Stenness: The northern lights over Stenness, May 2025. Three impressive uprights, originally a stone circle of twelve stones 30m diameter, in a rock-cut ditch like the nearby Ring of Brodgar. The enormous height and narrowness of the huge slab must be seen.

Grape, Dairy, and Millet: What Bronze Age Pottery from Azerbaijan Reveals About Kura-Araxes Cuisine New residue analysis from Qaraçinar reconstructs the foodways of a small-scale Bronze Age community — and finds wine without hierarchy, millet from Central Asia, and vessels that encoded cultural beha

Residue analysis from a Bronze Age Azerbaijani site reveals wine, dairy, millet, and a telling split between pottery types — opening new windows into Kura-Araxes foodways and their surprisingly egalitarian cuisine. #Archaeology #BronzeAge #Archaeochemistry www.anthropology.net/p/grape-dair...

Absolutely. Yes. Ten years ago we did mashing demonstrations at Skara Brae for Historic Scotland. In replica House 7, using a fat-sealed earthenware bowl we mixed crushed malted barley with hot water to make malt sugars. The aroma of a sweet mash had visitors interested and curious. #malt #mash #ale

Editorial: Sensory archaeology | Antiquity | Cambridge Core Editorial: Sensory archaeology - Volume 100 Issue 410

What is sensory #archaeology? Can we use multisensory experiences to bring us closer to the lived realities of the past?

In the latest #AntiquityEditorial, Robin Skeates investigates the past, present and future of this unique discipline 🏺

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Dryad’s Saddle #FungiFriends

They say: "No one who reads this brilliant tour through the enchanted pathways of fairyland will ever look at the winged creatures of contemporary popular culture – or the woods at the bottom of their garden – in the same way again."

malt is a confusing thing It seems that malt is a very confusing thing. The word 'malt' means different things to different people. Some people immediately think of m...

What is malt? The word 'malt' can mean many different things and it can, therefore, be a bit of a confusion. I'm surprised but happy that folk still read our blogs which we wrote over ten years ago. This one from 2014. #malt
merryn.dineley.com/2014/06/malt...

Also unusual. More so than malt, ale/beer residues maybe.

Almost everything we argue about is a substitute for the thing we should be arguing about: the immense wealth & power of an oligarchic class, which captures governments, ruins lives and wrecks the living planet.
This class redirects our rage at scapegoats. To resist its lies is to resist its power.

They are. Like a sunrise over the sea. Am also obsessed with GW but for different reasons maybe. 🙂

News - Imported Silver and Medicinal Drink Identified in Etruscan Tomb - Archaeology Magazine BISENZIO, ITALY—New examination of artifacts recovered from a tomb discovered in 1927 near the Etruscan […]

Maybe an apple or pear based drink? This is unusually interesting. #apple #pear
archaeology.org/news/2026/04...

Today and over the next few days we will be planting a bit of bere. For the straw. Photos to follow later.
#bere #barley

ooh nice, Grooved Ware inspirations!

Bit late to this one, even a mention of that malting thing, you say. Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Corn dryers, kilns and craftsmanship: uncovering Roman industry on the Suffolk coast Oxford Cotswold Archaeology (OCA) archaeologists have been busy excavating and recording the Suffolk coastline as part of the works for the Sizewell C nuclear power station.

Latest news from the Sizewell C archaeological dig. More evidence of Roman activity now appearing on the site which has been scarce up to know. Even a mention of possible malting in the report.

oxfordcotswoldarchaeology.org.uk/news/szc-rom...

I'm very excited for the paperback publication of 'Paganism Persisting'! 🌞📚 Thank you to everyone at @uexeterpress.bsky.social for making this possible www.exeterpress.co.uk/products/pag...

Man says sausage roll in red kite photo was made by mother-in-law A man believes he has the answer to where a red kite got hold of the savoury snack in Banbury.

'A red kite took my mother-in-law's sausage rolls'.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New study maps where wheat, barley and rye grew before the first farmers found them Using advanced machine learning and climate models, researchers have shown that the ancestors of crops like wheat, barley, and rye probably were much less widespread in the Middle East 12,000 years ag...

Barley was a key early crop in the origins of agriculture, but its ecological range and cultural importance declined over time as farming systems evolved and wheat became more abundant.
phys.org/news/2026-02...

'It's so chaotic': Humpback whales are forming super-groups On a misty morning in December, two photographers captured the images of 304 individual humpbacks – the highest number of large whales ever identified in a single day.

Surrounded by humpback whales, leaping, breaching, catching krill.
www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Inverted reflection image and a real mind bender

Day 1390 of #IansDailyPhotoChallenge and #NoWords needed today, except mind bending! 😲 #inspiringnature #wildlife #naturephotography #MentalHealthMatters
#365DaysWild

Ten thousand years ago, human evolution went into overdrive Ancient DNA reveals “massive” genetic shifts tied to rise of farming, wheels, and metal tools

For a detailed interpretation of the results, see www.science.org/content/arti... (2/2)

🧪 #science 🏺 #HumanEvolution #BioAnth #PaleoAnth #aDNA

Thanks! I'll look at that. Im not keen on AI but you never know ...

I shall look at that. Thanks!

I am not very technical!
:( I've got an old blog on WordPress. I'd like to put all my research in one place if possible! As I said, just looking into the idea at the moment.

What's the best way to build a Web Page? Just thinking about it. Just asking. I know there's loads of folk who know more than I do!

Tiny Scottish island gets go-ahead for new brewery Permission for a brewery to be built on the Scottish Isle of Gigha has been granted by the local authorities after conversion and development plans were submitted last year.

Tiny Scottish island gets go-ahead for new brewery @teamdb.bsky.social

The Biochemical Levers That Explain Malt — Beervana What is the main driver of the way a base malt tastes, the barley variety or the malting process? In a long-overdue part two on my series on malting, we learn the answer. 

Malting—not just barley variety—drives malt flavor. By adjusting protein, enzymes, moisture, germination, and kilning, maltsters shape flavor, color, and key compounds—linking malting and brewing more than ever.

Read full article: https://bit.ly/41zxJFJ

Cover of The Story of Craft Beer by Pete Brown published 2017.

Back cover of same Pete Brown book showing a medieval mash oven with brewer in a lovely modern geometric design. Artist Jay Daniel Wright.

My friend found this in a secondhand book shop and bought it for me. Love the illustrations. Really love the explanations and enthusiasm and the beer writing by @petebrownbeer.bsky.social I may share more of it as I go along.

Painting of different coloured tulips in two glass vases on a grey surface against a white background

Tulips, c. 2000 by Elizabeth Blackadder #WomensArt #April

Obviously I'm rapidly disappearing down a Walter of Bibbesworth rabbit hole. I've heard of him but I know nothing about him really.
mdr-maa.org/creator/walt...