Naomi Sykes

🎉Exciting news! 🏆Together with our research partner the University of Exeter, we have won in the Strategic Partnership category at the #KnowledgeExchangeUK Awards! Read more about the work researchandinnovation.co.uk/creating-rea...

From artefacts and materials class, Exeter University Archaeology, sending kind regards for the weekend

The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2000 years ago The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat Felis lybica lybica. Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful adaptation to anthropogenic environments. Unc...

What's that? 5 ancient doggy papers in 10 days is too many dogs?

Can I interest you in some cats?

Perhaps a complete retelling of cat domestication, dispersal, and replacement across Eurasia?

As you wish!

Science
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cell Genomics
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

A shorthair domestic cat gazes upward.

The domestic cat may be a far more recent arrival to Europe than previously thought, a new Science study. finds. The results offer new insight into one of humanity’s most enigmatic animal companions and identify North Africa as the cradle of the modern housecat.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/44kov1S

Classroom full of students listening to Alex talk. He is pointing at a slide with various images.

There was a great turnout yesterday to Prof Alex Pryor's (birthday) talk on 'Hunters of Giants: How to kill an Upper Palaeolithic mammoth, revealed by stable isotopes and DNA'. This was part of our Centre for Human-Animal-Environment Bioarchaeology (HumAnE) series of events, to which all welcome!

Cropped image from a book showing a colour illustration of a walrus in side profile. The walrus is lying down in side profile on sandy ground next to a body of water. It has a slightly doleful expression on its face.

Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the walruses, for today is their special day!

To celebrate World Walrus Day, here is an illustration of a walrus from the book 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc.

📷 Reserve 590 BUF

#WorldWalrusDay #WalrusDay #RareBooks

Beyond Stockfish - Blog November 10, 2025

Head on over to our project website to read all about the recent conference and data collection trip which had me zigzagging across northwestern Europe via train all the way from Copenhagen to Exeter! #researchupdate #archaeology #datacollection

sites.google.com/palaeome.org...

Our Masters students taking a module in Experimental Archaeology visited Stonehenge yesterday to learn about reconstructed Neolithic houses and a new project to build a large Neolithic education building, based on timber structure Durrington 68 😍 Also starring Ed's Late Neolithic decorated hard hat👷

We did a Telly! 🤩🎬

Four in a Bed....
www.channel4.com/programmes/f...

(had to take a photo of our computer because stupid Channel 4 wouldn't let us screen snip)

Are you considering a PhD? 🤔 Join our 'Masterclass - PhD proposal and funding 101'

📅Wednesday 3 December
🕰️ 10am or 4pm
📍ZOOM

All welcome!

🎫 Book your *free* ticket:

• 10am: fixr.co/event/master...
• 4pm: fixr.co/event/master...

Prof Rippon at the podium

Photo of the medal - which reads British Academy John Coles Medal - Landscape Archaeology

Yesterday, Prof. Stephen Rippon was invited to London to be presented the prestigious British Academy Landscape Archaeology Medal, awarded for distinguished achievement in that field of archaeology. Many congratulations on this much deserved honour!

Two archaeologists on an excavation. One squats to trowel the ground, another leans over to watch

📢 Announcing three(!) new opportunities for aspiring archaeologists to join our Archaeological Fieldwork Technician apprenticeship program!

Apply now (closes Friday 24 October): www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/VAC1000345576

Step back to 1086 and explore the fascinating world behind the oldest surviving Domesday manuscript!📜

Dr Chris Lewis speaks on the mysteries, gaps and stories of Exon Domesday.

👉 When: 30 October 7:30pm
👉 Where: Exeter Cathedral and online
👉 Tickets: www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/whats-on/eve...

A woodland setting with trees in the background. A line of police tape is strung across the foreground, and a skeleton and rope can be seen beyond.

Has Halloween come early? No, last week some of our 3rd year archaeology and forensics students carried out a crime scene recovery exercise in our woodland on campus.

2025 Annual Library Lecture: The secrets and silences of Exon Domesday Explore the many secrets of Exon Domesday, and discover why, where and how it was written.

Increase your knowledge of Exon Domesday on 30 October with researcher Chris Lewis!

Book your tickets to learn all about the oldest of the three original manuscripts surviving from William the Conqueror’s Domesday Survey of 1086: bit.ly/2025-library-lecture

#ExeterCathedral #YourCathedral

This September we are hosting a Special Tour of the Bishop's Garden and Cathedral. Learn about the historic home of Devon’s bishops, who have lived here since the 13th century.

🌳 24 September | 10:30am
🌳 £20 (adults), £10 (under 18s)
🌳 Accessible tour

Tickets: bit.ly/special-tours

Can’t wait to welcome you to the Department! Especially with such a glowing reference from Curator Rob!

Glass furnace update! 🔥🍷

We've been building a glass furnace @butserancientfarm.co.uk. We've removed the PhD student from the hole and replaced her with Roman tile and (less Roman) brick. Looks like a Goldfish.

#CuratorRob has been helping make daub bricks and has in no way lost his mind.

Aidan O’Sullivan I'm fundraising for LauraLynn - Irelands Childrens Hospice and would love if you could support my challenge.

I'm fundraising for LauraLynn - Irelands Childrens Hospice
fundraise.lauralynn.ie/s/859/858/s

I’m taking part in “Run 100K in September” challenge to raise funds for LauraLynn, Ireland’s only Children’s Hospice, for children with life-limiting conditions, be grateful for your support

You want hillforts? We got hillforts! The AHRC-funded project 'An atlas of the hillforts of Britain and Ireland' was an HCA project with the University of Oxford,
edin.ac/411eXYa

#HillfortsWednesday #History #Classics #Archaeology #HCA #Edinburgh #Edinburghuniversity

Such a lovely story this 😍 Jan Oke is an Exeter Archaeology alumnus and Fairlynch Museum’s Curator of Archaeology. She is a former recipient of the Angela and Tony Colmer prize 🏆 herself and was part of the team who awarded it to Phoebe Holland today ♻️ for outstanding Fieldwork in Local Archaeology👇

Very proud of Alisha and Jess who are that the launch of their co-authored book: Tails and Roots - a creative exploration of biodiversity in research @uoearchhist.bsky.social @frankieboyd.bsky.social

Some great finds fresh out of the ground today! In trench 6, we've been finding lots of animal bone and what some staff on site believe to be a key! We will need to x-ray to find out. Then in trench 3 we have found the remains of a wall, and also some beautiful Beauvais pottery from France!

A lot of cobbled surfaces being revealed at Columbjohn! Trench 3 is also revealing some features such as a drainage system and a slumped wall!
@nattrustarch.bsky.social

Funded PhD on natural and cultural heritage on islands! www.mic.ul.ie/sites/defaul...

A hand holding two small sherds of black pottery, over an excavation trench

A series of sherds of different post-medieval pottery with a variety of colours and glazes and patterns - some local and some imported

A finds tray with large chunks of plaster, some cornice pieces and oval shaped and a leaf is visible.

Halfway through our fieldschool at Columbjohn! In terms of finds it's a tale of two halves - prehistoric (likely Iron Age) pottery and flints from one trench, masses of post-med pot and Elizabethan ceiling plaster from another!

First day on site at Columbjohn for Fieldschool! A feature in Trench 3 and some new finds have already been discovered as the rubble layer is being revealed. Finds include a Victorian coin and 17th century pin! Follow this page to keep updated and visit the site at Killerton when you get a chance!

A woman with long straight hair, looking at the camera. Beside her is a a laptop and a camera on a fancy stand pointing at a pig mandible. We wouldn't say the woman looks a bit demented but there's something in her eyes that suggests she seen far too many pig teeth.

We're hosting Alisha from @uoearchhist.bsky.social all week this week.

Alisha is bothering our pig teeth for her PhD to find out wonderful things about the history of wold board at Fishbourne (and elsewhere, but who cares about all that?).

Did cult sacrifices in ancient Egypt give rise to the cat? “Murder pathway” may have tamed wildcats over several generations

Were cats domesticated in the Neolithic? New research by Sean Doherty and Naomi Sykes suggests it was far more recent, and the result of religion, not rodents

Slide with title 'Will periods still have a place?' with images of a microchip and the plastic age.

Finally President Linda Hurcombe is bringing together multiple strands - Anthropocene, future periods of time, public engagement through experimental archaeology, and the future of @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social