Oliver Clarke
@astroclassicist.bsky.social
Curatorial Assistant, Greek Coins, Ashmolean Museum. Former DPhil at New College, Oxford on Hellenistic Cities and Kings in Asia Minor. Quizzer, rower, lapsed Brummie.
Since I start tomorrow, I thought it was time for a bio update: excited to say that I'll be taking up a half-time role as Curatorial Assistant for Greek coinage at the Ashmolean. So expect/beware more Greek and Roman Provincial coinage from this account over the next few years
October 26, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Since I start tomorrow, I thought it was time for a bio update: excited to say that I'll be taking up a half-time role as Curatorial Assistant for Greek coinage at the Ashmolean. So expect/beware more Greek and Roman Provincial coinage from this account over the next few years
Excited to discover which mad branch of French pretenders is rushing to hold a coronation with the stolen jewels
October 19, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Excited to discover which mad branch of French pretenders is rushing to hold a coronation with the stolen jewels
Am I being blind, or has the BBC website not published an article on the death of Tony Harrison?
September 28, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Am I being blind, or has the BBC website not published an article on the death of Tony Harrison?
The presenter on Radio 3 describing Newman as an Anglican priest in his intro to tonight's performance of Gerontius somewhat missing important developments in his career!
September 22, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The presenter on Radio 3 describing Newman as an Anglican priest in his intro to tonight's performance of Gerontius somewhat missing important developments in his career!
Reposted by Oliver Clarke
@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com the name list, Marie, the name list.
Laugh! Listen! Act! is the name of a CBBC show from the late 90s with an earworm theme tune (at least one presenter has since suffered damnatio memoriae for obvious reasons)
Laugh! Listen! Act! is the name of a CBBC show from the late 90s with an earworm theme tune (at least one presenter has since suffered damnatio memoriae for obvious reasons)
September 19, 2025 at 9:39 AM
@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com the name list, Marie, the name list.
Laugh! Listen! Act! is the name of a CBBC show from the late 90s with an earworm theme tune (at least one presenter has since suffered damnatio memoriae for obvious reasons)
Laugh! Listen! Act! is the name of a CBBC show from the late 90s with an earworm theme tune (at least one presenter has since suffered damnatio memoriae for obvious reasons)
Rereading Aristophanes before I lecture on him this term and well difficult to escape the truth that honestly we've not innovated that many jokes in the last 2.5 thousand years, they are all already here
September 14, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Rereading Aristophanes before I lecture on him this term and well difficult to escape the truth that honestly we've not innovated that many jokes in the last 2.5 thousand years, they are all already here
Reposted by Oliver Clarke
Thanks to @yuanyiz.bsky.social 's review this astonishingly stupid quote from Clegg's new book is going to be rattling around my head all day
September 4, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Thanks to @yuanyiz.bsky.social 's review this astonishingly stupid quote from Clegg's new book is going to be rattling around my head all day
Reposted by Oliver Clarke
Fascinated that In Our Time is one of the BBC’s most popular podcasts among under 35s. The young people demand three academics and a peer discussing Demosthenes, apparently. And they’re right to do so.
September 3, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Fascinated that In Our Time is one of the BBC’s most popular podcasts among under 35s. The young people demand three academics and a peer discussing Demosthenes, apparently. And they’re right to do so.
Watched every episode of House with my mum, who loved the show, as a consultant paediatric radiologist. She did always enjoy working out what condition the scans they put up *actually* showed vs what the show claimed they did.
Oh god I remember watching HOUSE with some doctors, it was a the usual mix of “you would get fired instantly and never practice medicine again no matter how good u are” and “that case actually isn’t hard to solve at all”
I used to watch doctor shows on TV. My dad, a renowned internist, couldn't stand them, "totally unrealistic."
August 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Watched every episode of House with my mum, who loved the show, as a consultant paediatric radiologist. She did always enjoy working out what condition the scans they put up *actually* showed vs what the show claimed they did.
My two favourite examples of this:
1) Marine Science centre in Newport, Oregon, allowing me to send videos of the amazing fog generating machine
2) halfway along the Grand Canal onboard a vaporetto
1) Marine Science centre in Newport, Oregon, allowing me to send videos of the amazing fog generating machine
2) halfway along the Grand Canal onboard a vaporetto
Academia may not give you job security, flexibility, or wealth, but it will let you unexpectedly connect to eduroam in foreign cities
August 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
My two favourite examples of this:
1) Marine Science centre in Newport, Oregon, allowing me to send videos of the amazing fog generating machine
2) halfway along the Grand Canal onboard a vaporetto
1) Marine Science centre in Newport, Oregon, allowing me to send videos of the amazing fog generating machine
2) halfway along the Grand Canal onboard a vaporetto
Very jealous of whoever gets to spend several years zapping the *first* coins with subatomic particles
HOW COOL IS THIS!?! A fully funded doctorate using cutting edge technology to study electrum!!! I can vouch for this being a truly open search with some of the best minds in both fields!! www.arch.ox.ac.uk/article/exci...
Exciting new joint funded doctoral studentship between the School and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Service. Apply by 19 Sept.
www.arch.ox.ac.uk
August 20, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Very jealous of whoever gets to spend several years zapping the *first* coins with subatomic particles
Reposted by Oliver Clarke
HOW COOL IS THIS!?! A fully funded doctorate using cutting edge technology to study electrum!!! I can vouch for this being a truly open search with some of the best minds in both fields!! www.arch.ox.ac.uk/article/exci...
Exciting new joint funded doctoral studentship between the School and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Service. Apply by 19 Sept.
www.arch.ox.ac.uk
August 20, 2025 at 5:27 PM
HOW COOL IS THIS!?! A fully funded doctorate using cutting edge technology to study electrum!!! I can vouch for this being a truly open search with some of the best minds in both fields!! www.arch.ox.ac.uk/article/exci...
Reposted by Oliver Clarke
Never ask postdocs what they'll be doing next year, that's considered terribly offensive in their culture.
August 7, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Never ask postdocs what they'll be doing next year, that's considered terribly offensive in their culture.
Tom Lehrer was simply the funniest man, and I'm forever grateful for the chain of passing down appreciating his songs from my grandmother to my mother to me.
July 28, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Tom Lehrer was simply the funniest man, and I'm forever grateful for the chain of passing down appreciating his songs from my grandmother to my mother to me.
Some of the coolest work in the field being done by @tsommerschield.bsky.social and others!
Amazing productivity gains for researchers.
Amazing productivity gains for researchers.
Neat example of AI in the humanities. A Google model trained on Latin text fills in lost parts of Latin inscriptions & identifies related texts.
Historians increased their accuracy by 44% when working with the AI (Though AI alone beats historians, historian + AI was usually best by a small amount).
Historians increased their accuracy by 44% when working with the AI (Though AI alone beats historians, historian + AI was usually best by a small amount).
July 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Some of the coolest work in the field being done by @tsommerschield.bsky.social and others!
Amazing productivity gains for researchers.
Amazing productivity gains for researchers.
bsky.app/profile/anti... Fascinating site, which I'd never come across before
Deep within the Andes, a rough drive from Popayán, lies one of the pre-Colombian Americas’ most fascinating and least known sites - the hypogea of Tierradentro.
Here mysterious chambers are scattered through a remote valley, plundered by grave robbers but only properly excavated in the 1930s… /1
Here mysterious chambers are scattered through a remote valley, plundered by grave robbers but only properly excavated in the 1930s… /1
July 22, 2025 at 12:36 PM
bsky.app/profile/anti... Fascinating site, which I'd never come across before
Reposted by Oliver Clarke
Deep within the Andes, a rough drive from Popayán, lies one of the pre-Colombian Americas’ most fascinating and least known sites - the hypogea of Tierradentro.
Here mysterious chambers are scattered through a remote valley, plundered by grave robbers but only properly excavated in the 1930s… /1
Here mysterious chambers are scattered through a remote valley, plundered by grave robbers but only properly excavated in the 1930s… /1
July 22, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Deep within the Andes, a rough drive from Popayán, lies one of the pre-Colombian Americas’ most fascinating and least known sites - the hypogea of Tierradentro.
Here mysterious chambers are scattered through a remote valley, plundered by grave robbers but only properly excavated in the 1930s… /1
Here mysterious chambers are scattered through a remote valley, plundered by grave robbers but only properly excavated in the 1930s… /1
Officially Dr Clarke
July 20, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Officially Dr Clarke
Needs two more panels where Persia holds out a couple of large sacks of silver and they immediately return to fighting
July 15, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Needs two more panels where Persia holds out a couple of large sacks of silver and they immediately return to fighting
Underreported by our ancient written sources about Augustus was that he derived some of his political power from having the goddess Nike as his personal hairdresser.
rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/2691
rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/2691
July 9, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Underreported by our ancient written sources about Augustus was that he derived some of his political power from having the goddess Nike as his personal hairdresser.
rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/2691
rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/2691
Visited Hughenden Manor on Sunday as an escape from Oxford for the first time in weeks. Perfect sized country house and parkland for a few hours wandering - particularly enjoyed the various techniques the Disraelis employed to get gothic ceilings cheaply.
July 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Visited Hughenden Manor on Sunday as an escape from Oxford for the first time in weeks. Perfect sized country house and parkland for a few hours wandering - particularly enjoyed the various techniques the Disraelis employed to get gothic ceilings cheaply.
Prousias II of Bithynia with some impressively curly sideburns on this coin (later on he has some quite stylish stubble)
July 4, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Prousias II of Bithynia with some impressively curly sideburns on this coin (later on he has some quite stylish stubble)
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
I really hope this is what you see when you use the spray on.ft.com/3Gr8zCi
July 4, 2025 at 9:48 AM
All glory to the Hypnotoad!