At my first White Sox game (!) and already one person in my section has been publicly shamed for putting ketchup on a hotdog 😂 #chicago
Jeremy Simmons
@caeliambulator.bsky.social
Ancient historian @UChicago. Author of Sea of Treasures: A Cultural History of Ancient Indian Ocean Trade (2026). More than occasionally talks about the doggo. Opinions my own.
UChicago's Social Sciences Division (not on here) did a nice write-up of the book for @uchicagohistory.bsky.social socialsciences.uchicago.edu/news/new-boo...
A new book on ancient Indian Ocean trade considers the effects of objects in motion | The University of Chicago Division of the Social Sciences
socialsciences.uchicago.edu
It is U.S. publication day for my colleague Jonathan Skaff for his book on how Silk Road tombs show cultural contestation and definition, from @princetonupress.bsky.social!
Silk Roads, Steppe Roads
An innovative study of medieval Chinese tombs that provides new insights into the history of Eurasian cultural contact and exchange
press.princeton.edu
And just out this week, see also @caeliambulator.bsky.social's new book: bsky.app/profile/prin...
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · 2w agoHow goods and people in motion across the ancient world were entangled through consumption. Sea of Treasures by @caeliambulator.bsky.social is now available (15 September UK/EU pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #AncientWorld #AncientHistory #History
Resistance to what we may call "the new global antiquity" is usually expressed in one of the three following ways: 1. This isn't new at all. 2. It's not "global," bro. 3. It can't be done. There is some truth to all three! But let us reflect a bit on these claims... 1/20
Lucky enough to hear a snippet of this material when @caeliambulator.bsky.social spoke at UIUC earlier this year! Run don’t walk to order yourself a copy!
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · 2w agoHow goods and people in motion across the ancient world were entangled through consumption. Sea of Treasures by @caeliambulator.bsky.social is now available (15 September UK/EU pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #AncientWorld #AncientHistory #History
If we hope to speak in any meaningful way about an interconnected "ancient Afro-Eurasia," we have to begin with the Indian Ocean. I think we have a new baseline for the topic ⬇️
Jeremy Simmons@caeliambulator.bsky.social · 2w agoOut today!
Oh gosh, this looks interesting!!!
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · 2w agoHow goods and people in motion across the ancient world were entangled through consumption. Sea of Treasures by @caeliambulator.bsky.social is now available (15 September UK/EU pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #AncientWorld #AncientHistory #History
Out today!
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · 2w agoHow goods and people in motion across the ancient world were entangled through consumption. Sea of Treasures by @caeliambulator.bsky.social is now available (15 September UK/EU pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #AncientWorld #AncientHistory #History
How goods and people in motion across the ancient world were entangled through consumption. Sea of Treasures by @caeliambulator.bsky.social is now available (15 September UK/EU pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #AncientWorld #AncientHistory #History
Academic life, summarized by my 3 year old pretending to be a college professor: "I'm going to teach classes! And grade papers! And do other things that I don't know what they are!"
One week away from release! “Sea of Treasures: A Cultural History of Ancient Indian Ocean Trade” available for preorder @princetonupress.bsky.social with this discount code for 30% off at checkout: P329 press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
At Haneda about to head home. Already reminiscing about the time I spent in jazz kissa while in Tokyo—each with a different, but impeccable vibe. Even got to see Dug before its final day in operation (people were queuing in a typhoon to get in)!
After my talk today, I drove up to Katsuren-jo, one of many Ryukyu castles on Okinawa, dating to the 15th century. This one has the added bonus of turning up a small hoard of fourth-century Roman coins, which was in the news a while back. A cool mystery!
Got to see some Kofun tumuli near Todoroki today—at least from the outside. Very helpful archaeological drawings of the burial chambers and funerary deposits!
Jeremy Simmons@caeliambulator.bsky.social · last mo.Some absolute gems of ancient Japanese art in the Tokyo National Museum, including haniwa of the Kofun period (mid-first millennium CE), terracotta figures which accompanied those buried in large tumuli. Also a lovely clay conch from the second millennium BCE!
Some absolute gems of ancient Japanese art in the Tokyo National Museum, including haniwa of the Kofun period (mid-first millennium CE), terracotta figures which accompanied those buried in large tumuli. Also a lovely clay conch from the second millennium BCE!
Fighting the jet lag and the stormy weather on my first night in Tokyo with some ramen and a jazz kissa
The Met put its entire collection online for free so I made a game out of it! 10 artifacts a day, and you guess where and when each one's from. Anthropeum.com if anyone wants to give it a shot and leave feedback :) #history #archeology #arthistory #museums
Allow me to expand. There are examples of pre-modern states ruled for the greater good. City states are surely a prime example. I wrote a book on one particular form, the Greek polis 1/ press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Polis
A definitive new history of the origins, evolution, and scope of the ancient Greek city-state
press.princeton.edu
Some stray thoughts on gap-filling. Take them for what they are 1. Gaps in archives are not like rips in clothing; they don't have a well defined and wholly known, or in the broadest sense wholly knowable, shape or extent. You can't cut a patch for them or fill them with putty and smooth them over.
Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · 2mo agoRebranding a hallucination as a ‘critical confabulation’ that can fill archival gaps is a big no from me.
<center-right spends half a century waging a war to discredit humanities knowledge bc it challenges their counter-majoritarian political project> Media: “why is nobody majoring in English? Because it became too woke.”
The tell of ai generated text isn't the em dash or three-part list or any other feature of English grammar, syntax, or punctuation. It's the vagueness. The lack of meaning. The inability to refer to specific experiences. Because it doesn't understand meaning and it has no experiences.
Emperor Abby (the first pope)@arobertswrites.com · 2mo agoThe paranoid part of me wants to listen to the people who are like, "Beware of the toupee fallacy! You can't spot all ai-generated text, only the bad ai-generated text." But all the generated output I've encountered lacks meaning and specificity, which is pretty damning for written communication.
I’ve taught both composition and literature courses at Stanford for three decades, published six books. Struggling to find the right words improves both writing and the ideas. Writing is thinking.
Joseph Rezek@rezekjoe.bsky.social · 2mo agoFuck this all the way to the lava pit She said: “I really do feel that it’s allowed me to focus more of my time and energy on what really matters, which is the ideas, the thinking … rather than spending a lot of my time writing sentences from scratch.” Full article ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Got word from the team @princetonupress.bsky.social that advanced copies of my book are arriving at the press (they sent me this photo of it in the wild)! So excited to be able to hold it in my hands!
