Marie-Claire B

My photo shows a small figurine of an amber bear carved some 10,000 years ago during the Danish Mesolithic period. The bear is seen in profile facing right. The legs are incomplete. The ears, muzzle, and mouth are defined. The figurine is displayed on a small metal stand. The display lighting shines on the bear’s head and neck enhancing the translucence of the orange amber. The neck of the bear has a polished groove indicating it was once suspended on a cord or string. Length 6.5cm. The Fanø bear was found in 1991 on a beach on the west coast of the Danish island of Fanø, located off the south-western coast of Jutland. In the Stone Age the Danish coastline was different from today. “Since then the coastline has been influenced by later changes to the sea level as well as the rising up of the land after the last Ice Age. This rising of the land is still going on today. North of a line on the map the land has risen up and south of the line the coast has become submerged because of the subsequent rise in sea level. Therefore a proportion of Stone Age settlements south of the “tilt line” now lie under water or at the edge of the beach. Thus objects can be washed out in the sea and later be found on the beach”. The Fanø bear is one of a small number of amber bear figurines from the Baltic Sea region which have been assigned to the Mesolithic period by means of a typo-chronological approach Amber has many amazing properties: it’s warm to the touch, it’s a glossy translucent colour when polished, it gives off a fragrant scent when burnt, and when rubbed against fur or hair it can produce static electricity which ‘magically’ emits green sparks in the dark and can make hair stand on end.

As the year draws to a close, I’m signing off 2025 with a magical find!

An ancient amber bear. Carved some 10,000 years ago, it washed up on a beach at Fanø, Denmark, from a submerged Mesolithic settlement in the North Sea.

✨ Happy New Year all! ✨

National Museum of Denmark
📷 by me

#Archaeology

On the first quarter of the 21st century's last day, a flowering epiphytic goldenrod from a few years back.

Let's make the next quarter the one in which our rainforests and other nature start recovering from terminal decline.

Ubaid period bowl from Eridu, southern Mesopotamia. A pale grey, shallow bowl painted with a cross-hatched design in a darker shade of grey. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain

Several fragmented pieces of Coarse Red Ware from Bahra 1, Kuwait. Hand-formed pottery vessels with coarse surfaces, ranging in colour from pale red to reddish brown (credit: Adam Oleksiak).

Bringing out the special plates for Christmas Dinner? 🍗
Prehistoric people had crockery for special occasions too! In Neolithic Arabia, imported Mesopotamian Ubaid Ware was an item of prestige, whereas locally-produced Coarse Red Ware more commonplace

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Screenshot from “Building a Teaching Community,” in bell hooks, “Teaching to Transgress” (1994)

Screenshot from “Building a Teaching Community,” in bell hooks, “Teaching to Transgress” (1994)

bell hooks on educator burnout and overwork (from “Teaching to Transgress”), www.hampshire.edu/sites/defaul...

Study Examines Performance of Serial COVID Testing - News Center Testing performance of rapid antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 improved for both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients after testing multiple times in 48-hour intervals, according to findings published in ...

Holiday gathering reminder 🎁

If your guests test w/rapids twice before the event, 48 hours apart, it’ll catch 63% of Covid cases even if they have no symptoms. Testing 3x improves that to 79%!

This is how we curb the annual January surge that gave me Long Covid—thanks for protecting yr community 🤍

A picture of the Playmobil Advent Calendar “Museum Theft”

How cool ist that – and absolutely up to date: the #Playmobil Advent Calendar “Museum Theft”

😀

New programme of 'Applied History Fellowships': launch and introductory event - RHS In 2025-26 the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), Royal Historical Society and DC Thomson will launch a new Applied History Fellowship partnership. Join us at this online session -- 2.30pm on Wed...

This week we also announced plans for a new Applied History Fellowship for postdoc historians, with @ihr.bsky.social and publisher DC Thomson bit.ly/4ofWArN

Fellowships will develop historical skills for use in workplaces beyond higher education. Launch event: 2.30pm, 19 Nov, online #Skystorians

Michael D Higgins in front of a ramp on a stunt bike

Catherine Connolly doing keepy uppies with a football

Once again delighted that the Irish people went with the option that was cool af

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

How One Of The Last Fez Makers In Cairo Keeps A 600-Year-Old Tradition Alive | Still Standing YouTube video by Business Insider

You want to watch this short interview w/ the last fez maker in Cairo. Absolutely incredible story - he’s using the exact same tools used by the ottoman era founders of the business because they can’t find replacements. Also learn the very politicized history of the fez.

youtu.be/KYPXGqtacpw?...

My grandfather died building that railway

New series from @EmpirePodUK
THE HISTORY OF GAZA

291. Ancient Gaza: The Philistines
Empire – Apple Podcasts share.google/7fne19kFfVLw...

Stunning sunset

Exactly!

West Cork Chamber Music Festival and West Cork Literary Festival billboard on the way into the town of Innishannon in West Cork

All roads lead to #Bantry at the moment. @westcorkmusic.bsky.social runs until Sunday & then WCLF 11-18 July. Such a thrill seeing our billboards in Innishannon and Dunmanway 😍 Chamber Festival image is from a painting by @tomcliment.bsky.social & WCLF image is from a drawing by Bernadette Cotter

Chamber Music Festival - Fringe Events - West Cork Music Welcome to the West Cork Chamber Music Fringe Festival, bringing world class classical music into the community for non-festival goers to enjoy for free!

Across West Cork's islands and peninsulas, towns and villages, you'll find free chamber music events during our 30th anniversary West Cork Chamber Music Festival this summer. 🎶

They give you a wonderful way to dip your toe into chamber music! bit.ly/4krK0mX

#WildAtlanticWay #Speirgorm

The cover of Sadiah Qureshi's Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction. It shows a historical image of an elaborated Mastodon skeleton towering above an elephant being ridden by a man, while a Native American man and a colonist in a suit and top-hat look on.

Vanished by @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social is such an exceptional book. It traces the history of how Western scientists have understood #extinction, and the political and social implications of that thinking, including on colonial fantasies of replacing Indigenous peoples. I can't recommend it enough! 👏

B&W lithograph of a group of people huddled in a boat, one using oars, one guiding with a long staff, one plunging his hands into the water below

"Refugees," a stunning early lithograph by African-American artist Robert Blackburn, one of most accomplished printmakers of the 20th century

Sinkful of blue packing peanuts just before I pour boiling water over them.

Seconds after getting the boiling water treatment: the peanuts have shrunk to nearly nothing

In case anyone doesn’t know this: if you get a parcel with a lot of packing peanuts and you don’t know whether they’re compostable, test one with boiling water. If compostable, it INSTANTLY wilts like spinach (plastic is unaffected).

A picture of a large, hot pink peony flower in full bloom

"And then, one fairy night, May became June." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Open Call: NYU Abu Dhabi Project Space Exhibition – submit proposal for a fully supported 2-4 week exhibition at the NYUAD Project Space in a slot in the 2025-2026 academic year. Apply by 9 June ... tinyurl.com/4evjsdzs

And then …

Pharmacies to provide free HRT for women from 1 June Pharmacies will start providing free hormone replacement therapy for women from 1 June after an agreement with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

Pharmacies will start providing free hormone replacement therapy for women from 1 June after an agreement with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Scientists just found a way to break through climate apathy In a field of muddy results, it's among the clearest findings that one cognitive scientist has seen in his career.

This is very cool. grist.org/science/brea...

Spectacular!

Palestinian Scholarship

Please share in your networks. Goldsmiths, UoL are offering 5 scholarships in Undergrad & MA courses for Palestinian students. The scholarships include: tuition fee waiver, £19,550 allowance, return trip to & from the UK.
Eligibility details & further info at link👇🏽
www.gold.ac.uk/fees-funding...

Pão de Queijo Is a Snackable, Naturally Gluten-Free Cheese Bread Make simple and gluten-free Brazilian pão de queijo with tapioca flour, milk, eggs, olive oil, and cheese. This easy recipe comes together in the blender and is great to make ahead.

This will make you feel better - I make several batches a week with lactose free feta and batter keeps in the fridge for a few days and you can also freeze in mini muffin trays www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy...

Spring Sunrise behind trees looking out over garden with daffodil leaves in the foreground

A glorious West Cork Spring sunrise

Same