Martin Porr

Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa handback a symbol of land rights 40 years on When you drive towards Uluṟu and see the stark, red monolith on the horizon, or stand at its base and look up at its striking, powerful enormity, time stands still.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

'Java Man,’ the first Homo erectus discovered, is finally going home Excavated with colonial labor and shipped to the Netherlands, the famous fossil is being repatriated to Indonesia along with 28,000 other fossils.

www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

Did humans kill Australia's ancient megafauna? Bone study prompts rethink Palaeontologists say there is no hard evidence in the fossil record that extinct Australian megafauna were butchered by First Nations people.

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

It’s Time to Replace “Prehistory” With “Deep History” Archaeologists in Southeast Asia are pushing toward a deeper understanding of history that amplifies Indigenous and local perspectives.

www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

The epic story of Australia and its first peoples — like you've never seen it The story of Australia and its peoples is vast and deep. It's one you should know, but possibly one you've never been told. Well, not like this anyway.

www.abc.net.au/news/deeptim...

Paleolithic painters had the blues Two recent studies shine light on the earliest known artistic usages of blue pigment

I was invited to provide some comments on the fascinating story below, which discusses the earliest known examples of the use of blue pigment during the European Palaeolithic. Interesting results with some intriguing implications.

www.science.org/content/arti...

🏺🧪🦣

In Human Origins Research, Communities Are the Missing Link A paleoanthropologist reflects on relationships between researchers and communities living around sites relevant to human evolution.

www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...

Just want to thank Ben for his great contribution, the first in the special issue, and my-co-editor, Gianpiero Di Maida and the editorial staff at the Ethnographisch-Archäologische Zeitschrift for their hard work and their understanding!

Please have a look at this new open access paper by Benjamin Alberti that was just published in the EAZ. This is part of a special issue on ontological approaches in archaeology with more great papers to follow! #archaeology

www.eaz-journal.org/index.php/ea...

‘Those paintings belong to us’: how an Indigenous-led project is harnessing technology to protect Kakadu’s rock art This new project has strong potential to be scaled up and delivered in other land and cultural heritage management contexts.

theconversation.com/those-painti...

Great to have been able to conduct this survey at the WA Maritime Museum for the Deep Time Images project together with @lauramayer.bsky.social! Lots to analyze and lots of food for thought! #TheGreatKimberleyWilderness

My cultural awakening: an ancient statue made me fall in love with my fat body I spent decades being ashamed of the way I look. Then a visit to the Natural History Museum changed everything

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

We need a feminist palaeoanthropology that finally listens to all of us — HERI - Human Evolution Research Institute Palaeoanthropology asks profound questions: Who are we? What makes us human? Too often, answering these answers has been done by a privileged few. HERi Co-director Prof Rebecca Ackermann calls for tha...

www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

Yes, the website is in German, but the volume itself is in English

The book includes many fabulous papers and goes back to a conference at the University of Tübingen in 2018. I hope that you will find it useful, and I want to thank my co-editors and all authors for their hard work, battling through the pandemic and other challenges! @deeptimeheritage.bsky.social

It is a great pleasure to announce that our new book on Palaeolithic art and what we can learn from it has just been published by Heidelberg University Publishing! The volume is OA and can be downloaded via the link below! @deeptimeheritage.bsky.social 🤩😎

heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book...

Here is the original letter/announcement from the White House, another step in the Trump's attack strategy on the museum, cultural, and research sectors

www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...

Come work with us!! Job opportunity!!

We just advertised a 5-year full-time T/R Archaeology Lecturer position at Level B.

This will suit an early career researcher with a teaching and research profile that is relevant to Australia.

Full details below!

external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/52...

Interesting read here on #language #ontologies
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Precious finger traces from First Nations ancestors revealed in a glittering mountain cave in Australia Thousands of years ago, adults and children left their marks on soft rock surfaces deep in this cave in GunaiKurnai Country.

theconversation.com/precious-fin...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Tim Winton among 100 high-profile Australians calling for university fees that don’t ‘punish’ arts students Open letter urges Labor to reverse JRG scheme, introduced by Coalition in 2021, as cost of humanities degrees reaches more than $50,000

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

SAPIENS to Cease Publication

Bad news coming out of the US. What a loss but not at all unexpected given recent events and developments...

wennergren.org/article/sapi...

International students have not driven rents and inflation higher, RBA says An RBA paper suggests the rapid growth in foreign students post-pandemic did not play a big role in pushing rents higher.

Was all the scapegoating in Australian politics maybe just that??!!

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

Why many Americans still think Darwin was wrong, yet the British don’t Fundamentalists don’t necessarily examine evolution and then reject it; they tend to start with the conclusion that it must be false and work backwards.

Why many Americans still think #Darwin was wrong, yet the British don’t
#evolution #evoSky #scienceSky

theconversation.com/why-many-ame...

Leaders in India, Hungary and the US are using appeals to nostalgia and nationalism to attack higher education Populist, right-wing governments often target universities as enemies of the state. The Trump administration is watching − and learning.

Populist governments are mobilizing emotions like nostalgia and resentment to justify eroding academic freedom and reshaping higher education. Scholars who study nationalism, emotion and higher education explore this troubling strategy: theconversation.com/leaders-in-i...

We were part of the world heritage listing of Murujuga. Here’s why all Australians should be proud Murujuga is Australia’s 21st world heritage property, but only the second property listed exclusively for its Indigenous cultural values.

theconversation.com/we-were-part...

‘It’s always been some white dude’: how Ethiopia became the world leader in uncovering the story of humankind Housed in an unremarkable office block in the captial, the country’s national museum is home to the most extensive collection of the remains of modern humans’ ancestors – and a team of world-leading s...

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...