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
🦣🏺 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...)
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...)
Lithic technological change, hominin history and climatic background from the late Middle Pleistocene to middle Late Pleistocene (ca. 300–50 ka) in China.
Source: doi.org/10.1038/s414... #FossilFriday
Source: doi.org/10.1038/s414... #FossilFriday
January 30, 2026 at 9:58 AM
🦣🏺 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...)
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...)
🏺🧪🦣 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 💩
January 30, 2026 at 9:47 AM
🏺🧪🦣 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 💩
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
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...
What ice fishing can teach us about making foraging decisions
Social density increases likelihood of sticking with a location. Environmental factors had little influence.
arstechnica.com
January 29, 2026 at 7:03 PM
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...
🏺 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!
January 29, 2026 at 6:04 PM
🏺 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!
J. Henrion, J.-J. Hublin, B. Maureille
Morphométrie dentaire et variabilité des #Néandertaliens récents des grottes d’Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne, France)
Morphométrie dentaire et variabilité des #Néandertaliens récents des grottes d’Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne, France)
January 29, 2026 at 5:55 PM
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.
And all of it could be delivered by humans, helping humans.
The course concludes by... prompting* me to sign up for a ChatGPT account. I hope Accenture got paid by ChatGPT, and the govt. got paid by Accenture, and... nobody's paying me are they? No.
*see what I did there? I got ChatGPT to write that**.
** nope.
*see what I did there? I got ChatGPT to write that**.
** nope.
January 29, 2026 at 10:28 AM
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.
And all of it could be delivered by humans, helping humans.
🏺 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.
Inventive themed galleries, including a close encounter with Pontnewydd #Neanderthals of 270,000 years ago.
January 29, 2026 at 8:50 AM
🏺 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.
Inventive themed galleries, including a close encounter with Pontnewydd #Neanderthals of 270,000 years ago.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🧪 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...
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...
This image, which strongly resembles a photograph, instantly caught my eye because it is a form that I've never seen previously in the Ediacara. Intrigued, I clicked. Very disappointing to see the credit for this image is given to "AI - Science Daily".
*What the hell, Science Daily?*
Garbage. ⚒️🧪
*What the hell, Science Daily?*
Garbage. ⚒️🧪
January 28, 2026 at 6:56 PM
🧪 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...
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...
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!)
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!)
January 29, 2026 at 8:37 AM
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!)
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!)
🧪 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...
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...
This image, which strongly resembles a photograph, instantly caught my eye because it is a form that I've never seen previously in the Ediacara. Intrigued, I clicked. Very disappointing to see the credit for this image is given to "AI - Science Daily".
*What the hell, Science Daily?*
Garbage. ⚒️🧪
*What the hell, Science Daily?*
Garbage. ⚒️🧪
January 28, 2026 at 6:56 PM
🧪 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...
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...
🏺🧪 Very exciting new wooden artefacts, and I think the first ID of alder and willow species being used in earlier Palaeolithic contexts 🌳
Marathousa 1 joins just a handful of early sites in Zambia, China, the UK and Germany to have clear evidence that humans were making and using wooden tools. Hominins were making use of plants for 'simple' tools, and potentially using them also to search for plant resources.
January 27, 2026 at 1:06 PM
🏺🧪 Very exciting new wooden artefacts, and I think the first ID of alder and willow species being used in earlier Palaeolithic contexts 🌳
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
I love these contemporary celebrations and the way they build pasts of community and adventure. We need a fire festival more than ever this year
"From grand old Viking centuries Up-Helly-Aa has come
Then light the torch and form the march, and sound the rolling drum."
Happy #UpHellyAa!
19.30pm (GMT). Follow the livestream link 👇 from 18:45. The weather forecast isn't brilliant for this evening's festivities, so it should be interesting!
Then light the torch and form the march, and sound the rolling drum."
Happy #UpHellyAa!
19.30pm (GMT). Follow the livestream link 👇 from 18:45. The weather forecast isn't brilliant for this evening's festivities, so it should be interesting!
Live from Lerwick, Shetland: Up Helly Aa 2026 torchlit procession and Viking galley burning.
YouTube video by Promote Shetland
www.youtube.com
January 27, 2026 at 8:54 AM
I love these contemporary celebrations and the way they build pasts of community and adventure. We need a fire festival more than ever this year
🏺 Any archaeologists who are based in Crete? Planning a trip in May and would love to connect with people to potentially meet for museum/site visit...
January 26, 2026 at 4:38 PM
🏺 Any archaeologists who are based in Crete? Planning a trip in May and would love to connect with people to potentially meet for museum/site visit...
♥️ I will accept 3 word questions about #Neanderthals
(4 word answer not guaranteed)
(4 word answer not guaranteed)
Being a journalist is sick: I just contacted a pre-eminent jaguar conservationist in Argentine with a question that has been weighing on me for ages and he wrote back right away with an informed answer.
January 26, 2026 at 2:08 PM
♥️ I will accept 3 word questions about #Neanderthals
(4 word answer not guaranteed)
(4 word answer not guaranteed)
🧪 Ooh it's won the Festival's 2026 Alfred P. Sloane Award 🏆 for "an outstanding feature film that focuses on science or technology as a theme, or depicts a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character" !!
(warning, link has plot spoilers...)
festival.sundance.org/program/film...
(warning, link has plot spoilers...)
festival.sundance.org/program/film...
January 26, 2026 at 12:15 PM
🧪 Ooh it's won the Festival's 2026 Alfred P. Sloane Award 🏆 for "an outstanding feature film that focuses on science or technology as a theme, or depicts a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character" !!
(warning, link has plot spoilers...)
festival.sundance.org/program/film...
(warning, link has plot spoilers...)
festival.sundance.org/program/film...
🏺🧪 Loads of fantastic talks & speakers coming up, all free, streamed online
We are delighted to announce our timetable of talks for Semester 2 of the 2025/26 academic year! 🥳🤩
As always, all of our talks will be streamed online and are open to anyone. Our first talk will be on the 12.02.26. More details will be released closer to the time.
We hope to see you there!
As always, all of our talks will be streamed online and are open to anyone. Our first talk will be on the 12.02.26. More details will be released closer to the time.
We hope to see you there!
January 26, 2026 at 12:04 PM
🏺🧪 Loads of fantastic talks & speakers coming up, all free, streamed online
🏺 Ancient Sounds!
January 26, 2026 at 11:54 AM
🏺 Ancient Sounds!
One ref it 'cites' for this (actually a paper written by us!) says re: our outreach that we've "spoken to wide audiences as diverse as the Skeptics in the Pub and the UK Womens Institute"...
I guess this confused it because – say it all together – gen-AI is NOT ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT 🙄
I guess this confused it because – say it all together – gen-AI is NOT ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT 🙄
In preposterous gen- #AI news, a grokipedia (ugh) entry on us ENTIRELY INVENTS an inaugural TrowelBlazers meeting
"over drinks in a London pub in 2013".
This never happened (we only all met IRL years after forming) 🙄
plus, it makes up criticism of our work...
p.s. not giving it traffic by linking
"over drinks in a London pub in 2013".
This never happened (we only all met IRL years after forming) 🙄
plus, it makes up criticism of our work...
p.s. not giving it traffic by linking
January 26, 2026 at 11:49 AM
One ref it 'cites' for this (actually a paper written by us!) says re: our outreach that we've "spoken to wide audiences as diverse as the Skeptics in the Pub and the UK Womens Institute"...
I guess this confused it because – say it all together – gen-AI is NOT ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT 🙄
I guess this confused it because – say it all together – gen-AI is NOT ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT 🙄
🏺🎥
I'm a writer, but I also ♥️ creative collaborations, and do a lot of consultancy.
This film #InTheBlinkOfAnEye, which I advised on a while ago, is finally coming out and has a showing at Sundance: a connections-through-time story which includes #Neanderthals...
Out Hulu next month then Disney+
I'm a writer, but I also ♥️ creative collaborations, and do a lot of consultancy.
This film #InTheBlinkOfAnEye, which I advised on a while ago, is finally coming out and has a showing at Sundance: a connections-through-time story which includes #Neanderthals...
Out Hulu next month then Disney+
January 26, 2026 at 11:13 AM
🏺🎥
I'm a writer, but I also ♥️ creative collaborations, and do a lot of consultancy.
This film #InTheBlinkOfAnEye, which I advised on a while ago, is finally coming out and has a showing at Sundance: a connections-through-time story which includes #Neanderthals...
Out Hulu next month then Disney+
I'm a writer, but I also ♥️ creative collaborations, and do a lot of consultancy.
This film #InTheBlinkOfAnEye, which I advised on a while ago, is finally coming out and has a showing at Sundance: a connections-through-time story which includes #Neanderthals...
Out Hulu next month then Disney+
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Well @lemoustier.bsky.social, what beautiful serendipity … guess what I’m reading right now! For my new book, on winter in Britain and Ireland (from the Ice Age to present). So, couldn’t be more delighted you’re enjoying #thecuckooslea ☺️ @jimspim.bsky.social @chiffchat.bsky.social #naturewriting
January 24, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Well @lemoustier.bsky.social, what beautiful serendipity … guess what I’m reading right now! For my new book, on winter in Britain and Ireland (from the Ice Age to present). So, couldn’t be more delighted you’re enjoying #thecuckooslea ☺️ @jimspim.bsky.social @chiffchat.bsky.social #naturewriting
🧪🏺 I've always loved the livestream culture of some deep ocean research, here with a species ID coming in over YouTube comments.
Why don't we do this more in #archaeology? Invite colleagues & public onto live excavation /lab study "visits"?
Why don't we do this more in #archaeology? Invite colleagues & public onto live excavation /lab study "visits"?
While waiting for the next @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive here's a look back at my favorite benthic ctenophores they've filmed. Dive 366 Lihou Reef, Coral Sea Marine park on east coast of Australia, Queensland Plateau (sound is a tad loud) #VisioningCoralSea #MarineLife
January 24, 2026 at 1:23 PM
🧪🏺 I've always loved the livestream culture of some deep ocean research, here with a species ID coming in over YouTube comments.
Why don't we do this more in #archaeology? Invite colleagues & public onto live excavation /lab study "visits"?
Why don't we do this more in #archaeology? Invite colleagues & public onto live excavation /lab study "visits"?
"I have no big fears because I have faith in my heart"
vs.
"I bought an apocalypse-escape vessel"
🙄
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
vs.
"I bought an apocalypse-escape vessel"
🙄
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Bear Grylls: ‘I’ve bought an apocalypse-proof boat, with an array of weaponry’
The adventurer on his family’s escape vessel, his crush on the Princess of Wales, and a disgusting toenail habit
www.theguardian.com
January 24, 2026 at 12:39 PM
"I have no big fears because I have faith in my heart"
vs.
"I bought an apocalypse-escape vessel"
🙄
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
vs.
"I bought an apocalypse-escape vessel"
🙄
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Hi @lemoustier.bsky.social & @jimspim.bsky.social fab read! Spread the word that @drmjwarren.bsky.social is with us in the #Cotswolds 2pm 7 May with #TheCuckoosLea #booksky General booking from 1 Feb
www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...
www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...
📚 Saturday morning's luxury read, full of the wonders of deep human-place histories
(thanks to @jimspim.bsky.social for sending)
#BookSky
(thanks to @jimspim.bsky.social for sending)
#BookSky
January 24, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Hi @lemoustier.bsky.social & @jimspim.bsky.social fab read! Spread the word that @drmjwarren.bsky.social is with us in the #Cotswolds 2pm 7 May with #TheCuckoosLea #booksky General booking from 1 Feb
www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...
www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/literature/e...
📚 Saturday morning's luxury read, full of the wonders of deep human-place histories
(thanks to @jimspim.bsky.social for sending)
#BookSky
(thanks to @jimspim.bsky.social for sending)
#BookSky
January 24, 2026 at 11:26 AM
📚 Saturday morning's luxury read, full of the wonders of deep human-place histories
(thanks to @jimspim.bsky.social for sending)
#BookSky
(thanks to @jimspim.bsky.social for sending)
#BookSky