Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes

Extremely excited to be down in Lyme for the first time (for me !). Utterly gorgeous house, and wonderful to have all four of us back together in one place - first time in over 6 years...

We'll definitely be visiting that, TB we're patrons for the campaign!

Extremely excited to be down in Lyme for the first time (for me !). Utterly gorgeous house, and wonderful to have all four of us back together in one place - first time in over 6 years...

Buckland wrote this despite understanding that women of his time, whether his wife Mary, or #MaryAnning whose work he benefitted from, were serious, skilled palaeontological fieldworkers & thinkers...
Here's the @trowelblazers.bsky.social article on Mary Buckland
trowelblazers.com/2014/05/09/m...

Oh wow really ?!

[Insert joke about contemporary masculinity crisis]

Omg I missed this when I was there (got stuck in earlier prehistory and ran out of time), clearly I need to go back again!

Is there any evidence of use for these? Are they assumed to be body adornment or for textiles?

I can vouch that she makes a solid pot of tea AND has lush old beams in her barn ❤️

🎂

Wormholes into the Bronze Age, if you could squeeze through one...

🦣🏺 Wow I did not realise Levallois appears so late in this region.
Interesting to consider in terms of potential interaction or not between East Eurasian hominins & #Neanderthals, out at their eastern-most range (which is often assumed to be Denisova based on skeletal remains, but need not be...)

Photo of a hand holding a pale lump inside a finds bag. You can see cracks and detritus inside it.

Photo of hand holding a finds bag labelled "Coy 64, Crocuta crocuta, coprolite". It contain a pale elongated object, C. 3cm long, that looks very much like a little pinched-off pet turd.

🏺🧪🦣 Huge thanks to Steve Burrow of @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social for my little revisit yesterday to the Coygan Cave collection - so nice to see the beautiful #Neanderthal bifaces again, and furtle in the hyaena coprolite box - look at that little one, must be from a pup who pooped +40,000 years ago 💩

What ice fishing can teach us about making foraging decisions Social density increases likelihood of sticking with a location. Environmental factors had little influence.

What ice fishing can teach us about making foraging decisions. It's mostly about social cues. Social density increases likelihood of sticking with a location. Environmental factors had little influence. arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Photo of want with glasses in red coat and grey scarf with black horse print, standing outside Senedd building, Welsh flags flying in the background.

Photo of stage for panel, behind which is large glass wall. A man (Richard Nicholls) is standing at a lectern giving an introductory talk.

🏺 Great @henebtwa.bsky.social panel, I championed #archaeology as crucial for helping people engage with cynefin & placemaking for community identity, and argued that it should at the centre of how children learn about & encounter the past - history has been privileged in curriculums for too long!

This looks interesting!

This thread is humorous but just so predictably depressing. Govt pouring money into #AI "support" that is not only full of corporate presence, but also virtually pointless for users AND those who have to encounter what users then produce.
And all of it could be delivered by humans, helping humans.

We have indicators of lighter and darker skin, eyes and hair for Neanderthals but IIRC it's not quite as clear cut as probabilities of different shades, as in H. sapiens?
Significantly dark skin would not make evolutionary sense in N European Neanderthals, but darker more likely in Levant

Photo showing exhibition wall. A solid image of a Neanderthal boy stands next to profile outlines of the fauna in his world, to showing relative size. Above the boy image is a wall with post-it comments from visitors.

Photo showing post-it details, lots of names of children some with their schools, but also adults.

Photo looking down into display case inside which are a range of lithics from Pontnewydd including flakes and a large handaxe/ biface.

Nice interactive element here too, a feature of many of the displays in the museum.
(The last time I saw these lithics was during my PhD, on a trip with @beccyscottuk.bsky.social)

MEGA TORC

Kennis & Kennis sculpture of Pontnewydd Neanderthal youngster. Modelled with brown skin, dark eyes, shoulder length dark hair. Figure is wrapped in a fur, holding a tool, and has a smile like they know something amusing about you and are trying not to laugh.

Photo of mirror with Neanderthal image on it, and reflection of a woman (me) visible.

Photo of upper jaw fragment with teeth, mounted inside a glass case. Behind it, blurred, is the furry body of the reconstruction.

Photo of butchered animal bone. Small slices visible on its surface.

🏺 Great visit yesterday to St Fagan's Amgueddfa Cymru /Museum of Wales.
Inventive themed galleries, including a close encounter with Pontnewydd #Neanderthals of 270,000 years ago.

@tessmachling.bsky.social sure you know this one already

🧪 Press release was from Geol Soc Am, but they apparently did not provide an image.
Lesson? If you're putting out research to media, give them pics.
And consider a "no #AI" requirement, whether images or text, in media coverage of your work...

Photo of huge bronze sculpture of torc on its side aka "Celtic Ring", behind which is Wales Millennium Centre

Photo of stairs in front of Senedd, with a Soaring roof above large glass frontage.

Photo of torc sculpture from other direction, behind it is harbour and sea and pale pink dawn cloud.

Photo of huge metal overhang front of Millennium Centre, and tall tower behind with water running down it. Beyond is a large plaza, the sea and a large headland in distance.

Good morning from Senedd Cymru /Welsh Parliament 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
Here for @henebtwa.bsky.social launch event, speaking about why #archaeology matters.
(Love that there's a giant torc here at the centre of Welsh political power!)

I am now trying to think of an actual Mousterian /#Neanderthal mouse, but am only coming up with Other Rodents

Hah!

🧪 Press release was from Geol Soc Am, but they apparently did not provide an image.
Lesson? If you're putting out research to media, give them pics.
And consider a "no #AI" requirement, whether images or text, in media coverage of your work...

Confused by this image, it looks like there is more of it in the later image?

🏺🧪 Very exciting new wooden artefacts, and I think the first ID of alder and willow species being used in earlier Palaeolithic contexts 🌳

Historians in 300 years, ruminating on AI : "sorry that happened"