Shankhadeep Mukhopadhyay @diggingstuff

Absolutely unacceptable and ridiculous situation. Notified after departure that train will be diverted and will not stop between Ambala and Moradabad. Delhi stop cancelled. Ticket prices should be refunded and customers compensated properly. #IRCTC #IndianRailways

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A victim of overflowing love

"Who woke me up?"

The deadline is THIS WEEK to apply to join us at #CAA2025 in Athens! 🏺🫵🏛️🇬🇷 🔜 Extended Deadline: 24th November 🔸 Read more on the ATRIUM website: buff.ly/3U69v2J 🔸 Visit the CAA website here: buff.ly/487k77e

A fragment of #Roman terracotta pottery, into the surface of which someone a incised a sketch portrait of a man, some 1900+ years ago - a very round-headed bald man, with a big nose & bushy eyebrows. This is one of my favourite pieces of ancient graffiti! #Archaeology

Working on #GenerativeAI, #LLMs, and/or #TextMining in #archaeology? @AlfieTalks and I are organising a session on these topics at #CAA2025! Please consider submitting an abstract, or joining the session at the conference. Session description: 2025.caaconference.org/call-for-paper…

New webinar posted on the Youtube channel of @PeerCommunityIn with the great @BrianNosek ! Have a look it is super interesting! youtu.be/h0Lc0QK8X1A?si…

The sole surviving sample of Queen Cleopatra’s handwriting, found on an ancient papyrus, reveals a single Greek word, “ginesthoi” (γίνεσθοι), meaning “make it happen” or ” so be it”. This remarkable document is a royal decree dated back to 33 BC. It granted tax exemption to Publius Canidius, a Roman officer closely associated with Mark Antony. According to the papyrus, Canidius was permitted to annually export ten thousand bags of wheat and import five thousand amphorae of wine without taxation. However, what captured imaginations was a Greek postscript, which could be translated as “make it so.” Believed to be Cleopatra’s handwriting, it hinted at her direct involvement. Notably, this paper was signed two years before the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In that prominent fight, Mark Antony and Cleopatra faced defeat against Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus. Dutch professor of ancient history Peter van Minnen stated that “this document was supposed to be an internal note from Cleopatra to a high-ranking official.” According to him, it bore distinct handwriting of a court scribe. Furthermore, van Minnen emphasized the personal nature of the message, pointing out that it lacked a formal introduction from the queen herself. The composition of the manuscript is laconic. It consists of the text of the decree, Cleopatra’s handwritten consent, and the date of receipt in Alexandria, Egypt. Experts agreed that Cleopatra would have been the sole authority to endorse such decrees given the papyrus’ nature. High-ranking officials would have recognized her handwriting as they reproduced and disseminated the documents. To this day, this remains the sole text potentially bearing Cleopatra’s handwriting. In many respects, the survival of this document can be attributed to sheer luck. Egypt, with its arid climate, allows a vast amount of ancient manuscripts to endure the test of time. An unexpected source for uncovering historical material lies in the realm of mummies. Discarded and fragmented old papyri were once deemed worthless. They found new intended purpose, as they were used to fill the cavities of newly embalmed mummies. Alongside aged fabrics, these documents absorbed excess moisture, inadvertently preserving historical treasures. This particular decree sheds light on Cleopatra’s role as a ruler deeply engaged in the day-to-day governance of her realm. It stands as just one among thousands of texts that she likely dictated and possibly personally signed during her administration of Egypt. Today, this papyrus containing Cleopatra’s handwriting has found its place in the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection in Berlin. © Maria Rybachuk/Greek Reporter #archaeohistories

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🐈 How the domestic cat conquered Europe #InternationalCatDay This map tracks how our feline friends spread from their homeland in Western Asia, eventually reaching every corner of Europe with the help of the Greeks, Romans, and Vikings. 🔗 from 2022 🆓 buff.ly/45SAbrP

📢Call for submissions!📢 BAR Publishing is looking for submissions into our brand new series: آثار مصر والسودان Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan See below for more details and feel free to share!

Open Science in Archaeology: An Unconference When: 7th (and 8th) November, 2024 Where: PLNT, Langegracht 70, Leiden, Netherlands Who: Open to anyone with an interest in Open Science and/or archaeology Why: Why not? unarchaeology.nl

Perpetually perching. A simple, yet beautifully crafted motif of a bird on a stunningly fresh looking red background in a fresco from the House of Leda #Pompeii #FrescoFriday

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My last year's book Egyptian Name Scarabs from the 12th to the 15th Dynasty is now available in open access doi.org/10.13173/97834…

A humbling feeling to have witnessed firsthand the discovery of some of these charcoal drawings thought to be the handiwork of children in #Pompeii. The stick figures hunting and fighting across the walls are wonderful but it’s the outlines of hands that are especially touching🖐🏿

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The Famine Stela : It is an inscription written in Egyptian hieroglyphs on a 2.5m high and 3m wide block of granite located on Sehel Island near Aswan, Egypt. The stela tells the story of seven years of drought and famine during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser of the Third Dynasty. (2686-2613 BC). It is thought that the stele was inscribed during the Ptolemaic Kingdom by King Ptolemy V (205-180 BC). The top part of the stele depicts three Egyptian deities and in front of them Djoser carries offerings in his outstretched hands. The text describes how the king is upset and worried as the land has been in the grip of a drought and famine for seven years and how the Egyptians are suffering as a result of the drought and that they are desperate and breaking the laws of the land. At the time of the first translation of the stela, it was thought that the story of a seven-year famine was connected to the biblical story in Genesis 41. More recent investigations have shown that a seven-year famine was a common thing to nearly all cultures of the Near East: a Mesopotamian legend also speaks of a seven-year-famine and in the well-known Gilgamesh-Epos the god Anu gives a prophecy about famine for seven years. Another Egyptian tale talks about a long-lasting drought that appears in the so-called "Book of the Temple. #archaeohistories

Spread of Buddhism from India to Asia

Tokuhiro Kawai (1971-present, Japanese) - The Great Cat

In honor of the current 'L'istante e l'eternità. Tra noi e gli antichi' exhibition at the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, here's one of the pieces in the show. Osiris Chronocrator, or Osiris, the Ruler of Time. Roman, 2nd c. CE, Palazzo Altemps. 1/