seeing where they taking things next!
@durham.ac.uk

Yes, especially the one on the right! Delightfully fierce in a “I’m trying to impress” kind of way 😂🥰

The villa owner clearly appreciated a view - stunning panorama of the Alps, none of which are visible from nearby Avenches (Roman Aventicum) 😂🤩🏔️

Silver!

Thank you for your patience and support with its long gestation! 😂 I’m super excited to read the other articles as well 🤩

4/ But it also says a lot of things I’ve been thinking about for a long time about how we handle local gods in the Roman world, what we can - and can’t - do with Roman altars and with gods we only know through epigraphy, as well as the (*whispers*) Celtic problem in Roman provincial archaeology 😬…

3/ It represents a few years of my thinking about this guy, the god Cocidius from Hadrian’s Wall, and how religion and military power could intersect on the edges of empire.
(Spoiler alert: I’m not sure he’s a very nice god 😂)

2/ It’s frankly the first thing since my book that I feel really shows how I’d like us to think about and work with religion in the Roman west - and what I like to write when I’m given the time and headspace to do so.