Mark Humphries
profmarkhumphries.bsky.social
Mark Humphries
@profmarkhumphries.bsky.social
Professor of Ancient History
Reposted by Mark Humphries
After Islamic State militants took Mosul, Iraq in 2015, they vandalised the Mosul Cultural Museum and its collections. Now, the museum is gradually being brought back to life so that the citizens of Mosul can again identify with and learn from Iraq’s rich cultural heritage.

🏺 #Archaeology 1/2
November 15, 2025 at 2:28 PM
More defaced images of Constantius II and Eudoxia from Friday's Being Human event in Cardiff.
November 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Really busy week, part two. I was invited by colleagues in Cardiff to participate in a Being Human Festival event on satire for high school pupils. I got them to deface images of Constantius II and Eudoxia in line with how those figures had been lampooned. The results were fabulous.
November 15, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Really busy week, part one: on Wednesday I participated in an online discussion of Hendrik Dey and Fabrizio Oppedisano's new book in Justinian's Legacy. Thanks to colleagues at Perugia for honouring me with the invitation.
November 15, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Pedagogical highlight of the week: (1) discussing Ammianus Marcellinus' account
of the death of Valentinian I, in which the emperor, in his fatal seizure, attempts to communicate by flailing his arms like a boxer; and (2) having one of the students voluntarily acting out what this looked like.
November 7, 2025 at 5:54 PM
And now for something completely different: more proofs! This time featuring: how I became a historian of the ancient world thanks to the combined effects of a trip to Egypt and growing up in Belfast and Dublin.
November 4, 2025 at 10:33 PM
This is a terrific novel. The cadences of the language brought me back to a Belfast I left more than forty years ago.
October 10, 2025 at 7:48 AM
All set for an orchestral concert for the first time in goodness knows how long. I used to go quite frequently to such events. I couldn't pass up a chance to listen to the mighty Seventh: it must be twenty years since last I heard it performed live.
October 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM
#readingcharitably Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, from the Swansea Oxfam Bookshop. A lyrical exploration of the meanings of humanity and existence. The looming presences of the Earth and the space station impressiveness not as much as the astronauts carrying all humankind's dreams and anxieties.
September 26, 2025 at 4:11 PM
In my lunch today, I found a happy chickpea with a very unconvincing comb over.
September 24, 2025 at 12:29 PM
More proofs. This time for a review of a gem of a book.
September 24, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Exciting new series from @livunipress.bsky.social , Translated Texts from Antiquity (TTA to join TTH and TTB) , launches with two excellent volumes on #pomponiusmela and #suetonius I'm very honoured to be involved in this new venture.
September 17, 2025 at 9:09 PM
#readingcharitably I just finished Bernardine Evaristo's _Girl, Woman, Other_. (Purchased for a quid in the Swansea British Heart Foundation shop.) What a revelation of a book: a life affirming, celebration of a Britain enriched by multiculturalism and intersectionalities.
September 17, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Summer reading 2025, eclectic as ever. (Not shown: articles, typescripts, student drafts.)
September 17, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Hunting the (bitter and belligerent) legacy of antiquity in Place Vendôme, Paris.
September 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Not only have I made the TTH book cover drawings into t-shirts, but today I wore one (Conference of Carthage 411) to visit its inspiration, Van Loos' Augustine disputing with the Donatists, Note Dame des Victoires, Paris @livunipress.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Congratulations to Dr Croman @croeuan.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Further adventures in wearable book covers: tie-dye Hormizd II #TTH @livunipress.bsky.social
August 6, 2025 at 10:03 AM
This dropped into my inbox from the Climate History network and might be of wider interest. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The Future of (Environmental) History: A Roundtable Discussion | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | Cambridge Core
The Future of (Environmental) History: A Roundtable Discussion
www.cambridge.org
August 5, 2025 at 3:45 PM
#readingcharitably A surprise purchase (from Oxfam Books in Swansea, naturally). I think Mario Vargas Llosa was the first "grown up" author I read for fun, with his "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter". This one gripped me from beginning to end.
August 5, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Wearable book covers! I turned a few of my Translated Texts for Historians cover drawings for @livunipress.bsky.social into summer attire.
July 29, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Mark Humphries
I know it's only part time, since this is cover for Alison Cooley being made head of Warwick Institute of Advanced Studies (take it up with the powers who decide these buy outs), but there is a 3 year teaching gig at in Roman history at Warwick.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNX770/a...
Assistant Professor (Teaching Focussed) in Roman History (110578-0625) at University of Warwick
Apply now for the Assistant Professor (Teaching Focussed) in Roman History (110578-0625) role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
www.jobs.ac.uk
July 15, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Celebrating 40 years of Translated Texts for Historians with @livunipress.bsky.social
July 9, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Mark Humphries
Happy International Day of Ogham! Although the OG(H)AM project has sadly now finished, work on ogham continues. Here is a sneak preview of our digital corpus, still under development, but due to be launched in September! #InternationalDayOfOgham
#OG_H_AM
July 8, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Mark Humphries
Coming to a bookshop or more likely a library near you later this year, in 2 volumes

brill.com/display/titl...
A Companion to Rome (c. 400–1050)
"A Companion to Rome (c. 400–1050)" published on 27 Nov 2025 by Brill.
brill.com
July 7, 2025 at 2:40 PM