Colin D. Wren
@cdwren.bsky.social
Assoc. Prof. of Archaeology at UCCS in Colorado, mind usually other places. Agent-based models and quantitative methods usually for the Palaeolithic.
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
If there are any French-speaking archaeologists in BC who would be interested in an interview on Monday (Jan 26) with Radio-Canada about whatever the heck is going on with the BC Heritage Act right now, DM me and I can connect you! 🏺
January 23, 2026 at 4:42 PM
If there are any French-speaking archaeologists in BC who would be interested in an interview on Monday (Jan 26) with Radio-Canada about whatever the heck is going on with the BC Heritage Act right now, DM me and I can connect you! 🏺
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
Roadkill... it's still protein.
New research suggests scavenging animal carcasses wasn’t a desperate last resort, but a smart, reliable survival strategy that shaped human evolution.
Revisiting hominin scavenging through the lens of optimal foraging theory 🏺🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New research suggests scavenging animal carcasses wasn’t a desperate last resort, but a smart, reliable survival strategy that shaped human evolution.
Revisiting hominin scavenging through the lens of optimal foraging theory 🏺🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
January 23, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Roadkill... it's still protein.
New research suggests scavenging animal carcasses wasn’t a desperate last resort, but a smart, reliable survival strategy that shaped human evolution.
Revisiting hominin scavenging through the lens of optimal foraging theory 🏺🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New research suggests scavenging animal carcasses wasn’t a desperate last resort, but a smart, reliable survival strategy that shaped human evolution.
Revisiting hominin scavenging through the lens of optimal foraging theory 🏺🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
🏺 Some gorgeous lithics from Orozmani, Georgia, just 20km from Dmanisi, also c. 1.8 Ma.
(good to remember when dealing with claims of unexpectedly old sites in other places, that even extremely ancient hominins were producing unambiguous artefact assemblages)
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(good to remember when dealing with claims of unexpectedly old sites in other places, that even extremely ancient hominins were producing unambiguous artefact assemblages)
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
January 23, 2026 at 6:19 PM
🏺 Some gorgeous lithics from Orozmani, Georgia, just 20km from Dmanisi, also c. 1.8 Ma.
(good to remember when dealing with claims of unexpectedly old sites in other places, that even extremely ancient hominins were producing unambiguous artefact assemblages)
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(good to remember when dealing with claims of unexpectedly old sites in other places, that even extremely ancient hominins were producing unambiguous artefact assemblages)
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
Hand-stencil motifs found in caves in Sulawesi, Indonesia, dating to at least 67,800 years ago, may be the oldest rock art discovered, according to a study in Nature. These findings support the theory that early humans migrated to Sahul via a northern route through Sulawesi. 🏺 🧪
Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi - Nature
A hand stencil painted on a cave wall on a small island off the coast of Sulawesi more than 67,800 years ago suggests a very early occupation of Wallacea.
go.nature.com
January 21, 2026 at 11:07 PM
Hand-stencil motifs found in caves in Sulawesi, Indonesia, dating to at least 67,800 years ago, may be the oldest rock art discovered, according to a study in Nature. These findings support the theory that early humans migrated to Sahul via a northern route through Sulawesi. 🏺 🧪
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
I tried something new this year by building a suite of #archaeological #theory practicals, so a 🧵 on resources I (and my students) loved 🏺. I’ve linked to online materials but will happily share purpose-made stuff:
January 22, 2026 at 9:58 AM
I tried something new this year by building a suite of #archaeological #theory practicals, so a 🧵 on resources I (and my students) loved 🏺. I’ve linked to online materials but will happily share purpose-made stuff:
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
More Breaking Palaeo-news!
🐘 Boxgrove preserved oldest Elephant Bone beyond Africa.
🐘 Early Neanderthals using bone to shape beautiful tools.
🐘 New research from Simon Parfitt @uclarchaeology.bsky.social Silvia Bello of the @nhm-london.bsky.social.
🦣🏺🐘https://share.google/20WUjY5TybDAr4QoT
🐘 Boxgrove preserved oldest Elephant Bone beyond Africa.
🐘 Early Neanderthals using bone to shape beautiful tools.
🐘 New research from Simon Parfitt @uclarchaeology.bsky.social Silvia Bello of the @nhm-london.bsky.social.
🦣🏺🐘https://share.google/20WUjY5TybDAr4QoT
Prehistoric tool made from elephant bone is the oldest discovered in Europe
A remarkable prehistoric hammer made from elephant bone, dating back nearly half a million years ago, has been uncovered in southern England and analyzed by archaeologists from UCL and the Natural His...
share.google
January 22, 2026 at 10:46 AM
More Breaking Palaeo-news!
🐘 Boxgrove preserved oldest Elephant Bone beyond Africa.
🐘 Early Neanderthals using bone to shape beautiful tools.
🐘 New research from Simon Parfitt @uclarchaeology.bsky.social Silvia Bello of the @nhm-london.bsky.social.
🦣🏺🐘https://share.google/20WUjY5TybDAr4QoT
🐘 Boxgrove preserved oldest Elephant Bone beyond Africa.
🐘 Early Neanderthals using bone to shape beautiful tools.
🐘 New research from Simon Parfitt @uclarchaeology.bsky.social Silvia Bello of the @nhm-london.bsky.social.
🦣🏺🐘https://share.google/20WUjY5TybDAr4QoT
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
#ZooMS infographic and ALT generated from a spoken prompt "Can you explain what zooms is and how this is used to identify archaeological bone? and medieval parchment?" 🦴📜 #Archaeology. Slightly scary, as while it is clearly AI, my net intellectual contribution was 18 spoken words.
January 21, 2026 at 12:49 AM
#ZooMS infographic and ALT generated from a spoken prompt "Can you explain what zooms is and how this is used to identify archaeological bone? and medieval parchment?" 🦴📜 #Archaeology. Slightly scary, as while it is clearly AI, my net intellectual contribution was 18 spoken words.
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
There's not much beating … Neolithic #SharkHunters. 🙌
January 16, 2026 at 1:49 PM
There's not much beating … Neolithic #SharkHunters. 🙌
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
We've been collecting trophies for a long time. For a very long time apparently, as these skulls of #horned herbivores at the #DesCubiertaCave in #Spain seem to suggest, which have been accumulated by ... #Neanderthals:
🏺 www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/01/n...
🏺 www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/01/n...
Neanderthals accumulated the skulls of large horned herbivores for centuries in a cave in Madrid as part of an enigmatic ritual
A multidisciplinary team of Spanish scientists has unraveled the secrets of one of the most enigmatic Neanderthal sites in Europe: Des-Cubierta Cave, in Pinilla del Valle (Madrid). Their findings, pub...
www.labrujulaverde.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:50 PM
We've been collecting trophies for a long time. For a very long time apparently, as these skulls of #horned herbivores at the #DesCubiertaCave in #Spain seem to suggest, which have been accumulated by ... #Neanderthals:
🏺 www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/01/n...
🏺 www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/01/n...
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
Since Jan 1 2025, which feels like four trillion years ago, research has been shared on here 5 million whole-ass times. Bluesky recently passed 2 billion posts IN TOTAL.
So 0.25% of the entire site's traffic was citations to research.
That is actually massively high. Is it? Yes. Here's why.
So 0.25% of the entire site's traffic was citations to research.
That is actually massively high. Is it? Yes. Here's why.
January 8, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Since Jan 1 2025, which feels like four trillion years ago, research has been shared on here 5 million whole-ass times. Bluesky recently passed 2 billion posts IN TOTAL.
So 0.25% of the entire site's traffic was citations to research.
That is actually massively high. Is it? Yes. Here's why.
So 0.25% of the entire site's traffic was citations to research.
That is actually massively high. Is it? Yes. Here's why.
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
Really excited that our *new paper* is finally out 🔥 This study is the first to quantitatively investigate museum visitors’ perceptions of historical analogies that compare concepts from the deep past to modern political ideas.
doi.org/10.1057/s415...
doi.org/10.1057/s415...
January 7, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Really excited that our *new paper* is finally out 🔥 This study is the first to quantitatively investigate museum visitors’ perceptions of historical analogies that compare concepts from the deep past to modern political ideas.
doi.org/10.1057/s415...
doi.org/10.1057/s415...
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
And here’s my other human origins countdown to close out the year! 🏺🧪
10 things we learned about Neanderthals in 2025
Findings about our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals, continue to surprise us, especially those from 2025.
www.livescience.com
December 30, 2025 at 9:31 PM
And here’s my other human origins countdown to close out the year! 🏺🧪
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
Within a cave used by bird nest traders, archaeologists uncover a single tooth from an ancient group: the first evidence from an extinct hominin on the world’s third largest island. What group lived there in the millennia before modern people arrived?
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-possible...
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-possible...
A possible archaic human from Borneo
The find of a single tooth from Gua Danang may be the first evidence of the archaic inhabitants of the island.
www.johnhawks.net
December 28, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Within a cave used by bird nest traders, archaeologists uncover a single tooth from an ancient group: the first evidence from an extinct hominin on the world’s third largest island. What group lived there in the millennia before modern people arrived?
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-possible...
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-possible...
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
New Perspective from myself, Sarah Heilbronner and @myoo.bsky.social . “Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization” in Nature Neuroscience. 🧵
rdcu.be/eVZ1A
rdcu.be/eVZ1A
Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization
Nature Neuroscience - Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas...
rdcu.be
December 23, 2025 at 1:02 PM
New Perspective from myself, Sarah Heilbronner and @myoo.bsky.social . “Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization” in Nature Neuroscience. 🧵
rdcu.be/eVZ1A
rdcu.be/eVZ1A
A student's paper just described the interaction between Homo sapiens and Neandertals as "a situationship rather than a relationship" and I'm still laughing ten minutes later 💀🏺
December 21, 2025 at 1:12 AM
A student's paper just described the interaction between Homo sapiens and Neandertals as "a situationship rather than a relationship" and I'm still laughing ten minutes later 💀🏺
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
the analogy I use with friends and family all the time is the jump from collegiate to professional sports. as soon as I explain it that way, it clicks in their brains what the academic job market is like.
THERE ARE NO JOBS IN ACADEMIA! NO JOBS! DOZENS OF HYPER QUALIFIED APPLICANTS PER JOB!
December 19, 2025 at 3:52 PM
the analogy I use with friends and family all the time is the jump from collegiate to professional sports. as soon as I explain it that way, it clicks in their brains what the academic job market is like.
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
🧪🦣 🏺 Super thread on complexity & pitfalls in using genetics to - crudely put - explain why H. sapiens are here but #Neanderthals aren't.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
A substantial proportion of people with archaic TKTL1 had college/university degrees, arguing against big impacts on cognition. The results show that the sometimes dramatic effects seen in lab-based experiments on evolutionary variants may not be a guide to real-world impacts in living humans. 11/n
December 19, 2025 at 12:57 PM
🧪🦣 🏺 Super thread on complexity & pitfalls in using genetics to - crudely put - explain why H. sapiens are here but #Neanderthals aren't.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
Archaeologists, it's mystery object time! It's an iron rod with a spoon-like end. The other end is missing. Context could be anytime between 19th and 20th century Texas. 🏺
December 12, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Archaeologists, it's mystery object time! It's an iron rod with a spoon-like end. The other end is missing. Context could be anytime between 19th and 20th century Texas. 🏺
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
🇨🇦🇨🇦 Just announced: a massive new program from the Canadian govt, separate from the well-known CRCs and CERCs, to recruit foreign scientific talent
Canada was already a destination for scientists but whoa. Real impressive for a new govt to back political talking points with serious investment
Canada was already a destination for scientists but whoa. Real impressive for a new govt to back political talking points with serious investment
$1.7 billion to attract international researchers to Canada
Details of the major federal initiative to draw new talent to the country's universities were announced today at UdeM.
nouvelles.umontreal.ca
December 10, 2025 at 1:16 PM
🇨🇦🇨🇦 Just announced: a massive new program from the Canadian govt, separate from the well-known CRCs and CERCs, to recruit foreign scientific talent
Canada was already a destination for scientists but whoa. Real impressive for a new govt to back political talking points with serious investment
Canada was already a destination for scientists but whoa. Real impressive for a new govt to back political talking points with serious investment
Great story in local CBC New Brunswick news about an archival artefact collection and the collaboration between U New Brunswick and Wolastoqey First Nation 🏺https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/bailey-collection-unb-artifacts-wolastoqey-collaboration-9.6991802
How a UNB artifact collection has sparked archeological collaboration and innovation | CBC News
The Bailey Collection sat untouched for decades on the University of New Brunswick campus. Now researchers and the Wolastoqey Nation are working together to document the artifacts and chart new ways f...
www.cbc.ca
December 5, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Great story in local CBC New Brunswick news about an archival artefact collection and the collaboration between U New Brunswick and Wolastoqey First Nation 🏺https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/bailey-collection-unb-artifacts-wolastoqey-collaboration-9.6991802
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
In ancient Mesopotamia, astronomers needed to know the moon’s position, even on a cloudy night.
So they made records and calculations of the moon’s positions and velocity measured in degrees. This record from Uruk or Babylon from the Seleucid period covers 248 days.
📸 by Dr K. Wagensonner
So they made records and calculations of the moon’s positions and velocity measured in degrees. This record from Uruk or Babylon from the Seleucid period covers 248 days.
📸 by Dr K. Wagensonner
December 2, 2025 at 10:20 AM
In ancient Mesopotamia, astronomers needed to know the moon’s position, even on a cloudy night.
So they made records and calculations of the moon’s positions and velocity measured in degrees. This record from Uruk or Babylon from the Seleucid period covers 248 days.
📸 by Dr K. Wagensonner
So they made records and calculations of the moon’s positions and velocity measured in degrees. This record from Uruk or Babylon from the Seleucid period covers 248 days.
📸 by Dr K. Wagensonner
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
All roads lead to cats....
"Roman military helped bring cats to Europe"
A big week for cat #archaeologynews 🏺🐈
www.popsci.com/environment/...
and connectsci.au/news/news-pa...
"Roman military helped bring cats to Europe"
A big week for cat #archaeologynews 🏺🐈
www.popsci.com/environment/...
and connectsci.au/news/news-pa...
Roman military helped bring cats to Europe
Military roads helped the felines domesticate about 2,000 years ago.
www.popsci.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:39 AM
All roads lead to cats....
"Roman military helped bring cats to Europe"
A big week for cat #archaeologynews 🏺🐈
www.popsci.com/environment/...
and connectsci.au/news/news-pa...
"Roman military helped bring cats to Europe"
A big week for cat #archaeologynews 🏺🐈
www.popsci.com/environment/...
and connectsci.au/news/news-pa...
Reposted by Colin D. Wren
🏺 Archaeology = materiality, connection, deep-time relevance to present & future
New landmark research out today: We've just launched Trowel and Error, the most in-depth look in 25 years at how audiences want to engage with archaeology. The findings are clear: people want human, accessible, story-led archaeology.
Read the report here 👉 www.archaeologyuk.org/our-work/tro...
Read the report here 👉 www.archaeologyuk.org/our-work/tro...
November 28, 2025 at 2:52 PM
🏺 Archaeology = materiality, connection, deep-time relevance to present & future