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John Clibbens

@johnclibbens

Emeritus Prof at BCU: linguistics and psychology, archaeology, Old and Middle English, classical languages, choral singing…

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Latest posts by John Clibbens @johnclibbens

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Welsh language signs spotted in Helston Tesco in Cornwall One councillor hopes this is an opportunity for supermarkets to support Cornish more directly.

Whoops!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

04.02.2026 17:32 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Looking forward to singing this wonderful music at Buckfast Abbey tomorrow evening.

26.09.2025 19:21 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Enjoyable afternoon singing Fauré’s Requiem at Tavistock Catholic Church.

28.06.2025 15:40 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Pleasant day trip to Exeter, with a browse in the University library and a visit to RAMM.

25.06.2025 15:05 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Donald Trump’s new State Department appointee.

03.02.2025 17:25 👍 5192 🔁 2347 💬 948 📌 478
REF 2029 main and sub-panel recruitment   – REF 2029

We have just opened recruitment for the REF 2029 panels. There is no nomination process and we invite you to put yourself forward 2029.ref.ac.uk/news/ref-202...

16.12.2024 14:23 👍 6 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 2

The Ancient Greek noun ἰατρός 'healer' (as in English words like 'psychiatry') and the prefix ἀρχι- 'first' (as in 'archbishop') combined to form ἀρχιατρός, an official role of 'first physician'.

Put ἀρχιατρός through a few centuries of sound changes, and you get the German word for 'doctor', Arzt.

16.12.2024 18:02 👍 134 🔁 28 💬 6 📌 3
Map showing the location of Charterhouse Warren, Mendip, Somerset.

Map showing the location of Charterhouse Warren, Mendip, Somerset.

NEW Analysis of over 3000 human bones from Charterhouse Warren, England, indicates they were massacred, butchered, and likely partly consumed by enemies as a means to dehumanise them, questioning the idea that Early Bronze Age Britain was peaceful.

#AntiquityThread 1/18 🧵

16.12.2024 10:57 👍 118 🔁 28 💬 9 📌 15
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Humans may not have survived without Neanderthals A new DNA analysis has shown that the arrival of modern humans from Africa was far from smooth.

Far from triumphantly breezing out of Africa, modern humans went extinct many times before going on to populate the world, new studies have revealed www.bbc.com/news/article...

12.12.2024 20:19 👍 115 🔁 34 💬 4 📌 0
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#newscientistbandnames

02.12.2024 12:30 👍 29 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Importing the archive:

The New Scientist is the only source of band names you’ll ever need.

#newscientistbandnames

02.12.2024 12:28 👍 1100 🔁 417 💬 37 📌 57

Roses are redde
Noble are the manatees
Yf we wante a bettir future
Teach artes & humanityes

02.12.2024 19:26 👍 1978 🔁 655 💬 21 📌 20

Snëbbilc

29.11.2024 19:21 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Close-up image of a preserved, burnt textile fragment, highlighting the weave.

Close-up image of a preserved, burnt textile fragment, highlighting the weave.

NEW Analysis of two surviving textile fragments from Bronze Age Beycesultan Höyük, Anatolia, finds they were made with unique techniques and dyed blue, providing a rare example of the textile industry and luxury fabrics in ancient Türkiye.

A stylish #AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵

27.11.2024 12:30 👍 64 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 5

Gorgeous!

27.11.2024 19:40 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Visible but anonymous, with the sun behind us.

26.11.2024 18:35 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Close-up inspection of Silbury Hill with fellow Oxford MSc students, seven years ago.

26.11.2024 18:32 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

CAT ADVISORY: With temperatures remaining uncomfortably low and #StormBert on its way it's important that you find the warmest spot in the house and stay there. Tell your humans to keep the second warmest spot free in case you want a change of scenery.

22.11.2024 13:50 👍 15597 🔁 1395 💬 332 📌 51
The classic image of Colin Renfew. With trademark glasses and gentle smile.

The classic image of Colin Renfew. With trademark glasses and gentle smile.

Many of you will have heard of the sudden and sad loss of one of the foundation pillars of archaeology today. So much of our Heritage landscape was shaped by him. So let's take a moment to remember him, and what his legacy is.

Colin Renfrew . 25th July 1937 - 24th Nov 2024

25.11.2024 10:04 👍 46 🔁 10 💬 1 📌 0
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Storyville Books Bookshop UK Nestled in the rolling hills of the South Wales valleys, we are the only independent bookshop in Pontypridd, selling new books and more.

⚠️ Pontypridd has been hit by devastating floods and our wonderful independent bookshop, Storyville Books, has seen much of its stock destroyed.

If you’re able to buy a book from them, this would go such a long way to help support them rebuild in the aftermath.

👉 uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyvi...

24.11.2024 18:41 👍 1100 🔁 940 💬 32 📌 45

I still treasure the handaxe I made at one of your workshops a few years ago.

21.11.2024 20:21 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Finally tried out my Roman oil lamp, repro of a find from mid 1stC London, beneath Borough High Street in Southwark. Original was in MoL. Has a beautiful hobnailed sole🤩. Olive oil, bright light with little smell or smoke. I write about the original find in #Echolands

21.11.2024 20:17 👍 14 🔁 3 💬 3 📌 0
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After walking through a mini-blizzard to my singing lesson this morning, it was a rather lovely afternoon in Plymouth.

21.11.2024 17:20 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The copyright statement from Ephemeral City which reads in part: No part of this book may be used as data for ‘training’ any large language model or as part of any machine learning or neural network architeture. Human creaivity cannot be replicated by doing maths with stolen art. Altman, Andressen, and all their cronies can get fucked. Enquires should be made to the publisher.

The copyright statement from Ephemeral City which reads in part: No part of this book may be used as data for ‘training’ any large language model or as part of any machine learning or neural network architeture. Human creaivity cannot be replicated by doing maths with stolen art. Altman, Andressen, and all their cronies can get fucked. Enquires should be made to the publisher.

Publisher: Do you want to put an LLM clause in the copyright statement?
Me: Definitely. How specific can we get?
Publisher: As specific as you like.

17.11.2024 03:07 👍 11316 🔁 2904 💬 190 📌 237

So I’m going to start doing Old English Word of the Day posts on this platform very soon! Stay tuned…

19.11.2024 15:13 👍 71 🔁 7 💬 7 📌 1
A bright, confident Robin stands atop a log, its chest puffed out in full display of its orange-red breast. The bird tilts its head slightly upwards, as if preparing to take on the world with determination. Its slender legs are planted firmly, giving it the appearance of striking a victorious power pose. The surrounding mossy log and blurred green background provide a natural stage, emphasising the robin’s bold stance.

A bright, confident Robin stands atop a log, its chest puffed out in full display of its orange-red breast. The bird tilts its head slightly upwards, as if preparing to take on the world with determination. Its slender legs are planted firmly, giving it the appearance of striking a victorious power pose. The surrounding mossy log and blurred green background provide a natural stage, emphasising the robin’s bold stance.

Strike a power pose, it's Monday.

#MondayMotivation

18.11.2024 09:10 👍 988 🔁 139 💬 19 📌 6
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Weird #Archeaology.
The island of Samsø, Denmark, is home to a holy spring, that has been in use since the 12th century. This freshwater spring is located at the beach at Ilsemade.

Here's the weird bit: The tree trunk, the water is appearing from is C14-dated to the Bronze Age.

18.11.2024 14:52 👍 130 🔁 29 💬 3 📌 4

Word of this morning is ‘procaffeinate’: to put everything on hold until you’ve had sufficient amounts of coffee.

18.11.2024 08:15 👍 25092 🔁 3439 💬 771 📌 718
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University of Plymouth Choral Society Christmas concert - all welcome!

17.11.2024 19:40 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Love this. ‘Queue’ is from the French word with the same spelling (but pronounced as ‘kuh’) meaning an animal’s long tail.

In the 18th and 19th centuries it also referred to a pigtail and was sometimes spelled as ‘cue’, which gave us the name of the long thin rod used in snooker.

17.11.2024 09:44 👍 2437 🔁 224 💬 60 📌 10