Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
@lemoustier.bsky.social
Archaeologist, word-witcher, scicomm, consultancy
📚 KINDRED: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death & Art
🖋️ MATRIARCHA: Prehistory Re-imagined
🏛️ Honorary Researcher U. Cambridge & U. Liverpool
1/4 @trowelblazers.bsky.social
Rep: PEW Literary
📚 KINDRED: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death & Art
🖋️ MATRIARCHA: Prehistory Re-imagined
🏛️ Honorary Researcher U. Cambridge & U. Liverpool
1/4 @trowelblazers.bsky.social
Rep: PEW Literary
🏺 Wonder if people in prehistory experienced whiplash nostalgia for new-revolutionary-but-eventually-tainted-by-human-foolishness tech?
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
November 25, 2025 at 2:36 PM
🏺 Wonder if people in prehistory experienced whiplash nostalgia for new-revolutionary-but-eventually-tainted-by-human-foolishness tech?
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
🏺🗃️
If we, here in 2025, don’t expect women in the 1930s to have been physical, to be undertaking manual excavation tasks, it probably says more about later 20th century stereotypes of womanhood than it does about women in e. 20th century archaeology.
November 25, 2025 at 2:29 PM
🏺🗃️
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
“Let me get this straight, you want me to sail over the Baltic to Gotland with a full-grown wolf in my boat?”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
🐺 Wolves in dog's clothing 🐺
Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry.
Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?
Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry.
Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?
November 24, 2025 at 10:10 PM
“Let me get this straight, you want me to sail over the Baltic to Gotland with a full-grown wolf in my boat?”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Thinking about UK, misinformation crisis & attempts to sow distrust in expertise...
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
November 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Thinking about UK, misinformation crisis & attempts to sow distrust in expertise...
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
🏺🧪
New open access publication: Moving to Stay in (a Woman’s) Place: Was Patrilocality the Dominant Mode of Postmarital Residence across Later European Prehistory? Current Anthropology.
Thanks to Wenner Gren for funding the workshop it emerged from!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Thanks to Wenner Gren for funding the workshop it emerged from!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Moving to Stay in (a Woman’s) Place : Was Patrilocality the Dominant Mode of Postmarital Residence across Later European Prehistory? | Current Anthropology
This paper questions whether forms of female mobility and their relation to kinship were uniform throughout later European prehistory. Patrilocality has become the primary way in which sex-based diffe...
www.journals.uchicago.edu
November 24, 2025 at 5:16 PM
🏺🧪
All of Tori's radio & pod stuff is fantastic, but this one is especially lovely
On the Origin of Species was published on this day in 1859.
It really did change the world, and the way much of humanity views our place in nature.
I spoke to Radio 4's Opening Lines about it's importance -- both to science, and to me on a personal level
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
It really did change the world, and the way much of humanity views our place in nature.
I spoke to Radio 4's Opening Lines about it's importance -- both to science, and to me on a personal level
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Opening Lines - On the Origin of Species - BBC Sounds
John Yorke investigates Charles Darwin’s world-changing book On The Origin of Species.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 5:05 PM
All of Tori's radio & pod stuff is fantastic, but this one is especially lovely
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Celebrating an incredible coincidence of history today: #OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and 115 years later, to the day, Lucy was found. 🏺
November 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Celebrating an incredible coincidence of history today: #OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and 115 years later, to the day, Lucy was found. 🏺
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
'On The Origin Of Species', a book that changed the world forever, was published #onthisday, 1859. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, contained within, didn’t just revolutionise science, it had a profound impact on how we view ourselves and our place in the natural world. What a wonderful man.
November 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
'On The Origin Of Species', a book that changed the world forever, was published #onthisday, 1859. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, contained within, didn’t just revolutionise science, it had a profound impact on how we view ourselves and our place in the natural world. What a wonderful man.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Orangutan youngsters reach the broad diet they need to survive only if they culturally learn what to eat & where to find it
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
Our New Paper is out in Nature Human Behaviour: 🚨 Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials! 🦧 www.nature.com/articles/s41.... See 🧵
Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials - Nature Human Behaviour
Howard-Spink et al. develop an empirically based model of orangutan diet development, which suggests that social learning is vital for orangutans to acquire varied diets.
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Orangutan youngsters reach the broad diet they need to survive only if they culturally learn what to eat & where to find it
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
November 24, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
Thinking about UK, misinformation crisis & attempts to sow distrust in expertise...
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
November 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Thinking about UK, misinformation crisis & attempts to sow distrust in expertise...
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
🏺
Dental calculus analysis (the identification of microparticles embedded in mineralized dental plaque!) has revealed clear evidence of ELS215's participation in cloth production. As she worked with wool, flax and, dye, fibres and plant material ended up in her mouth! Image callout 2 is dyer's madder!
November 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM
🏺
Perfect autumn birding yesterday, rewarded with a Little Egret fleeing geese and Water Rail sneaking in the dusk reeds
November 23, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Perfect autumn birding yesterday, rewarded with a Little Egret fleeing geese and Water Rail sneaking in the dusk reeds
💯
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 5:17 PM
💯
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🏺🗃️ Thinking back to my Italy trip a year ago, here are some of the most beautiful works I saw in the Naples museum: rare paintings on marble from Herculaneum & Pompeii, their colours faded, yet with a delicacy that recalls Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
November 21, 2025 at 4:11 PM
🏺🗃️ Thinking back to my Italy trip a year ago, here are some of the most beautiful works I saw in the Naples museum: rare paintings on marble from Herculaneum & Pompeii, their colours faded, yet with a delicacy that recalls Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Love a TL juxtaposition
November 21, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Love a TL juxtaposition
🧪 #COP30 perspective from someone who thinks about deep human pasts & futures:
We're clever - we can envision AND make everything we need to (and afford it).
And yet, despite our ability to network in some ways defining us, we're still not acting – thinking & CONNECTING – at a large enough scale.
We're clever - we can envision AND make everything we need to (and afford it).
And yet, despite our ability to network in some ways defining us, we're still not acting – thinking & CONNECTING – at a large enough scale.
Counting down the final hours at COP30. Follow along here:
Cop30 live: summit president says ‘everybody will lose’ as fears rise that conference will end without a deal
André Corrêa do Lago issues plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries far from reaching agreement on scheduled final day
www.theguardian.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:45 PM
🧪 #COP30 perspective from someone who thinks about deep human pasts & futures:
We're clever - we can envision AND make everything we need to (and afford it).
And yet, despite our ability to network in some ways defining us, we're still not acting – thinking & CONNECTING – at a large enough scale.
We're clever - we can envision AND make everything we need to (and afford it).
And yet, despite our ability to network in some ways defining us, we're still not acting – thinking & CONNECTING – at a large enough scale.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Study after study shows that using LLMs is bad for cognition, bad for learning, bad for understanding, bad for mental health. So why are our schools and universities still relentlessly pushing them?
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Study after study shows that using LLMs is bad for cognition, bad for learning, bad for understanding, bad for mental health. So why are our schools and universities still relentlessly pushing them?
🏺🗃️ Thinking back to my Italy trip a year ago, here are some of the most beautiful works I saw in the Naples museum: rare paintings on marble from Herculaneum & Pompeii, their colours faded, yet with a delicacy that recalls Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
November 21, 2025 at 4:11 PM
🏺🗃️ Thinking back to my Italy trip a year ago, here are some of the most beautiful works I saw in the Naples museum: rare paintings on marble from Herculaneum & Pompeii, their colours faded, yet with a delicacy that recalls Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🧪🏺🦣
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
Did Neandertals choose their prey when practicing cannibalism?🍖
Check out our new study, just published in Scientific Reports - @natureportfolio.nature.com!
We provide the strongest evidence to date for a highly selective cannibalism at the end of Neandertal lineage, 41-45.000 years ago.
1/7
Check out our new study, just published in Scientific Reports - @natureportfolio.nature.com!
We provide the strongest evidence to date for a highly selective cannibalism at the end of Neandertal lineage, 41-45.000 years ago.
1/7
Highly selective cannibalism in the Late Pleistocene of Northern Europe reveals Neandertals were targeted prey - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Highly selective cannibalism in the Late Pleistocene of Northern Europe reveals Neandertals were targeted prey
doi.org
November 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
🧪🏺🦣
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
🧪🏺🦣
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
Did Neandertals choose their prey when practicing cannibalism?🍖
Check out our new study, just published in Scientific Reports - @natureportfolio.nature.com!
We provide the strongest evidence to date for a highly selective cannibalism at the end of Neandertal lineage, 41-45.000 years ago.
1/7
Check out our new study, just published in Scientific Reports - @natureportfolio.nature.com!
We provide the strongest evidence to date for a highly selective cannibalism at the end of Neandertal lineage, 41-45.000 years ago.
1/7
Highly selective cannibalism in the Late Pleistocene of Northern Europe reveals Neandertals were targeted prey - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Highly selective cannibalism in the Late Pleistocene of Northern Europe reveals Neandertals were targeted prey
doi.org
November 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
🧪🏺🦣
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
Hugely important new data here, I need time to digest it (🙃), but this kind of detailed contextual work is EXACTLY what we need to avoid stereotypes that #Neanderthal body processing & cannibalism were simply "brutal massacres"
Dreadful splendour of stellar ruination
[as always, it is a wonder that we evolved in a manner where we can find fundamental properties & processes of the universe endlessly, beguilingly beautiful]
[as always, it is a wonder that we evolved in a manner where we can find fundamental properties & processes of the universe endlessly, beguilingly beautiful]
Here's an animation that clarifies at what's happening in the JWST image. We're looking at two massive, evolved, Wolf-Rayet stars orbiting each other as they spill their guts. 🧪🔭
science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/w...
science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/w...
November 20, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Dreadful splendour of stellar ruination
[as always, it is a wonder that we evolved in a manner where we can find fundamental properties & processes of the universe endlessly, beguilingly beautiful]
[as always, it is a wonder that we evolved in a manner where we can find fundamental properties & processes of the universe endlessly, beguilingly beautiful]
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🏺🧪Not convinced there's either a woman or goose depiction here (or indeed, goose-sex).
IMO strongest claim that can be made is that it's a formed ceramic piece, *potentially* anthropomorphic, which had some red pigment on it at some point (which is still interesting!)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
IMO strongest claim that can be made is that it's a formed ceramic piece, *potentially* anthropomorphic, which had some red pigment on it at some point (which is still interesting!)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 19, 2025 at 9:57 AM
🏺🧪Not convinced there's either a woman or goose depiction here (or indeed, goose-sex).
IMO strongest claim that can be made is that it's a formed ceramic piece, *potentially* anthropomorphic, which had some red pigment on it at some point (which is still interesting!)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
IMO strongest claim that can be made is that it's a formed ceramic piece, *potentially* anthropomorphic, which had some red pigment on it at some point (which is still interesting!)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...