Faces of Guangyuan. Here are some (previously unseen) photographs from late-nineteenth century Sichuan, China. They come from the unpublished journals of missionary Florence Beauchamp, and I’ll add some more when I can. [1/?]

So I have a funny story about Governor General Jules Leger. I was working in the gardens on the grounds as a summer student in 1972 (might have been 1973, I can't quite remember, but it was the first year that women were hired as labourers by the NCC).1/

One of the things that we had to do was rake The pebble gravel on the paths and that was my task this particular day. I was out raking when I saw a Columbo type man dressed in a fedora and a crumpled raincoat approach me.2/

At that time the grounds were open to the public so it wasn't particularly surprising to have someone wander up and we chatted. I realized that he had recently had a stroke and that his English, while fluent, was a little slow. 3/

Anyway, we had a very nice chat and the next time I saw him in the garden, I showed him some baby rabbits that had a nest in the front rotundra. He thought they were pretty adorable.4/

I was able to pick one up for him to hold, but it was difficult for him because one of his hands was quite paralyzed. Anyway, he thought this was very lovely and our regular chats continued.4/

So. I loved #TheDig. Despite being set in the 30's it evoked a lot of my early fieldwork experience in the 80's and some of the things archaeologists were gushing about are still pay of the experience today. And it also evoked the fantasy that I became an archaeologist to chase>

If you just want to enjoy it, and bask in the glow of archaeologists being happy for once, stop reading here >

Because, being aware of that fantasy, I'm also aware of corrosive elements, things that structure how archaeology works, both practically & in the collective imagination which work against that other fantasy, that my work can 'make a difference' contribute to progressive change>

The primary driver of the story is class & it's connection to skill & to land. EP has the right to the land, the choice to dig, the ownership of the artefacts because she is the landowner. We are meant to cheer along when the coroner decides in her favour>

BB is a man of the land, he literally knows the soil of Suffolk by feel. His skill & sense are central to the story. And they are credited with the discovery, which is the most important part of the process, not the analysis, care or interpretation>

Ancient Egypt was the most advanced civilization in the ancient world. Why was Egypt so special?

There are so many firsts in Egypt that we all know about, and that makes Egypt unique. For example, the Sumerians did not build the pyramids of Egypt.

Save as history

1. This is a thread about the Bristol Beaufighter & how it was the most important (if not the absolute ‘best’) heavy fighter of the SWW. Beaufighter origins go back to the Bristol Type 142 ‘Britain First’ built as a publicity stunt for Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere in 1935.

2. With a top speed of 278mph, this was considerably faster than the Hawker Fury, which could only manage 207mph. A specification for a fast medium bomber was issued for a revised version of the 142M, named the Blenheim.

3. By the time the war started all-metal monoplane fighters had eclipsed the performance of the Blenheim. Serious shortcomings in operational capabilities of all RAF aircraft were revealed during early wartime aerial activity, leading to heavy losses of aircraft & crews.

4. Lack of defensive armament, armour & self-sealing tanks were added to the problems of looming obsolescence. The huge number of aircraft ordered from shadow factories, along with delays to replacement models, kept the Blenheim in the front line much longer than it should have.

5. Fighter Command had 7 Blenheim IF squadrons at the outbreak of war. These were dual purpose day/night units, but by early 1940 were operating primarily as night fighters. The need to provide cover for east coast convoys led to the formation of 4 ‘trade protection’ squadrons.

Here I share what I witnessed about the uproar concerning the remarks of Rajinikanth on Periyar.The new film 'Darbar' by Rajinikanth washed out in Hindi, but that does not mean that on Twitter or national politics he can not trend. The new uproar is over his remarks at the .

50th anniversary celebration of Thuglaq, a Tamil political newspaper, about Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy.Referring to how Thuglak wrote about the intellectual patriarch of Tamil Nadu political parties such as DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam), Rajinikanth, who floated his own political party, when he organised a rally in Salem in 1971 where Hindu holy deities were allegedly displayed in a lewd way.This is how the actor mentioned the incident at the Thuglak event when he was speaking:
"In 1971, in Salem,

Periyar organised a rally featuring the undressed images of Lord Sriramachandramoorthy and Sita with a sandal garland. No other source wrote something about the protest, but Cho printed it on the front page of the paper and denounced it vehemently.Because of the publicity, the

ruling DMK government at the time got a bad reputation. DMK confiscated these copies of Thuglaq because they did not want others to hear about the protest."Many Dravidian groups staged protests and filed complaints with the police against Rajinikanth saying he "insulted Periyar."