Sebastian Heath
@sebhth.bsky.social
Mediterranean & computational archaeologist. ISAW/NYU. Child of immigrants. Opinions/typos mine. Original work CC-By. https://gaerhf.org https://p-lod.org https://palp.art https://roman-amphitheaters.org https://isaw.nyu.edu/publications/isaw-papers
Pinned
Sebastian Heath
@sebhth.bsky.social
· Feb 19
Over here in these United States, I know no king.
New amphitheater in Austria: www.vienna.at/2000-years-h... . Shown north of town in 3d rendering. I estimate it at roughly long, lat: 14.5655 , 48.2220 .
2,000 Years Hidden: Researchers Discover Roman City in Lower Austria
Alle Nachrichten aus Wien und den Bezirken sowie aktuelle News aus Österreich und der Welt mit vielen Themen wie Sport, Politik, Stars, uvm.
www.vienna.at
September 25, 2026 at 4:51 PM
New amphitheater in Austria: www.vienna.at/2000-years-h... . Shown north of town in 3d rendering. I estimate it at roughly long, lat: 14.5655 , 48.2220 .
@isawnyu.bsky.social Open House for Prospective Students will be Nov. 5th. isaw.nyu.edu/events/open-.... I welcome any student using computational methods in their research. Beyond Rome OK. We can advise any area. In Roman archaeology, connecting specific phenomena to big picture is of interest.
September 11, 2026 at 7:55 PM
@isawnyu.bsky.social Open House for Prospective Students will be Nov. 5th. isaw.nyu.edu/events/open-.... I welcome any student using computational methods in their research. Beyond Rome OK. We can advise any area. In Roman archaeology, connecting specific phenomena to big picture is of interest.
Gasoline-powered leaf blower doing its high-pitched thing next door while I'm trying to write. Oh well. And yes, that's my contribution to today's #AcademicChatter!
September 3, 2026 at 6:38 PM
Gasoline-powered leaf blower doing its high-pitched thing next door while I'm trying to write. Oh well. And yes, that's my contribution to today's #AcademicChatter!
My CV needed work. Cruft and poor formatting had accumulated in an MS-Word doc of ancient origin. So yeah, "Update my CV in HeathCV.doc to refactor sections and convert to Markdown with command to generate" worked well as a prompt to Claude. YMMV. But helped me get to this. #AcademicChatter
August 31, 2026 at 4:43 PM
My CV needed work. Cruft and poor formatting had accumulated in an MS-Word doc of ancient origin. So yeah, "Update my CV in HeathCV.doc to refactor sections and convert to Markdown with command to generate" worked well as a prompt to Claude. YMMV. But helped me get to this. #AcademicChatter
Younger Scott Bessent is both appalled and thrilled.
August 20, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Younger Scott Bessent is both appalled and thrilled.
Electrified gloves are cruel and unusual.
August 12, 2026 at 9:49 PM
Electrified gloves are cruel and unusual.
Harrison Ford didn't sneak out of Air Force One.
August 11, 2026 at 1:44 AM
Harrison Ford didn't sneak out of Air Force One.
Summer's penultimate writing task is 2000+/- word review of a digital resource. I want to be thoughtful. And I want to get it done. Add in a family gathering spanning this weekend and submitting a week from today is goal. No especial ambition in that schedule! Steady on will do it! #AcademicChatter
August 5, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Summer's penultimate writing task is 2000+/- word review of a digital resource. I want to be thoughtful. And I want to get it done. Add in a family gathering spanning this weekend and submitting a week from today is goal. No especial ambition in that schedule! Steady on will do it! #AcademicChatter
Matt Damon turned out to be the Sea Peoples and the administration turned out to be its own Vandals. From the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, we've got it all these days.
August 1, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Matt Damon turned out to be the Sea Peoples and the administration turned out to be its own Vandals. From the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, we've got it all these days.
The DOJ should be renamed the Department of Prosecutions. DOPs. Pronounced “Dopes”.
August 1, 2026 at 2:35 AM
The DOJ should be renamed the Department of Prosecutions. DOPs. Pronounced “Dopes”.
Great to see @isawnyu.bsky.social student Lylaah Bhalerao's article "Black Feminisms in Roman Archaeology? Approaches Beyond Critical Fabulation, from Pompeii to Hadrian’s Wall" now published in Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal (TRAJ). doi.org/10.16995/tra... Congrats!
Black Feminisms in Roman Archaeology? Approaches Beyond Critical Fabulation, from Pompeii to Hadrian’s Wall
Is it possible to do Black feminist Roman archaeology? In this article, I reflect on how effectively Black feminist thought has been integrated into the study of the Roman material past, with some the...
doi.org
July 28, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Great to see @isawnyu.bsky.social student Lylaah Bhalerao's article "Black Feminisms in Roman Archaeology? Approaches Beyond Critical Fabulation, from Pompeii to Hadrian’s Wall" now published in Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal (TRAJ). doi.org/10.16995/tra... Congrats!
Seen in the news... "Italian conman jailed for building fake Roman amphitheatre": www.euronews.com/culture/2026...
Italian conman jailed for building fake Roman amphitheatre
In Italy, a structure promoted for years as an "ancient Roman amphitheatre" has turned out to be a fake, constructed recently using modern materials.
www.euronews.com
July 27, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Seen in the news... "Italian conman jailed for building fake Roman amphitheatre": www.euronews.com/culture/2026...
Trying to remember who was president when all this was going on.
July 17, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Trying to remember who was president when all this was going on.
Googling "Andrea LaFlamme". Found @andrealaflamme.bsky.social .
July 6, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Googling "Andrea LaFlamme". Found @andrealaflamme.bsky.social .
Late to posting this job: "Research Software Engineer in Data Science and Cultural Heritage". apply.interfolio.com/188823 And while it's not @isawnyu.bsky.social specific, we do have a great DH/Digital Archaeology community here and I look forward to welcoming whomever takes this position to NYU.
July 6, 2026 at 9:29 PM
Late to posting this job: "Research Software Engineer in Data Science and Cultural Heritage". apply.interfolio.com/188823 And while it's not @isawnyu.bsky.social specific, we do have a great DH/Digital Archaeology community here and I look forward to welcoming whomever takes this position to NYU.
I'm in the district where @bradlander.bsky.social beat Dan Goldman in the Democratic Primary for the House. Many reasons for Lander's victory. There are policy/position discussions to have. I focus on the retail politics. Brad Lander has been here. In the community. He shows up with us. That worked.
June 24, 2026 at 11:19 AM
I'm in the district where @bradlander.bsky.social beat Dan Goldman in the Democratic Primary for the House. Many reasons for Lander's victory. There are policy/position discussions to have. I focus on the retail politics. Brad Lander has been here. In the community. He shows up with us. That worked.
In other news... AirPods 3s can survive two consecutive cycles in a washing machine. But signal "weak" in "Find My" app and, no, "Play Sound" not hearable. That wasted a bunch o' my time.
June 5, 2026 at 5:49 PM
In other news... AirPods 3s can survive two consecutive cycles in a washing machine. But signal "weak" in "Find My" app and, no, "Play Sound" not hearable. That wasted a bunch o' my time.
There is now a "Polygon Select" tool in GAERHF. Pic shows using timeline to show objects earlier than 2700 BCE and the polygon covering India, China, and Oceana. Other pic is clicking to see all figures in the gallery. gaerhf.org#yangshao-ves... . Early version of the UX/UI. An experiment.
May 31, 2026 at 11:03 PM
There is now a "Polygon Select" tool in GAERHF. Pic shows using timeline to show objects earlier than 2700 BCE and the polygon covering India, China, and Oceana. Other pic is clicking to see all figures in the gallery. gaerhf.org#yangshao-ves... . Early version of the UX/UI. An experiment.
An aspect of moving the Pompeii Artistic Landscape Project (PALP) website to client-side javascript was that caching results broke. Now re-implemented. Means that palp.art/browse/#pomp... will load quickly. The top-left "pane" especially. Image (bottom-right) may still be slow. Cache TTL is 2 hours.
PALP Browser
palp.art
May 26, 2026 at 5:17 PM
An aspect of moving the Pompeii Artistic Landscape Project (PALP) website to client-side javascript was that caching results broke. Now re-implemented. Means that palp.art/browse/#pomp... will load quickly. The top-left "pane" especially. Image (bottom-right) may still be slow. Cache TTL is 2 hours.
TACOs are expensive. Especially when you get nothing in return. 🌮
May 25, 2026 at 1:10 PM
TACOs are expensive. Especially when you get nothing in return. 🌮
There are now "thumbs" on GAERHF "Time Scale" to select date range. Option click on right one to enter -8000 for about 10000 BP/8000 BCE. That's map shown here. Click on "palette" near top right and then "Threshold Slider" to adjust colormap. Try at gaerhf.org Grid at lower left to see all figures.
May 16, 2026 at 7:31 AM
There are now "thumbs" on GAERHF "Time Scale" to select date range. Option click on right one to enter -8000 for about 10000 BP/8000 BCE. That's map shown here. Click on "palette" near top right and then "Threshold Slider" to adjust colormap. Try at gaerhf.org Grid at lower left to see all figures.
Dear SCOTUS, Really? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/u... . I’m not shocked. We have a political court. There you have it. But still… Really? Can’t quite get past that reaction.
Supreme Court Rejects Virginia Democrats’ Effort to Reinstate New Voting Map
www.nytimes.com
May 16, 2026 at 12:26 AM
Dear SCOTUS, Really? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/u... . I’m not shocked. We have a political court. There you have it. But still… Really? Can’t quite get past that reaction.
Small bit of news re: gaerhf.org . More soon...
May 15, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Small bit of news re: gaerhf.org . More soon...
Simple update that I should have done a while back: Selectable base layers on the GAERHF map. An upcoming step is to capture that state in a shareable URL. In the meantime: gaerhf.org#mohenjo-daro... lets you start selecting your own baseman via widget at top right.
May 14, 2026 at 1:34 PM
Simple update that I should have done a while back: Selectable base layers on the GAERHF map. An upcoming step is to capture that state in a shareable URL. In the meantime: gaerhf.org#mohenjo-daro... lets you start selecting your own baseman via widget at top right.
The Ekven cemetery, Russia is all but on the Bering Strait. Its burials produced a number of human figures, one now in GAERHF. The location demonstrates how the (developing!) 3D view is useful. Allows this part of the world to be a nexus, not split at each end of a map. gaerhf.org/3d/#ekven-ce...
May 10, 2026 at 4:05 PM
The Ekven cemetery, Russia is all but on the Bering Strait. Its burials produced a number of human figures, one now in GAERHF. The location demonstrates how the (developing!) 3D view is useful. Allows this part of the world to be a nexus, not split at each end of a map. gaerhf.org/3d/#ekven-ce...