Derek Parrott
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dparrott.bsky.social
Derek Parrott
@dparrott.bsky.social
800 followers 420 following 10 posts
Archaeologist. PhD on Viking Age craft production, oval brooches, and digital modelling. All things animal art, early medieval, and archaeology. Currently based in 🇩🇰
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Derek Parrott @dparrott.bsky.social · Nov 10
I guess I should introduce myself- I’m an archaeology PhD researcher at Aarhus who’s project focuses on the intersections between craft and art in the Viking Age, 3D scanning, and oval brooches from the early Viking Age (early 9th c) (like this gorgeous example from western Norway)
dparrott.bsky.social
Blue!
izzywisher.bsky.social Dr Izzy Wisher @izzywisher.bsky.social · Sep 29
Time to update your Palaeolithic palettes... 🔵

Very proud to share our new research on the OLDEST use of blue pigment! We identified traces of azurite - a vibrant blue mineral - on a stone object around 14-13,000 years old. Why is this so exciting? 👇🏺

doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Close-up image of a sand coloured stone, with a diagonal crack. The sand rock has a textured surface, and small spots of blue can be seen towards the centre of the stone. The background is grey. Microscopic photo of the blue spots, that are irregular in shape and size and positioned diagonally across the image. The rest of the photo shows the rough sand coloured texture of the stone.
September 29, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by Derek Parrott
izzywisher.bsky.social
🚨DEADLINE ON FRIDAY!🚨 Do you do art-related archaeological research? Are you itching to discuss how we identify individual artists in the past, or the agency art had in societies? Then make sure to get your abstracts in for @tag2025york.bsky.social! You can send them to me at: izzywisher@cas.au.dk 🏺
izzywisher.bsky.social Dr Izzy Wisher @izzywisher.bsky.social · Jun 17
How can we visualise the agency of art and artists in past societies? Mine and @dparrott.bsky.social's session at @tag2025york.bsky.social intends to bring together exciting new research to explore this question! Interested? Why not submit an abstract!✋ 🎨🖌️🏺
ORGANISER(S): Izzy Wisher and Derek Parrott AFFILIATION: Aarhus University CONTACT: Izzy Wisher, izzywisher@cas.au.dk ABSTRACT: Art was, and continues to be, an active agent in societies. The first traces of artistic behaviour can be glimpsed in etched patterns produced nearly 100,000 years ago, and flourished into the rich, material culture visible in a wide array of both prehistoric and historic societies. It has the relational power to build new connections between individuals, generate cultural identities, or exert political or religious authority over a population. There have been significant efforts in recent years to shift away from “grand theories” of art – whether typological or narrative in nature – to instead appreciate the dialogical, multisensorial, and distributed engagements of art making and reception. Yet there remains a central challenge. In the fragmentary archaeological evidence of past artistic actions, how can we visualise individual artisans? In this session, we intend to bring together a diverse range of perspectives that examine art from a range of spatial and temporal contexts to identify the actions of individual artists in the past. We particularly encourage submissions that have developed new theoretical and high-resolution methodological approaches to address this challenge. Our session will not be limited in period or object type – the organisers themselves specialise in Palaeolithic art (IW) and Viking Age art (DP), but share a common theoretical thread in their conceptions of art. Themes could therefore include, but are not limited to: Material engagements in artistic practices Art and agency perspectives Craft networks and the role of the artisan High-resolution digital modelling Archaeometric approaches to art
July 30, 2025 at 10:02 AM
dparrott.bsky.social
Join me and @izzywisher.bsky.social at @tag2025york.bsky.social this December! Abstract deadline is 1st August
izzywisher.bsky.social Dr Izzy Wisher @izzywisher.bsky.social · Jul 14
Just a few weeks left to get your submissions in for our session "Visualising Artistic Action in the Past" at @tag2025york.bsky.social! If you do research related to artists, art, craft, and agency in the past - from theoretical entanglements to cutting-edge methods - we want to hear from you! 🎨🏺
izzywisher.bsky.social Dr Izzy Wisher @izzywisher.bsky.social · Jun 17
How can we visualise the agency of art and artists in past societies? Mine and @dparrott.bsky.social's session at @tag2025york.bsky.social intends to bring together exciting new research to explore this question! Interested? Why not submit an abstract!✋ 🎨🖌️🏺
July 14, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Derek Parrott
izzywisher.bsky.social
How can we visualise the agency of art and artists in past societies? Mine and @dparrott.bsky.social's session at @tag2025york.bsky.social intends to bring together exciting new research to explore this question! Interested? Why not submit an abstract!✋ 🎨🖌️🏺
ORGANISER(S): Izzy Wisher and Derek Parrott AFFILIATION: Aarhus University CONTACT: Izzy Wisher, izzywisher@cas.au.dk ABSTRACT: Art was, and continues to be, an active agent in societies. The first traces of artistic behaviour can be glimpsed in etched patterns produced nearly 100,000 years ago, and flourished into the rich, material culture visible in a wide array of both prehistoric and historic societies. It has the relational power to build new connections between individuals, generate cultural identities, or exert political or religious authority over a population. There have been significant efforts in recent years to shift away from “grand theories” of art – whether typological or narrative in nature – to instead appreciate the dialogical, multisensorial, and distributed engagements of art making and reception. Yet there remains a central challenge. In the fragmentary archaeological evidence of past artistic actions, how can we visualise individual artisans? In this session, we intend to bring together a diverse range of perspectives that examine art from a range of spatial and temporal contexts to identify the actions of individual artists in the past. We particularly encourage submissions that have developed new theoretical and high-resolution methodological approaches to address this challenge. Our session will not be limited in period or object type – the organisers themselves specialise in Palaeolithic art (IW) and Viking Age art (DP), but share a common theoretical thread in their conceptions of art. Themes could therefore include, but are not limited to: Material engagements in artistic practices Art and agency perspectives Craft networks and the role of the artisan High-resolution digital modelling Archaeometric approaches to art
June 17, 2025 at 11:44 AM
dparrott.bsky.social
Officially Dr. Parrott!
Photo of a PhD dissertation entitled “Models and Moulds: Berdal brooch moulds from Viking Age Ribe through the lens of 3D modelling” A photo of two people having wine. A photo of five people standing in front of a red brick building
June 12, 2025 at 7:10 AM
dparrott.bsky.social
My pal wrote a book! I have read a chunk of it and I can say it’s pretty great. If you have any interest at all in Rome, I can highly recommend (it’s out now!)
rhigarthjones.bsky.social Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · Feb 14
I can't quite believe I'm saying this but: I wrote a book! And it's being published this May!

It's about Rome, its enduring appeal, the many different ways it has been interpreted, and how understanding this helps us see both the past and the world today more clearly.

geni.us/AllRoadsLead...
Book cover for All Roads Lead to Rome by Rhiannon Garth Jones, in a mosaic frame like the one used on the book cover, with the text "Out May 2025"
May 24, 2025 at 9:24 PM
dparrott.bsky.social
3 years ago I completely uprooted my life and moved to Denmark, to begin my PhD. Yesterday I handed in my thesis for examination. These have been some of the most challenging and rewarding years of my life, and it’s hard to believe it’s over.

(Thanks to
@izzywisher.bsky.social for the brooch cake)
Chocolate cake with raspberries and blueberries shaped like Viking Age oval brooch One happy boy sitting in front of his completed thesis on a computer screen.
January 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
dparrott.bsky.social
A good friend (@nateswitzer.bsky.social) recently pointed out to me that the gripping beasts adorning early 9 c. oval brooches are essentially just the Grateful Dead bears and now it’s all I can see

📸 me (brooch is from the Danish Island of Fyn)
A purple and green dancing cartoon bear A close up of an oval shaped brooch depicting two squat mammalian creatures with large ears that are grabbing at their mouths
January 23, 2025 at 4:16 PM
dparrott.bsky.social
Another brilliant paper by a brilliant archaeologist, and I’m not even biased a little bit
December 2, 2024 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Derek Parrott
judithjesch.bsky.social
Interested in the #Gjellestad #Viking ship discovered a few years ago? Read all about its context in this special issue of the journal Viking. journals.uio.no/viking/issue...
Vol 88 (2024): Viking Special Volume 2 – Viking Gjellestad | Viking
journals.uio.no
November 19, 2024 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Derek Parrott
izzywisher.bsky.social
Want to know more about why our Ice Age ancestors make art in the all-encompassing darkness of deep caves? Why not read my Aeon essay, that explores the sensorial experience of Palaeolithic cave art making 👇

(It also serves as a perfect introduction to my research!)

aeon.co/essays/why-d...
Why did our ancestors make startling art in dark, firelit caves? | Aeon Essays
New research transports us back to the shadowy firelight of ancient caves, imagining the minds and feelings of the artists
aeon.co
November 13, 2024 at 9:19 AM
dparrott.bsky.social
I guess I should introduce myself- I’m an archaeology PhD researcher at Aarhus who’s project focuses on the intersections between craft and art in the Viking Age, 3D scanning, and oval brooches from the early Viking Age (early 9th c) (like this gorgeous example from western Norway)
November 10, 2024 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Derek Parrott
izzywisher.bsky.social
Went hunting for Bronze Age burial mounds yesterday with @dparrott.bsky.social! It was just a little bit windy 💨
September 29, 2024 at 8:29 AM