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andrewayton.bsky.social
Andrew Ayton
@andrewayton.bsky.social
5.5K followers 2K following 910 posts
Historian (ret’d Univ of Hull, UK) working on late medieval military, maritime, soc & economic; & Napoleonic. MSS, prosopography, networks. Classical music, wildlife, cinema, coins, postal history, Dorset, France, Hungary. 🦋& #Shugborough Staffs pictures.
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andrewayton.bsky.social
Andrew Ayton @andrewayton.bsky.social · Jun 26
This is a splendid resource: just played Moses Finley. An exile from the US, interesting just at the moment.
ihr.bsky.social Institute of Historical Research @ihr.bsky.social · Jun 26
We’ve launched a new collection of openly accessible videos, Interviews with Historians, in which prominent 20th century historians reflect on their lives and professional practices. Access the collection here:
www.history.ac.uk/library-digi...
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
andrewayton.bsky.social
Psychiatric Educator of the Year award for my brilliant wife @agnesayton.bsky.social. So pleased to trumpet this achievement to a broader constituency than would normally hear about such things.
4th photo: Agnes & two colleagues (see ALT text) who contributed to this work.
Agnes standing at the lectern at the RCPsych awards ceremony last Thursday, giving her acceptance speech. The citation for Agnes's award which emphasises her 'contributions at national level. Her most impressive contributions have been her leading on the rollout of UK's first Credential in Eating Disorders and Treating Patients Well - the first national guidance to formally recognise eating disorders as a required area of learning for all medical professionals are significant pieces of work which impact on training, leadership and patient safety.' The award - a transparent column, with an inscribed details - standing on a table. Agnes at the awards ceremony, flanked by Dr Ali Ibrahim (left), with whom she has published a number of important papers that contributed to the work leading to this award; and (right) Dr Ashish Kumar, with whom she has shared the leadership of the Eating Disorders Faculty of RCPsych for about ten years.
November 10, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
sarahebond.bsky.social
Students & researchers have a tough time keeping the names of Roman emperors and elites straight. But we do have a database to help name and number each. It is called the Prospographia Imperii Romani (=PIR) and has 15061 persons, of which 1932 are women. Please use the database! pir.bbaw.de#/search
Prosopographia Imperii Romani
pir.bbaw.de
November 10, 2025 at 8:53 PM
andrewayton.bsky.social
Psychiatric Educator of the Year award for my brilliant wife @agnesayton.bsky.social. So pleased to trumpet this achievement to a broader constituency than would normally hear about such things.
4th photo: Agnes & two colleagues (see ALT text) who contributed to this work.
Agnes standing at the lectern at the RCPsych awards ceremony last Thursday, giving her acceptance speech. The citation for Agnes's award which emphasises her 'contributions at national level. Her most impressive contributions have been her leading on the rollout of UK's first Credential in Eating Disorders and Treating Patients Well - the first national guidance to formally recognise eating disorders as a required area of learning for all medical professionals are significant pieces of work which impact on training, leadership and patient safety.' The award - a transparent column, with an inscribed details - standing on a table. Agnes at the awards ceremony, flanked by Dr Ali Ibrahim (left), with whom she has published a number of important papers that contributed to the work leading to this award; and (right) Dr Ashish Kumar, with whom she has shared the leadership of the Eating Disorders Faculty of RCPsych for about ten years.
November 10, 2025 at 7:37 PM
andrewayton.bsky.social
My rather clever wife punted this on to me; after all the kerfuffle of recent days, it’s rather good.
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone dancing in ‘La La Land’ (D. Chazelle, 2016), their arms describing an X shape that might be compared with the image in photo 51.
November 10, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
fotofacade.bsky.social
🌅📸 I took this at sunrise this week – the Rudston Monolith in Yorkshire, England’s largest standing stone.
At the heart of a 4,000-year-old ritual landscape of four cursus monuments, it’s a sacred site that influenced the siting of the medieval All Saints Church. #thread
The Rudston Monolith rises beside All Saints Church in Yorkshire at sunrise. Golden light spills across gravestones and the ancient stone, illuminating the weathered lichen-covered surface. Trees and rolling fields form a peaceful backdrop as daybreak colours the sky with orange, pink, and lilac hues over this sacred prehistoric landscape.
November 6, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
tessmachling.bsky.social
A guest blog, which adds more detail to the narrative of detecting in England & Wales.

Thank you to my anonymous colleague for writing this important piece & for allowing me to host it on the Big Book of Torcs! 😊

#Archaeology #Detecting #Torcs #gold #Treasure

bigbookoftorcs.com/2025/11/08/w...
“Who Pays for the Hobby?”: Metal Detecting in England and Wales
[A download/print PDF version can be found at the end of the paper] This is a first for The Big Book of Torcs. Today, I open up BBoT to a guest blog, written by a friend and archaeological colleagu…
bigbookoftorcs.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
caperry.bsky.social
Yay! I just noticed that my book is available for preorder. Use the code PUP30 for 30% off. Share with your librarian! Will ship on Jan 20, 2026 just in time for uhhhhh someone's birthday? Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt | Princeton University Press press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt
A new global history of the slave trade, the lives of enslaved people, and the role of slavery in the formation of Jewish and Arab-Islamic culture in the medieval Middle East
press.princeton.edu
November 7, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
robhedge.bsky.social
A new comic: A brief history of History at the University of Leicester.
You can download the originals and find links to further reading on my blog: incurablearchaeologist.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/l... #skystorians 🏛️🏺🗃️
Individual panels are threaded below:
An 8-panel comic illustrating the history of teaching and research in History at the University of Leicester since the university's foundation in 1921
October 2, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
timhitchcock.bsky.social
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
London Lives
www.londonlives.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
aquilanebula.bsky.social
Film composer, conductor, bandleader and trumpeter John Barry was born in York on this day in 1933. He was also a classical fan, choosing Mahler 9 in both of his appearances on Desert Island Discs in 1967 and 1999. You can see his choices and hear the interview here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
November 3, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
helengittos.bsky.social
Cerne Abbas: Secrets Beneath the Giant will be released this Saturday. A trailer for the @timeteam.bsky.social Special on @hugh-willmott.bsky.social's Cerne Abbey Research Project. So excited to finally share this!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Tm...
Coming Soon! | Cerne Abbas: Secrets Beneath The Giant | TIME TEAM (Dorset) 2025
YouTube video by Time Team Official
www.youtube.com
November 3, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
classicalalan.bsky.social
Just over a week to go until my talk at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow as part of the brilliant Aye Write festival - if you fancy hearing about my adventures in search of Scotland's ancient past, come along! Tickets available here: www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/the-...
#RomanSiteSaturday #AyeWrite
The Road to Mons Gaupius: Alan Montgomery - Glasgow Life
Aye Write 2025 presents The Road to Mons Gaupius: Alan Montgomery
www.glasgowlife.org.uk
November 1, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
alastairdunn.bsky.social
Returning to Lubeck after 21 years. It’s still a jewel but the Hanse Museum in its current form is extraordinary. They have done with data what The Mary Rose museum has done with artefacts. It’s extraordinary.
October 29, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
sorensjogren.bsky.social
Submission no. 500 at the Journal of Scandinavian Military Studies (SJMS) landed this morning!

We publish in the field of military studies: multidisciplinary, practice‑relevant, with Scandinavian roots and a global scope

All open access

Learn more about @sjms.bsky.social: sjms.nu/articles/10....
October 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
andrewayton.bsky.social
It's always a red-letter issue when the London Review of Books has a Julian Barnes essay.
lrb.co.uk London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 14d
‘Even the nuttiest writers need to be told that their publisher likes their books.’

Julian Barnes on the tempestuous relationship between Flaubert and his publisher, Michel Lévy.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Julian Barnes · Ouvriers de luxe: Author v. Publisher
Gustave Flaubert’s first three novels, Madame Bovary, Salammbô and L’Éducation sentimentale, were all published by...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 28, 2025 at 6:55 PM
andrewayton.bsky.social
Rewatched ‘American Fiction’, which is on BBC iPlayer. So taut and superbly written. And funny. Laugh out loud. Disappeared by Amazon. Can’t be accessed on the platform or by DVD. Of course, they’ve donated to the ballroom.
If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Our times.
October 26, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
davidheniguk.bsky.social
Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.
October 25, 2025 at 7:38 AM
andrewayton.bsky.social
Since the weekend, I’ve been pondering ‘cultural coherence’. What is that exactly? Who says that it’s a ‘good thing’? I’m reminded of a Hungarian text, c.1015, attributed to King Stephen: ‘the country that has only one language and one custom is weak and fragile’. Has that not always been so?
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 19d
Almost nobody in the Cons Party or beyond it had noticed that the Shadow Home Secretary with two other frontbenchers and 5 backbenchers tabled a bill in May to deport 3 million people - stripping almost every pensioner, parent or nurse who did not take out citizenship of their right to live here
October 23, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
andrewayton.bsky.social
This bit of Michael Wood’s review of David Woodman’s new book on Athelstan (in @thetls.bsky.social) raised a chuckle. Suitably robust in responding to implausible battlefield revisionism. It’s good to see, via the reviewer bio, that MW’s biography of Athelstan is due next year.
On the battle of Brunanburh, 937, the photographed paragraph of Michael Wood’s review reads: But its site has never been identified. The controversy has spawned countless theories, but in the past few decades the view has become entrenched that Brunan-burh was in the Wirral. The theory rests on a single twelfth-century placename, however, and still lacks even a plausible, let alone a convincing, narrative. One would have liked to see Woodman take a fresh look at the whole story.
October 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
drfrancisyoung.bsky.social
A reminder there could always be a hidden Saxon church inside your house
fotofacade.bsky.social Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 19d
✨Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. A kitchen in the nave and a bedroom in the chancel hid within plain sight an Anglo-Saxon chapel built by Earl Odda (a relation to Edward the Confessor). Re-discovered in 1865, it is the most complete surviving Saxon church in England. #thread
October 23, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
jeanneologist.bsky.social
A reminder that there's about a week left to pitch your paper for this year's interdisciplinary Late Medieval France and Burgundy Seminar, the loveliest event of its kind, at Durham in mid-December! There's a great (and non-exclusive) theme, and it's lots of fun for ECRs and senior scholars alike!
Call for Papers for the 10th Late Medieval France and Burgundy Seminar: Durham University, 12-13 December 2025 Image: Jardin d'amour à la cour de Philippe le bon, duc de Bourgogne, Musée de Versailles Tradition and Innovation For the tenth meeting of the Late Medieval France and Burgundy Seminar (Durham, 2025), we invite proposals for 20-minute papers on the theme of Tradition and Innovation. We would welcome any explorations of this theme based on original research on France and/or Burgundy between c.1250 and c.1500, or which reflect on developments in modern scholarship relating to these territories, in any field, including history, art, literature, languages and music. Papers might examine (but are not limited to considering):  Major shifts in politics, society, culture, literature, art or music within the Franco-Burgundian lands during the late Middle Ages.  The durability of established practices and structures in these regions.  Old and new approaches in historiography looking back at late medieval France/ Burgundy – including new approaches to ‘English Frances’ and ‘Lordship and the Decentralised State’.  Continuity and change in textual analysis and other scholarship relating to late medieval France/Burgundy. We would particularly welcome submissions from postgraduates and early career researchers, as well as scholars at any stage in their research. The deadline for paper proposals (of around 100 words) is 31 October. Please send proposals/queries to Professor Graeme Small (g.p.small@durham.ac.uk) and Dr Andrew Green (admgreen7@gmail.com).
October 23, 2025 at 7:50 AM
andrewayton.bsky.social
This bit of Michael Wood’s review of David Woodman’s new book on Athelstan (in @thetls.bsky.social) raised a chuckle. Suitably robust in responding to implausible battlefield revisionism. It’s good to see, via the reviewer bio, that MW’s biography of Athelstan is due next year.
On the battle of Brunanburh, 937, the photographed paragraph of Michael Wood’s review reads: But its site has never been identified. The controversy has spawned countless theories, but in the past few decades the view has become entrenched that Brunan-burh was in the Wirral. The theory rests on a single twelfth-century placename, however, and still lacks even a plausible, let alone a convincing, narrative. One would have liked to see Woodman take a fresh look at the whole story.
October 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM
andrewayton.bsky.social
For this southerner, who spent a large chunk of his adult life working in Hull, this is very pleasing. The town has sometimes been unfairly maligned in the past.
October 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
carinr.bsky.social
Gossip, paleography, and "a massive, almost unstudied source" in @rayclemens.bsky.social's latest post: open.substack.com/pub/raymondc... #medievalsky
English Manorial Rolls In Chicago
A massive, almost unstudied source at the University of Chicago
open.substack.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ayton
curatorkate.bsky.social
One of my all time favourite church doorways! 😍 The broken pediment with elliptical window is so unusual 🤩
St. Mary’s Church, Conington, Cambridgeshire.
October 22, 2025 at 1:27 PM