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

2025 has been brutal 💀 My father was in the last 1% of people still at home in the late stages of the Alzhiemers. Queue crisis teams, hospital admissions, emergency depts, social workers...

Each wk has brought massive emotional & physical challenges. But inside that time, i've written a new paper.

Making a diagram related to mating dances in birds, and these are my first options. 👌

Last week, my father was sectioned into hospital care. We've been here for hours on end while he's often asleep.

Unfortunately, deadlines never sleep. So I'm trying to make use of the time here.

When things are pants, always work from a library. They're so full of life. The library near me is full of chatting old people, laughing kids, and this little babe - Betty the cat.

Betty is my fave. She likes to sit under my table & has been there through every academic paper and essay I've written

For the last 10 yrs, one of my favourite ways to practice mindfulness has been lifting weight.

Putting all the weird gym-bro masculinity aside, it's literally so lush to get in touch with each muscle you own.

And it's really inspired my archaeology and theory.

It's been both a lovely Christmas and a tough one in lots of ways. But for our little family, it's so lush to have everyone together.

Beyond all the hardship, I am in awe of the amount of love in our household.

It's a low-key New Year from me. But I wish you all good tidings X

Well. This isn't terrifying.

Counter-point - even if you don't know it, going to the gym and lifting weights isn't just about the result.

There's a host of other benefits - daily structure, mindfulness, learning about your body & how to engage parts of it, a social scene, the building of confidence, developing discipline, etc.

This year, I was gifted a cheese advent calendar. Loving the batshit daily comments.

With this much cheese, there's a risk of being an unstoppable force alright.

She is small, but she is mighty.

I love wrapping presents. I get to lay out all the treasures I've collected in the last few weeks and then bask in my horde, like a little goblin 🎄

This isn't what we see in the archaeological or historical records.

We see ideas being accepted, rejected, partially taken on, melted into new cultures, re-imagined, etc.

Language and culture are fluid behaviours and are negotiated and renegotiated across time, individuals, and groups.

I've just attended a very funny and insightful talk about bone #Pathology by Maeve Moorcroft. She's been studying the Baker & Brothwell collection @york.ac.uk. 🦴

The collection is unique for its extensive and well diagnosed variety of bone diseases. Very helpful, even if arch diagnosis is hard.

I generally don't post about being a carer. But I really want to share this image.

My father's Alzhiemer's is severe. We've been told we're in the last 1% of people still caring at home by this stage.

Juggling the weight of that grief, while working full-time and doing research is exhausting.

It's my pleasure to present at the University of Liverpool's Evolutionary Anthrpology series this wk (21 November 2024) 😍

I've been researching multi-discliplinary, new approaches to understanding how & why human language & culture evolved.

If you're intruiged, you can register: shorturl.at/8zAKD

Post a picture you took (no description) to bring some zen to the timeline.

I'm absolutely chuffed to be talking at the University of Liverpools #EvolutionaryAnthropology series next week.

What can meaning, materiality, and agency tell us about the evolution of Language and Culture?

If you're interested: shorturl.at/uC4TM