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alexharvv.bsky.social
Author, artist, early medieval archaeologist; I write about Vikings https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Vikings-New-Approaches-Viking/dp/1398122092?crid=BAU05AM2CB3E&keywords=forgotten+vikings&qid=1704124313&s=books&sprefix=forgotten+vikings%2Cstripbook
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Posts 19 Comments 31

Simon is a great author, and a fantastic source of wisdom. Looking forward to this

submitted 4 hours ago • 1 comment

Deadline for proposals: 30/9/25!

submitted 6 hours ago • 0 comments

The need to link everything from East Anglia and 7th c with Sutton Hoo is ever-amusing From the article; the coin dates 640-660 CE, explicitly Christian iconography and the pre-Christian ‘valknut’ symbol - I also spy a Roman-ish diadem there There’s a few similar odd coins from EA, esp. Barnham

submitted 14 hours ago • 2 comments

In the 7th c, Cuthbert traced the crooked line of Hadrian's Wall and preached to the locals 'in the rough and rocky region that is called Aechse' (Aesica), according to Bede's Life of St Cuthbert Aechse is the first chapter in my next book, LITTLE KINGDOMS: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

Very happy with my admittedly tiny hoard of books from The Viking Society’s auction - excited to read this stellar translation and compare new notes with old ones; long may study continue

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

I bought this in Cambridge at @universitypress.cambridge.org’s @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social - as a CUP published author I got to wield a rare academic discount, which I’m still grinning about (We have to make our own wins in this life)

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Hopefully it’ll still be there in November..!

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

A prompt: ‘what is common knowledge in your field but shocks outsiders?’ People are ALWAYS surprised when you mention England, Scandinavia, and the continent had mundane, post-Roman links between each other long before the Viking Age

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

I refuse to give the NYT my eyeballs, so I can't speak to the specifics of this article. But any historians attempting to use AI for either writing or research should be run out of the field. AI is inherently unable to do anything we need it to do to understand and communicate history.

submitted 3 days ago • 25 comments

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd... LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, my next book, releases on the 30th of November 2025 As of today it is now available for preorder, at a discounted early price of £20 (RRP £25) Why should you pick up this book...? 🧵

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

Like many, I grew up on CBBC's Horrible Histories, which covered a wide variety of periods from the Groovy Greeks to the Blitzed Brits of WWII ...but it missed out the Fleecy Frisians! I was inspired to use the HH art-style to make an ident for a lesser-known historical period / focus

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

I asked AI to imagine... wait, no I didn't. I spent about 1h 20m this morning using references from Horrible Histories and real archaeological digs to make this character, via the open source program Krita and a Huion Kamvas tablet / stylus combo

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Like many, I grew up on CBBC's Horrible Histories, which covered a wide variety of periods from the Groovy Greeks to the Blitzed Brits of WWII ...but it missed out the Fleecy Frisians! I was inspired to use the HH art-style to make an ident for a lesser-known historical period / focus

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

People in all ages have learned for a variety of reasons; to improve administration, to understand deep concepts like gravity and time, and simply to learn for the sake of it In 8th-c. York, home of Alcuin, folk mused about maths, music, and God all in one, to sharpen themselves for the future

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

just finished a chapter for a very distant book that might be my favourite thing I've ever written It's got everything you could want from a popular history of the early Middle Ages: maths questions, references to Lovecraftian gods, bombed-out Nazi bunkers, and enough coins to flood Wall Street

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Parker’s fantastic ‘Winters of the World’ was a great read - very happy to have my book placed alongside her work!

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Famously the (possible) sites of battles between Northumbria in Mercia in 616/617 and between 674-679 In short; don’t trust the trespassing Trent!

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

The FORGOTTEN VIKINGS have made it to one of Norway's biggest bookshops (spotted by a friend) - lets hope they're being friendly

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

All day spent gardening, planting bulbs, and trying to solve maths problems made 1800 years ago by Alcuin of York

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments