A steel chakra (war quoit) from Tibet. These seem to have entered India with the Indo-Aryans. While the Sikhs had colourful auxiliaries with Iron Age weapons and matchlocks, the forces that mattered used the latest muskets and cannons. Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 2003.467
In 1845 the Sikh Empire and the John Company stumbled into war with one another. The causes were petty and nobody can agree who made the first provocation, but the two powers were rising in northern India and the British had been recently weakened by losing an army in Afghanistan. This is not a story that many people outside India know, unless they are Sikhs themselves. But if you take the time to hear it, it gives you some new questions to ask yourself as you think about ancient battles and adventurers.
Douglas Creek where it flows through PKOLS Park, Saanich. Photo by Sean Manning, March 2026.
The Latin language is always expanding. Sometimes this is easy, as when it picked up gladius “sword” from Celtic and sclopetum “arquebus, smoothbore gun” from Italian. Other times it is hard and you have to invent a new word or phrase. Sometimes you even think for a long time and decide that crisare “to shake one’s hips” is good enough substitute for to twerk. Trying to settle an argument by pulling out a dictionary is an argumentum ad dictionarium. What should we call trying to settle an argument by quoting a chatbot?
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
The 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.
An oil lamp from ancient Cyprus, fourth century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Object 74.51.1992 (dug by Sardinian-American Luigi Palma de Cesnola!)
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.
Some 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.
The Bay Center, Victoria BC, December 2025. The building is misnamed because the Hudson’s Bay Company is bankrupt and seems unlikely to return.
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.
A James Bay cat! Cats may be the one good thing about the Internet and I saw this one with my own eyes.
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.
