Had the opportunity to present my PhD work at the SA Museum a couple of weeks back as part of Viking Fest. Nerves aplenty talking to a public audience for the first time, but I held my own!

Was great to see all the passionate people who came out to reenact and recreate the Viking world in Adelaide!

Half a worlds worth of travel back home and I finally get to see the Galloway Hoard with my own eyes 🤩
@ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social and the SA Museum did a great job with this one 🥇

Thanks to everyone who attended my riveting (certainly not the last time I’ll be using that pun) talk last night at the @lamps-edinburgh.bsky.social seminar series. Great audience and great questions!

"Those who had never before seen Constantinople looked upon it very earnestly, for they never thought there could be in all the world so rich a city…the height and the length of that city which above all others was sovereign."
- Geoffrey of Villehardouin, 1203 CE

Good morning from Istanbul 👋 🇹🇷

Hey, it’s me!
Been a while since I’ve been able work with this kind of cutting edge kit. One of many “ooh, ahh” moments I’ll be experiencing in the months to come!

The Knock-e-Dhooney (KeD) Boat Burial
Located at the highest point of the Parish of Andreas (I don't envy whoever had to drag it ashore and uphill), the KeD burial is strinkingly similar to Balladoole in size and the types of grave goods recovered, despite being located on the opposite end of Man.

The Balladoole Boat Burial

Built into what were likely the ramparts of an Iron Age hill fort and displacing several earlier, Christian graves (maybe by accident…maybe not), Balladoole is one of the largest boat burials found in Northern Britain.

So grateful to have finally seen it in-person 🙏

Balladoole Boat Burial rivet recording. The first step in a long, long process to understand the Manx boat burials better.

(Not sped up. I’m just a very, very fast recorder).

📍 Manx Museum, Douglas