Dr Matt Pope

we need a mash up of our photos for the perfect dusty tropical moonset 🌕🏝️

Great colour to yours!

The Full Moon setting out west

Well given they drew on their previous research in this one, they might oblige us next year

We muddled through but we did at one point say "if only Tom was here"

Ha!

It's very cool stuff, his dating work is so transformative, his and Rogers impact on the British Upper Pal is still being felt.

Happy to help, research frameworks need solid, enforceable specifications to go with them, otherwise rarely anything happens and cheaper options prevail.

"It is worth at this point taking a look at our nearest European neighbours. In Northern France new Palaeolithic archaeological sites are being found on a regular basis,unlike in southern England, despite having broadly analogous capture points. How
and where are these being found?"

"They often work to minimum guidelines in order to win the job; therefore, those minimum guidelines need to set the bar at an appropriate level to gain maximum value from the resource while still being economically viable. That is why the nested
approach is advocated."

"The absence of statements regarding the need to discover new sites at this time (19thc) emphasises that discovery of sites was a de facto" but "since the 1940s the rate of discovery has all but collapsed, leaving archaeologists with no option but to re-examine the same aging sites and datasets."

"Consequently the notion of a successful Palaeolithic assessment of a site can mean ifferent things to different practitioners, development control
officers and curators. a factor currently exacerbated by recent cuts to, and restructuring of, local, district and county Planning Departments."

"When undertaken, these typically follow standardised procedures used
for later prehistoric and historic archaeological investigations where the frameworks
and methodologies do not always apply to the Palaeolithic archaeological resource."

Some quick quotes "the profession is hampered by lack of recognised standards for
fieldwork undertaken as part of development control investigations, even to the level
of what should, or should not, be included in desk-top evaluations and field
assessments."

Gosh it has been over ten years since we published The British Palaeolithic post-ALSF: Core Principles for Future Enhancement, Expansion and Engagement. It rather got buried and forgotten about. 🏺🦣
discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/15...

Extented deadline to March 20th! ✨✨

A dramatic colourful image of Stoneghenge. The stones are sillouetted in black against a firey-covered sky. The grass is a luminescent green. A robed druid-like figure stands in shadow in front of the stones holding a staff. On a hill in the distance (which does not exist in reality) are a group of shadowy men on horseback, one wielding what can only be described as a long 'thing'.

This Week! On Age of Stonehenge! All the different ways in which this image is wrong, the development of the Chacolithic Britain, defined not just by metalworking but migrations of Beaker-associated groups and interactions with local people who are in the middle of a massive monument binge.

Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was strongly sex biased Sex biases in admixture and other demographic processes are recurrent features throughout human evolution. For admixture between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs), sex bias has been p...

Today in Palaeolunch we are discussing Platt et al. 2026 Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was strongly sex biased 🦣🏺🧬https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea6774

Yes they are. in almost every case it has been the specifics of the district and how they then flag it up to County or the covering consultant

I'll text you

Just heard of another major British Palaeolithic site falling through the planning & protection net and being green-lit for development. That's 3 confirmed in 3 years, with 2 others I'm investigating. The failure to schedule Palaeolithic sites & the erosion of planning protections are to blame. 🚨🦣🏺

Storyville - Praying for Armageddon A Storyville documentary that explores the power and influence of American Evangelical Christians as they aim to fulfil the Armageddon prophecy.

A timely reminder of this BBC documentary. Worth a watch. Storyville, Praying for Armageddon: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001z96s via @bbciplayer

Ah sorry, I thought you might be making an oblique reference to a real life tech magnate looking upon his virtual empire, the work of his millions of bots and the majestic echo chamber of positive feedback they keep him in.

Sunrise over Kingston Ridge from Thundersbarrow Hill

You are sub-posting aren't you? 😉

The best week of the year!

Off to Ipswich tonight - then Basingstoke, Frome, Worthing and Salford. Just five dates left on my Domination book tour - catch me if you can!

Asked if MPs should get a vote on UK military action, Badenoch says that given the number of left wing MPs with "silly views" she thinks it's best if not.

No, it's an in person performance

Poster: Spelthorne Archaeology and Local History group. The Ice Age in Greater London. Thurs 5th March,. Staines Methodist Church

More Ice Age London Outreach this Thursday 🦣🏺