Kelvin Dixon
@theneanderoll.bsky.social
Prehistory 🪨 Zooarchaeology 🦴 The material body and the evolution of human language & culture.
Uni of York graduate. Primary carer. Partially blind.
Uni of York graduate. Primary carer. Partially blind.
Pinned
I'm excited (and nervous) to be presenting at @tag2025york.bsky.social this year!
Can we find signs of ancient emotions hidden among the earliest archaeological assemblages?
Image: Sterkfontein Oldowan tools - 1.7-2.2ma
Sampled from Kuman, K., 1994. doi.org/10.1006/jhev...
#TAG2025
Can we find signs of ancient emotions hidden among the earliest archaeological assemblages?
Image: Sterkfontein Oldowan tools - 1.7-2.2ma
Sampled from Kuman, K., 1994. doi.org/10.1006/jhev...
#TAG2025
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
📢 Registration is now open! 📢
Sign up for in-person attendance before 31 October 2025 to get Early Bird prices.
Waged delegate fee is £110
Unwaged delegate fee is £40
More information and links to register can be found on the TAG York website: tag2025.hosted.york.ac.uk/en/registrat...
Sign up for in-person attendance before 31 October 2025 to get Early Bird prices.
Waged delegate fee is £110
Unwaged delegate fee is £40
More information and links to register can be found on the TAG York website: tag2025.hosted.york.ac.uk/en/registrat...
September 23, 2025 at 11:05 AM
📢 Registration is now open! 📢
Sign up for in-person attendance before 31 October 2025 to get Early Bird prices.
Waged delegate fee is £110
Unwaged delegate fee is £40
More information and links to register can be found on the TAG York website: tag2025.hosted.york.ac.uk/en/registrat...
Sign up for in-person attendance before 31 October 2025 to get Early Bird prices.
Waged delegate fee is £110
Unwaged delegate fee is £40
More information and links to register can be found on the TAG York website: tag2025.hosted.york.ac.uk/en/registrat...
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
Evolution (abridged)
September 10, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Evolution (abridged)
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
the sharks, also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat
September 9, 2025 at 4:47 PM
the sharks, also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat
Letting the Archaeology side down by also actually liking Palaeontology. Here's my little beach find collection.
September 9, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Letting the Archaeology side down by also actually liking Palaeontology. Here's my little beach find collection.
I'm excited (and nervous) to be presenting at @tag2025york.bsky.social this year!
Can we find signs of ancient emotions hidden among the earliest archaeological assemblages?
Image: Sterkfontein Oldowan tools - 1.7-2.2ma
Sampled from Kuman, K., 1994. doi.org/10.1006/jhev...
#TAG2025
Can we find signs of ancient emotions hidden among the earliest archaeological assemblages?
Image: Sterkfontein Oldowan tools - 1.7-2.2ma
Sampled from Kuman, K., 1994. doi.org/10.1006/jhev...
#TAG2025
September 9, 2025 at 2:44 PM
I'm excited (and nervous) to be presenting at @tag2025york.bsky.social this year!
Can we find signs of ancient emotions hidden among the earliest archaeological assemblages?
Image: Sterkfontein Oldowan tools - 1.7-2.2ma
Sampled from Kuman, K., 1994. doi.org/10.1006/jhev...
#TAG2025
Can we find signs of ancient emotions hidden among the earliest archaeological assemblages?
Image: Sterkfontein Oldowan tools - 1.7-2.2ma
Sampled from Kuman, K., 1994. doi.org/10.1006/jhev...
#TAG2025
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
Very pleased to see our paper now out in Communications Biology! 🥳
New paper alert! Led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, we look at refugia for baboons in the Pleistocene and Holocene, offering a potential analogue for early hominins where climatic tolerances are shared.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Identifying late Pleistocene and Holocene refugia for baboons - Communications Biology
Hindcasted species distribution modelling of baboons illuminates potential refugia across Africa and Arabia, with predicted maxima and minima of habitable ranges pulsed by orbital precession and obliq...
www.nature.com
July 5, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Very pleased to see our paper now out in Communications Biology! 🥳
Apologies for the hiatus. Life got challenging, and I just couldn't face wading through the 1000s of Bot / AI slop accounts that were trying to follow me.
That being said, I quite enjoyed eating matchmakers and slamming the block button like a death metal, double bass drum solo.
That being said, I quite enjoyed eating matchmakers and slamming the block button like a death metal, double bass drum solo.
September 9, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Apologies for the hiatus. Life got challenging, and I just couldn't face wading through the 1000s of Bot / AI slop accounts that were trying to follow me.
That being said, I quite enjoyed eating matchmakers and slamming the block button like a death metal, double bass drum solo.
That being said, I quite enjoyed eating matchmakers and slamming the block button like a death metal, double bass drum solo.
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
me, stepping up to give my intro lectures like
September 9, 2025 at 10:46 AM
me, stepping up to give my intro lectures like
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
Registration for in-person or online participation for our symposium is still open!
Join us at the MPI-GEA or online for a free symposium on Quantifying Complexity in Stone Tools on the 21st of October! 🪨
With a keynote lecture by Charles Perreault. Full speaker list will be released soon!
Secure your spot here: shh-cloud.gnz.mpg.de/index.php/ap...
With a keynote lecture by Charles Perreault. Full speaker list will be released soon!
Secure your spot here: shh-cloud.gnz.mpg.de/index.php/ap...
September 9, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Registration for in-person or online participation for our symposium is still open!
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
To support those who qualify for the unwaged registration fee. Includes:
Free registration +
£200 to help cover UK travel, accommodation costs, or support caring responsibilities.
Open: early September
Deadline: early October
If you have any questions email [email protected]
Free registration +
£200 to help cover UK travel, accommodation costs, or support caring responsibilities.
Open: early September
Deadline: early October
If you have any questions email [email protected]
August 29, 2025 at 10:09 AM
To support those who qualify for the unwaged registration fee. Includes:
Free registration +
£200 to help cover UK travel, accommodation costs, or support caring responsibilities.
Open: early September
Deadline: early October
If you have any questions email [email protected]
Free registration +
£200 to help cover UK travel, accommodation costs, or support caring responsibilities.
Open: early September
Deadline: early October
If you have any questions email [email protected]
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
This aurochs bone from a ~10,000-year-old wetland 🇩🇰 is engraved with probable human figures.
Wetlands' preservational qualities provide a valuable source of organic material such as bone and wood. However, they are at risk from climate change 🏺
🔗 from 2022 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Wetlands' preservational qualities provide a valuable source of organic material such as bone and wood. However, they are at risk from climate change 🏺
🔗 from 2022 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
May 9, 2025 at 4:15 PM
This aurochs bone from a ~10,000-year-old wetland 🇩🇰 is engraved with probable human figures.
Wetlands' preservational qualities provide a valuable source of organic material such as bone and wood. However, they are at risk from climate change 🏺
🔗 from 2022 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Wetlands' preservational qualities provide a valuable source of organic material such as bone and wood. However, they are at risk from climate change 🏺
🔗 from 2022 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
The demographic drivers of cultural #evolution in #bird song CurrentBiology
The demographic drivers of cultural #evolution in #bird song
Merino Recalde et al. analyze over 100,000 great tit songs to study how demographic factors and processes like turnover, immigration, and age structure shape vocal culture. Their findings reveal complex interactions between these processes, advancing our understanding of how population dynamics influence cultural evolution in animal communities.
dlvr.it
April 21, 2025 at 9:25 PM
The demographic drivers of cultural #evolution in #bird song CurrentBiology
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
"sketch of the historical background that still shapes contemporary studies into the psychology of gender/sex identity in infants and toddlers" doi.org/10.1002/ajhb...
Rethinking Gender/Sex Identity
Until quite recently, investigations of gender/sex development operated from a baseline assumption that gender/sex is dichotomous or binary. Most such studies constructed gender/sex outside of or adj....
doi.org
April 17, 2025 at 1:12 AM
"sketch of the historical background that still shapes contemporary studies into the psychology of gender/sex identity in infants and toddlers" doi.org/10.1002/ajhb...
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale
April 17, 2025 at 4:47 AM
the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
The first recorded strike in history took place almost 3,200 years ago!
The ‘Strike Papyrus’ recounts that in year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III (c. 1157 BC) royal tomb workers at Deir el-Medina downed tools over pay and working conditions!
Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 me
#AncientBlueSky 🏺
#Archaeology
The ‘Strike Papyrus’ recounts that in year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III (c. 1157 BC) royal tomb workers at Deir el-Medina downed tools over pay and working conditions!
Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 me
#AncientBlueSky 🏺
#Archaeology
April 16, 2025 at 5:47 PM
The first recorded strike in history took place almost 3,200 years ago!
The ‘Strike Papyrus’ recounts that in year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III (c. 1157 BC) royal tomb workers at Deir el-Medina downed tools over pay and working conditions!
Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 me
#AncientBlueSky 🏺
#Archaeology
The ‘Strike Papyrus’ recounts that in year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III (c. 1157 BC) royal tomb workers at Deir el-Medina downed tools over pay and working conditions!
Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 me
#AncientBlueSky 🏺
#Archaeology
How we explain the past is always a complex negotiation between our modern assumptions (which we cannot escape when we study or view history) and the genuine historical intentions of the people living in the past.
The new series of @pnas.org articles on the history of inequality require some careful reading. The identical data set leads some to agree and others to disagree with Dawn of Everything... What's going on?
Here are some initial thoughts.
Here are some initial thoughts.
April 16, 2025 at 7:37 PM
How we explain the past is always a complex negotiation between our modern assumptions (which we cannot escape when we study or view history) and the genuine historical intentions of the people living in the past.
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
The new series of @pnas.org articles on the history of inequality require some careful reading. The identical data set leads some to agree and others to disagree with Dawn of Everything... What's going on?
Here are some initial thoughts.
Here are some initial thoughts.
April 16, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The new series of @pnas.org articles on the history of inequality require some careful reading. The identical data set leads some to agree and others to disagree with Dawn of Everything... What's going on?
Here are some initial thoughts.
Here are some initial thoughts.
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
The young female was about a meter tall when she died, making her even smaller than adults from other diminutive early human species, including the famous Lucy and the hobbit. 🏺🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
Smallest hominin walked upright, fossils reveal
Hip, shin and thigh bones provide clues to life and death of young female Paranthropus robustus
www.nature.com
April 7, 2025 at 4:27 PM
The young female was about a meter tall when she died, making her even smaller than adults from other diminutive early human species, including the famous Lucy and the hobbit. 🏺🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
Aurignacian groups at Isturitz (France) adapted to a shifting environment upon their arrival in Western Europe ∼42,000 years ago www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Aurignacian groups at Isturitz (France) adapted to a shifting environment upon their arrival in Western Europe ∼42,000 years ago
The Marine Isotope Stage 3 is a context of considerable climatic instability. Establishing the link between global climate changes and their impact on…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 8, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Aurignacian groups at Isturitz (France) adapted to a shifting environment upon their arrival in Western Europe ∼42,000 years ago www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
A great thread by Kory Bing on species we've pulled back from the brink.
Instead of believing the myth that three expensive, genetically modified wolves are “de-extinct” dire wolves, let’s look at animals humanity has actually brought back from the brink of extinction using proven science and dedicated hard work: 🧵/6
April 8, 2025 at 7:39 PM
A great thread by Kory Bing on species we've pulled back from the brink.
I worked supporting SureStart centres across the whole of North East Lincolnshire right before the crash of 2008. There was one in every community, including some of the poorest areas of England.
This feels so far removed from the current situation it's unreal.
This feels so far removed from the current situation it's unreal.
Is anyone writing a history of Sure Start? @sarahcrook.bsky.social wondering if you know? There's lots of fairly dry policy and evaluation stuff but feels like a great lens through which one cld write the history of early 21st century Britain
April 9, 2025 at 12:18 AM
I worked supporting SureStart centres across the whole of North East Lincolnshire right before the crash of 2008. There was one in every community, including some of the poorest areas of England.
This feels so far removed from the current situation it's unreal.
This feels so far removed from the current situation it's unreal.
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
Is anyone writing a history of Sure Start? @sarahcrook.bsky.social wondering if you know? There's lots of fairly dry policy and evaluation stuff but feels like a great lens through which one cld write the history of early 21st century Britain
April 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Is anyone writing a history of Sure Start? @sarahcrook.bsky.social wondering if you know? There's lots of fairly dry policy and evaluation stuff but feels like a great lens through which one cld write the history of early 21st century Britain
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
Wow. I just am so grateful for the amazing systems from @elife.bsky.social for review, and from @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social that have made it possible to open up the scientific evidence on some of the most challenging problems in human origins.
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
March 28, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Wow. I just am so grateful for the amazing systems from @elife.bsky.social for review, and from @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social that have made it possible to open up the scientific evidence on some of the most challenging problems in human origins.
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
also...be sure to check out the amazing work on the figures/images....Visualizations make a difference. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
March 28, 2025 at 1:54 PM
also...be sure to check out the amazing work on the figures/images....Visualizations make a difference. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Reposted by Kelvin Dixon
Our revision of the Homo naledi burial paper is out. A massive amount of work by the whole team. Grateful to @elife.bsky.social and the reviewers for input; for a change (the oft dreaded) Reviewer 2 made my day. This is a huge paper (literally) & sets the evidential bar high.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
March 28, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Our revision of the Homo naledi burial paper is out. A massive amount of work by the whole team. Grateful to @elife.bsky.social and the reviewers for input; for a change (the oft dreaded) Reviewer 2 made my day. This is a huge paper (literally) & sets the evidential bar high.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...