Jude Seal's Notebook

This article has been slightly expanded upon to provide clarification for those unfamiliar with the epidemiology of the three plague pandemics - which resulted from different strains of the same bacterium.  A few additional edits have been made for the avoidance of confusion by non-specialists in palaeopathology and the archaeology of disease, and to update the article in line with what is currently known about the recent cases in China. It was around 2:00 am when my attention was drawn to a video put out by Bloomberg Tiktok – produced by Matthew Albani and shown below.  The video is a response to news of  cases of 'plague' in China in recent weeks. Is the plague making a comeback?  pic.twitter.com/Hj6DdltGEf — Bloomberg TicToc (@TicToc)  November 20, 2019 Because it was 2:00 am I couldn’t express my initial response out loud without waking my neighbours.    Another video replete with misunderstandings, conflations, and a tone in li...

This post summarises a thread I wrote on twitter in response to a tweet from Erik Wade regarding the assignment of biological sex to human remains.  Erik’s thread contains a number of incorrect assumptions both about how archaeological assignment of biological sex works, and about how these results are interpreted.  Also through use of particular terms it conflates a number of distinct issues.  This 8 point summary contains a couple of corrections for minor errors which crept in due to the problems of using speech-to-text software.  Speech to text software can’t always negotiate accents very well and in my case it often corrects ‘sex’ to ‘six / cepts / sepsis’ – which means I usually use gender as a placeholder and then correct by hand – occasionally I miss the odd one and it causes unintentional confusion.  I’ve also included a brief summary of some additional points made due to a dialogue with one particular individual.  All these points are within the bo...

A lesser known saint of the British Isles, St Herbert’s story - at least what we know of it - is an interesting sketch of the lesser recorded, isolated monasticism of some early medieval Christians.  Like many saints the name most attached to this particular Herbert is not the place of his origin.  In fact, his origin is unknown, with even Bede, the most reliable historian who wrote of him, being vague about the details of his early life.  Indeed, in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, where he is named as Herebert, and according to most translations is described as a ‘hermit’ but not as a monk, he appears only once.  The details of his calling or his life before his self-exile are scarce indeed.  What is emphasized in its stead is the strong spiritual fellowship he had with St Cuthbert.  The passage in Bede is one in which Cuthbert predicts his own death to Herebert.  It is from Bede’s narration of this passage that we get the minimal detail we have...

An Introductory Note - While this particular number of All About History's History Of series does give individual author citations for each section I have chosen not to refer to them in this review.  A fair percentage of the problems with each volume are not necessarily the responsibility of the writers, but of the editors and others within the publisher.   Before beginning this review or deconstruction of All About History’s special edition on the Occult there are couple of things which need establishing before we go any further on this crazy train ride.  The first is what is meant by the term ‘occult’.  We must first consider that to many the term occult is grounded in the historiographical divisions created during the Renaissance.  This divided the world into the Ancient world, the Medieval world (this is the poison spring which gives origin to the highly questionable concept of the ‘dark ages’), and the Modern world (divided by subsequent histori...

While perusing the magazine racks in my local branch of WHSmith’s, my eyes fell on one title and I let out an inward groan of academic despair. I have to admit I have something of a love hate relationship with popular history magazines. Some are reasonably good, others are terrible. Some are only interesting for the farcical nature of the ‘history’ contained within. The title which drew my attention however, was one which might be considered both ridiculous and at the same time both irresponsible and dangerous. The title, produced by the same imprint which publishes All About History (a title which itself frequently retreads inaccuracies from simplified school history texts), was “History of Witchcraft”. The subtitle makes the bold statement that it “Uncovers the truth behind the trials that tore Europe apart”. As anyone with even a casual scholarly interest in witchcraft or magic is no doubt aware this is a distinctly bold and factually inaccurate claim. Even with this beginning sta...

At times it feels like every few weeks there is another headline relating to a fresh tragedy. Another case where a student has died from suicide. There are dozens of factors which have led to an increase in pressure on students at university – many are political in nature and the purpose of this post is not to make a political statement but rather to highlight the issue and to point to where, almost as a matter of routine, decisions were taken which could have led to another tragedy. This post tells the story of something which happened at a relatively high-profile institution within the UK. Some details have been deliberately framed in such a way as to maintain the anonymity of the student at the heart of it – the story is shared with their permission on the condition they remain anonymous. This story is an example of Bad Practice. It is a How Not To Do Student Support.

This entry is written in response to a question from a student. As a historian one of my research specialisms is in the history of medicine and one of my other research foci is the archaeology of disease and palaeopathology. As such a major part of my research has involved the physical evidence of human existence and interaction with disease - bones. Human remains. And as such there are several highly important ethical considerations in relation to my research. I’ve decided to set out, broadly, the system of ethics I use when it comes to both teaching, writing, studying and also in dealing with a wider audience - both in terms of non-specialists and the general public. I hope that this exposition may prove useful as an, albeit brief, summary of what might be considered good ethical practice. There has bene extensive debate over the display of human remains in the context of museums - given all the associated ethical questions, and the legacy of racism and colonialism with which, ...