Jonathan Last
@johnnythin.bsky.social
They’ve already started…
November 12, 2025 at 9:17 AM
They’ve already started…
Here's an image that I wasn't able to post earlier - this is the opening paragraph of the article
November 11, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Here's an image that I wasn't able to post earlier - this is the opening paragraph of the article
A poem for #TombTuesday on 11 Nov: Kipling's 'London Stone'. There's nothing jingoistic in this bitter reflection on loss. The Stone is the Cenotaph, but I wonder if he also had in mind that older London Stone, the legendary protector of the city, which Blake saw as a place of sacrifice...
November 11, 2025 at 6:53 PM
A poem for #TombTuesday on 11 Nov: Kipling's 'London Stone'. There's nothing jingoistic in this bitter reflection on loss. The Stone is the Cenotaph, but I wonder if he also had in mind that older London Stone, the legendary protector of the city, which Blake saw as a place of sacrifice...
It reads: "Dear Ett, There isn’t a photo of the camp we are in here, but it is at Bulford Camp but in a different part. Best love from Renz xxxxxxxx"
Stonehenge seems incongruous amidst the wartime development, but maybe that wasn't quite the case at a time when the stones had a more sinister edge…
Stonehenge seems incongruous amidst the wartime development, but maybe that wasn't quite the case at a time when the stones had a more sinister edge…
November 9, 2025 at 8:33 AM
It reads: "Dear Ett, There isn’t a photo of the camp we are in here, but it is at Bulford Camp but in a different part. Best love from Renz xxxxxxxx"
Stonehenge seems incongruous amidst the wartime development, but maybe that wasn't quite the case at a time when the stones had a more sinister edge…
Stonehenge seems incongruous amidst the wartime development, but maybe that wasn't quite the case at a time when the stones had a more sinister edge…
What's through the not-quite-square window behind Stonehenge on this #StandingStoneSunday and #RemembranceSunday? Why, it's an entire concertinaed military landscape of camps and barracks! This 'novelty card' was written to Miss E. Nixon of Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1916 but never posted… 🧵
November 9, 2025 at 8:33 AM
What's through the not-quite-square window behind Stonehenge on this #StandingStoneSunday and #RemembranceSunday? Why, it's an entire concertinaed military landscape of camps and barracks! This 'novelty card' was written to Miss E. Nixon of Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1916 but never posted… 🧵
It’s William Stukeley’s birthday 🎂 His landscape views are often just as interesting as the drawings of monuments - here’s his Prospect of Kits Coty House in Oct 1722
November 7, 2025 at 8:35 AM
It’s William Stukeley’s birthday 🎂 His landscape views are often just as interesting as the drawings of monuments - here’s his Prospect of Kits Coty House in Oct 1722
As it's Richard Jefferies' birthday (born #OTD in 1848), here's an extract from a piece he wrote for The Graphic in 1877 about flint: "all along the vast caravan route, so to say, of the human race… in cave and mound, and river, the chipped flint is found, the stamp, as it were, of [man's] presence"
November 6, 2025 at 7:17 AM
As it's Richard Jefferies' birthday (born #OTD in 1848), here's an extract from a piece he wrote for The Graphic in 1877 about flint: "all along the vast caravan route, so to say, of the human race… in cave and mound, and river, the chipped flint is found, the stamp, as it were, of [man's] presence"
On the Euston Road
November 3, 2025 at 10:07 AM
On the Euston Road
Surrey's heaths are a joy at this time of year. The photos are from today's dog walk on Smart's Heath, which exemplifies Oliver Rackham's statement that "Most surviving heaths have the characteristic shape of commons, with concave outlines, crossed by roads which enter the common by funnels"
November 2, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Surrey's heaths are a joy at this time of year. The photos are from today's dog walk on Smart's Heath, which exemplifies Oliver Rackham's statement that "Most surviving heaths have the characteristic shape of commons, with concave outlines, crossed by roads which enter the common by funnels"
Albury is not in the Peak District, whatever this fellow might have you believe... #SteepleSaturday
November 1, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Albury is not in the Peak District, whatever this fellow might have you believe... #SteepleSaturday
'Halloween High Jinks' in the Daily News in 1925: "One of the things that surprise Americans visiting England is the way that Halloween comes & goes without any notice from the bulk of the population. Only here and there, in scattered, remote farmhouses, and in the North, are any celebrations made."
October 31, 2025 at 7:27 PM
'Halloween High Jinks' in the Daily News in 1925: "One of the things that surprise Americans visiting England is the way that Halloween comes & goes without any notice from the bulk of the population. Only here and there, in scattered, remote farmhouses, and in the North, are any celebrations made."
In these reconstructions from the skulls "Mr. Forestier shows what manner of men & women they probably were who dwelt in that part of Moravia 20,000 years ago." For Arthur Keith, the woman lacks the "primitive features" seen in the man: "Woman's features point the direction in which evolution moves"
October 31, 2025 at 8:45 AM
In these reconstructions from the skulls "Mr. Forestier shows what manner of men & women they probably were who dwelt in that part of Moravia 20,000 years ago." For Arthur Keith, the woman lacks the "primitive features" seen in the man: "Woman's features point the direction in which evolution moves"
'New Light from the Greatest Treasure-House of Ancient Man': #OTD in 1925 the ILN splashed on the Upper Palaeolithic site of Predmost (Předmostí), Moravia, with numerous images, including portrait reconstructions by Amédée Forestier. The skeletal material was destroyed during WW2. #FossilFriday
October 31, 2025 at 8:45 AM
'New Light from the Greatest Treasure-House of Ancient Man': #OTD in 1925 the ILN splashed on the Upper Palaeolithic site of Predmost (Předmostí), Moravia, with numerous images, including portrait reconstructions by Amédée Forestier. The skeletal material was destroyed during WW2. #FossilFriday
The benefits of an early dog walk
October 30, 2025 at 7:55 AM
The benefits of an early dog walk
Mr Chubb bid on his wife's behalf, but it does seem true that it was done on a whim, because he's quoted to that effect (in the Wilts Advertiser)
October 29, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Mr Chubb bid on his wife's behalf, but it does seem true that it was done on a whim, because he's quoted to that effect (in the Wilts Advertiser)
I missed the news that Stan Beckensall sadly passed away a few weeks ago, at a ripe old age, but The Times has a nice obituary - and here he is on a fascinating trip to look at Swedish rock art in 2008 (my photos)
October 29, 2025 at 1:21 PM
I missed the news that Stan Beckensall sadly passed away a few weeks ago, at a ripe old age, but The Times has a nice obituary - and here he is on a fascinating trip to look at Swedish rock art in 2008 (my photos)
Here's Chubb's obituary in the New York Times!
October 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Here's Chubb's obituary in the New York Times!
When Chubb died in 1934 the South Wales Evening Post (perhaps not an organ of record, admittedly) wrote: "When motoring from Salisbury on a summer day 15 years ago, Chubb noticed a large crowd around Stonehenge. The pile was being auctioned. He immediately bought it and presented it to the nation…"
October 29, 2025 at 9:13 AM
When Chubb died in 1934 the South Wales Evening Post (perhaps not an organ of record, admittedly) wrote: "When motoring from Salisbury on a summer day 15 years ago, Chubb noticed a large crowd around Stonehenge. The pile was being auctioned. He immediately bought it and presented it to the nation…"
There are the colourful, in-your-face #Halloween displays, and then there are the things that lurk in the shadows and just catch the corner of your eye...
October 28, 2025 at 6:41 PM
There are the colourful, in-your-face #Halloween displays, and then there are the things that lurk in the shadows and just catch the corner of your eye...
For #TombTuesday here's the Modern Antiquarian himself at the massive Duggleby Howe Neolithic round barrow (38m diam, 6m high) on 28 October 1996, and the site as visited this month. An important series of Middle Neolithic burials were covered by the mound, which was enlarged in the Late Neolithic.
![Photo of Julian Cope at Duggleby from 'The Modern Antiquarian'. The text reads: "NOTES ON DUGGLEBY HOWE: 28TH OCTOBER [I2TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY] 1996 CE
Splash, splash, splash ... unseen clouds are dropping rain on me on this ... windy Duggleby Howe afternoon. The sun is blasting me from the west and my book got dripped upon, yet saved by my umbrella. Duggleby Howe is a remarkable place, an unchambered Maeshowe which has suffered at the hands of the agriculture which it was built to celebrate. Imagine the great Duggleby Howe surrounded by its great circular ring and ditch, the sacred whole swallowed by fields of ripening crops. Duggleby Howe was placed so cleverly that it gives the horizon a level view for all 360 [degrees] and the Silbury effect was clearly well-engineered and important. From all views, especially quite distant ones, Duggleby Howe stands proud of its surroundings, a regal agricultural monument."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7ggib3rrlsl4bi5pcrna6o42/bafkreibrhuwcmqc7muevkuz3cf57pbo7ienrq3caearog54f6g2ytyrrci@jpeg)
October 28, 2025 at 11:18 AM
For #TombTuesday here's the Modern Antiquarian himself at the massive Duggleby Howe Neolithic round barrow (38m diam, 6m high) on 28 October 1996, and the site as visited this month. An important series of Middle Neolithic burials were covered by the mound, which was enlarged in the Late Neolithic.
Its only value these days is in winding up people on X...
October 25, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Its only value these days is in winding up people on X...
These local oak trees (red oak?) are always good value this time of year, and not just for the colours - look at the size of those leaves 🍂
October 25, 2025 at 6:02 PM
These local oak trees (red oak?) are always good value this time of year, and not just for the colours - look at the size of those leaves 🍂
The church of St Peter & St Paul, Albury, in autumn sunlight yesterday, and the interior of the tower, which is raised above the chancel of the original Saxon church and topped by a picturesque early 19th-century cupola #SteepleSaturday
October 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
The church of St Peter & St Paul, Albury, in autumn sunlight yesterday, and the interior of the tower, which is raised above the chancel of the original Saxon church and topped by a picturesque early 19th-century cupola #SteepleSaturday
"It's a very sad thing to be caught in the rain
When night's coming on upon Salisbury Plain"
When night's coming on upon Salisbury Plain"
October 21, 2025 at 4:18 PM
"It's a very sad thing to be caught in the rain
When night's coming on upon Salisbury Plain"
When night's coming on upon Salisbury Plain"
One of the key sites for medieval archaeology in Britain, the deserted village of Wharram Percy in the Yorkshire Wolds, as seen last week #MedievalMonday
October 20, 2025 at 6:40 AM
One of the key sites for medieval archaeology in Britain, the deserted village of Wharram Percy in the Yorkshire Wolds, as seen last week #MedievalMonday