Philo Mechanicus would love this thread…he was a sucker for naval blockade talking points.

Alexamenos graffito - Wikipedia

Context: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexame...

Likely Trump’s next “doctored” image post in his feud with the Pope…

Not even close 😂 First two PhDs in the family, raised by our single aunt who spent most of our childhood running her own design business. Before our generation, barely anyone in our family even finished or went to college, maybe one.

Sex effects on gene expression across the human cerebral cortex at cell type resolution Sex differences in neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disease susceptibility may arise from sex chromosome and hormonal influences on cell type–specific gene expression. We present...

My sister’s new article in Science!!! Congrats 🎉 @coevolvinglab.bsky.social

Sex effects on gene expression across the human cerebral cortex at cell type resolution | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Still some good Russian restaurants around Dalian! 😂

Got a chance between teaching classes to explore the historic shipyard where China’s first aircraft carrier (the Liaoning) was commissioned. The story behind it is honestly wild. This place once produced a significant number of Chinese naval vessels (also the Shandong aircraft carrier).

“If you should chance to have a naval force that is slightly inferior to that of the enemy, take on your fighting decks your best and most experienced soldiers. Order them neither to climb out, nor to board any enemy ship, but to use the bronze ram.” – Philo Polior. D.103 [104.9].

Digital tools expand the humanities toolkit, but they can’t replace the human, and they shouldn’t. Instead, we’re digging into why human interpretation, context, and critical thinking are essential at every stage.

It’s a simple lesson I first learned when I took DH from @dave-a-base.bsky.social

In my intro to Digital Humanities class, I present one core idea: every project should be guided by human judgment from start to finish. I think many students came in expecting to learn how AI or certain programs could do all their work for them.

We have evidence that fleets entered battle in ordered formations like line ahead, abreast, wedge, or crescent, using standard maneuvers and counters (diekplous, periplous, kyklos, etc.), but what proved superior was largely case by case rather than any single dominant system.

“If you should chance to have a naval force that is slightly inferior to that of the enemy, take on your fighting decks your best and most experienced soldiers. Order them neither to climb out, nor to board any enemy ship, but to use the bronze ram.” – Philo Polior. D.103 [104.9].

Warships with rams are everywhere in antiquity! Here’s another one I didn’t include in my article on naval ram portrayals (DeCasien, 2025). A small bone "appliqué", mentioned by Casanovas et al. (2021), shows a warship prow with a ram, likely part of a Punic decorative lectus.

“For when a ship was overtaken by several triremes and struck from all sides by their bronze rams, as the water rushed in, it would be swallowed by the sea with all its crew.” - Diod. Sic. 13.16.3

Inscribed sling bullet (B19655) found at Hippos with the inscription ΜΑΘΟΥ, meaning "Learn your lesson!" Credit: Eisenberg et al. 2026

A new likely Hellenistic sling bullet has been excavated at Hippos (pleiades.stoa.org/places/678185) near the Sea of Galilee. It has a unique inscription:

ΜΑΘΟΥ
Learn (your lesson!)

Sling bullets were truly the bumper stickers of the ancient world. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Congrats 🍾 great start!

There are quite a few places in Crawley’s translation where the ship totals in different “fleet” listings don’t match the Greek in the Loeb edition and others where Thucydides himself is just unclear since the text can be read more than one way.

Thanks to the Anthropuzzled podcast for having me on to talk about nautical archaeology! Episode comes out in July!

The evidence shows the intense, devastating nature of naval warfare. By this stage of the First Punic War it was a ‘swan song’ for both sides, and they truly slugged it out. We see rams split in half, bent fins, and wood still lodged between the fins.

That’s a common misconception. Some wreckage floats and is recovered, but some ships sink. In many battles there was also no time to collect debris and sometimes the goal was simply to destroy the enemy ships. This battle likely involved the repeated ramming of disabled vessels to break them apart.

The finds include coins, sword concretions, amphorae, and other ship-related remains. Most striking of all are the 27 bronze naval rams that once armed the warships engaged in the final battle of the First Punic War.

According to the ancient historian Eutropius (Brev. 2.27), today marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Egadi Islands, fought on March 10, 241 BCE. I have the privilege of working on the battle site itself, where excavations have recovered a remarkable range of material!

Yesterday I (an American) was sitting in a room with Germans, Russians, and Chinese, all deep in a conversation about the First Punic War, arguing about Rome and Carthage like it was our shared past.

One thing I enjoy about ancient history is the distance. It gives people room to explore big questions without the weight that often comes with more recent history, while still offering lessons that apply just as much today.

Given the current academic job market, the old adage “publish or perish” increasingly feels like “publish and perish anyway.” I’m glad to have a temporary position, but it still makes the future feel uncertain.

One thing I really love in Greek and Latin poetry is how naval rams are often referred to simply as bronze rather than by technical terms like rostrum or embolos. The ships don’t just ram each other—they cut through the sea with bronze, they clash in bronze, or their prows bear teeth of bronze.

The things you find when watching random
YouTube videos. 😅

Haha! I saw it in a random YouTube video…not something I’d recommend.

Whoever made this graphic hates ancient warships….

Overall great news!! 😁