Just saw "viva il tubero!" out the train window

any kind of coffee is basically fine, actually

... alternatively you can have my sweets that look like artefacts! 🤣

#Archaeology

The first page of the journal article entitled "The Alexamenos Graffito as Christian Parody." Abstract: Against the near-universal consensus that it was created by a pagan (non-Christian) in order to satirise Christian worship, this article contends that the Alexamenos graffito can plausibly be read as a Christian self-parody, created by the enslaved Alexamenos himself. It is the first full-length treatment of the authorial origins of the Alexamenos graffito. The article first provides an overview of the visual and scholarly histories of the image since the nineteenth century. Then it addresses evidence for and against reading the text as non-Christian or Christian in origin, focusing on the apparent sexualisation of Jesus, early Christian receptions of satirical depictions of Jesus, the graffito's use of a titulus, the solidarity of the image with enslaved workers and the relevance of nearby Christian graf-fiti. Finally, it places the graffito in conversation with ancient self-parody practices from wider Greek, Roman and Christian sources. While it is impossible to argue definitively about the identity of the graffito's creator, this article contends that scholarship cannot exclude the possibility and potential likelihood that it may be Christian in origin.

Pleased to see that my latest article, entitled "The Alexamenos Graffito as Christian Self-Parody," is now out in NTS. In it I argue against the widely held view that this graffito is non-Christian in origin and that it could very well have been written by an enslaved Christian.

Barring Palestinians from identifying their beloved dead—via continued violence, blocking forensic materials/experts from entering Gaza, and opaque captivity in violation of the Geneva Convention—is another aspect of genocide. It is a way of denying human dignity to both the dead and the living.

A place I knew well (in a previous academic life), but I don't recall ever having much luck retracing Dodwell's route

Yes

Il Cristo greco si è fermato a Empoli

Photo of the interior of a trattoria in Italy with walls of yellowish tuff stone, wicker chairs, a vintage radio, bottles of liquor and a few old ceramic pitchers.

sto pensando di darmi alla macchia

Reposting this for obvious reasons. I have much more in common with any Iranian than I do with the American and Israeli pieces of shit trying to annihilate them. Any single Iranian life lost is an entire universe gone; more, a tragedy at a level I cannot personally fathom. This is all I can do.

Detail of a mid-fifteenth century Italian painting representing the Crucifixion of Jesus, who is at right on the cross, being stabbed by Longinus who is represented as a knight in armor, while to the left is one of the two thieves on another cross. In the background are at least six round green islands, each gently dome shaped and populated by white towers and walls. At left are some taller white mountains.

Love all these be-turreted islets...

I'm not sure about the relative merits of those two; as a repository I've been using hcommons.org

(that's a detail from the Santa Giuliana polyptych, signed by Domenico di Bartolo and dated to 1438. It's the background to a scene of the young John the Baptist in the desert.)

Detail of a fifteenth century Italian painting, tempera on panel: in the foreground are two human figures gesturing at something to the right beyond the crop, while in the center of the scene is a brown hillside beyond a river, which is crossed by a pink bridge from which a path leads to a walled square pink city with two towers and flanked by several stylized trees.

I'm a sucker for background landscapes in pre-modern Italian(+) painting

There is a cat door in The Miller's tale!
3440-1 An hole he foond, ful lowe upon a bord
Ther as the cat was wont in for to crepe
No flap, but still, an entrance
(My Chaucer professor was much enamored of this bit)

How to use procrastination to your advantage As medieval sages understood, putting things off – done well – can open the doors to creativity and purpose

"The best medieval theologians never believed it was possible to expunge any of the deadly sins altogether. They knew that they were hard-wired, constituting the impulses that make us all human."

#MedievalSky

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

we're doing a very wonderful Sicilian Expedition. some would say the greatest of all expeditions. mr. alkabiades is straight from central casting

Next province over!

Btw my press funded a small study into best-practices for alt text for illustrations, especially of illustrations of art. The resulting guide is short and clear and available free to download.

Title: Hunting for Easter eggs with Werner Herzog Panel one: Werner goes out looking for eggs saying “I despise this idiotic sanitized ritual, and yet I am unwilling to return home eggless” Panel two: Werner stands before an egg on the ground “The joy of discovery rings hollow against the monumental indifference of the universe” Panel three: Werner carries an egg “what, other than regret, can hatch from this empty chocolate vessel”

Happy Easter!

two more Saturnian verses:

"ibi manens sedeto donicum videbis
me carpento vehentem en domum venisse"
(for Od. VI.295–6)

Nausicaa to Odysseus:
"Sit and wait there until you see that, riding in my carriage, lo, I have come home."

They killed King Charles for this

Closeup photo of a honey bee collecting pollen from a white pear flower, with more such flowers in the background.

Buona Pasqua to those who celebrate!

Always a good day to tell yourself, and believe it, that an American life is no more valuable than a life anywhere else.

Book cover, with an ancient stone relief of 2 pairs of fighting gladiators. The text is crimson.

🥳Cover reveal for 'Gladiators in the Greek World: How a Roman Bloodsport Took Ancient Greece by Storm'🥳

Now officially available to pre-order with an early bird discount (though I'm not sure the release date on the website is 100% set in stone yet)

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Gladiators-i...

Twenty years ago I worked as a shepherd in southern Italy

People really memory holed-covid, due to a huge far right propaganda effort. That's why all you hear about is lockdowns, and not:

- hospitals out of capacity
- Skype calls with family members in quarantine as they died
- bodies stored in freezer trailors
- mass graves in NYC

You could say I'm something of a transhumance-ist