Reassessing the Silk Road timeline -- how early did silk making spread from China? Fascinating look at the spread of silk worms and mulberry trees in ancient times. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Silkworm cultivation predating the Silk Road in southern Central Asia (2000 BCE)

Silk production skills had reached Central Asia as early as 4000 years ago, long before the beginning of the historic Silk Road.

science.org

I'm in Glasgow this week, researching a 300 year old annotated list of wildlife. My current theory is it might have been compiled by Robert Simson, an 18th century maths professor! Excited to find out more. Thanks so much @glasgownathist.bsky.social for the funding!!

Today the wheatear is a less well known bird of upland walls and little islands, but 250-500 years ago, people knew it very well as the delicious little bird that lived in the inland rabbit warrens of south and central England! Love an inter-species alliance! 🐦🐇🤍 #AtlasofEarlyModernWildlife

Is Animal History radical or not? I have some issues with the way we work and I'd love to hear your opinions about it 😅📗 (thread 🧵) #envhist #animalhistory

Wolves are re-colonising Europe How will they survive with humans? www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

The Major Oak has died. Last year I had the chance to inspect this phenomenon up close. Despite our ingenious efforts, we cannot rebuild ancient oaks and the habitat they provide to other species www.noemamag.com/how-to-build...

How To Build A Thousand-Year-Old Tree | NOEMA

A set of experimental techniques and technologies that might seem harmful to trees is actually helping ancient forests survive.

noemamag.com

A proof copy of my new book Creatures of Story and Song has just arrived! Excited! 🥳💚

Nature research paper: A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone go.nature.com/4v1yiFk

A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone - Nature

Researchers uncovered an enormous deep-sea accumulation of whale remains in the southeastern Indian Ocean, showing long-term, specialized ecosystems and an extensive fossil record that offers new insight into deep-ocean biodiversity and whale evolutionary history.

go.nature.com

🎉Exciting news! My new article, 'The ‘fancy of the private collector’: Walter Rothschild’s global animal procurement network and collaboration in the animal trade' has been published in BJHS Themes as FirstView and is available OA: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #naturalhistory #animaltrade

Was shown this article today on the links between natural history and the transatlantic slave trade. It was written a while back now but the case studies of early modern naturalists are fantastic! I hadn't realised James Petiver was so involved! www.science.org/content/arti...

Historians expose early scientists' debt to the slave trade

Key plant and animal specimens arrived in Europe on slavers’ ships

science.org

The salmon is the best recorded fish in early modern historical sources. 🐟 There are oh so many records (disproportionate!) from Scotland, Wales, Connacht & SW England but few in the South & Midlands of England - salmon may have become rarer here in the medieval period. #AtlasofEarlyModernWildlife

Do you know the medieval trope of the white pig? It is sometimes thought of as this fragment of pure Celtic folklore, related to the white breed of park cattle, or the hounds of Annwn. But I think that might be wrong... (Sneak peak thread from my new book! 🧵🐗)

Do you know the medieval trope of the white pig? It is sometimes thought of as this fragment of pure Celtic folklore, related to the white breed of park cattle, or the hounds of Annwn. But I think that might be wrong... (Sneak peak thread from my new book! 🧵🐗)

A fascinating history of shipworms in the pacific: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Temple of Horus, Egypt #FunFact: A small fat bird, like the above, is the hieroglyph used in Ancient Egyptian to mean "wicked" or "evil". The phrase above him (the inscription should be read from the top down) is "k s3" or "your son". [1/2]

Today marks the feast day of Melangell. The day celebrates the 6th-century Welsh patron saint of hares, small animals, and the natural environment

Melangell: The female saint with a message for the ages

Amelia Jones  Today marks the feast day of Melangell. The day celebrates the 6th-century Welsh patron saint of hares, small animals, and the natural environment. Born an Irish princess, Melangell fled...

nation.cymru

This lion is a rare example of ancient Egyptian sculpture in clay. It was found with a cache of royal sculpture in the temple enclosure at Hierakonpolis. In Egyptian mythology, paired lions often served as the guardians of entrances, and sculpted lions performed the same function in temples.

250-500 years ago the huge jewelled sturgeon was an uncommon but well known fish in British & Irish rivers, especially in the Thames, the Severn and the Mersey. Now functionally extinct except for escaped stock - European populations are recovering and may recolonise! 🦈💙 #atlasofearlymodernwildlife

THE LYNX - it's a native species in Britain. How do we know? Our top textual evidence is from 'Pais Dinogad' (Dinogad's Smock). 📑 The trouble is, everyone gets this poem wrong! We need to push our theories about into the 21st century! Let's look at it again... (thread 🧵) (Art by Valériane Leblond 🐱)

From twitter I found out about the Medieval Irish version of the Odyssey: “Merugud Uilix Maicc Leirtis” Which cuts out most of the plot, and adding one new plot point involving a magic box. But the dog doesn’t die in this one, so this isthe best adaptation of the Odyssey.

Some of us will sympathize with Nycticorax, the night-raven, who takes refuge in his tower during the daytime and apparently removes the stairs to his front door just in case. #medievalLatin

I posted this before but I think it deserves 'To be S E E N'. From the 'London Daily Post', 8 September 1736. It's an ad for Ammazoo Snuff that uses the promise to see a rattle snake as its gimmick to get ppl in the door. Or behind the Royal Exchange in this case. #earlymodern

According To An Odd Tale Of Folklore, Alexander The Great’s Horse Fathered A Species Of Unicorns thehistorianshut.com/2020/06/17/a... #history

According To An Odd Tale Of Folklore, Alexander The Great’s Horse Fathered A Species Of Unicorns - The Historian's Hut

Around the time Alexander the Great was born in the year 356 BCE, so too was born his trusty steed, Bucephalus. An obstacle, however, blocked the union of this star-crossed pair—Bucephalus was not bor...

thehistorianshut.com

Analysis of centuries-old Swedish newspapers shows harbor porpoises once ranged widely across the Baltic Sea, highlighting significant declines in their historic distribution. doi.org/hb3rn3

Old newspapers track porpoise populations across the Baltic Sea

Harbor porpoises were once found across a much wider area of the Baltic Sea than they are today, including regions where they are now rare or absent.

phys.org

Advanced imaging shows Qing Dynasty tian-tsui featherwork used feathers from multiple bird species and layered pigments, revealing complex techniques behind their vibrant colors. doi.org/hb3rjc

How Qing featherwork got its colors: New scans reveal multiple birds and hidden pigment layers

The kingfisher's brilliant blue feathers were once used like paint to create works of art. The technique, known as tian-tsui, was popular during China's Qing Dynasty.

phys.org

Getting negging emails from the AI overlords about my book before it is even out 😭

Brill #review in 'Egyptian Archaeology' Magazine for 'The Animals of Ancient Egypt: Then and Now - "the book overflows with interesting facts and observations..." Congrats to authors #RichardHoath #SalimaIkram #AnimalsofAncientEgypt #EgyptianArchaeology #Egypttravel

When Foxes Infiltrated Medieval Religion Why do you think two completely disconnected ancient cultures, from Japan and from Europe, both commonly depict foxes and religious clothing? Can you think of any other recurring creatures that appear in folklore from different cultures and time periods?

Weird morning thoughts. Poisonous snakes are not common in the UK Ælla of Northumbria must have imported many for his snake pit. Implying there was a market in 9th century Europe for dangerous and poisonous beasties

Happy #NationalBSLDay! 🥳 It has been a long time since I did my Level 1 Sign Language certificate but I still try to practice! This year I've also been looking at some medieval sources of sign language signs! This is not my area but I thought I'd share some sources I'm excited about... (thread) 😁👋🧵