🐾Orion🌈&sm9eb📚🏺

Archaeologist specializing in Late Neolithic Sanliurfa, Turkey; D.C.-born; foodie; astronomy & gardening buff; guardian of a Wild Turkish Cat!

[🐾Orion🌈&sm9eb📚🏺 @sm9eb]

Thank you all for your kind words & overwhelming love & support.
Please consider honoring Commander Orion's memory with a donation to @CASPCA, @ObservatoryCats, or @CihangirCats. (I'm not aware of any Urfa cat charities; tell me if they exist!)
This is my last photo of Orion.

[NASA @NASA]

First stop, Mars. Next stop, Psyche 📍

On May 15, our Psyche spacecraft swung by Mars on its way to its next destination: a metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche. The Red Planet gave the spacecraft a 1,000-mph speed boost and provided some stunning photos as well!

[Alison Fisk @AlisonFisk]

Sometimes the most unassuming artefacts are utterly incredible!

Take this piece of wood …

It is a spear point worked from yew about 420,000 years ago! 🤯

Known as the ‘Clacton Spear’ it is the world’s oldest known preserved wooden spear!

Natural History Museum, London
📷 by me

#Archaeology

[🐾Orion🌈&sm9eb📚🏺 @sm9eb]

I am so incredibly saddened by what this site has become. 😪 #MyXAnniversary

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

11. Lion and Sun Brooch,
Qajar Teheran, c1820s

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

6. Elegant lady holding a vase
Ottoman, 17thC

[Celal Şimşek @celal1964]

Laodikeia’da baharın renkleri

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

New baby goat born on the farm this morning. Both mother & son doing well.

[🐾Orion🌈&sm9eb📚🏺 @sm9eb]

Ginny!!!

[NASA JPL @NASAJPL]

Five years ago today, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took its first flight on Mars!

After 72 flights, 11 miles flown, and a top altitude of 24 meters, Ingenuity ended its mission on January 25, 2024.

[Archaeology Magazine @archaeologymag]

How can archaeology help us uncover the traces of plantation slavery? Justin Dunnavant studies coral buildings in Saint Croix, and he’s joining the Archaeological Institute of America for a discussion this week!

https://t.co/e2zetfMAY9

📅 Weds., April 22 ⏰ 8 p.m. ET

[🐾Orion🌈&sm9eb📚🏺 @sm9eb]

Today is #ElectionDay in #Virginia! VOTE YES, VA!!
WE CAN DO IT!!!
#VoteYes #VAElections

[Alex Seitz-Wald @aseitzwald]

One of the most famous views in American art is now open to the public for the first time ever, @willyblackmore reports. https://t.co/j8ICiEVwVY

[NASA Solar System @NASASolarSystem]

To conserve power, engineers at @NASAJPL have turned off an instrument on Voyager 1 – but the science continues!

Voyager 1 has two remaining science instruments – one that listens to plasma waves and one that measures magnetic fields. Learn more: https://t.co/sqOXjiSdaL

[Archaeology Magazine @archaeologymag]

The world’s oldest known rock art has been discovered in a cave in Indonesia. It’s an extremely faint image of a hand stencil, but it may be able to help archaeologists understand the migrations of humans in Southeast Asia and Australia.

https://t.co/ssEQ3RkuHt

[🐾Orion🌈&sm9eb📚🏺 @sm9eb]

Say what you will about DC, no one can deny that we have pretty flowering trees.

[Visit Washington, DC @washingtondc]

Wisteria is having a moment in DC. 🪻💜

📸: caroljeanphotography / IG #Only1DC #SpringInDC

[Andrew McCarthy @AJamesMcCarthy]

Gregory NO

[Shawn G. Chittle @ShawnChittle]

Today, 5 years ago, I brought this little guy home from Homeward Trails animal rescue. I named him Barney, but I call him "Barnacles" more often than not. He has approximately 113 nicknames.

I didn't like cats per se, but a friend of mine persuaded me to give them a try. I saw an ad (first photo) and he looked so majestic with his ring tail. He looked like a good friend.

The next photo is the day I got him. He was shy at first, but eventually came over to me within a day or so and got to know me better.

I have never found anything so affectionate, loving, snuggling, and an overall improvement to my life. Had I known I would have got a pet decades earlier.

He doesn't want to do anything but lay next to me. My friends have remarked he doesn't act like most cats. He doesn't like catnip or empty boxes. He doesn't knock things off tables or shelves.

He just... chills out.

When I come home from work each night, he gets on his back and shows me his belly which I come over and rub. It's the best feeling to come home to that.

He tends to know when I'm not feeling well and will come over to check in on me, like when I'm working at home and stressing out over something.

My best friend 5 years in, Barney is the best decision I've ever made in life.

[🐾Orion🌈&sm9eb📚🏺 @sm9eb]

@avry_wilson That's the Bent Pyramid of Sneferu at Dahshur.
https://t.co/mybP32s61n

[Aqeel almansrawi @AqeelAlmansrawi]

I have spoken with several agencies regarding the impact of the #Iran war on archaeological teams that recently left #Iraq https://t.co/9N3Wg1z41s

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

It’s getting hotter outside, and also at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

The two giant pandas — Bao Li and Qing Bao — at D.C.’s zoo are flirting, a sign that means the two bears could successfully mate in the coming years, zookeepers said. https://t.co/vBNUjCH6UB

[NASA @NASA]

The weather's looking good for tomorrow's Artemis II launch, and our teams are getting the rocket ready for liftoff!

Read the latest updates on our mission around the Moon: https://t.co/doIjUqa1cx