Stori3d Past
@stori3dpast.bsky.social
Harold Johnson. Maine (from away!). Bookseller. Pilgrim. Word Guy. Skeptic. History & Archaeology. Tolkien. Trek. Italy. Old English. Used to make YouTubes, now I make typos. 19th C antiquarian — Sideburns included! 🏺📖🧙🏻♂️
Pinned
Stori3d Past
@stori3dpast.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Just thought you should know.
Norse and Danish mead-horns sometimes had feet.
Norse and Danish mead-horns sometimes had feet.
"As you get older, time ceases being precisely linear. It loops back on itself, throws up clues, invites you to examine evidence that was there all along but you were too busy to notice."
- Nigel Richardson
'The Accidental Detectorist'
- Nigel Richardson
'The Accidental Detectorist'
And a piece of an object that definitely once formed part of a bigger object is called a "partefact"!
November 15, 2025 at 1:06 AM
"As you get older, time ceases being precisely linear. It loops back on itself, throws up clues, invites you to examine evidence that was there all along but you were too busy to notice."
- Nigel Richardson
'The Accidental Detectorist'
- Nigel Richardson
'The Accidental Detectorist'
Liking the lingo in "Accidental Detectorist" - shotgun shells are shotties; featureless coins are coins of nothingness; shredded tin cans are canslaw; and weird iron chunks are BOATs - bits off a tractor.
Big props to "Accidental Detectorist" for going into good but readably brief detail about archaeological context, the laws around the Treasure Act, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. As well as the conflicts & cooperations between detectorist mindsets & archaeological mindsets.
New read, "The Accidental Detectorist" by Nigel Richardson. A travel writer whose wings were clipped by Covid lockdowns looks for a more local adventure.
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
November 15, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Liking the lingo in "Accidental Detectorist" - shotgun shells are shotties; featureless coins are coins of nothingness; shredded tin cans are canslaw; and weird iron chunks are BOATs - bits off a tractor.
So apparently hornets cause more human deaths per year in Italy than all other animals combined!
Watching a documentary on Mt Etna. It's wild. The volcano's been active 200,000 yrs. Every ~20 yrs life gets fully wiped out. Then it recolonizes, starting with lichens that prepare the surface for a succession of ever-higher plant, insect, & eventually animal life. Which then gets wiped out again.
November 14, 2025 at 11:01 PM
So apparently hornets cause more human deaths per year in Italy than all other animals combined!
Watching a documentary on Mt Etna. It's wild. The volcano's been active 200,000 yrs. Every ~20 yrs life gets fully wiped out. Then it recolonizes, starting with lichens that prepare the surface for a succession of ever-higher plant, insect, & eventually animal life. Which then gets wiped out again.
November 14, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Watching a documentary on Mt Etna. It's wild. The volcano's been active 200,000 yrs. Every ~20 yrs life gets fully wiped out. Then it recolonizes, starting with lichens that prepare the surface for a succession of ever-higher plant, insect, & eventually animal life. Which then gets wiped out again.
Sometimes a little preparation is worth it. Happy Friday, and Happy Brandy Manhattan O'Clock.
November 14, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Sometimes a little preparation is worth it. Happy Friday, and Happy Brandy Manhattan O'Clock.
The cat is still not allowed on the printer. But now there is a nice soft dish towel on it so she can break the rules in comfort.
November 14, 2025 at 8:25 PM
The cat is still not allowed on the printer. But now there is a nice soft dish towel on it so she can break the rules in comfort.
In Ultima VII, the Fellowship preaches "The Gospel of Wealth" -- the idea that God wants his followers to be rich in this world. A very popular twisting of Christianity by televangelists still today as it was 30+ years ago.
It of course it has its flip side -- if you're poor, it's your fault.
It of course it has its flip side -- if you're poor, it's your fault.
November 14, 2025 at 7:17 PM
In Ultima VII, the Fellowship preaches "The Gospel of Wealth" -- the idea that God wants his followers to be rich in this world. A very popular twisting of Christianity by televangelists still today as it was 30+ years ago.
It of course it has its flip side -- if you're poor, it's your fault.
It of course it has its flip side -- if you're poor, it's your fault.
I forgot how insidious The Fellowship is. If it looks like a cult, talks like a cult, & acts like a cult, it's a cult!
It's amazing though how easily cults work. All it takes is a charismatic presence to offer struggling people a lifeline.
I don't know how that will ever stop working.
#UltimaVII
It's amazing though how easily cults work. All it takes is a charismatic presence to offer struggling people a lifeline.
I don't know how that will ever stop working.
#UltimaVII
November 14, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I forgot how insidious The Fellowship is. If it looks like a cult, talks like a cult, & acts like a cult, it's a cult!
It's amazing though how easily cults work. All it takes is a charismatic presence to offer struggling people a lifeline.
I don't know how that will ever stop working.
#UltimaVII
It's amazing though how easily cults work. All it takes is a charismatic presence to offer struggling people a lifeline.
I don't know how that will ever stop working.
#UltimaVII
Reposted by Stori3d Past
This makes me so happy - not least because Anna Laetitia Barbauld was 'cancelled' for writing this fearless reformist poem, which deserves to be better known. Want to discover her vision of time travel and a future England in ruins? It's in #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems! 😄 Thank you, Leonie!
November 14, 2025 at 2:24 PM
This makes me so happy - not least because Anna Laetitia Barbauld was 'cancelled' for writing this fearless reformist poem, which deserves to be better known. Want to discover her vision of time travel and a future England in ruins? It's in #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems! 😄 Thank you, Leonie!
Big props to "Accidental Detectorist" for going into good but readably brief detail about archaeological context, the laws around the Treasure Act, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. As well as the conflicts & cooperations between detectorist mindsets & archaeological mindsets.
New read, "The Accidental Detectorist" by Nigel Richardson. A travel writer whose wings were clipped by Covid lockdowns looks for a more local adventure.
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
November 14, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Big props to "Accidental Detectorist" for going into good but readably brief detail about archaeological context, the laws around the Treasure Act, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. As well as the conflicts & cooperations between detectorist mindsets & archaeological mindsets.
Reposted by Stori3d Past
Just one week to go until my Roman Lamps and Deities workshop at The Roman Army Museum part of the Vindolanda Trust, Hadrian'sWall. Still a few places left. 🏺#AncientBluesky #Archaeology www.vindolanda.com/Event/potted...
Potted History Oil Lamps and Deities Workshop - 22/11/2025 10:00:00
22nd November Roman Army Museum In this course, you will learn about the manufacturing methods employed by Roman craftsmen and create your own Roman goddess figurine and a fully functioning Roman oil ...
www.vindolanda.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Just one week to go until my Roman Lamps and Deities workshop at The Roman Army Museum part of the Vindolanda Trust, Hadrian'sWall. Still a few places left. 🏺#AncientBluesky #Archaeology www.vindolanda.com/Event/potted...
If you thought grammatical commentaries didn't need a defense, boy were you mistaken.
November 14, 2025 at 3:59 AM
If you thought grammatical commentaries didn't need a defense, boy were you mistaken.
New read, "The Accidental Detectorist" by Nigel Richardson. A travel writer whose wings were clipped by Covid lockdowns looks for a more local adventure.
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
November 13, 2025 at 9:57 PM
New read, "The Accidental Detectorist" by Nigel Richardson. A travel writer whose wings were clipped by Covid lockdowns looks for a more local adventure.
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
20 pages in, I like it a lot! Smart, funny, ethical, poignant. With what seems to be a cast of characters straight out of "Detectorists."
Hell with it. Ultima VII Part I is a great story and I can just pretend that the rest never happens. Diving back in.
Also, Nerd Achievement: reading the runic map without a translator 🤓
Also, Nerd Achievement: reading the runic map without a translator 🤓
November 13, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Hell with it. Ultima VII Part I is a great story and I can just pretend that the rest never happens. Diving back in.
Also, Nerd Achievement: reading the runic map without a translator 🤓
Also, Nerd Achievement: reading the runic map without a translator 🤓
In "The Wood Pile" (which I'm reposting here in full), Robert Frost elevates an abandoned cord of firewood so that it feels like a hoard of Roman gold. Abandoned through some whim or calamity, to be discovered in after-days.
November 13, 2025 at 6:44 PM
In "The Wood Pile" (which I'm reposting here in full), Robert Frost elevates an abandoned cord of firewood so that it feels like a hoard of Roman gold. Abandoned through some whim or calamity, to be discovered in after-days.
The cat is not allowed on the printer.
November 13, 2025 at 4:12 PM
The cat is not allowed on the printer.
Reposted by Stori3d Past
For years I've tried to get someone interested in this remarkably rare 1570s Spanish legal deed from Cuzco, Peru that I picked up randomly.
With online transcription/translation services booming, I tried one of the better ones out (Leo). It gave me...
With online transcription/translation services booming, I tried one of the better ones out (Leo). It gave me...
November 13, 2025 at 1:09 PM
For years I've tried to get someone interested in this remarkably rare 1570s Spanish legal deed from Cuzco, Peru that I picked up randomly.
With online transcription/translation services booming, I tried one of the better ones out (Leo). It gave me...
With online transcription/translation services booming, I tried one of the better ones out (Leo). It gave me...
"I have had too much
Of apple-picking:
I am over-tired
Of the great harvest
I myself desired."
- Robert Frost
'After Apple-Picking'
Of apple-picking:
I am over-tired
Of the great harvest
I myself desired."
- Robert Frost
'After Apple-Picking'
"For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough & no doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most change we think we see in life
Is truths being in & out of favour."
- Robert Frost
'The Black Cottage'
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough & no doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most change we think we see in life
Is truths being in & out of favour."
- Robert Frost
'The Black Cottage'
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
November 13, 2025 at 2:38 AM
"I have had too much
Of apple-picking:
I am over-tired
Of the great harvest
I myself desired."
- Robert Frost
'After Apple-Picking'
Of apple-picking:
I am over-tired
Of the great harvest
I myself desired."
- Robert Frost
'After Apple-Picking'
Imagine being a tree. Day to day, month to month everyone thinks you're just sitting there. But you're not. You're an unstoppable force. A juggernaut. You will destroy concrete, brick, rock. All you need is time.
November 13, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Imagine being a tree. Day to day, month to month everyone thinks you're just sitting there. But you're not. You're an unstoppable force. A juggernaut. You will destroy concrete, brick, rock. All you need is time.
"For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough & no doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most change we think we see in life
Is truths being in & out of favour."
- Robert Frost
'The Black Cottage'
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough & no doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most change we think we see in life
Is truths being in & out of favour."
- Robert Frost
'The Black Cottage'
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
"Waste Land" done. On to another 20th C American poet just as multilayered & revolutionary as Eliot. But Eliot's poems seem to bleed WWI trauma - the old rules & values feeling meaningless. Frost reads like mossy stone walls in a woodland that was once a field - old ways finding new meanings.
November 12, 2025 at 11:03 PM
"For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough & no doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most change we think we see in life
Is truths being in & out of favour."
- Robert Frost
'The Black Cottage'
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough & no doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most change we think we see in life
Is truths being in & out of favour."
- Robert Frost
'The Black Cottage'
Reposted by Stori3d Past
Everything has either faded or fallen, but yet this witch hazel has burst into bloom.
November 12, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Everything has either faded or fallen, but yet this witch hazel has burst into bloom.
The penny is dead.
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
US Mint in Philadelphia presses final pennies as the 1-cent coin gets canceled
The U.S. Mint has ended production of the penny, a change made to save money and in recognition of the growing irrelevance of the 1-cent coin.
apnews.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:57 PM
The penny is dead.
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
Other US coin denominations that used to exist and don't anymore:
1/2 cent
2 cent
3 cent
silver half-dime (5 cents)
20 cent
$2.50
$5
$10
$20
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
"Waste Land" done. On to another 20th C American poet just as multilayered & revolutionary as Eliot. But Eliot's poems seem to bleed WWI trauma - the old rules & values feeling meaningless. Frost reads like mossy stone walls in a woodland that was once a field - old ways finding new meanings.
November 12, 2025 at 8:47 PM
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
They have to take you in."
- Robert Frost
'Death of the Hired Man'
"Waste Land" done. On to another 20th C American poet just as multilayered & revolutionary as Eliot. But Eliot's poems seem to bleed WWI trauma - the old rules & values feeling meaningless. Frost reads like mossy stone walls in a woodland that was once a field - old ways finding new meanings.
November 12, 2025 at 8:12 PM
"Waste Land" done. On to another 20th C American poet just as multilayered & revolutionary as Eliot. But Eliot's poems seem to bleed WWI trauma - the old rules & values feeling meaningless. Frost reads like mossy stone walls in a woodland that was once a field - old ways finding new meanings.