Posts on events in the last few hundred years
In February 2026 I forgot to use noai.duckduckgo.com and saw a result from their AI assistant at the top of my search results. Like a lot of things produced by ‘generative AI’ it looks fun at first glance but sad as soon as you pay attention. Today I will post about what is wrong with this answer and with the whole premise
Read moreI woke up to read the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs on the latest foreign attack on Iran. My response is below the fold.
Read moreThe renowned Wallace Collection in London is hosting a hybrid conference. Museums rarely have much of a budget for research, let alone research on arms and armour, so this is a rare opportunity.
Read morec/o ExArch. This is a hybrid event (in person and online).
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The next major ancient reenactment in Greece will take place at Gialova, New Pylos, and Sphacteria from 19 to 25 April 2027. This will focus on the Athenian and Spartan struggle to control the area during the Peloponnesian War or Archidamian War. More than a hundred members of groups from all over Europe, the USA, and Canada will attend. This part of the Peloponnese is not good for much except light grazing and summer holidays, so it is an unspoiled rural site. There will be excursions to Olympia, Ancient Pylos, and the Mycenaean Palace of Nestor and perhaps other sites.
Read moreSome of the nations of North America fought with bows, arrows, spears, and shields before the gun. The following is a story from Saukamappee of the Nahathaway Nation (some kind of Cree) who was living with the Peigan or Piikani in the northern Great Plains. He passed it to David Thompson the fur trader and surveyor who wintered in his lodge around 1787/8 (Thompson had lost track of the years by the time he wrote down his memories). Thompson thought that Saukamappee looked 75 or 80 years old, so he would have been sixteen around 1725 or 1730. Saukamappee said that at this time neither his people nor the Snake Indians had horses.
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While the cares of the world drew me away from my books, I had some time to read whole books in 2025.
Books vary widely in density and word count (and readers vary in how much attention they pay). I suspect that some people who claim to read very large numbers of books mostly skim them, and some definitely read novels and airport books which are designed for easy reading. Someone who reads a few things intensely is not necessarily reading less than someone with a novel-a-day habit. So I will not make a total, just a subtotal of each category. These posts are to help me remember the books of all sorts which I read in 2025, like Zotero helps me remember the academic articles I found.
I have noticed that in ancient world studies or arms and armour I read more chapters and articles, whereas I am more likely to read a whole book in something further from my areas of expertise.
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Another year is passing, the tenth which I have ended with a blog post. This was a year of transition and activities outside of the history and archaeology I talk about on this blog. So sit down with a mug of something warm (or a glass of something cool for readers in the Antipodes) while I talk about this past year.
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(response to a request from Martin Rundkvist https://archaeo.social/@mrundkvist)
A complex-hilted sword was found in 2007 at Djurhamn on an island in the Stockholm Archipelago. In the middle ages and early modern period the island was very important for merchant and royal ships, but post-glacial rebound has shrunk the nearby harbour. The find spot was just below a line of boulders marking the Late Medieval shoreline, as if it was dropped off a later dock or wharf.
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