I am annoyed with the editors of Archaeological Prospection and the media and how it handles this Gunung Padang controversy

Nobody has gone and talked with local Indonesian archaeologists. None provide the correct date of the monument nor even stated it's not a pyramid
/1 Misinformation and disinformation is successful because it fills up the internet with wrong information and overwhelms correct information

This retraction by the editors at Archaeological Prospection is not enough

Local archaeologists know about the site. They've excavated it

📢📢📢

I recently learned the teaching of ancient languages at Cardiff University (@cardiffuni @CUHistArchRel) is under threat: Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew & Sanskrit

SIGN AND SHARE this petition created by ancient history and archaeology students
1/7

change.org/p/reverse-card… From its foundation 130 years ago, the teaching of languages - including Welsh, Latin, and Ancient Greek - has been a central emphasis @cardiffuni

Multilingual inscriptions around campus can be found, but future students might not be trained to read those in ancient languages
/2

In his new Netflix “documentary” #AncientApocalypse, @Graham__Hancock has declared war on archaeologists

His rhetoric sows distrust in experts, and #Atlantis conspiracy theories promote white supremacy

Buckle up, it’s time for an #ARCHAEOLOGY THREAD 🧵
/1 This thread will examine

1)Hancock's lack of evidence
2)How Hancock’s narrative recycles 19th century ideas on #Atlantis
3)The rhetorical tools Hancock and similar conspiracy theories use

/2

Ackshually, as an archaeologist who studies ancient Greece, this entire situation is eerily similar to the Trojan War

If we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. A #history thread:

https://twitter.com/Lollardfish/status/1590847055445954561

Musk was given a choice by 3 goddesses

1. Stay the richest man in the world till his dying day
2. Take humans to Mars
3. Be the most talked about person on the planet

Like Paris, he had to make his decision in a split second, and he chose vanity over everlasting glory

I've been trying to download my archive... No dice

Thankfully, I've drafted most of my threads in word and many of my photos are nicely organized

If anyone needs me, fortunately my name is pretty unique (the advantage of being named after a rock) and I'm on the internet

https://twitter.com/indyfromspace/status/1590855651949174786

Places i will surely post if Twitter collapses

patreon.com/flintdibble (I'll include free essays there too)

youtube.com/c/flintdibble (maybe I'll even join TikTok)

archaeo.social/flintdibble

Come find me for your archaeology fix, mixed with stupid jokes

I think this overestimates academic Twitter. Every time Hancock or Rogen tweet about this show it gets thousands of engagements. My tweets, as an archaeologist with a Twitter following, get hundreds

Better to debunk & share real archaeology than let pseudos dominate the space

https://twitter.com/DSAArchaeology/status/1590744136251895808

Like go check out Hancock's profile. His advertisements for the show have each racked up thousands of likes and hundreds of retweets and congratulatory replies

We've got nothing on their following and barely tip the scale

Most people have zero sense of what 21st century archaeology actually is, and we need to share what it is wherever people are

To really think that a multiphase site "isn't complicated" is absurd
/1 Look closely at the posted photo

Let's zoom in on a few architectural details that show its complexity

And importantly, we aren't seeing artifacts or soil. That's a huge problem with amateur digs. Understanding excavation is more than just the most impressive thing found
/2

This brief thread answers the question of who is the Stranger (the Meteor Man) in the Rings of Power

The key clue is the word "Peril" and how it's used in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
1/9 Words and language meant a great deal to Tolkien who studied language, invented languages, and chose his words with extreme care

A textual analysis of words in Tolkien's texts reveals his world and characters
2/9

Nearly 1,900 years ago, a scholar named Pausanias wrote an eye-witness account of his travels through Greece

There’s no better ancient text for visualizing the archaeology of the ancient Greek world

A thread about digital approaches to Pausanias & archaeology. #SwanseaCA2022
/1 In spring 2021, Julie Hruby & I were supposed to lead a group of @dartmouth students on a trip to Greece (cc: @Classics22FSP)

Covid nixed it

Instead, my class traveled digitally to Greece with Pausanias as our guide using online Classics & archaeology resources
/2

Shatner continues to feud with archaeologists

What amazes me are the defenses I see for him: 1) he's just an actor doing a job and 2) someone else is running his social media account

Shatner is using his name to promote pseudoscience & attacks on experts. He deserves critique

https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1511486622654730251

If he's letting some arrogant schlub tarnish his name on social media, then that's his own fault

He's using his celebrity platform to denigrate experts

This feud is now in the media. He knows what he's doing whether he wrote tweets or not. He doubles down on pseudoscience

School yard bully? @WilliamShatner I challenged you to a debate not a fistfight

I am outraged. I see a childhood hero profiting from twisting the hard work of archaeologists who devote our lives to uncovering, preserving & sharing our shared human past. You spread disinformation

https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1511019139271311371

@WilliamShatner you just want to play a game and rile your 2.5 million following

I work hard to share real archaeology with the public. Hundreds of thousands of people have read my Twitter threads. I've raised funds to help colleagues in war-torn Ukraine

https://twitter.com/FlintDibble/status/1508763071560437763

This is not archaeology. These are not archaeological questions. This just promotes conspiracy thinking

https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1509893378250485761

@WilliamShatner might have 2.5 million followers, but my tweet almost had as many likes as his

I think what people want is Real Archaeology

ARCHAEOLOGY OF UKRAINE THREAD

The invasion of Ukraine threatens lives and livelihoods, but there are ways we can all pitch in to help preserve Ukrainian culture and help Ukrainian people

PLEASE HELP the Ukrainian scholarly journal, Arheologia
/1
gofundme.com/f/support-the-… The articles in Arheologia cover over 30,000 years of archaeology in Ukraine from the Stone Age to today. It’s an open-access journal, free for all to read: arheologia.com.ua/index.php/arhe…

This thread highlights the importance of Ukrainian archaeology & how YOU CAN HELP the journal
/2

Ancient Athenian Horses

A thread about horse bones from thousands of years ago
/1 Today the @ASCSAthens exhibition Hippos: The Athenian Horse kicks off

A centerpiece of the show is this horse skeleton I analyzed from the cemetery at ancient Phaleron, outside of Athens
/2

This article on the topic of pseudoarchaeology explains why I do my own homegrown science communication for the public

Good archaeologists are quoted here, but too much airtime is given to pseudoarchaeologists

A thread about who built the pyramids
/1

inputmag.com/culture/altern… There is no scholarly debate over who built the pyramids, nor is there a reason for scholars to debate YouTubers over who built them

The pyramids are splendid monuments. I know because I've seen them and climbed in them

But, there's no real mystery in their technology
/2

Contrary to what all the epidemiologists are telling you, we actually know a lot about #Omicron

A short thread filled with Classical facts
/α Omicron is the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet

It literally means ὂ μικρόν or "small o" to distinguish it from the last letter in the Greek alphabet: Ω omega (the big O)

Remember that when making your O face
/β

Hi old and new followers!

I’m an archaeologist who writes Twitter threads. They’re a window into the past looking at ancient people & a behind-the-scenes tour of 21st century #archaeology

Here’s an intro to my new project: #ZOOCRETE
/1 cc @CUHistArchRel @Cardiffuni @MSCActions We’re all familiar with the popular picture of ancient Greece, from the Mask of Agamemnon to the Parthenon in Athens

But, to me, the most exciting revolution sweeping archaeology is a shift to ordinary people. With new questions & methods, we can see them in higher resolution
/2

Pseudoarchaeology and fake history causes real harm in our society

Many people think, what’s the harm of hunting for a lost city? It’s entertainment, right! It even exposes children to real science

CW: The harm leads directly to racism and eugenics
1/18 The host of #HuntingAtlantis (@stelpavlou), and unfortunately his wife, have claimed that their TV show inspires children to be curious about real facts, real scientific methods, and real archaeology

This might be true in some cases, but there are problems with this argument
/2

I have apparently pissed off some powerful people with my tweets about Atlantis

For a bit my account was locked. i have done nothing offensive. This TV show has misrepresented archaeologists and scholars. If some lawyer asks me, I can prove it

Bring it on, report my account i'm not sure why someone's wife decided to write a 20 tweet thread about me, with the first tweet about my who my dad was

I am an archaeologist. I am a good archaeologist

Atlantis is just not real

The fact @PeterSinger thinks the takeaway point of The Golden Ass by Apuleius is about "animal rights" is more proof that he's a eugenicist

Lets take a journey back to 2nd c CE Roman Greece in this brief thread about one of the earliest novels ever written (now w/ alt-text)
/1

https://twitter.com/AntigoneJournal/status/1399005982706081796

The Golden Ass is a fun read filled with sex, drugs, magic, violence, and lots of (often sexist) comedy

Lucius is a young man interested in women and magic

He falls for a woman enslaved to a witch. They eat magic herbs, make love, and he is accidentally turned into a donkey
/2

This #archaeology thread gives a behind-the-scenes look at the new @discovery show “Hunting Atlantis” hosted by @stelpavlou & @jessphoenix2018

I present findings based on years of interdisciplinary research into the archaeological and historical context around Atlantis
/1 The secrets presented in this thread will anger a large swath of people

They’ve already begun trolling me and other scholars in my cabal after we first spoke up about #Atlantis

BUT I WILL NOT BE SILENCED

the truth will prevail
/2