Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
LightNews LightNews
banner
lemoustier.bsky.social
Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
@lemoustier.bsky.social
25K followers 850 following 4.7K posts
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
Posts Replies Media Videos
lemoustier.bsky.social
I didn't think "Wilma" was supposed to be pregnant?

One I can think that might have a depiction is larger version of this (cover for Gamble's Palaeolithic Societies of Europe); Mauricio Antón might have made others.

Tom Björklund did a breastfeeding Neanderthal for the Moesgaard exhibition.
screengrab of blue toned image, a drawing of a large multi-aged group of proto-Neanderthals, standing in front of a tree.
February 17, 2026 at 5:04 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺🧪 Damn I just love #archaeology - here's some c. 230,000 yr-old hearths 🔥 being sectioned at Bolomor, Early Middle Palaeolithic site, Spain

(2012 paper www.researchgate.net/figure/Strat... )
Image of figure from paper. Images show fainty sooty circular deposits on floor of excavation surface. Three have cross-sectioned excavated trenches very carefully running through them, so you can see the thickness of the dark burnt deposits vs. the pale underlying sediment. Publication: Peris, Josep & Barciela, Virginia & Blasco, Ruth & Cuartero, Felipe & Fluck, Hannah & Verdasco, Carlos. (2012). The earliest evidence of hearths in Southern Europe: The case of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain). Quaternary International. 247.
February 16, 2026 at 2:07 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
😍 Stunning

Had one a bit like that 20 years ago!
February 14, 2026 at 5:17 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration.
All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts.

JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
screengran of figure from paper showing four different generated images of a "day in the life of a Neanderthal". All images contain significant inaccuracies from physical characteristics (extremely primitive) to material culture (glass containers), and the lack of women and children is also obvious.
February 13, 2026 at 6:09 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🧪🦣 Intriguing paper introducing new Guattari /Circeo fossils: highlights their variability, with some #Neanderthal presence, but others that look different... poss evidence for multiple hominin species in post MIS 7 Europe, + suggestion for East ➡️ West dispersal (and why not?)

www.mdpi.com/3698490
Screengrab from paper showing Figure 21, depicting Eurasia map with arrows moving both east and west, implying two different dispersals.
February 12, 2026 at 2:30 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🧪🦣 New paper shows that cave lions were widespread in NE Asia during the Upper Pleistocene, and re-identifies large fossil felids in Japan as lion, not tiger 🐅 ➡️ 🦁

www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Screengrab from paper, showing time sequenced maps of lion species vs. tigers in NE Asia from 191- present day. No tigers in Japan until Holocene.
February 12, 2026 at 12:17 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺🧪🦣 New MSA scored/incised ochre site: Kilpdrift Shelter, South Africa.
Lots of other ochre use already identified, but also new here is potential heating of Hollandite, a lustrous manganese-rich mineral.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Screengrab of figure from paper, showing two views of a red pigment piece, and a close up of one surface where a number of scored lines are visible, roughly converging into a point.
February 12, 2026 at 12:11 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
The quiet beauty, the elegance, the... pathetically-slippy-sliding cervid 🦌
Screen grab of a deer in the middle of trying to run away across ice and extremely inelegantly doing splits with its hind legs. In the background is a shoreline with trees.
February 12, 2026 at 11:45 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
You need to get to the Yorkshire museum, they have an ammonite outfit AND Star Carr frontlet
Photo of a woman wearing a leather head cap with two large antlers coming out of the top, meant to resemble the red deer skull frontlets from Mesolithic site Star Carr. She is looking both pleased and bemused. Photo taken in a mirror of a woman standing sideways with an ammonite costume on, including large shell covering her backpack and tentacles coming out of her head.
February 11, 2026 at 9:56 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
Now wondering if this character was named in homage to Ayla of #ClanOfTheCaveBear... 🦣 📚
February 10, 2026 at 10:05 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺 Fascinating site, part of my #Matriarcha research... did you know that Neolithic people in this region had colourful burnished terrazzo floors over 9000 years ago?
Pic here from another site, Boncuklu Tarla (Kodaş et al 2025)
hal.science/hal-05463659...
Two photos from archaeological excavation showing top and side view of a colourful terrazzo floor, the stone fragments being set into red plaster, the top is extremely flat.
February 10, 2026 at 2:13 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
My extremely talented husband's first batch of knives to sell 🔪 ...
Get in touch for details inc sheath options: cefn_digoll_crafts on Insta
www.instagram.com/p/DUfpBDCDHO...
#artisan #craft
Photo showing a wooden bowl in wooden surface. The bowl contains 7 different short blade knives, all hafted using different materials.
February 8, 2026 at 1:35 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
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...
Photo of a woman with a wooly hat on standing in front of Axminster train station sign, which says "Change here for Jurassic Coast". She is smiling at the camera. Photo of a beautiful bedroom looking out into twilight garden. The room is decorated in Regency style. Photo of a bottle of Cahors wine and glass and tray of cheese and biscuits, in front of a fireplace, with decorative Coade stone mantelpiece. Detail of part of Coade mantelpiece decoration, a Grecian style semi-clothed woman is standing on an urn, holding up a basket with fruits. The fire is just visible out of focus behind.
February 3, 2026 at 8:47 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
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...
Old portrait of a woman sotting in a frilled mop cap, and impressive Victorian skirt with lacy collar and sleeves and wide ribbons on her chest. She looks in mature age, and her expression is serious and fpcused, with a slight frown.
February 2, 2026 at 2:46 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺🧪🦣 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 💩
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.
January 30, 2026 at 9:47 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺 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!
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.
January 29, 2026 at 6:04 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
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)
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.
January 29, 2026 at 9:03 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺 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.
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.
January 29, 2026 at 8:50 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
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!)
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.
January 29, 2026 at 8:37 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺🎥
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+
Film poster showing a person standing in a dark space-suit looking outfit, on a metal ramp, in front of them is a grassy meadow, forest and mountains. Text over the image says "Official Selection 2026 Sundance Film Festival". Film poster showing three overlapping images: one is a person in space-suit outfit looking at meadow and mountain, the one below that is two pale-skinned people kissing, and the one below that is a pale skinned woman with long dark hair looking down at an infant.
January 26, 2026 at 11:13 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
📚 Saturday morning's luxury read, full of the wonders of deep human-place histories

(thanks to @jimspim.bsky.social for sending)
#BookSky
Photo of a book "The Cuckoo's Lea: The forgotten history of Birds and Place" by Michael J. Warren on a blue and yellow swollen patterned throw. The cover is a woodblock-style illustration of a cuckoo with an egg in its mouth by a nest, a red kite flying above, cranes in the background with a church tower and sun.
January 24, 2026 at 11:26 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺 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/...
Screengrab showing slide from publication, with title "Lithics". Small photo of hand holding an artefact. Larger photos of lithic artefacts including classic flakes with bulbs of percussion.
January 23, 2026 at 6:19 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
Timeline cleanse: 30 seconds of briskly tumbling Welsh Marches forest streams, just now
January 21, 2026 at 3:34 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
Colours in the sky of a different sort this morning
Photo looking across a green field towards a valley, the sky is a mix of blue, grey purple and beige clouds. Photo looking up a hill with trees and a church spire silhouetted against a sky with fast moving yellowy-grey clouds, behind which is blue.
January 20, 2026 at 10:20 AM
lemoustier.bsky.social
Winter #aurora 💙💚💜
Welsh Marches: Orion and the Lights above Offa's Dyke
Photo of two bands of green aurora above trees. Behind them is Orion.
January 19, 2026 at 10:16 PM