Pinar S. 🦦
Used to be a Byzantinist, now an independent researcher, potter, part time translator and interpreter &person of leisure. Posts on history, art, archaeology, nature, mythology, folklore, the occult, books, language, καὶ τὰ ἕτερα. Team Oxford Comma.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦In old England, an ale-pole or ale-stake, set like a flagpole or suspended outside an inn, marked that fresh ale was on sale. Often dressed with ivy, long linked to Bacchus, the Roman god of drink and revelry, it called passers-by to stop and share the cheer 🍺 #FolkloreSunday
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦A small film of spring flowers from my garden because we recover from stress 60% more quickly when we look at plants & if we find them beautiful our brains release dopamine, lifting mood. Pause for a few moments to help your synaptic soup 🌿🧠:
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦‘‘Afraid?’ murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. ‘Afraid! Of HIM? O, never, never! And yet — and yet — O, Mole, I am afraid!’’ — Kenneth Grahame, ‘The Wind in the Willows’ (1908) #WyrdWednesday 🎨Arthur Rackham, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ (1939)
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦And here is the river Acheron, if you were wondering about a trip to Hades! Episode 2 of Divine Fury is out tomorrow, if you want to join me…
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦In Robert Eggers’ 2015 film ‘The Witch,’ the goat named Black Phillip tempts Thomasin by asking, ‘Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?’ #WyrdWednesday
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦The pwca is the black-furred Welsh version of the pooka - a forest goblin trickster. Sometimes a pwca uses a magic candle to lead travelers off the path, and other times a pwca transforms into a black animal, such a horse, and entices travelers to chase it. 🎨Tony DiTerlizzi #FairyTaleTuesday
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Wyrdlings! "But I like animals better than the best people," said Doctor Dolittle & since it’s his creator Hugh Lofting's 140th birthday, falling on the Feast of the Ass – yes, that was a thing in the Middle Ages – it’s: “Talking Animals!” as this week’s #WyrdWednesday topic. Heehaw!
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦I’m making great progress on my latest #painting: a hand painted #map of the main #megalithic sites in #Oxfordshire. I have literally no idea why I didn’t paint this yeeeears ago. #workinprogress #standingstones #ancientstonebothering #StandingStoneSunday #stonecircles @megalithic.bsky.social
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Elementary School Choir Sings the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple,” “Box of Rain,” “Brokedown Palace” & More: RIP Bob Weir
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Photos from Twelfth Night Wassailing on the Southbank, London, organised by The Lions Part theatre group. The Holly Man.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Look at my baby! ☺️ I reedited Modole folk stories published 110 years ago Old journals and archives are full of story collections in underdocumented languages, often difficult or impossible to access for both linguists and the speaker community. Using legacy material is valuable and sustainable 🙌🏻
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Fenrir wants to hold Tyr’s hand (courtesy of Gustave Doré).
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦The University of Vienna is offering 40 pre-doctoral positions in the humanities, social sciences, and cultural studies. Anyone interested can find more information here. Otherwise, please forward this post. careers.univie.ac.at/en/praedoc/p...
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦View of Oudenaarde in Winter, Edmond Van de Vyvere (1880-1950).
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦“The hard snow held me, save where now and then One foot went through. The view was all in lines Straight up and down of tall slim trees” (Robert Frost) 🎨 anihilova
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦“My colleagues are calling from downstairs, troopers are getting out from their tanks with guns and weapons, entering our building…” On 13 January 1991, Lithuanian TV presenter Eglė Bučelytė remains on air in a locked studio as Soviet troops storm the TV station
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Diocletian (284-305), the emperor who created the Tetrarchy (rule by four emperors). From Nicomedia (İzmit), now at Istanbul Archaeological Museums
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Part of the Neolithic stone circle at Castlerigg, near Keswick in Cumbria. Constructed in around 3000 BC, Castlerigg is one the earliest stone circles in Britain. 📸 My own. #StandingStoneSunday #Prehistory #Cumbria #Castlerigg
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦St Cuthbert’s Church, Crayke, North #Yorkshire “St Cuthbert” window (2020) #HelenWhittaker The detail shows the Tale of the Affectionate Sea Otters who were reputed to have warmed & dried Cuthbert's feet after a night of him meditating & praying whilst standing in the sea. #StainedGlassSunday
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Today in 1863 the world's first underground railway opened in London. Photos via Michael Rosen #Underground #London #Railways
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦For #StandingStoneSunday a #Neolithic human-shaped stela with a necklace and a belt, found in La Serre, Aveyron (#France). The lines on the cheeks are interpreted as facial #tattoos or scars. Dating 3000-2500 BC. In the late neolithic period several cultures living....🧵 1/2 🏺 #archaeology 📷 me
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Something lovely for the weekend! Minoan cups made by Bronze Age potters some 3,800 years ago! Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete 📷 by me #Archaeology
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦An Otter going about its business (swimming, diving, eating fish) on the River Clyde, east of Glasgow Green. If you watch to the end you'll get some other bonus fishing-beasts from the Clyde.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Brit pop demon hunters where the barrier that prevents the demons coming through is called the wonderwall. And one of the Gallaghers and Damon Albarn fall in love. Is this a thing?
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦A hoard of 21 silver pennies, dating back to the mid-7th to 8th centuries, has been saved for Oxfordshire’s museums following a successful community fundraiser. Villagers from Stoke Row, together with local businesses, raised £1,300 to acquire the treasure. news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/stoke-row-co...
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Iran is seeing some of the most serious protests since 1979. Assessing what is actually happening is extremely difficult: internet and phones are down; Starlink is being jammed, thanks (presumably) to tools from allies 1/6
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Itämeri is the Finnish name for the Baltic Sea, literally translatable as 'east sea'. Yet keen-eyed geographers will know that the Baltic is in fact on the west side of Finland. So, Itämeri must be a calque of a Germanic word, likely Swedish Östersjön, coined with the Baltic to the speaker's east.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦In that hour when the sky moves from nursery pink and blue to a bruised half-light, spirits wake. They walk towards us down alleys made sodium orange. IA legion of invisible things making themselves known in footsteps, in rough bumpings. – Lou Kemp, Hookland artist, 1982
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦An incantation to soothe anger from nearly 4 millennia ago for those in need of one. It begins by telling us what anger is and does. “Anger goes like a wild bull, it continually leaps forth like a dog.” Anger is like a lion and a wolf. It is fierce. It runs. It tears at one’s face and stomach.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Kick started the new work year with another installment of my 'research walk', retracing the parish boundaries of 17thC Portishead for my book on 'Everyday Life in the 17thC Village'. Got a taste of the 'Little Ice Age' - a period of colder temperatures that impacted the 17thC - by going out in -1!
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Perfect winter vibes and Christmas ghost stories. If the promised snow actually happens its the perfect book to curl up with
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Best Friends 01, Denia, Spain. I spotted these two best friends looking down on the street below from their balcony whilst wandering the streets of Denia in 2025. www.instagram.com/paulw_photog... #dog #cat #balcony #friends #spain #denia #travel_photography #travelphotography #animals #pets
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦West Kennett Long Barrow, Wiltshire, July 2023. #TombTuesday
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦The intense gaze in 'Madame Canals,' (1905) is the most remarkable feature of Picasso’s markedly classical portrait - it is a composition inspired by traditional Spanish portraits and evokes the typology of figures in Picasso’s previous works, characterised by their slenderness.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Happy birthday to the great Gustave Doré, #BOTD in 1832. What's your favourite artwork by him?
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦#BookRecommendation for #NationalBirdDay : Audubon as Artist: A New Look at The Birds of America (2024) amzn.to/4a720zl #BirdsInArt #AmazonAssociates
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦I have to admit, I'm stumped... Movies about birds, other than The Birds? Happy #NationalBirdDay :)
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦It’s #NationalBirdDay! 🐦 Even in winter, birds are all around us. What birds have you spotted so far this winter? Tell us below! Discover how you can help our feathered friends get through the winter in your own backyard with Small Acts of Conservation: secure.natureconservancy.ca/site/SPageSe...
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦#TheVictorianBookoftheDead #NationalBirdDay Artificial or stuffed doves were popular additions to funeral flowers . Seen here on Gates Ajar, pillow and sheaf-of-wheat arrangements.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Birds lay eggs in a diverse array of colors, patterns, sizes, and shapes. After looking at nearly 50,000 eggs from more than 1400 bird species, researchers in Science found that egg shape is related to flight ability. Learn more on #NationalBirdDay: scim.ag/3YUZkQc
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Today is National Bird Day! 🪶 One of our favourite items in the collections is a 19th century volume containing 76 watercolour illustrations by an unknown artist of birds local to Devon and Cornwall. 📷 EUL MS 23; digitised by @dhlabexeter.bsky.social #NationalBirdDay #BirdDay #Archives
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Good morning, my friend! It’s #NationalBirdDay! 2 pics of my nest-door neighbors from a weekend walk locally: “7 #swans a swimmin’” and too many ducks to count (but at least they’re all in a row!😉) Unbirdlievable how they all quacked me up! Happy Monday!
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦#NationalBirdDay Hellenistic mosaic floor panel from Pergamon depicting an Alexandrine parakeet. 🦜 The Alexandrine parakeet species is named after Alexander the Great, who is said to have brought several birds back from India.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Hares, William De Morgan.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦#NationalBirdDay - The colourful Bird Mosaic from Italica, Hadrian's patria (ancestral city), depicting 33 bird species. 🐦⬛🦆🪿🪿🦚🦜
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦… and when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him.” (Kipling) 🎨 Pascal Campion #wintersky
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦J.R.R. Tolkien, Using a Tape Recorder for the First Time, Reads from The Hobbit for 30 Minutes (1952)
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦Another freezing day -5 this morning 🥶 Still lots of Lapwings heading south.
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦#WyrdWednesday falls on St Distaff’s Day this year, when in olden days spinning commenced again after the holidays. A great time for storytelling, so we give you: "Wyrd Women's Tales!" As this week’s topic – come and tell your story!
- Reposted by Pinar S. 🦦The retention of vivid hues allows a window into the wearing of a garment that has survived more than 250 years. The #1750s caraco brocade bodice demonstrates the beauty of a supplementary weft allowing the flowers to float above the blue. Sold via #AugustaAuctions #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡
