Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce

@archaeomancer

Archaeologist. Passionate about history, context, and boring civil process. Slowly becoming the Joker but entirely about participatory democracy. Resident of Tsenacommacah, the densely-settled land. 🏳️‍🌈 #RVA

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Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y archaeomancer.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· 6d

The meme of Squidward looking out the window at SpongeBob and Patrick having fun outside. The implication is that SpongeBob and Patrick represent the gays in the dystopian sex law movie.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· 8d

þe yimoþye

An illustration of Jimothy, the funky-looking raccoon with the foreshortened spine, in the style of a medieval manuscript. It’s from the /r/medievalart subreddit, and was drawn by /u/mommynerd. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Medievalart/comments/1v52pi0/i_drew_jimothy/

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· 12d

“hey, uh, guys, has anyone noticed that the FIFA Wikipedia article is basically just about corruption? surely that can’t be right”

An info box from the top of the Wikipedia article on FIFA, dated July 2026. It reads: “This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. The specific problem is: 'Controversies' and 'Corruption' sections make up about 50% of the whole article.”

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· 13d

seriously, Odysseus, you had years, you could easily have made it to Cornwall (and tbh I’d love to read that alt-universal section of the Odyssey)

TIRESIAS: "You must go into the Unknown West, there to build an altar and beg forgiveness--"
ODYSSEUS: "You mean like Sicily or Italia? Sardinia? Perhaps Tartessos, in Iberia?"
TIRESIAS: ......
ODYSSEUS: "I know we Mycenaean Greeks have yet to begin the large-scale colonization of the Archaic Period, but we have long-distance trade routes integrated with the broader cosmopolitan Mediterranean economy, and potentially beyond! Did you know that there is some evidence of direct trade of copper ingots with Scandinavia? Not to mention the historic Amber routes that stretched across Central Europe and--
TIRESIAS: "Poseidon changed his mind, he says he's gonna kill you."

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· 25d

The “Is This a Pigeon?” meme, featuring a black-haired person with glasses gesturing at a butterfly. The caption reads “Is This Toxic Yaoi?”

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Jul 4

The ranger ended the tour with the story of Benjamin Franklin looking at the sun on Washington’s chair, unable to decide, as the Constitution was debated, if it was rising or setting. I felt at the time like I understood a little of how he felt. 🧵/

A detail view of the chair used by George Washington as presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It prominently features a gilded rising sun.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Jul 4

Tucked into a corner, an inscription held a quote attributed to John Wanamaker, optimistically describing his hopes for those who followed after him in business: honor, truth, integrity, education, courtesy, mutuality. Beside it, carpets had been hauled out and piled high on the floor. 🧵/

A gilded inscription on a marble pillar in the Wanamaker Building. It reads: Let those who follow me continue to build with the plumb of honor, the level of truth, and the square of integrity, education, courtesy, and mutuality.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Jul 4

The Wanamaker Building was unsettling: a beautiful, grand cathedral to industry and capitalism, its central hall still echoing to the sound of the pipe organ, but worn, tatty, covered in signs: ENTIRE STORE ON SALE. NOTHING HELD BACK. By March, it was closed.🧵2/

The central hall of the Wanamaker Building, a multistory marble foyer with galleries on all sides and a gilded pipe organ occupying the far side. The floor has department store sales cases and closing-sale signs.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Jan 21

Anecdotally, this kind of obvious “what we are doing is hella illegal and we don’t trust anyone” move is distressingly common everywhere in the government these days.

The memo is addressed to all ICE personnel.
But it has been shown only to "select DHS officials" who then shared it with some employees who were told to read it and return it, Whistleblower Aid wrote in the disclosure.
One of the two whistleblowers was allowed to view the memo only in the presence of a supervisor and then had to give it back. That person was not allowed to take notes. A whistleblower was able to access the document and lawfully disclose to Congress, Whistleblower Aid said.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Dec 12

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Nov 5

🤔

The flag of Virginia, which features a lady with her tit out stomping on some dead king dude and the motto “Sic Semper Tyrannus”

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 29

Welcome back to J.D. Salinger Presents: Washingto Stars and Politicos: What Do They Know? Do They Know Things?? Let’s Find Out! I’m your host, Mr. Peanutbutter

A screenshot from BoJack Horseman showing Mr. Peanutbutter, a yellow lab in a pink suit, hosting a game show, with BoJack, a horse in a blazer over casual clothes, as contestant. Some of categories on the vaguely Jeopardy-style board are cut off, but they probably include Time Travel Paradox, What’s That Smell?, Trigonometry, Advanced Physics, At The Movies with Mr. Peanutbutter, and Sports.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 25

To paraphrase Graydon Saunders in the Commonweal series: our purpose as a society is to get ourselves, to get one another, into the future. As many of us as we can manage.

This is how it works: We protect each other, period. These are our neighbors, our friends, our family. We do the things we have to do to ensure that as many of us can make it to tomorrow as possible. Not everyone does. I need you to understand that we tried.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 24

ps I am very sorry to anyone who, for some reason, follows me! I really would like to post more silly nonsense and/or fun history and archaeology stuff. The Republic is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Funny and interesting content may be temporarily disrupted.

The classic SMPTE color-bars test pattern, with the legend “TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” superimposed over it.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 23

Is this something

A meme featuring DW from Arthur, labeled “ICE”, staring at a closed door with a sign that says “Chinga La Migra.” The caption says “That sign won’t stop me because I can’t read!”

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 19

This idea has a fairly old lineage, cf this 1888(!) political cartoon/map. (source here: www.loc.gov/resource/g37...) Though I’d argue the roots of the Bad Tree have more to do with the Cavaliers, the English Revolution, and Bacon’s Rebellion than with Jamestown *specifically*

A 19th century map of the United States, titled “HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.” It depicts two “trees,” shown as long arrows crossing the continent with smaller arrows branching off. One, originating at Plymouth (marked by an illustration of a Bible), is labeled “The Blessing of Liberty.” It runs straight across the continent to California, with its peak labeled “Immortality” and branches labeled things like “Benevolence,” “Philanthropy,” and “Love of Country.” The other tree originates at Jamestown (marked by an illustration of a dollar coin, symbolizing the financial motives involved in the settling of Virginia), and is labeled “God’s Curse Slavery.” It runs in a crooked course west and south, forced to turn southward by the northern boundary of the slaving states and territories, which is marked by the label “Mason and Dixon’s Line,” and it terminates in Texas. Its peak is labeled “Hades,” and it has branches labeled things like “Ignorance,” “Sedition,” “Rebellion,” and “Murder.” A series of props(?) holding up the sagging tree are labeled things like “Missouri Compromise,” “Fugitive Slave Law,” and “Dred Scott Decision.” Nevertheless, the tree of slavery is in the process of being chopped down by a giant axe labeled “Emancipation Proclamation.” The whole thing goes EXTREMELY hard.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 17

Every now and then I remember the pikes that John Brown commissioned for his armory raid and attempted slave uprising, and I think that these would make a fantastic McGuffin for a modern-setting tabletop campaign. Find John Brown’s haunted freedom pikes!

A spear-like polearm called a pike, with a stabby steel blade like a long knife on the end of a wooden pole.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 13

In 1677, Cockacoeske, the werowansqua (chief/queen) of the Pamunkey, led a handful of fellow weroances--all that remained of Powhatan's empire--in signing the Treaty of Middle Plantation with the English Crown. The Monocans and a few others who were never part of Powhatan's empire signed, too. 24/

A bronze statue of an Indigenous woman, Cockacoeske. She's wearing a flowing dress and a cloak of furs and holding up a piece of parchment, which is meant to symbolize the Treaty of Middle Plantation. The statue is standing against the park-like backdrop of Virginia's Capitol Square.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 13

To symbolize this arrangement, he ceremonially "adopted" John Smith in a dramatic set piece that involved his daughter, Matoaka or "Pocahontas," ritually interceding to halt a threatened execution of Smith. You've probably heard about this bit, which Smith wrote about as if it were 100% real. 21/

A 19th-century American illustration of the ceremonial "saving" of John Smith by Pocahontas, as reported by Smith. It depicts a crowd of very anachronistic Native people in brightly-colored clothes and with feathered headdresses standing around Smith, who is kneeling over a stone, preparing to be executed. A woman, Pocahontas, has thrown her body over his to prevent his execution.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 13

We don't know exactly how this happened, but the Powhatans' location at the western edge of Tsenacommacah exposed them to trade, raiding, and diplomacy with the Siouan-speaking Monocan people, who lived in the Piedmont above the Fall Line and had trade connections along and across the Blue Ridge. 6/

A section of a black-and-white map of Colonial Virginia, attributed to John Smith. It shows the locations of rivers, mountains, and Indigenous towns, with most towns shown as dots while major towns, which were the seats of chiefs, are indicated with little drawings of longhouses. The town of Powhatan is located at the bottom or east edge of the view, with towns of the Monocans located along the "Powhatan Flu," modern James River, leading upward to the west. One of these, labeled "Rassawek," is marked out at a fork in the river near the mountains, which today is the junction of the James and Rivanna Rivers near Columbia, Virginia.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 13

The Powhatan people of this town were the westernmost member of a diverse collection of mostly Algonquin-speaking peoples who lived in the coastal plain between the Fall Line and the sea. The Chesapeake Bay and the great tidal rivers of eastern Virginia were both food source and highway for them. 3/

A more modern map from 2002, drawn in black and white. It shows modern-day Eastern Virginia, with the names of Indigenous nations densely scattered across the landscape, showing where those people lived when the English colonists arrived at Jamestown in 1607.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 13

I'm from Richmond, VA, a city established in 1737 at the falls of the James River, where the river roars over the granite boulders of the Fall Line. Before it was Richmond, it was the town of Powhatan, the center of the Powhatan people and birthplace of a man named Wahunsenecawh: Chief Powhatan. 2/

alt: A section of a black-and-white map of Colonial Virginia, attributed to John Smith. It shows the locations of rivers, mountains, and Indigenous towns, with most towns shown as dots while major towns, which were the seats of chiefs, are indicated with little drawings of longhouses. The view is centered on the major town of Powhatan, located near "The Fales" on a river labeled the "Powhatan Flu," now the James River. The river flows from west (at the top of the map) to east (at the bottom), with mountains at the top and the Chesapeake Bay off the map at the bottom edge.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Oct 7

THE AIM OF SECURITY! PROTECTION

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Sep 13

The linked paper is quite a cool archaeogeophysics thing, they drove a magnetometer all over Karakorum and put the data together into a map of the city.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Aug 26

Maybe a couple of notes, but I respect the level of effort (none)

One of the many, many proposed new flags for Massachusetts. It’s literally just the overview location map from the Wikipedia article about Massachusetts.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Aug 26

No notes, honestly

One of the many, many proposed new flags for Massachusetts. It features the state dinosaur of Massachusetts, Podokesaurus holyokensis, with a badly photoshopped cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee and the legend “massachusetts” in comic sans. It looks like it was made in MS Paint and is delightful.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Jul 27

Isabella Rossellini as a celebrity spokesperson is a pretty impressive get, I have to admit…

Actress Isabella Rossellini with her face painted green. She is dressed as a praying mantis and is riding another, vaguely papier-mâché-style praying mantis to illustrate mantis mating habits. The screenshot is from an episode of Rossellini’s show “Green Porno,” which explores animal reproduction in a delightfully surreal fashion.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Jun 25

RIP to one of my favorite spots in #RVA. I’ve played board games there, I had one of my first drinks with my now-husband there. And now, after ten years, I’ve had my last round there.

A picture of a brewery’s menu board, visibly a little sparse. The featured beer is the Last Round, an American Lager, described as “This is the last beer made here at Garden Grove! Thanks RVA! Ryan & Kev!” Other pictured beers include the Shades on Saison, the Double Wide, and the Oblivion.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· May 4

artificial intelligence when I was a kid

An image of Motherboard, the AI from the PBS animated educational tv show Cyberchase. She’s a disembodied head on a huge screen, and she and the screen are all in funky colors. She’s overseeing a birthday party for Digit, a small animated bird.

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce@archaeomancer· Apr 20