Well, this is certainly a shocking and sobering milestone. On July 1, 2013, I started the blog “Dinosaurs and Barbarians”, named after my two favorite subjects of study. This day marks the official ten year anniversary of its existence on the internet.

I created this blog to serve as an online portfolio of my artwork as well as to espouse whatever academic musings I had concerning science and history. The early years of this blog were, shall we say, free spirited. Not only did I post drawings and the occasional essay, but I also posted news updates, photos and travelogues of places that I visited, and reviews of events that I attended. As you can see, the subject matter which this blog featured was somewhat unorganized in its first few years. It wasn’t until 2017 that the true form of this blog finally coalesced into an academic website, and that’s what it has been from then to the present date.

Within the ten years that this blog has existed, I have posted 231 articles, which constitute 167 drawings and an astounding 318,699 words! That’s the equivalent of four 200-page books. There are many, many more articles and drawings that I’ve got planned. This website has received over 113,000 views from people all over the world – in particular, 131 of them find my material so fascinating that they’ve subscribed to this website so that they can get regular updates whenever I post something.

Unfortunately, this venue has not resulted in me establishing myself as a career paleo-artist or researcher as I had hoped it would back when this blog made its debut on the worldwide web. However, my work has definitely been noticed. Once every three or four years, someone will e-mail me and ask if they can use one of my drawings for a museum exhibit. Since I started this blog, my artwork has been on public display for either temporary or permanent museum exhibits in the United States, Canada, and China. Last year, I got my first paid paleo-art commission, followed shortly afterwards by a second. I also set up an account on the art pages Redbubble and Fine Art America. Finally, I have recently discovered that some people online are copying my drawings. I was once told that you know you’re a good artist when other artists are copying your work. Evidently, I’m a good artist.

Well, I’ve got nothing else to say about this. Ten years have gone by, and I don’t see this blog going away anytime soon…although I might run out of storage space with all of the artwork that I keep posting here!

Please help support my creative and artistic pursuits by purchasing some of my products. Buy one of my books if you or someone you know loves ancient Roman history, or a print of my artwork, or some of my graphic design merchandise. Please view the links below:

Four Days in September: The Battle of Teutoburg, 2nd Edition. Pen & Sword Books, 2016.
https://www.amazon.com/Four-Days-September-Battle-Teutoberg/dp/1473860857/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1688145801&sr=1-2.

The Great Illyrian Revolt: Rome’s Forgotten War in the Balkans, AD 6–9. Pen & Sword Books, 2019.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Illyrian-Revolt-Forgotten-Balkans/dp/1526718170.

Fine Art America – prints of my artwork
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jason-abdale

Redbubble merchandise (I’ve got LOTS of products available, not just the ones shown below).
https://www.redbubble.com/people/jrabdale/explore?page=1&sortOrder=recent.

• Ancient Rome SPQR emblem red and yellow. https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/81388365.
• Ancient Rome SPQR yellow emblem with transparent background. https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/135194531.
• Ancient Rome SPQR emblem tie-dyed on white background. https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/81389449.
• Ancient Rome SPQR emblem tie-dyed transparent background. https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/135204260.

Categories: History, Paleontology, Uncategorized