Jeremy Simmons
Historian at UChicago working on Indian Ocean trade and the wider ancient world. More than occasionally talks about the doggo. Opinions my own.
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsIn mid-2023 I was invited to speak about the 3rd Century Crisis at a conference in Copenhagen. By the time I was writing the paper later that year, the irony of writing about ancient crises from a position of safety in a world full of real violence (in the very same places) was almost too much.
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- It is indeed on the banner 😊 bsky.app/profile/prin...
- People keep writing me that the cover for my book (out later this year) is on the @princetonupress.bsky.social booth's banner at the AIA/SCS, so I thought I'd share it here! Just overjoyed and so grateful to the PUP team for bringing it to life
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsHey historians, if you're sick of AI and digital slop then come to our Jan 9th #AHA2026 panel at the Field Museum to explore artifacts of the Java Sea Shipwreck collection! 🌊 12th-13th cen recovered objects will be on special display for the session. aha.confex.com/aha/2026/web... @historians.org
- People keep writing me that the cover for my book (out later this year) is on the @princetonupress.bsky.social booth's banner at the AIA/SCS, so I thought I'd share it here! Just overjoyed and so grateful to the PUP team for bringing it to life
- For more info: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
- I sadly won't be at AIA/SCS this year, but I hope to follow along from afar. This feed I made last year should hopefully still work (it collects #AIASCS and similarly tagged posts)—in case it's of use to anyone else! bsky.app/profile/did:...
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsStudying history and reading novels both get us out of our own heads, the first by helping us to imagine different worlds, and the second by prompting us to inhabit different subjectivities. Those who do neither are forever imprisoned in the here, the now, and the self.
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsThe search for the next director of the Classical Summer School at the AAR, to start in 2027-28, is now open. Be my successor! www.aarome.org/about/open-p... Please share with anyone who might be interested in applying. You’d get to shadow me for a week in 2026. Happy to answer any questions!
- Reposted by Jeremy Simmons📖 Feiertags-Lesetipp: Jahrbuch des DAI Die aktuelle Ausgabe 140/2025 des #JdI wartet u.a. mit indischen, größtenteils lokal hergestellten Artefakten auf, die im ptolemäisch-römischen Berenike am Roten Meer in Ägypten ausgegraben wurden. 👉 Das und vieles mehr: publications.dainst.org/journals/jdi
- Reposted by Jeremy Simmonstoday is all about watching people come up with entirely new ways of being wrong like we're experiencing breakthroughs in the field of error studies nobel committee rushing to cobble together a Prize for Inaccuracies epistemologists' heads spontaneously exploding from the falsity vibrations
- Managed to stop by the Met’s “Divine Egypt” exhibit. Some of my favorites were on the later side!
- Here’s a link to the objects on display www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/... #ancientbluesky 🏺
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- Some important monkey business!
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- Excited to dive into this new book by @berangere.bsky.social on the routes through Egypt's Eastern Desert! #AncientBlueSky 🏺 books.openedition.org/momeditions/...
- And another long-awaited publication to add to the list—this time two volumes related to the EIAD project (hisoma.huma-num.fr/exist/apps/E...), which cataloged ancient south Asian epigraphy from Āndhradeśa #AncientBlueSky 🏺
- Nice to see all these recent finds—including an edition of the inscription—in a single publication!
- Astonishing finds excavated at Berenike in Egypt include Buddha images & other artifacts from India and some made locally in Indian style, plus a bilingual Sanskrit & Greek dedicatory inscription found near a marble Buddha head in an Isis temple courtyard. publications.dainst.org/journals/jdi...
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- Reposted by Jeremy Simmonsone of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsEnd of an era in American Jewish history.
- Happy start to the autumn quarter to all who celebrate!
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsThis is much more comprehensive than my own list, and reassuringly familiar from my experience of marking. I’ll be sharing the list with my students, both to think about writing for different audiences (encyclopaedia articles) and being aware of the weakness of LLM generated text.
Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
- Reposted by Jeremy Simmons"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
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- Another important review
- An important review
- ‘The coast exerts an increasing pull on the collective cultural imagination as Greco-Macedonian ships enter new waters under Alexander and his successors.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on the coast in the ancient world: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsAfter the Roman Republic fell in 27 BC, the Roman Empire flourished for another 450 years. Could the same thing happen here?
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsI did it the other way
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsConsidering getting this passage from the NYT article printed on totes for our art history majors. Too much?
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsSo, if humanities produce good job outcomes, humanities have a secure ROI that bring in more than they cost, and STEM now has an even lower ROI due to grant cuts…. shouldn’t we invest more in humanities where less $$ goes a longer way? Apparently not. We should ask why not. /9
- Reposted by Jeremy Simmonsas someone who doesn't have to imagine, let me tell you that it's ass
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsDecades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.
- We certainly did *not* have Pompeii to ourselves—hot, crowded, and too much touching (had to tell off someone reaching for plastered human remains in the antiquarium!). But we managed to see some old and new favorites, as well as a friend who is excavating there
- Oplontis, by contrast, was deserted, which always shocks me given the richness of the site and its proximity to Pompeii. Simply stunning paintings and plasters—and the space to appreciate them fully
- We (amazingly) had a lot of ancient stuff all to ourselves today. First, a series of *spectacular* hypogea, tombs in (re)use from the fourth c. BCE on. Such amazing details preserved on the walls and funerary couches. I got a kick out of the modern lamp bases next to the ancient painted candelabra
- Then the archaeological museum in Capua, with its weird and wonderful finds, especially from before the Punic Wars. Such a mix of materials and influences: pottery with inset bronze, wild fibulae, imitative bucchero nero, and lots of terracotta
- And, finally, the imperial amphitheater at Capua. Something for everyone: romps in cryptoportici and substructure; adjacent Samnite tombs; wonderful sculpture. There was even an exhibit for those who come just for the gladiators
- Had a bit of a time getting here (a wild flight delay), but started strong with some treats in Naples and on Ischia
- Took the afternoon to beat the heat on Ischia—just gorgeous!
- We’re off to the Bay of Naples for some much needed R&R—with plenty of ancient sites and delectable eats @heintgestae.bsky.social
- Congrats to the newly minted Dr. @heintgestae.bsky.social! So proud of her 😊
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsThe linked article lists Classical Studies as one of the departments at Indiana University that "could lose its main offerings." This is a major US university with a distinguished tradition in Classics. Dire news.
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- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsIn my book on the polis, I argue that despite of nativist ideology, the realities of citizenship, based on communal acceptance & successful performance of duties, meant a certain porosity. I.e. precisely not the maximalist cruelty of Miller's immigration policy, carried bout by ICE thugs.
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- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsA few new followers, so wanted to mention that Mercator will be a part of the upcoming June Steam Next Fest! It's a shopkeeper game about ancient trade from India to Rome and in between. Check out the trailer and the Steam page: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1pp... store.steampowered.com/app/3268870/...
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsWe are pleased to announce that the 2025 Erich S. Gruen Prize is now open for submissions! All graduate students in North America are invited to enter the annual competition for the best graduate research paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean www.classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...
- A student brought me baklava (yiayia-endorsed no less) 😋
- In the midst of grading papers—lots of feral semicolons—so I just couldn't resist. 10/10
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- My contribution to this volume, "Coining Koine: Reading Numismatic Images in the Context of Global Exchange," looks at how visual aspects of coinage contributed to an interconnected Indian Ocean world. Check it out—open access! #AncientBlueSky 🏺
- Our latest open access book is out! Classical Art and Ancient India is available in print and free online www.carc.ox.ac.uk/carc/publica...
- Teaching my last classes at UMD. Having all the feels
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsJames Tan brings the economy back in. Our understanding of the Roman economy has advanced hugely in recent decades, but that hasn’t (yet) affected how we interpret the politics of the Republic’s fall. He shows some paths to do that. doi.org/10.1515/9783...
- Spending some time with this bad boy in class today www.loc.gov/resource/g32...
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsIndia tries to halt auction of Piprahwa gems found with Buddha’s remains, which it says “constitute inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
- Reposted by Jeremy SimmonsIf I may, I wouls also add this volume books.openedition.org/momeditions/.... More generally the Red Sea Conferences' publications are not cited.
- While I agree with much of this article, it's limited by its Anglophone focus (it's also missing some key works in English). Archaeology/material evidence is the fastest growing area of the field, but there has been important work on other aspects too (e.g., textual sources, theoretical frameworks)
