Mark W. Gardner
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markwillg.bsky.social
Mark W. Gardner
@markwillg.bsky.social
Teaching Secondary-level English and History, and TESOL. CompTIA A+/Aviation/Paleoanthropology nerd. Classical Liberal à la John Locke.
Pinned
Acquainted with the Night
Robert Frost
Oh boy, I’d like to be many more than eight miles away right now. 😉
the real slim shady gaga: thread
October 22, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
A wooden Roman sword, dating 1st century AD. Found in Carlisle.
The sword, crafted entirely from wood, was a practice weapon used by Roman soldiers during training drills - or a kid's toy. ⚔️

Currently on display at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, on loan from Tullie House Museum Carlisle

📷me
🏺
October 21, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Geez, I wasn’t expecting that. 🫣😏
When I was frightened my Nanna would sit next to my bed, rub my back and whisper, "Shhh, ghosts aren't for real Jack." Which would have made me feel better if she hadn't died before I was born.
October 22, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Hehe… 😏
members of the all-bear comedy mime troupe “ursa medium” seen here practicing their “two friends carrying a heavy box” routine
October 17, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Magical and terrifying, too! 😏
tim burton characters in famous art: thread
October 14, 2025 at 5:32 AM
Interesting. Well done, as always, but it’s a bit disconcerting as I don’t recognize many of these people. Yes, Tom Hanks and Mark Hamill I know, but the others are less familiar. Much less. 🤦🏻‍♂️😉
celebrities walking animated characters they’ve voiced instead of their dogs: thread
October 1, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Uh-oh… Star Wars frivolity.
star wars but in the wrong movies: thread
August 6, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
‘Dragon Man’ skull may be the first from an enigmatic human cousin [our ongoing phylogenetic analyses suggest Denisovan fossils are part of the Homo longi clade]
www.sciencenews.org/article/skul...
‘Dragon Man’ skull may be the first from an enigmatic human cousin
Ancient proteins and DNA may peg a 146,000-year-old Chinese skull as the most complete fossil to date from Denisovans, a puzzling line of Asian hominids.
www.sciencenews.org
June 18, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Truth be told, most people don’t really want to know how we are actually doing.
June 18, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
This two-handled Roman glass cantharus (Greek: kantharos) has had blobs of different colored opaque glass added, then marvered (rolled and shaped while still hot). One of a pair at the #MetMuseum, they were undoubtedly added to someone’s tomb for a party in the afterlife. 🏺

1st c. CE. 📸 me
March 26, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
Diese Fibel (Gewandspange) vom Typ Aucissa stammt aus dem 1. Jh. n. Chr. Der Typ war vor allem beim römischen Militär verbreitet.
Dieses Exemplar wurde bei Ausgrabungen auf dem Konstanzer Münsterplatz gefunden; vielleicht gehörte sie einem in Konstanz stationierten Soldaten.

🏺
March 26, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
A figurine of a hartebeest, made of flint, found in a cemetery at Hierakonpolis. It dates to the Naqada II period, 3650–3450 BC.
The Naqada culture was a Chalcolithic Predynastic Egyptian culture. Hierakonpolis is a major site for studying this period.

On display at Neues Museum Berlin.

📷 me

🏺
March 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
Archaeologists in France may have found a long-lost canal that the Romans built over two millennia ago while battling the Celts.
Long-lost Roman canal built by Julius Caesar's uncle may be found
Scientists may have just found a canal the Romans built 2,100 years ago while battling the Celts.
www.livescience.com
March 26, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
Exquisite Roman cobalt blue glass cup signed by master glassmaker ‘Ennion’. AD 30-70.

Ennion was the first glassmaker to ‘brand’ his work by incorporating his name into the mould’s design.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria 📷 Leonardo.disimon

#Archaeology
March 15, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
St Peter’s Cathedral, #Belfast

The #Victorian hammer beam roof of the nave.

#alwayslookup #CeilingsOnSunday
March 16, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
“We know that by now there is a lot of genetic evidence showing Sapiens and Neanderthals interbred, but we are going further and suggesting they constantly shared knowledge.”

Great quote, I think probably true.

www.timesofisrael.com/rare-cave-bu...
Sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted in prehistoric Israel, rare cave burials show
Using dentists' tools, archaeologists painstakingly uncover evidence that Israel’s Tinshemet Cave housed hominins who shared rituals and knowledge, and possibly lived in harmony
www.timesofisrael.com
March 11, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
It might not be #Roman, but for me this is one of the highlights of the NY Met Museum collection - a bowl standing on a lovely pair of human feet! It was made more than 5500 years ago, in predynastic Egypt AncientBlueSky #Archaeology
February 28, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
A beautiful #Roman necklace, made of emerald beads with delicate gold links between them. Amazingly, it was made 1900-2000 years ago, in the early Imperial period, for a lucky original owner (📷 NY Met Museum) 🏺AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology
March 7, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Darn right! 😏
I'll swear whenever the heck I feel like it
March 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
A lot of interest lately in the fusion of human chromosome 2, and whether it happened around a million years ago—maybe corresponding to the subsequent diversification of Neandersovans and various lineages in Africa.

I've examined this fascinating question.

johnhawks.net/weblog/when-...
When did human chromosome 2 fuse?
More and more, it looks like this event happened shortly before a million years ago, in the common ancestors of Neandertal, Denisovan, and African ancestral humans.
johnhawks.net
March 7, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
Not much has changed since I wrote my take on mammoth cloning back in 2017: “What is needed is some basic respect for the facts, and better investigative questions.”

medium.johnhawks.net/how-mammoth-...
How mammoth cloning became fake news
George Church, artificial wombs, elephant embryos, and a gullible science media
medium.johnhawks.net
March 6, 2025 at 10:41 PM
And, we’re off… 😁
for every 50 likes i’ll put pepé the king prawn into a music video.
March 7, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
Enjoyed discussing this with my students today - might the Vale of York hoard cup also be Iranian, not Carolingian, as widely assumed?
Does the new provenance for the Galloway hoard vessel have implications for the Vale of York hoard vessel, I wonder?
March 6, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Mark W. Gardner
I'm two days in Munich, time to visit the collection of classical antiquities, where I spent so much time when I went to university here. It's like meeting old friends, like this Etruscan vessel in the shape of Charun, the demon of death, around 400 BC.
Three more museums to go 😃

🏺 AncientBluesky
March 6, 2025 at 10:54 AM