๐ขSo here's some Big News...
Immensely excited to announce my next book "MATRIARCHA: Prehistory Re-imagined"
All the richness & intimate variety of womenโs stories across 5 million years, from the dazzling to the devastating, the majestic to the macabre
"Rebecca Wragg Sykes is one of those rare historians who can really bring our most ancient past alive."
@picadorbooks
will publish Matriarcha by Rebecca Wragg Sykes (
@LeMoustier
), a re-telling of "hominin history" told through the female line.
Read here:
I'm so impressed with the conservation job done on this bronze statue of
#Mars
, found in
#Zeugma
. Carried out by
@CCA_Roma
(these are their pics), conservation included stabilization in situ and in the lab. The patina that emerged is remarkable.
#archaeology
#Turkey
Astonishing! Stunning new find, nearly lost in flash floods.
Striking similarities with other mid-Upper Palaeolithic examples, inc detail on head, posture, physique & red pigment, but the first from Romania, and its dating is quite young, c. 20ka.
Aaaand it's out!
#Neanderthals
made fine twine 45-50,000 years ago!
I gave comments to the above article, and here's my more detailed thread (on THREAD)
๐
#Kindred
Q&A thread!
What is it?
A definitive, 21st C book on Neanderthals.
Is it academic?
Stuffed with fascinating detail but totally accessible; will blow your mind without befuddling it.
Tell me more!
Little stories, poems & stunning artwork bring their world to life.
#FossilFriday
The Kolyma Woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis), the only complete permafrost preserved adult woolly rhino known. Images from Boeskorov 2012 and Vladimir Filipov
Ooh I'm only 25 people away from hitting 10K! ๐ฑ
So let's have a giveaway: RT this/follow, and I'll send a signed copy of
#Kindred
(with a special little sketch) to my 10,000th follower, AND one other RT-er chosen randomly! ๐
So
#SecretsOfTheNeanderthals
is out in ONE WEEK- I was a consultant for doc's producers
@bbcstudios
, and I'll be in
@UCamArchaeology
on 2nd May with Dr Emma Pomeroy (Shanidar team palaeoanthropologist)
for a live watch-along 5-7pm BST & taking Qs on here!
Are we still producing human evolution infographics in 2024 with more beards than women? And where everyone is white?
Disappointing that nobody in the publishing chain picked up on this.
Paper:
#Kindred
has WON
@CurrentArchaeo
Book Of The Year! ๐คฉ๐ฒ๐คฉ
It's an honour that my brain can't process, and I'm just so happy that my work has connected with people.
Gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who supported this book, from inception to voting.
Hard disagree with pretty much everything in here including the unsavoury dominance tone... but then again it's written by a fossil snake/lizard expert?
If you want to know what an actual archaeologist thinks, read
#Kindred
instead ๐
This. It's so telling that
#AncientApocalypse
ignores real Pleistocene ("ice age") archaeology. So much awesome stuff - villages with plastered floors 13 ka; huge mammoth bone structures 28 ka; even Neanderthal constructions 174 ka - but ODDLY Hancock prefers Atlantis fantasy...
โWhy arenโt archaeologists, scholars working in a specialized discipline about which I know absolutely nothing, talking about (this thing thatโs been exhaustively excavated and debated) that I just learned about three weeks ago?โ
Hilarious but also fascinating from psychological perspective.
Would they have still instinctively fledโ rather than just jumpedโ if they hadn't been primed by already seeing someone running away?
Before I embark on book travels next week, here's my promised thread of the FANTASTIC
#prehistory
exhibitions at
@MuseumMoesgaard
, starting with the *gorgeous*
@AdrieKennis
sculptures on the stairs.
Can't capture the way Jebel Irhoud's gaze follows you!
A new intriguing study... not read it yet!
"The recovery of starch grains on a Mousterian grindstone at Bombrini suggests that the last Neanderthals not only consumed and processed plants but also made flour 43โ41,000 years ago."
I'm not keen on discourse here about how archaeologists aren't good at storytelling/communicating their work, hence existence of
#AncientApocalypse
.
That isn't the problem. Astronomers inc NASA/ESA are great at engaging public outreach. It doesn't stop moon conspiracy fans.
Exactly why the Neanderthals died out 40,000 years ago is still greatly debated, but evolutionary biologist Nicholas Longrich looks at the evidence for a war between them and modern humans.
@BBC_Future
ย investigates.
Weโre delighted to announce that Rebecca Wragg Sykes has won the
#PENHessellTiltman
Prize 2021!
Chair of judging panel Professor Shahidha Bari described Kindred as โa staggeringly ambitious work, full of discovery, enquiry, empathy and imagination.โ
โก๏ธ
Absolutely absurd that
@nationaltrust
simply researching the economic history of its properties can be spun as going "out of their way to divide people" ๐
#InternationalCatDay
...
#Neanderthal
-style
European wildcat, famed for their elusiveness and massive grumpiness.
Letโs go back 55,000 years to explore one catโs story, with a sneak peek where it features in
#Kindred
.
1/6
๐ท Scottish Wildcat Action
#Kindred
Paperback
#Giveaway
IS HERE!
Iโm thrilled to collaborate with
@neandertal_UK
perfumiers, to create 3 AMAZING prizes:ย
1 x 90mlย Neandertalย 'light' + book
1 x 90mlย Neandertalย darkย + book
1 x sample set (4 scents) + bookย ย
To enter, just...
- RT AND REPLY
More info โฌ๏ธ
Oh my GOSH
1st new
#Neanderthal
skeleton in +20 years
This is BIG stuff: plenty of bits & pieces found in that time plus vital re-examination of old claimed burials, but what's been missing is a new mostly-complete find we can use 21stC methods on
[off to read paper]
"Britain" did not exist as a nation 1000 years ago, nor even half that. These people are not illiterate or ignorant about history, which means they're simply liars, and their defining identity is based on a fake story. Ask yourself why
#SecretsOfTheNeanderthals
is out TODAY on
@netflix
- feat Shanidar โ๏ธ ๐, Bruniquel ๐ชจ๐ฅ & more!
I'm in
@UCamArchaeology
with one of the doc's ๐s Emma Pomeroy, we'll be doing a live watch-along from c. 5pm BST & taking your Qs on here!
@IanDunt
Hi from actual Wales where the world has not ended and life feels exactly the same albeit taking a whopping 10-15 seconds extra time to get into town ๐ ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ
Sorry but it's not just artistic imagination that allows us to represent
#Neanderthals
as thoughtful, considered or possessing sensibility & potential for kindness, rather than "snarling" beasts. It's ARCHAEOLOGY that shows us how they lived.
'The reconstruction of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal womanโs face makes her look quite friendly โ thereโs a problem with that' via
@ConversationUK
#Naledi
&
#Sediba
hominins in space... a short pondering๐งต
Strong negative reaction from colleagues, so what are actual risks?
- loss of fossils from flight failure
- damage from radiation
- perceived impact on professionalism of discipline
Today is
#TransDayOfVisibility
, so please meet my brother โค๏ธ.
Ignore loud voices hyping phobia - irrational fear - & fuelling 'culture war'.
Trans people are just everyday humans, part of loving families like mine. (My kids? They know everything & aren't bothered one bit)
Been pondering a lot since the new
#HomoNaledi
articles &
#CaveOfBones
film came out.
While Iโm thinking of writing something longform, am also now sharing specific thoughts on
#RisingStar
interpretations as a ๐งต:
- Access
- Fire
- Burial
- Aesthetics
๐ Bye to the people who've unfollowed me this morning; unsure whether they don't like Neanderthal mortuary behaviour or trans people ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
Oh look a *white men* graphic...
BBC please ask experts for help in your sci comm
(also
#GrotteMandrin
evidence is not that there was long coexistence, since H. sapiens signal in W Europe then *goes extinct* at 54ka for + 10 more millennia!?)
Very happy to announce that I've been awarded an Honorary Fellowship in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at University of Liverpool
@LivAncWorlds
!
Excited to work with so many fab colleagues including
@preshitorian
@Hommel_bee
@J_C_French
I'm one of today's 38,000 newly confirmed UK covid cases.
Caught last week from my youngest, who got it at school.
It's floored me for 5 days & counting, sickest I've been in yrs (ever?).
I still feel incredibly lucky, to have vax & not be *seriously* ill.
Keep safe everyone x
Railing against racists, violence or whatever by calling them
#neanderthals
is lazy.
It's inaccurate in archaeological terms, but much more importantly it's a handy way to dissociate from the fact that this ugliness threaded though society, top to bottom.
New bio of
#MaryAnning
arrived today, it is SUPERB, stuffed with historical details.
Fav facts so far: Mary's 1st fossil customer and the person who gave her the 1st geology book she read (aged 14) were both women.
(former unknown name; latter Charlotte Stock)
Had the nicest time with my brother visiting but am glad he doesn't live in UK, since rampant transphobia here is so utterly grim.
(And it IS same as homophobic panic from 30 yrs ago in that both were/are about FEAR that overtakes rationality & results in prejudice)
Huge new paper on
#Neanderthal
birch tar just dropped!
New images & scans of the two Kรถnigsaue pieces, plus lots of v. exciting results, with the headline being:
- chemical analyses = *both* made using trickier oxygen-restricted, underground methods
Unexpected side effect of covid vaccine: you may start bawling in public immediately afterwards from relief and gratitude ๐ญ
(think I set the guy off who did mine too ๐ณ)
Anyone noticing the narrative that if things keep getting worse in next month then it's "our" fault, rather than govt's utter failure to do much or communicate seriousness of everything until about 7 days ago?
It's very likely that, over humanity's entire history, most people have understood rivers as vital, animate entities, rather than the liquid flows of western scientific understanding.
Here's one fast-rolling, many-voiced character I met yesterday in the Cairngorms
Today I handed over the typescript of my new book Is A River Alive? to my editor & friend
@HamishH1931
.
It feltโafter 3+ yrsโ workโlike a big moment.
To mark it we walked up to the springs near my house, where a river is bornโand the book begins & ends.
More on the project below.
Much excitement at THE AWARD for
@CurrentArchaeo
's Book Of The Year arriving! How beautiful it is!
Thank you so much to CA, the award sponsors & most importantly *everyone* who voted for
#Kindred
!
Loving everyone here defending
#Neanderthals
against unjust slander from Mr Biden ๐
They were clever, innovative and took the best of whatever was around them whether stone, wood or animal species.
#NeanderthalThinking
got them through over 300,000 years!
"Hold infinity in the palm of your hand..."
1.2 (ish) billion year old, before the land even bore moss or lichen, at the bottom of a gently wind-ruffled lake, the muds & sands (eroded from even more ancient, far-off mountains) gently settled into shape
It's HEEEEERRREEE
Finally
#Kindred
is officially published!
Thank you a thousand times to everyone who's already bought this book, reviewed it, and supported it in SO many ways.
It's been a gigantic labour of love and I'm so happy to see it out!
New by me - a primer on key information about
#Neanderthals
(writing short review pieces like this is remarkably hard, I have massive respect for people like
@DrKillgrove
who do it all the time!)
If we're going to share scientific research abiut past peoples, let's not use unlabelled AI imagery along with it.
Impossible for non-specialists to tell if anything at all here relates to actual archaeological finds
Nominating for prehistory edition the c. 15,000 yr old puppy buried with a mature woman, from an Early Natufian level at Eynan (Ain Mallaha), Israel, which I'm writing about in
#Matriarcha
Woof woof! Huge excitement today as
@TheRestHistory
nominates HISTORY'S TOP 7 DOGS.
First dogs, faithful dogs, Nazi dogs, unfairly beheaded dogs, looted dogs, nautical dogs, movie star dogs - we've got them all!
Morning!
I โค๏ธ it when people outside archaeology bring a pet theory to the Q of Neanderthal 'extinction'.
[๐ so hard it shifts the Milankovitch cycles]
Jaw-dropping 2019 marble sculpture: โSanta Luciaโ, based on soft tissue modelling of the australopithecine Lucy
๐ท R. Campbell, G. Vinas, M. Henneberg, R. Diogo
Interesantes reflexiones sobre las reconstrucciones de homininos con/sin determinados sesgos:
Team reveals amazing reconstructions of our ancestors to correct mistakes of the past
New from me for
@BBC_Future
- Why exploring
#Neanderthal
minds, aesthetics & possible symbolic understanding of animals is so complicated... ๐ฆฌ๐ฆ๐ด๐๏ธ
Happy Christmas!๐๐
And thank you everyone who's bought, reviewed, talked about & supported
#Kindred
in 2022!
If you've received it as a ๐, I hope you enjoy escaping into the Pleistocene alongside the reindeer ๐ฆ (FYI they return to 70,000 BP after flying round the world!)
Fantastic review in
@thetimes
!
"Rebecca Wragg Sykesโs fact-packed but highly readable book puts us right with a superbly authoritative guided tour...
If you read only one book about the Neanderthals, read this oneโ
Fun thread about the 'Neander Thal' discovery, from the Feldhofer cave.
Coda: when 21st C archaeologists went back to check the 19th C spoil heaps, they not only found more fossils - some incredibly refitting - but also confirmed there had been lithics there too.
Because we could all use a mood booster, hereโs a fun tale of confusion surrounding the discovery of the first ever recognized Neanderthal. A
#histsci
story-time thread about fossils, bribery, and beer for
#SundayFunday
: (1/n)
The evolution staircase
@MuseumMoesgaard
contains layers and layers. Looking on through viewfinders above reveals the unique environment of each hominin species. A peak at the habitat of Nariokotome Boy, on the shores of Lake Turkana 1.6 million years ago:
#fossils
The
#DarwinDayLecture
award last night captured wonderfully by my brilliant agent ๐คฉ
A joy to receive from VP
@theAliceRoberts
& President Adam Rutherford (both former Darwin Day medallists too!)
Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes being awarded the Darwin Day Medal tonight by Dr Alice Roberts after her superb lecture at the Humanists UK annual evening at Conway Hall in London.
#DarwinDayLecture
@Humanists_UK
@theAliceRoberts
Then spent a good 20 mins enjoying being in the land of flint architecture!
Trying to imagine what
#Neanderthals
would have made of such constructions with a material so familiar to them!
#Neanderthals
in parts of Italy & Greece sometimes worked marine shell in similar ways to stone, but I've not heard of any freshwater species being knapped, nor any evidence of shell as weapon tips. Fascinating stuff (and LOOK at the binding still there! ๐)
Would you believe it!โค We have just found an incredibly well preserved arrow with a shell arrowhead. It looks like it was lost last year, but the arrow is around 3300 years old, from the Early Bronze Age!๐ฎ It doesn't get much better than this๐
STUNNING new
#Neanderthal
image by
@TomBjorklundArt
๐
In much palaeoart adult males aren't even shown touching children, much less carrying them with care. (This is Tom's 2nd vision of such a scene)
*Evolutionary narratives matter*
Will never get over attitude that academics presenting research and talking to each other at conferences (whether professional or public) is noble and proper; but sharing ideas/papers/writing/whatever on twitter is a vulgar display of narcissism.
V. happy to comment for Guardian on this new research.
Mini-thread ๐งต
Idea of Shanidar 'funeral bouquets' popularised by Ralph Solecki in 60s/70s was hugely influential in wider shift considering Neanderthals as another kind of human, vs clichรฉ of unthinking, unfeeling "brutes".
If anyone needed another example of the Tory vandalism committed against Britain in the past 12 years. Entirely avoidable. Would very much like to hear Labour policy on this mess.
The UK is *out* of all R&D programmes: Horizon, Copernicus and EUratom
We had no science minister representing the UK at the meeting, because the position has been left unfilled for 77 days
This will cause lasting, extraordinary damage to UK science!
Wonderful evening talking to colleagues & students at
@UCamArchaeology
about
#SecretsOfTheNeanderthals
& challenges of communicating archaeology in film - and how utterly magical to have both the stunning new reconstruction & the actual Shanidar Z skull both there!
My main issue with such theories is their prior assumption that hyper-violent, xenophobic, male dominant chimpanzees provide the best social model for hominins 300 ka (or any time period). Bonobos tell us other ways are possible.
Did alpha male alliances institutionalise patriarchy over 300,000 years ago?
I assess a ground-breaking new theory on the origins of human cooperation, trust, linguistic evolution, & institutional patriarchy.
Blog:
Podcast:
At this point I think we can say that hominins inc.
#Neanderthals
were capable of this, but the challenge archaeologically lies in finding *robust* evidence of use; consumption isn't always enough eg yarrow is medicinal but it's also a tasty herb.
Researchers have observed a Sumatran
#orangutan
in the wild repeatedly treating its own wound with a plant with several known medicinal properties - the first scientific record of this behaviour in a wild animal
@IsabelleLaumer
@carolschuppli
Dredged from the River Cam in the 1920s this grey ware beaker may date to the Bronze Age. As it might have held ale or beer it's the perfect choice to mark the start of
#Oktoberfest
!
๐ธZ 11491/Record 1 Beaker, (?)Bronze Age, Cambridgeshire.
๐
Had a tiny little fire, sat out and wondered how many thousands of years you have to go back to find a time when nowhere on Earth was a pair of hands being warmed by a hearth ๐ฅ
Recent claims/discussion on here that children manifest some human primal state of social "evil" and they must be shown how to behave with compassion are so severely lacking in wider knowledge of anthropology, archaeology and primatology it's embarrassing.
New dates from Lascaux place it around 21 Ka.
Part of a cool project bringing 21stC analysis to the rich archaeology of the site, including the pigment and famous sandstone lamps.