Summer's penultimate writing task is 2000+/- word review of a digital resource. I want to be thoughtful. And I want to get it done. Add in a family gathering spanning this weekend and submitting a week from today is goal. No especial ambition in that schedule! Steady on will do it! #AcademicChatter

Matt Damon turned out to be the Sea Peoples and the administration turned out to be its own Vandals. From the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, we've got it all these days.

The DOJ should be renamed the Department of Prosecutions. DOPs. Pronounced “Dopes”.

Great to see @isawnyu.bsky.social student Lylaah Bhalerao's article "Black Feminisms in Roman Archaeology? Approaches Beyond Critical Fabulation, from Pompeii to Hadrian’s Wall" now published in Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal (TRAJ). doi.org/10.16995/tra... Congrats!

Black Feminisms in Roman Archaeology? Approaches Beyond Critical Fabulation, from Pompeii to Hadrian’s Wall

Is it possible to do Black feminist Roman archaeology? In this article, I reflect on how effectively Black feminist thought has been integrated into the study of the Roman material past, with some the...

doi.org

Seen in the news... "Italian conman jailed for building fake Roman amphitheatre": www.euronews.com/culture/2026...

Italian conman jailed for building fake Roman amphitheatre

In Italy, a structure promoted for years as an "ancient Roman amphitheatre" has turned out to be a fake, constructed recently using modern materials.

euronews.com

Trying to remember who was president when all this was going on.

Googling "Andrea LaFlamme". Found @andrealaflamme.bsky.social .

Late to posting this job: "Research Software Engineer in Data Science and Cultural Heritage". apply.interfolio.com/188823 And while it's not @isawnyu.bsky.social specific, we do have a great DH/Digital Archaeology community here and I look forward to welcoming whomever takes this position to NYU.

I'm in the district where @bradlander.bsky.social beat Dan Goldman in the Democratic Primary for the House. Many reasons for Lander's victory. There are policy/position discussions to have. I focus on the retail politics. Brad Lander has been here. In the community. He shows up with us. That worked.

In other news... AirPods 3s can survive two consecutive cycles in a washing machine. But signal "weak" in "Find My" app and, no, "Play Sound" not hearable. That wasted a bunch o' my time.

There is now a "Polygon Select" tool in GAERHF. Pic shows using timeline to show objects earlier than 2700 BCE and the polygon covering India, China, and Oceana. Other pic is clicking to see all figures in the gallery. gaerhf.org#yangshao-ves... . Early version of the UX/UI. An experiment.

An aspect of moving the Pompeii Artistic Landscape Project (PALP) website to client-side javascript was that caching results broke. Now re-implemented. Means that palp.art/browse/#pomp... will load quickly. The top-left "pane" especially. Image (bottom-right) may still be slow. Cache TTL is 2 hours.

TACOs are expensive. Especially when you get nothing in return. 🌮

There are now "thumbs" on GAERHF "Time Scale" to select date range. Option click on right one to enter -8000 for about 10000 BP/8000 BCE. That's map shown here. Click on "palette" near top right and then "Threshold Slider" to adjust colormap. Try at gaerhf.org Grid at lower left to see all figures.

Dear SCOTUS, Really? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/u... . I’m not shocked. We have a political court. There you have it. But still… Really? Can’t quite get past that reaction.

Supreme Court Rejects Virginia Democrats’ Effort to Reinstate New Voting Map

nytimes.com

Small bit of news re: gaerhf.org . More soon...

Global Approaches to Early Representations of the Human Figure@gaerhf-bot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Quick mention here that GAERHF has received funding from NYU's "Research Catalyst" grant program. Funds to hire two students assistants next academic year. I'm psyched! And grateful. I'll write a blog post soon...

Simple update that I should have done a while back: Selectable base layers on the GAERHF map. An upcoming step is to capture that state in a shareable URL. In the meantime: gaerhf.org#mohenjo-daro... lets you start selecting your own baseman via widget at top right.

The Ekven cemetery, Russia is all but on the Bering Strait. Its burials produced a number of human figures, one now in GAERHF. The location demonstrates how the (developing!) 3D view is useful. Allows this part of the world to be a nexus, not split at each end of a map. gaerhf.org/3d/#ekven-ce...

First go at a #3D globe for GAERHF. Various UI/UX details to iron out. But try it at gaerhf.org/3d/#eyrarlan... . There's also a link from main page.

Serious question: Is everything the Virginia legislature has ever done after the start of any early voting now challengeable? Worth a shot to challenge? How fundamental is this new legal principle?

More PALP development. Images now have a dedicated display. Try palp.art/browse/#luna... . Current functionality: Move center "handle" to expand image. Click "Adjust" for filters. #IIIF Zoom/pan with mouse(pad). There's more info and links to display. Other improvements to come. But a start...

That’s right! All the data you ever wanted about Greek myth now roaming wild, pouncing on unsuspecting passersby

ewan coopey@euuanxcvi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

MANTO data now released into the wild! www.manto-myth.org/blog/releasi...

MANTO data now released into the wild! www.manto-myth.org/blog/releasi...

Releasing MANTO data into the wild — MYTHLAB

Last month, MANTO’s data was made available for public access. Ewan describes the release, how it can be accessed, and what we hope to achieve by releasing it into the world.

manto-myth.org

Testing a Claude Skill for creating GAERHF records. github.com/gaerhf/gaerh... . Download the .skill file. After install try '/gaerhf Create records for three entries from Roman Gaul.'

I'm changing up the GAERHF map interface. Info for each figure in a floating (sub)window. Option clicking opens new window. Interactions are complex so working on those. Single image here is gaerhf.org#figurine-tem... . And paired with gaerhf.org#deposit-figu... . Multi-figure links coming...

New Pompeii Artistic Landscape Project (PALP) website is live. Try "Mythological Figure": palp.art/browse/#myth... . There's work to do. Exploring what the interface can and should be is absolutely part of the ongoing project...

Trump (plainly incompetent) took some welcome ideas - if NATO is to work, Europe needs to take responsibility for its own defense + global free trade/low tariffs hurt workers and benefit the global rich - and turned them into actually damaging “policies”. Can anyone run with them and benefit all?

Hey, @bradlander.bsky.social , did you really drop this sign in our mailbox? Thanks if yes. And either way, superb retail politics. Sign in window! But no extra votes in this household ‘cause we were already on board! (P.s. Thx for joining NYU faculty picket line a few weeks back.)

Testing new UI for Pompeii Artistic Landscape (PALP). Try p-lod.github.io/palp-client-... . Earliest stages! Slow! Barest functionality! But "Type Ahead" beginning to work. Try 'ar...' or 'ha..." in input in header. You might have to hit return even after choosing word. cc @epoehler.bsky.social

Bombing just doesn’t get you that much. There you have it. #tldr