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Peopling The Past
@peoplingthepast.bsky.social
3K followers 41 following 240 posts
Free, open-access resources for teaching and learning about real people in the ancient world #PeoplingPodcast #PeoplingVideos #PeoplingBlog
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In this scene, Demeter appears as the veiled figure, with one hand raised to her head suggesting a gesture of mourning. In front of her, five women and a boy perform a dance leading toward an altar, attended by a priestess with a sacred winnowing fan /end.
Image of a red-figure kylix. In this scene, Demeter appears as the veiled figure positioned at the far left, with one hand raised to her head suggesting a gesture of mourning. In front of her, five women and a boy perform a dance leading toward an altar, attended by a priestess with a sacred winnowing fan
November 4, 2025 at 6:37 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
This particular kylix is attributed to the Painter of the Burgon Sianas and dates from 560–550 BCE. Connecting back to the harvest theme, the kylix possibly depicts a scene from the Thesmophoria, an agricultural fertility festival celebrated by the wives of Athenian citizens /2
Image of a red-figure kylix. In this scene, Demeter appears as the veiled figure positioned at the far left, with one hand raised to her head suggesting a gesture of mourning. In front of her, five women and a boy perform a dance leading toward an altar, attended by a priestess with a sacred winnowing fan
November 4, 2025 at 6:37 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
In honor of the gathering season, November's #ImageOfTheMonth is dedicated to a prominent element of Greek gatherings: a red-figure kylix (a drinking cup) that played a starring role in ancient festivals and symposia 🧵 /1
Image depicting a red figure kylix. In this scene, Demeter appears as the veiled figure positioned at the far left, with one hand raised to her head suggesting a gesture of mourning. In front of her, five women and a boy perform a dance leading toward an altar, attended by a priestess with a sacred winnowing fan
November 4, 2025 at 6:37 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
This manifesto is a collective Egyptian attempt to tell the world how to treat our Egyptian mummified ancestral remains with respect; not as museum pieces or tourist curiosities, but as human bodies that once belonged to real people, all of whom have contemporary Egyptian descendant grandchildren /2
Members of the writing team pose for a selfie
October 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
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In this week’s #PeoplingBlog post, our Egyptian colleagues from the Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage project offer us a 12-point manifesto which highlights the ways in which the public can treat Egyptian mummified ancestral remains with dignity and respect
peoplingthepast.com/2025/10/31/b... 🧵 /1
Peopling the Past blog logo and logo for "Egypt's Dispersed Heritage" with text that reads: "What should you do when you encounter one of our Egyptian mummified ancestors? A 12-point Manifesto on How to Dal with Egyptian Mummified Ancestral Remains with Egypt's Dispersed Heritage Project."
October 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
This manifesto is a collective Egyptian attempt to tell the world how to treat our Egyptian mummified ancestral remains with respect; not as museum pieces or tourist curiosities, but as human bodies that once belonged to real people all of whom have contemporary Egyptian descendant grandchildren /2
Members of the Egypt's Dispersed Heritage team pose for a selfie.
October 31, 2025 at 2:51 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
For the final throwback on our countdown to Halloween we return to our series on the presence of the Undead. Melissa Cradic guides us through the complexities of excavating ancient graves and relationships between the living & the disembodied dead in the Near East peoplingthepast.com/2022/10/21/b...
Graphic featuring the Peopling the Past blog logo, the full title of blog post 67 “Beyond the Grave with Melissa S. Cradic, and an image of an Apulian red-figure volute krater depicting Hades and Persephone in the Palace of the Underworld
October 30, 2025 at 2:34 PM
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Our countdown to Halloween continues with today’s look back to our series on monsters and demons in the ancient world!
Check out #PeoplingBlog #35 Researching Monstrosity in Greek Literature with Fiona Mitchell here:
peoplingthepast.com/2021/10/08/b...
Graphic featuring the Peopling the Past blog logo, the full title of blog post 35, and an image from a Greek vase painting showing a winged monster diving towards a ship filled with sailors.
October 29, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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Our countdown to Halloween continues today as we look back to our series exploring the presence of the Undead and highlight #PeoplingBlog 68: Controlling the Restless Dead in Mesopotamia with JoAnn Scurlock
peoplingthepast.com/2022/10/28/b...
Graphic with title of the blog post and an image of an ancient Sumerian cylinder seal impression showing the god Dumuzid being tortured in the underworld by galla demons.
October 28, 2025 at 2:11 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
As we approach Halloween, it’s time to dig into the archives to highlight some of our spooky content! 😱
Today, we look back to our series on “Cursing in the Ancient World” with Blog #87 The Perils of Love: Love Spells in Coptic Magic with Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin
peoplingthepast.com/2023/10/20/b...
Graphic with title of the blog post and an image of a papyrus fragment featuring Coptic text.
October 27, 2025 at 2:55 PM
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And if you enjoyed these episodes, you can check out all #PeoplingPodcast episodes and so much more at
peoplingthepast.com/category/pod...
#Ancient #Mediterranean #Podcasts /end
Graphic listing the top 5 episodes. Season 3, Episode 12: How do you Solve a Problem like Cleopatra? : Shelley Haley and the last Egyptian Pharoah Season 1, Episode 2 – Spindles and the City with Dr. Katherine Harrington Season 2, Episode 12 – Breaking the Bond: Forced Marriage and Cursed Freedom in Ancient Rome with Katharine Huemoeller Season 3, Episode 10 – These Boots are Made for Walking: Women’s Mobility and Migration in the Roman Empire with Marie-Adeline Le Guennec Season 3, Episode 2 – Call the (Roman) Midwife: Ancient Delivery and Childbirth with Tara Mulder
October 24, 2025 at 3:36 PM
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In celebration of our recent fifth birthday, Peopling the Past is counting down the top 5 of each of our media categories! Today we are giving a shout-out to the top 5 #PeoplingPodcast episodes! 🧵👇 /1
Peopling the Past podcast logo with text reading "top 5 #peoplingpodcast episodes!"
October 24, 2025 at 3:36 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
And if you are interested in finding out more about Lisa’s work, you can also check out episode 4 of #PeoplingPodcast Season 4 – “Curating with Care: Transparency in Museums with Lisa Saladino Haney” – peoplingthepast.com/2025/05/20/s...

#Ancient #Mediterranean #Egypt #Archaeology
Lisa stands in the middle of a museum space.
October 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
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In our new #PeoplingBlog post, Dr. Lisa Saladino Haney takes us through her work on the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s new “Egypt on the Nile” project, in which they are re-imagining the ways that we conceive of museum exhibitions related to ancient Egypt: peoplingthepast.com/2025/10/17/b...
Image of painting depicting mummification process. Text on border reads "Blog Post #111: Telling New Stories: Do We Need to Display the Egyptian Dead? with Lisa Saladino Haney"
October 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
You can check out these top 5 videos, and all our other #PeoplingVideo content over at peoplingthepast.com/category/vid... /end
Graphic reads: Video #1: Disability in Ancient Greece with Dr. Debby Sneed Video #14: Kara Cooney talks about Women and Power in Ancient Egypt Video #10: Katherine Blouin talks about the Cult of Isis Video #17 Tattoos in Ancient Egypt with Anne Austin https Video #16: The Hyksos with Danielle Candelora
October 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
In celebration of our recent fifth birthday, Peopling the Past is counting down the top 5 of each of our media categories! Today we are giving a shout-out to the top 5 #PeoplingVideo contributions across the years /thread 🧵👇
Peopling the Past video logo
October 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
The curse translates to: “I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memory; thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed, nor be able … nor …” .
#Ancient #Mediterranean #Curse #Halloween /end
A thin lead sheet with pierced holes.
October 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
The reason that prompted the curse is unknown, but the zeal of the cursor is evident: the tablet was pierced with seven holes (a magic number) on the back, perhaps to increase it's power. It’s a chilling reminder of how ancient Romans tried to bend fate and silence their enemies /2
A thin lead sheet with pierced holes.
October 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
In the spirit of Halloween, October’s #ImageOfTheMonth is a particularly cursed item: a Roman curse tablet (defixio) from 1st–4th century CE London (British Museum 1934,1105.1).
This thin sheet of lead wishes ill-health to a woman named Tretia Maria /1
A thin lead sheet with holes pierced in it.
October 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
We are thrilled to share that #PeoplingPodcast has been named at #9 in Feedspot's "100 Best Egypt Podcasts You Must Follow in 2025"! You can check out the full list here for all the amazing follow suggestions: podcast.feedspot.com/egypt_podcas...
Peopling the Past podcast logo
September 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
Goran Sanev is an archaeologist and curator adviser at the National Archaeological Museum of North Macedonia in Skopje, North Macedonia, and a PhD candidate in Archaeology at Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on classical pottery and its dissemination in the Central Balkan region /end
A headshot photo of Goran. He is wearing a shirt and tie, with a baby blue sweater/ He stands in front of a bookcase filled with books and is smiling.
September 26, 2025 at 2:48 PM
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In today’s #PeoplingBlog we continue our “Unknown Peoples” Series! Read on as Goran Sanev takes us through the historical and archaeological evidence for the Paeonians, one of the oldest proto-historical communities in the Central Balkans: peoplingthepast.com/2025/09/26/b... /1
Two stone tablets inscribed with Greek text.
September 26, 2025 at 2:48 PM
peoplingthepast.bsky.social
In celebration of our fifth birthday, Peopling the Past is counting down the top 5 of each of our media categories! First up is the #PeoplingBlog!

In fifth spot is Blog #56 "Lessons from the Past: Archaeology and Migration", with @meganjdaniels.bsky.social peoplingthepast.com/2022/04/01/b... 🧵
Peopling the Past logo with the additional text "top 5 blogs!"
September 19, 2025 at 3:29 PM
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Today we celebrate FIVE years of Peopling the Past! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who has contributed to and supported our project – we appreciate ALL of you!
And stay tuned over the next few weeks as we count down our top 5 blogs, videos, and podcast episodes from the past 5 years 👀
The Peopling the Past logo with the text "Five years of Peopling the Past! Thank you for all of your support!"
September 16, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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Lylaah is a PhD candidate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University and is committed to an intercultural study of antiquity from the Mediterranean to South Asia and Africa, exploring cultural exchange, transmission of knowledge, and movement of people (and beasts) /2
Lylaah stands leaning against an open doorway with her arms and legs crossed. She looks relaxed and is smiling.
September 12, 2025 at 2:50 PM