Ranjith Kollannur
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arby-k.bsky.social
Ranjith Kollannur
@arby-k.bsky.social
Career - Finance, Data.

Interests - History, Genealogy, Astronomy.

Rotarian, JCI Senator.

Unseen in Plain Sight.
Pinned
Back in 2020, I began writing Twitter threads on historic personalities (mostly European). It ran for a couple of years. Starting from today, I will be posting those threads here twice a week, with some minor corrections and updates, as required. Hopefully, I can add new threads here as well.
The evidence at Barnham suggests that Neanderthals were building and lighting their own fires 400,000 years ago.

This is the oldest evidence of people starting fires

arstechnica.com/science/2025...
This is the oldest evidence of people starting fires
We didn’t start the fire. (Neanderthals did, at least 400,000 years ago.)…
arstechnica.com
December 13, 2025 at 9:45 AM
The Rise of the (Roman) Oligarchs.

When Democracy Dies: the Fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC antigonejournal.com/2025/12/demo...
When Democracy Dies: the Fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC
MORGAN KIM Is Augustus in the wings?
antigonejournal.com
December 13, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Despite being the first capital of a united Italy, Turin does not feel remotely Italian. Yet the longer one wanders its streets, the more the city's powerful role in forging the modern Italian nation becomes clear.

Turin, the strange heart of modern Italy engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tur...
Turin, the strange heart of modern Italy
Despite being the first capital of a united Italy, Turin does not feel remotely Italian. Yet the longer one wanders its streets, the more the city's powerful role in forging the modern Italian nation ...
engelsbergideas.com
December 13, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Results show that the practice of long-distance maritime trading and raiding persisted over nearly 3,000 years of Nordic history.

How we unlocked the secrets of Denmark’s oldest plank boat – with the help of an ancient fingerprint

theconversation.com/how-we-unloc...
How we unlocked the secrets of Denmark’s oldest plank boat – with the help of an ancient fingerprint
A major mystery has surrounded the Hjortspring boat ever since its discovery: where did these invading warriors from the 4th century BC come from?
theconversation.com
December 13, 2025 at 7:18 AM
The results from the research at Pompeii suggest Vitruvius’ writings were wrong—or, perhaps, “misinterpreted”

This Ancient Construction Site in the Ruins of Pompeii Is Revealing New Secrets About the 2,000-Year-Old Recipe for Roman Concrete - www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...
This Ancient Construction Site in the Ruins of Pompeii Is Revealing New Secrets About the 2,000-Year-Old Recipe for Roman Concrete
New research suggests the Romans used a method known as "hot mixing" to produce self-healing concrete, which allowed them to build structures that endured for centuries
www.smithsonianmag.com
December 13, 2025 at 6:38 AM
The island sits on an oceanic swell, where the ocean crust is higher than its surroundings. But there is no evidence of any ongoing volcanic activity creating that swell

Giant structure discovered deep beneath Bermuda is unlike anything else on Earth www.livescience.com/planet-earth...
Giant structure discovered deep beneath Bermuda is unlike anything else on Earth
A thick layer of more than 12 miles of rock may explain why Bermuda seems to float above the surrounding ocean.
www.livescience.com
December 13, 2025 at 6:00 AM
A military commander, conqueror of a holy city, whose mere existence would prove relevant in his father becoming an emperor and stabilizing an empire that could have collapsed as quickly as it had started.

Story in the evening ...

bsky.app/profile/arby...
December 13, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Many perceive Italy as a country divided between an economically prosperous North and an impoverished, agrarian South. The origins of this divergence lie in a 19th-century ‘black legend’ designed to discredit the South.

The Risorgimento myth

engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-r...
The Risorgimento myth
Many perceive Italy as a country divided between an economically prosperous North and an impoverished, agrarian South. The origins of this divergence lie in a 19th-century ‘black legend’ designed to d...
engelsbergideas.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Hopefully, I can figure out Central Asian history after reading these. :)
December 11, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Led by the University of Bristol and published in Nature on December 3, the work shows that complex organisms started developing long before oxygen levels in the atmosphere rose to significant levels. 

Earth’s early oceans hid the secret rise of complex life www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
Earth’s early oceans hid the secret rise of complex life
Scientists have discovered that complex life began evolving much earlier than traditional models suggested. Using an expanded molecular clock approach, the team showed that crucial cellular features e...
www.sciencedaily.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Many of the assemblage items are comparable to examples found in elite South Ural burials of 4th–early 3rd centuries BC, while others show parallels with materials from North Caucasus, Don region & Northern Black Sea

Sacrificial complex uncovered in Orenburg www.heritagedaily.com/2025/12/sacr...
Sacrificial complex uncovered in Orenburg
Archaeologists from the Ural Archaeological Expedition have uncovered a sacrificial complex during excavations at the Vysokaya Mogila–Studenikin Mar necropolis, located in Russia’s Orenburg Region. - ...
www.heritagedaily.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Instead of top-down organization, small, clan-level groups seem to have used innovative human engineering.

Drones, physics and rats: Studies show how the people of Rapa Nui made and moved the giant statues – and what caused the island’s deforestation

theconversation.com/drones-physi...
Drones, physics and rats: Studies show how the people of Rapa Nui made and moved the giant statues – and what caused the island’s deforestation
The mysteries of Easter Island, subjects of speculation for centuries, yield to scientific inquiry.
theconversation.com
December 10, 2025 at 3:09 AM
A young noble forced on to the throne of his dead cousin; to be a figurehead to unite a nation and lead them against a mighty invasion. But he will live on to tell the story and create the seed for one of the most powerful nations in the world.

Story in the evening ...

bsky.app/profile/arby...
December 10, 2025 at 2:30 AM
The atmospheric tracking raises hopes that a system such as Guardian could detect tsunamis as they emerge on the open ocean, before they build to great heights and crash into coasts.

How ripples in the high atmosphere warned scientists of a tsunami in real time

www.bbc.com/future/artic...
'It sounded kind of crazy': How ripples in the high atmosphere warned scientists of a tsunami in real time
Tsunamis are notoriously difficult to spot on the open ocean as they race towards shore. But in the summer of 2025, scientists watched one unfold as it happened.
www.bbc.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:11 PM
There is an art to rivalry. Mastering its rules has, since ancient times, shaped cultural history over millennia.

Ancient Greece to Turner v Constable: Seven of the greatest rivalries in art history

bbc.com/culture/arti...
Ancient Greece to Turner v Constable: Seven of the greatest rivalries in art history
There is an art to rivalry. Mastering its rules has, since ancient times, shaped cultural history over millennia.
bbc.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:22 AM
In 1456, several years after his father was killed, Vlad returned to Wallachia and, with the Sultan’s backing, took over the principality as Vlad III Dracula.

The Impalings of Vlad the Impaler

www.medievalists.net/2025/12/impa...
The Impalings of Vlad the Impaler - Medievalists.net
One of the most infamous characters from the Middle Ages was Vlad III Dracula, the prince of Wallachia. Here is the story of how he gained the nickname of ‘the Impaler’.
www.medievalists.net
December 9, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Plant species mentioned in texts from the past 800 years hint the wooded grasslands of western India have been there since ancient times

Ancient Literature Suggests India's Savannas Are Much Older Than Previously Thought - www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a...
Ancient Literature Suggests India's Savannas Are Much Older Than Previously Thought
Plant species mentioned in texts from the past 800 years hint the wooded grasslands of western India have been there since ancient times, pushing back on the narrative that they are remnants of long-g...
www.smithsonianmag.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:31 AM
I do wish we had more libraries, though, in my neighbourhood. Books that are worth reading tend to be expensive.

Freeing the Library

Aaron Boehmer writes about community libraries and the importance of accessible archival and literary resources in these times

lareviewofbooks.org/article/free...
Freeing the Library | Los Angeles Review of Books
Aaron Boehmer writes about community libraries and the importance of accessible archival and literary resources in these times.
lareviewofbooks.org
December 8, 2025 at 2:15 PM
The results demonstrate that Western Anatolia hosted enduring hunter-gatherer communities whose genetic signatures persisted well into the Neolithic.

A New Study Illuminates How Neolithic Lifeways Spread from Anatolia to the Aegean and Europe

www.anatolianarchaeology.net/a-new-study-...
A New Study Illuminates How Neolithic Lifeways Spread from Anatolia to the Aegean and Europe - Anatolian Archaeology
New Science study reveals how Neolithic lifeways spread from Anatolia to the Aegean and Europe through cultural exchange
www.anatolianarchaeology.net
December 8, 2025 at 12:35 PM
In our era, the closest equivalent is civic education, the space where citizens practise the dispositions that democratic speech requires.

What ancient Athens teaches us about debate – and dissent – in the social media age

theconversation.com/what-ancient...
What ancient Athens teaches us about debate – and dissent – in the social media age
For ancient Athenians, democratic speech was both a right and a responsibility.
theconversation.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Latest buy - The Emperor and the Elephant by @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social
December 7, 2025 at 5:37 PM
My newsletter is up with a dash of books, history and science. This week, I review Marvel’s Civil War written by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, which brings out the dilemma of deciding the greater good.

open.substack.com/pub/disjoint...

If you find my post interesting, do share and subscribe.
A View From My Disjointed Laptop - Issue #133
Welcome to my newsletter for a dash of books, history and science. This week, I review Marvel’s Civil War written by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, which brings out the dilemma of deciding the greater...
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:57 AM
The atmospheric tracking raises hopes that a system such as Guardian could detect tsunamis as they emerge on the open ocean, before they build to great heights and crash into coasts.

How ripples in the high atmosphere warned scientists of a tsunami in real time

www.bbc.com/future/artic...
'It sounded kind of crazy': How ripples in the high atmosphere warned scientists of a tsunami in real time
Tsunamis are notoriously difficult to spot on the open ocean as they race towards shore. But in the summer of 2025, scientists watched one unfold as it happened.
www.bbc.com
December 7, 2025 at 1:44 AM
A Seljuk Caravanserai Reveals Rare Mongol and Turkic Tamgas: New Inscriptions Emerge at Çardak

www.anatolianarchaeology.net/a-seljuk-car...
A Seljuk Caravanserai Reveals Rare Mongol and Turkic Tamgas: New Inscriptions Emerge at Çardak - Anatolian Archaeology
Seljuk Caravanserai Çardak in western Türkiye has revealed two rare symbols — the Mongol Ulzii motif and a Turkic tamga
www.anatolianarchaeology.net
December 6, 2025 at 6:02 PM