Paul Barford

British Archaeologist, archaeoblogger concerned about portable antiquities issues and cleaning up no-questions-asked antiquities trade. Retweet not endorsement.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

Before I leave Ireland, I want to place on record that in the last 24 hours I have received constant stalking and death threats for my reporting. However I will not be intimidated.

What I have uncovered is deeply troubling, and the effort to silence it only makes that clearer.

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@The_Real_ITDUDE Putin's birthday

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@BAJRjobs @Megalithic12000 "The difference is that the Colosseum comes with evidence. Many megalithic sites come with assumptions, and genuine unanswered logistical and engineering questions" -why is that?

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

"The historical record is not a record of the past. It's a record of what was recorded and which of those sources survived". Duh.

[BabylonBibi @BabylonBiBi]

@hashjenni Here:

[Vatnik Soup @P_Kallioniemi]

Ilhan Omar was the only Democrat who voted against the Ukraine aid package.

Yet another champagne socialist who turned out to be a disgrace.

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@aminJml @Tendar In colonial Africa and the Americas, how many peoples lost their sovereignity because they did not avoid "antagonizing the superpower" that colonised and destroyed them? List them please.

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@aminJml @Tendar In your simplistic worldview @aminJml, how many modern wars were in reality caused by "Nation (of territory) X antagonising Nation Y", and how many were in fact caused by Nation Y wanting to take over something Nation X has?

[Chris Alexander 🇨🇦🌻 @calxandr]

There is a widespread misconception, actively promoted by the Kremlin & its proxies, that a ceasefire between Russia & Ukraine will lead to a so-called ‘return to normal’ — a resumption of Eurasian energy trade, a return of Russia to capital markets & an end to Moscow’s political isolation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even if Russia stops shooting prisoners on the frontlines or bombing Ukrainian civilians in their beds, it will still be illegally occupying 20% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. It will still be holding tens of thiusands of kidnapped children hostage, as it seeks to brainwash & militarize them. It will still be engaged in hostile corruption, influence & sabotage operations against democracies. Its leadership will still be liable to face accountability for the crime of aggression & genocide, as well as many other war crimes & atrocities. Russia has no intention of giving up on this national programme of unmitigated genocidal savagery.

Instead of clinging to impossible dreams, our free societies should continue to re-evaluate what Moscow was doing before 2022, before 2014 & even before 2008, when it invaded Georgia. The Kremlin was never interested in having ‘normal commercial relations’ with anyone. They wanted cash in order to rebuild their economy so they could start invading neighbours again. Even after 1991, post-Soviet Russia never stopped occupying parts of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova & Ukraine. After their many defeats & failures in Chechnya, they knew they needed larger armed forces & more sophisticated active measures fully to subjugate any of these neighbouring countries. By its valour & military prowess, Ukraine has almost shattered this agenda of neo-colonial fascist military expansion. As a result, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova & Syria have moved steadily away from Moscow’s orbit. Mali may do the same. Iran is also weaker. The upshot is clear: Russia now has fewer vassals in Europe, the Middle East & North Africa, although Belarus & Georgia remain under Russian control & occupation, & Russian mercenaries & spies retain influence in Burkina Faso, Burma, CAR, Venezuela & elsewhere.

The fact that so many democratic leaders were deceived with regard to Moscow’s intentions in 1991-93 & again in 2000-02 need not blind people today to the reality of Russian treachery, manipulation & hostile intent. Even if the guns fall silent in Donbas & elsewhere, as still remains most unlikely, Russia will not be a normal country. It will remain a neo-imperialist genocidal occupier with an unbroken history of aggression over centuries against neighbours & states further afield. Even if one theatre of operations becomes less active, democracies will still need to deter & defeat this Kremlin war machine. We will need a workable strategy for victory to liberate occupied areas of Ukraine, as well as Belarus, Georgia & occupied Moldovan Transnistria. Russian coercive control must end in the Caucasus & Central Asia, as well in remaining parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, where it lingers. The new normal should be a world free of Russian aggression, invasion, occupation & repression. That remains a goal well worth fighting for.

[Kadi🇪🇪🌻 @TheFl0orIsLaVa]

Putin: russia will seek the denazification of Ukraine!

Meanwhile russians...

[Justine “That Woman” Warren @adancingferret]

And who is it who treat the supposed mainstream narrative as finished and untouchable?

Is it the people who spend their lives conducting excavations, analysis, research, and re-analysis? Who collaborate, debate, argue, publish, etc?

Or is the people with only a surface level understanding of either “the narrative” or the fields of study involved? Or people who think challenge and critical analysis of ideas is an attack and not simply rigorous scholarship? Or people who don’t want to do the hard work and just have ideas accepted with no analysis?

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@CalltoActivism It's about time they found him a body double. What, though to do with this one?

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@DrDavidMiano @Jijith_NR and they never get taken in cattle raids, by invading groups for example.

[Jijith Nadumuri Ravi @Jijith_NR]

Indian Cattle tells an unspoken story of Out of India migration🔥

Why? Because cattle cannot just walk outside of India and go all over these places!

It needs Indian cattle herders, real people to move out of India with these cattle!

This is creating nightmare in the Aryan Invasion Theory camp!

Indian humped cattle – the indicine lineage (Bos indicus) – were domesticated in the Indus–Sarasvati region around 8000–7000 BCE, with early evidence from Neolithic Mehrgarh.

From this core zone, they spread steadily across the subcontinent between 7000–4000 BCE, becoming integral to early agro-pastoral economies.

By 3000–2000 BCE, indicine cattle moved eastward into Southeast Asia, contributing to the formation of regional zebu populations, and by 2000–1500 BCE they had entered parts of China, where they interacted with local taurine lineages.

A further major expansion carried Indian indicine cattle westward into Africa beginning around 2000 BCE, with multiple waves continuing into the first millennium CE; this movement profoundly reshaped East African cattle genetics, producing the taurine–indicine admixture visible today.

Thus, over several millennia, cattle domesticated in northwest India radiated outward across Asia and Africa, leaving a durable genetic and economic footprint that still defines tropical cattle populations.

Taurine cattle – the humpless lineage (Bos taurus) – were first domesticated in the Near East around 10,500–10,000 BCE from local aurochs populations in the Fertile Crescent.

They expanded with Neolithic farming communities into southeastern Europe by 7000–6000 BCE, and across most of Europe over the next millennium.

A southern dispersal carried taurine cattle into North Africa by 6000–5000 BCE, and progressively into Sub-Saharan Africa between 4000–2000 BCE, where they later encountered and hybridised with incoming indicine cattle.

Eastward movements brought taurine herds into Central Asia by 5000–3000 BCE, contributing to later Eurasian pastoral systems.

No evidence of any of them entering India! This agains weakens Aryan Invasion Theory or it's weakened version Aryan Migration Theory!

All silly political games played with human genetics in scholarship arena now checkmated by cow genetics!

[Rush @exRAF_Al]

I am a monarchist, but the current lot have lost me. There is one exception, Princess Anne. Forthright and unflinching, direct and unvarnished, even when the IRA trying to kidnap her. Here she is passing her umbrella to a Dean because she had a hat and the Dean didn’t. Brilliant.

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@gunthera_mws @Megalithic12000 These data began to be made available here from 2014/2015. So how is it in your country Mr Megalith if you think this is something excitingly "new" for you and your insular compatriots? Look at what we have in the EU before announcing it as a novelty!

[Paul Barford @PortantIssues]

@gunthera_mws @Megalithic12000 Here's the Polish geoportal where for quite a while now anyone can have a look at the data and overlay them on other forms of cartographic display - used a lot by metal detectorists and military-history buffs https://t.co/U6kKRXZYe0

[Janusz Mostowski @JMostowski]

@KosiniakKamysz @Alicja80717757 Zadziwia wpisywanie się Pana w nagonkę na prezydenta Zeleńskiego. Od Wołynia minęło 80 lat. Dlaczego ten temat ciągle żyje, a dawno umarł temat rosyjskich mordów, zsyłek, wysiedleń i prześladowań Polaków o skali wielokrotnie przewyższającej Wołyń. Putin jest zadowolony

[Vatnik Soup @P_Kallioniemi]

The greatest lie Russia ever told was convincing people it is a superpower.

Its economy is smaller than Italy's.

Its GDP per capita is lower than Uruguay's.

Its military is the second-best... in Ukraine.

The only things Russia truly invests in and innovates are kinetic warfare and information warfare.

It has one of the worst demographic outlooks in the world.

Russia is a paper bear.

[Christopher Webb @cwebbonline]

Not gonna lie, this is a badass museum donation.

🇺🇸 Shonda Rhimes donated the Oval Office set from Scandal, the same one fictional President Fitzgerald Grant called home for seven seasons.

Now it’s part of the Obama Presidential Center Museum