Isabelle Algrain

@greekvases.bsky.social

Archéologue et féministe, spécialiste de céramique grecque 🏺et d’archéologie du genre

It is with deep sadness that Dr Marianne Moen and I resigned our positions as Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Archaeology this morning. What follows is the letter we sent to the EAA's executive board, outlining the reasons for our resignation 1/n

Zena Kamash@zenakamash.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Well... A reminder of Jan vote: Motion A: 67% (486 members) agreed to exclude Israeli institutions (not individuals) from participating in EAA AMs until the end of the genocide in Palestine ends [paraphrased] 1/2 www.e-a-a.org/EAA/News___P...

On voit notamment chez les populations scythes et sarmates de l’Antiquité un pourcentage important de femmes qui ont subi des blessures liées à des combats (pointe de flèche enchâssée dans le genou par exemple). Ce sont sans doute ces populations qui ont inspiré aux Grecs le mythe des Amazones

Padre Pio@padrepio.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Ce qui est magique, c'est que les dernières découvertes archéo/préhistoriques/historiques tendent justement à démonter que si si, il y avait bien des femmes "amazones".

Hier, avec @greekvases.bsky.social, nous avons donné un cours sur l'archéologie du genre aux Master 1 et 2 de l'université de Liège. Quand nous avons demandé aux étudiant.e.s qui avaient entendu parler du sujet avant le cours, tou.te.s ont levé la main ! Petite victoire en soi.

Ancient #polychromy is rarely more vibrant than this type of Greek painted pottery from Centuripe, Sicily. Both vases here are funerary and have architectural elements at top, looking like small tholos-shaped temples (lion head waterspouts!). The colors are blazingly vivid. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

A fundamental feature of Greek ceramics and their offshoots is that they could be used. By contrast, this vase, with its lid fixed onto the body, serves a purely symbolic function. It belongs to a class of pieces associated with the site of Centuripe in Sicily. They are characterized by elaborate and delicate applied decoration and by refined polychromy executed after firing. The vase was made for the tomb. 

The scene shows a bride surrounded by attendants. The background is a deep, vibrant pink, and the colors of the women's clothing includes cream, yellow, blue, green, orange, lilac, and red. Their skin is very pale. One female attendant wears a grape-leaf wreath on her head and bangs on a tympanum (hand drum). The bride is veiled. 

The sealed vessel resembles a tholos-style tomb or temple, with lion-headed waterspouts, triglyphs and metopes.

Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe, 3rd-2nd century BCE. 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (53.11.5)This Greek terracotta vase from Centuripe, Sicily (a Greek colony) is brightly painted with a scene depicting the mostly-naked red-haired enthroned god Dionysos cradling a thyrsos in his right arm. A female figure veiled in a white himation - a priestess? - stands next to him, her face lost to time. A shield is propped up against the side of Dionysos' throne. The background here is a vivid pink madder, and the skin of the god is very realistically portrayed - pale, with reddish toning, and highlights and shadows.

Even in its partially ruined state, the painting technique is obviously wonderfully realistic while the intensity of the colors make it look fantastical. The top of the vase includes architectural features, including a Lesbian kyme cornice (with remains of gilding) below lion-head waterspouts. The base is an open acanthus plant, as if the vase were growing out of its center. Probably made for the tomb.

Greek, Sicilian, Centuripe, 3rd-2nd century BCE. Terracotta, gilding, and pigments.

H. 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.); diameter 14 1/2 in. (36.83 cm.)

Met Museum, New York (29.131.2)

🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration. All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts. JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

screengran of figure from paper showing four different generated images of a "day in the life of a Neanderthal". All images contain significant inaccuracies from physical characteristics (extremely primitive) to material culture (glass containers), and the lack of women and children is also obvious.
Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes@lemoustier.bsky.social · 9mo ago

e.g. to produce these two – which are still problematic – took at least 80 batches of DALL-E 2 generation (each batch making multiple images), and on top of that, required direct editing of the #AI images themselves. Paper: Magnani & Clindaniel 2023 🏺🧪 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Au cas où vous l'auriez manqué, "Introduction à l'archéologie du genre" est désormais disponible en anglais ! 🎉 (Stupeur, tremblements, @greekvases.bsky.social)

Éditions Fedora@editions-fedora.bsky.social · 7mo ago

« Introduction à l'archéologie du genre » est maintenant disponible en anglais, aux éditions @barpublishing.bsky.social ! Nouvelle maquette en noir et blanc, nouveau format, nouvelle langue, mais toujours le même contenu essentiel, écrit par Isabelle Algrain et @anemonenyme.bsky.social✍️

Je suis en train de lire les mémoires de l’archéologue Alice Beck Kehoe. Mon passage préféré pour l’instant est celui où elle explique que son mari pleurait à Noël si sa pile de cadeaux était plus petite que celle de leurs enfants #ouinouin

Cover of the book Girl Archaeologist by Alice  Beck KehoeBild

L'administration Trump ne veut pas seulement se débarrasser de l'antiracisme, elle veut aussi blanchir la nation et blanchir les blancs, dont les crimes dont ils sont historiquement coupables doivent être effacés, dont les torts qu'ils ont commis doivent être oubliés.

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The exhibits about slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park have been removed amid pressure from the Trump admin www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...

Yesterday I resigned from the EAA Appeals & Anti-Harassment Committee (AAHC) after I was targetted in what I believe was an attempt to disprupt & undermine the AAHC. Be assured, AAHC are v much committed to making EAA a safe space, despite the restrictions imposed on them by the existing statutes. 🏺

| CONFÉRENCE | "Iconographie et construction du genre dans la céramique attique" par Isabelle Algrain (@greekvases.bsky.social). 📅 : Vendredi 16 janvier 2026 (15h-17h) 📍 : Institut national d'histoire de l'art (salle Benjamin) à Paris ℹ️ : www.anhima.fr/agenda/confe...

Iconographie et construction du genre dans la céramique attique

Lécythe en terre cuite, vers 550-530 av. J.-C. Peintre d'Amasis. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

anhima.fr

✨ La traduction anglaise de notre « Introduction à l’archéologie du genre » vient d’être publiée chez BAR ! Nous sommes particulièrement honorées de la préface de Rachel Pope 😊 Un grand merci à notre éditrice Jacqueline Senior et à son équipe ! 👉 www.barpublishing.com/book/an-intr...

An Introduction to Gender Archaeology - BAR Publishing

Gender archaeology seeks to understand the influence of gender on the social, economic, political and cultural practices of ancient societies, as well as their power dynamics. Integrating gender into ...

barpublishing.com

En voilà une recension d'Introduction à l'archéologie du genre qui me touche beaucoup ! (En particulier car juste le fait que cet ouvrage soit LU est déjà ÉNORME de mon point de vue) Merci d'avoir pris le temps, Alice ! ❤️

La Alice, lai h'line deusporiante@marwaue.northsky.social · 10mo ago

Petite recension en quelques blousques de "Introduction à l'archéologie du genre" de Laura Mary @anemonenyme.bsky.social et Isabelle Algrain @greekvases.bsky.social . C'est un très chouette ouvrage et j'ai pris plaisir à le lire.