Esther Addley

‘Beyond worried’: the families waiting to hear how Send overhaul will change their lives Already struggling to get help, families with children with special needs are concerned changes could make things worse

A huge privilege to speak to three incredibly impressive, very tired women (and many other families) for my piece about their anxieties for their children with special needs under the government's new reforms
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Thanks John x

Kamares crater banquet vessel with decorative lillies
Phaistos. , South Central #Crete.
Old-Palace period (1800-1700 BC)

#ancient #pottery #artwork
#Archaeology #art #History

Or a woman in a fresco from Pompeii? #MCRNetwork

The ‘Balmaclellan Mirror’ - an Iron Age mirror which was found as part of a hoard at Balmaclellan in Kirkcudbrightshire. Now part of the collections at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. 📸 My own. #BalmaclellanMirror #IronAge

Absolute chills

Have to love an ancient Egyptian artist who’s all “birds hell yes… mammals? yawn”

Archaeologists have discovered 3,400-year-old tombs in Cyprus yielding extraordinary riches: imported pottery—including this octopus krater—along with lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, Baltic amber, and more!

archaeology.org/news/2026/01/29/bronze-age-tombs-containing-luxury-goods-unearthed-in-cyprus/

A British Museum photo showing the reverse side of a silver stater coin from the ancient city of Eretria on the island of Euboea, Central Greece. The coin is roundish in shape, and in the centre there is a relief image of an octopus within a recessed square. The octopus has a bulbous head with a small round eye on either side. Beneath the head, eight arms curve gracefully, symmetrically arranged with four arms on each side, curling into a tight spiral at the tip. Diameter: 26 millimetres. Weight: 8.670 grammes. Dated circa 500-480 BC.

Ancient Greek silver stater (coin) with an octopus on the reverse side. 🐙

Minted in Eretria, Euboea, Greece, 500-480 BC.

Photo: British Museum www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

#Archaeology
#ReliefWednesday

A gleaming greyish-green polished stone axehead, lying on a pink baise background on display in the National Museum of Ireland.

Jadeitite Axehead • Donegal

This beautiful axe tells a story of trade, travel, and value in Neolithic Ireland.

Analysis revealed that it came from the Italian Alps, over 1500km away from where it was found in Donegal.

On display in @nmireland.bsky.social

#Ireland #SpéirGhorm #Archaeology 🏺

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

Trump paints himself as great white hope in racism-drenched Davos speech President’s anti-Somalia tirade and insults to European leaders were in line with aide Stephen Miller’s worldview

Also - amid all the rest of the Trump insanity, don't forget his absolutely repulsive racism
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy arriving home, say school officials Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to Texas

"An agent had taken Liam out of the car, led the boy to his front door and directed him to knock on the door asking to be let in, “in order to see if anyone else was home – essentially using a five-year-old as bait”, the superintendent said in a statement."

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Cage cup from Cologne, dated to the mid-4th century. Collection Staatliche Antikensammlung, Munich

#Roman #Glass #artwork #art #History #Archaeology

I love this SO much! @theduncanmackay.bsky.social has excelled - the story of THAT carnyx. In playmobil…

The Aughnacliffe Dolmen a megalithic tomb in County Longford. It consists of an enormous boulder used as a capstone perched on top of a tall portal stone at the front and a smaller arrangement at the rear

Aughnacliffe Dolmen • Longford

Aughnacliffe is one of the most remarkable and distinctive of all of Ireland’s portal tombs.

Despite looking somewhat precarious, it has stood here for more than 5,000 years.

#Ireland #Archaeology 🏺 #SpéirGhorm

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

Woman pulled out of UK ultramarathon after death threats over Afghanistan fundraising Sarah Porter was running 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South race when security team had to disable tracking device

She was running the #spinerace for Afghan women and girls. She was pulled out because of death threats. I’ll put her fundraiser page in the next post. Let’s support if we can.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

A roughly carved wooden idol with a human head and elongated body in a museum display case

Ralaghan Idol • Cavan

This striking figure was hewn from yew around 3,000 years ago. It was found deep in a Cavan bog on what was once an ancient boundary.

It is now on display in the Kingship and Sacrifice exhibition in the @nmireland.bsky.social

#Ireland #SpéirGhorm #Archaeology 🏺

Archaeologists discover signs of Roman industrial hub at site in Sunderland Discovery of more than 800 whetstones, used to sharpen weapons, seen as one of the most significant finds in northern England for a century

When we were filming, the dating evidence hadn't come in. There was a pot that could have been Roman.... And there was a Roman coin in a different context... Tantalising, but...

Now, JUST IN TIME FOR BROADCAST, the OSL dates are in -- and...

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

#DiggingForBritain

Cornish tin was sold all over Europe 3,000 years ago, say archaeologists British team says new study ‘radically transforms’ understanding of bronze age trade networks

So much significance of this story that was first report May 2025 that it's made its way onto #DiggingForBritain Series 13.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025... @toriherridge.bsky.social

Red paintings of stick figures carrying bows and arrows running, on a grey stone background

Out on a hunt! 🏹

Rock art that I spotted on a boulder near Lake Mutirikwi in Zimbabwe

I love the details of the bows and arrows, and their long legs as they run!

They're likely several thousand years old

#RockArtThursday

📸 Mine

#archaeology #africa #photooftheday 🏺

Edinburgh has this gem:

Former Labour MP and defence minister Sir Patrick Duffy dies aged 105 Duffy, believed to be UK’s longest-living former MP, survived a plane crash in Orkney Islands during second world war

More here
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

‘I’m blessed. I’m still here’: ex-MP Patrick Duffy, 103, publishes memoirs Oldest surviving MP can clearly recall the 1926 general strike, part of his long and immensely eventful life

Belatedly, I was v sorry to see Sir Patrick Duffy died at the weekend at 105. I interviewed him last year and he was still a proud Irishman, a fabulous host (champagne!) and one of the vv few to remember the general strike of 1926... Quite a life.
www.theguardian.com/politics/art...

‘Extraordinary’ iron age war trumpet find in Britain may have Boudicca links Bronze instrument or carnyx dug up in Norfolk in area inhabited by Celtic tribe led by warrior who fought Romans

Absolutely sensational find in Norfolk - the most complete carnyx or Iron Age battle trumpet ever discovered, anywhere. Buried in the first century AD in the territory of the Iceni…

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

It's #MosaicMonday and miserable in the UK so here's an early Winter personification from Bignor Roman villa. It's from a room that had underfloor heating and was probably a dining room.

www.romansociety.org/Imago/Image-...

From iron age tunnels to YouTube: Time Team’s ‘extraordinary’ digital renaissance Three decades after its modest beginnings on Channel 4, the TV juggernaut now has its own channel and global subscribers

Loved speaking to some of the original Time Team about its Youtube renaissance
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

‘Permanent winter’: a day in the life of a hospital dealing with flu and strikes The Guardian gained rare access to Royal Stoke university hospital to see how staff free up beds for patients in a gridlocked system

I spent a day at Royal Stoke University Hospital, where every day, all year round, feels like a winter crisis, say staff.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Lovely stuff