Rodney Mancuso

@amancuso.bsky.social

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Aspiring historian. Italophile. Purveyor of fluffy pastries.

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I get to live in a castle for the next four weeks: a rather exciting development.

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Rodney Mancuso

Once and for all: it is absolute bullshit to say ancient Greeks didn’t have blue. This idea has been debunked so many times it’s laughable. Ancient Origins article today: substack.com/home/post/p-... Kiwi Hellenist debunking it years ago: kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2020/05/anci... stop with this.

Hidden Hue: Why Ancient Civilizations Failed to See the Color Blue?substack.com Historical evidence reveals that humans possess the remarkable ability to render certain physical appearances invisible if they do not focus on them, including something as fundamental as a color. Spe...

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Proof of Burden

People who misinterpret what MLK was saying don't understand how much more expansive & absolute racial barriers to voting were in 1963. MLK understood non-violent protest was the only tool available to Black Americans at the time. King's "Give us the ballot speech" makes his thoughts clear.

Behold - my fun little thread on curse tablets & the Corinthian temple complex of Demeter & Kore.

I had to read a gigantor archaeological site report for a material culture class. The curse tablets were the most fun part. One in particular had to have had an amazing story behind it.

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Not putting this guy on blast, and I realize this will sound really fucking weird to my followers because I usually never say this, but- Christ, this is a very White opinion. No, actually when your family or loved ones are struggling with addiction you *do* have an obligation to try and help.

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Me: I teach college, my students are full grown adults, not “kids” & thus are collaborators in their learning. I am Guide On The Side, learning as much from them as they do from my material. Me, when a former student does well: THAT’S MY LITTLE BABY DUMPLING I’M SO PROUD OF YOU

Let the dogification of Bluesky proceed apace!

I have a dog to share

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So excited to see A World Made by Travel out in the world! Working with Giovanna Ceserani was the on-ramp for most of the work I do with #digitalhumanities and #earlymodern mobility today. Here are some of the most exciting parts of this digital publication for me 🗃️ 1/? aworldmadebytravel.org

A World Made by Travel: The Digital Grand Touraworldmadebytravel.org In the eighteenth century, tens of thousands of travelers journeyed to Italy on voyages known then and since as the Grand Tour. These travels in the age of Enlightenment contributed to a massive reima...

Next week, I fly to Italy for my first archaeological fieldwork trip courtesy of some fine folks at OU & TAMU-Commerce History. Exciting stuff! I'm mostly shouting into the void, but welcome any recommendations, advice, etc. Have floppy hat, sunscreen and work boots.

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lol who did this

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A humbling feeling to have witnessed firsthand the discovery of some of these charcoal drawings thought to be the handiwork of children in Pompeii. The stick figures hunting and fighting across the walls are wonderful but it’s the outlines of hands that are especially touching🖐🏿 🏺

Adventures In Grocery Shopping #2387 Dear Diary. Today the high school kid ringing me up turned out to be a delightful and gregarious young man. Right up until our final interaction when, before finalizing the sale, he asked, "Are you a senior?"

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Reply to

Sean Eric Fagan

But they did. They listened to the news and information sources they trusted, just like you and I do. This woman had the very rare experience of then getting first hand knowledge that showed her she had been lied to.

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I feel sorry for less popular German animals. It sucks to feel like you're second Tier

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The flight of the Elves to Valinor in the third age and resulting loss of institutional knowledge had significant consequences for technological development in Middle-earth. In this essay I will

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this absolutely rules www.bbc.com/news/science...

Pompeii: Breathtaking new paintings found at ancient citywww.bbc.com Archaeologists unearth significant new paintings in the ancient Roman town buried by a volcano in AD79.

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One of my passions is preserving the history of the fanfiction community. And one of my favorite universities doing this work is Texas A&M University. In addition to the large sci-fi/fantasy collection (the papers of @marthawells.bsky.social!) they have many fanzines. Check out this video from 2022

Huge Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection | Texas A&M Todaywww.youtube.com Find out why George R.R. Martin donated his archives to Texas A&M as we put a spotlight on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection, as featured on Episode...

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some of the names of the streets of Babylon at its height: "Bow down, O haughty one" "May the arrogant not flourish" "HIs protection is not good for the feeble" "What god compares to Marduk?" "Gladden his land! Worship is his gift!"

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"Prolonged effort in research would certainly be useless if we were not allowed to improve upon previous opinions. " Etenim supervacuus foret in studiis longior labor si nihil liceret melius invenire praeteritis. sententiaeantiquae.com/2024/04/06/c...

Changing Your Mind is the Point of Researchsententiaeantiquae.com Quintilian, Inst. Orat. 3.6. “I admit that I now have a bit of a different opinion from what I believed before. Perhaps it would be safest for my reputation to change nothing which I not only belie…

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Ed Watts on Mary Beard’s new book. lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

The Crisis of Classical Studies: On Mary Beard’s “Emperor of Rome” | Los Angeles Review of Bookslareviewofbooks.org Edward Watts reviews Mary Beard’s “Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World.”...

Found out yesterday that my paper proposal to an SCS panel put together by @metalclassicist.bsky.social was accepted. Excited is an understatement. This will be my first presentation at a national conference and comes just in time for PhD applications. (Never mind the insanity of pursuing this.)

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Your new password should be 7000-9000 words including footnotes and bibliography.

fuck everything, we're doing five-factor authentication

I just learned - and so shall you, gentle reader - that in French pie charts have nothing to do with pie but are instead 'camemberts.' I'm not sure why I find this so amusing.

Really, 1891? Do better.

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this is what happens when you rely too much on government regulations instead of the tried and true method of following an albino dolphin

From a local Texas newspaper, 1852: "No physician doubts that precocious children, fifty cases for one, are much the worse for the discipline they have undergone. The mind seems to have been strained, and the foundation for insanity is laid." Discipline = corporal punishment? Being strict?

Kind of blown away by Douglas Boin's book on Ostia. So much fascinating stuff and I'm not even a third in. And lots of it super useful to my research on spolia. Just wish I'd come across it earlier.

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Just once, in-continuity, i want someone to go, "you're not gonna decompose ME down to my component waveforms and reconstitute my essential pattern someplace else! That's basically just murdering and cloning me!" And then the bored transporter tech just says, "Ship of Theseus," & slides them sliders

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Brb setting up an extremely Jewish vivarium with a tiny Egyptian city and a frog

Rabbi Akiva always makes Torah more interesting. Let the giant Pesach kaiju frog be your new Pesach mascot.