Finn Stileman
@finnstileman.bsky.social
Archaeologist & PhD candidate @ University of Cambridge
He/him
He/him
Reposted by Finn Stileman
Latest paper: Boxgrove is a key European site dating to 480,000 years ago. At GTP17, hominins knapped handaxes and then butchered an adult female horse. A fragment of the horse's scapula appeared to have evidence of impact from a wooden spear.....
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Latest paper: Boxgrove is a key European site dating to 480,000 years ago. At GTP17, hominins knapped handaxes and then butchered an adult female horse. A fragment of the horse's scapula appeared to have evidence of impact from a wooden spear.....
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Finn Stileman
Please join us next week, Thursday 13h November, for our next talk. We will be joined by Finn Stileman, University of Cambridge. More details 👇
Please register here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
We hope to see you there!
Please register here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
We hope to see you there!
November 4, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Please join us next week, Thursday 13h November, for our next talk. We will be joined by Finn Stileman, University of Cambridge. More details 👇
Please register here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
We hope to see you there!
Please register here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
We hope to see you there!
Reposted by Finn Stileman
📣 PUBLISHED OPEN ACCESS 📣
An international team, including our own Finn Stileman, have published a new study in Nature Communications on a monumental rock art tradition in northern Arabia dating between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📸 @finnstileman.bsky.social
An international team, including our own Finn Stileman, have published a new study in Nature Communications on a monumental rock art tradition in northern Arabia dating between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📸 @finnstileman.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 2:09 PM
📣 PUBLISHED OPEN ACCESS 📣
An international team, including our own Finn Stileman, have published a new study in Nature Communications on a monumental rock art tradition in northern Arabia dating between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📸 @finnstileman.bsky.social
An international team, including our own Finn Stileman, have published a new study in Nature Communications on a monumental rock art tradition in northern Arabia dating between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📸 @finnstileman.bsky.social
Reposted by Finn Stileman
New discovery! Here @mariaguagnin.bsky.social and our team report on 12,000-year-old life-size camel rock art engravings in the Saudi desert. #GreenArabia @griffith.edu.au www.nature.com/articles/s41...
September 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM
New discovery! Here @mariaguagnin.bsky.social and our team report on 12,000-year-old life-size camel rock art engravings in the Saudi desert. #GreenArabia @griffith.edu.au www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Finn Stileman
Our new paper is out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 12,000 year old camel engravings marked water sources in the desert. A great team effort @mdpetraglia.bsky.social @finnstileman.bsky.social @stewiestewart.bsky.social et al!
Monumental rock art illustrates that humans thrived in the Arabian Desert during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition | Nature Communications
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www.nature.com
September 30, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Our new paper is out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 12,000 year old camel engravings marked water sources in the desert. A great team effort @mdpetraglia.bsky.social @finnstileman.bsky.social @stewiestewart.bsky.social et al!
Happy to share the first paper from my PhD! Open access in a special issue of JAS, 'The Mind in Deep Time: Interdisciplinary explorations of cognitive evolution'
When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill
share.google/hj43OR6QWXtc...
When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill
share.google/hj43OR6QWXtc...
When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill
As the most numerous manifestations of technology across the Palaeolithic record, linking stone tool artefacts to past hominin cognition and expertise…
share.google
September 4, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Happy to share the first paper from my PhD! Open access in a special issue of JAS, 'The Mind in Deep Time: Interdisciplinary explorations of cognitive evolution'
When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill
share.google/hj43OR6QWXtc...
When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill
share.google/hj43OR6QWXtc...
Reposted by Finn Stileman
Thrilled to share our latest article on the Lower Palaeolithic occupation of Fordwich Pit, Old Park - including at least one likely glacial occupation in MIS12! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK) - Nature Ecology & Evolution
The authors report Acheulean hominin occupation of eastern Britain during glacial marine isotope stages 17–16 and again in glacial marine isotope stage 12 via stone tools in sediments dated to 712,000...
www.nature.com
September 1, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Thrilled to share our latest article on the Lower Palaeolithic occupation of Fordwich Pit, Old Park - including at least one likely glacial occupation in MIS12! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
More ceramics! So fun to work with!
July 8, 2025 at 1:54 PM
More ceramics! So fun to work with!
Picked up a stone-textured dish at a pottery market that perfectly nests a porcelain handaxe; makes me think of the tool latent within a nodule before being shaped to fruition
July 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Picked up a stone-textured dish at a pottery market that perfectly nests a porcelain handaxe; makes me think of the tool latent within a nodule before being shaped to fruition
Reposted by Finn Stileman
🏺🧪🦣
#Neanderthal Fat Factory!
V. exciting to see new, massive evidence of this grease-rendering behaviour which we've long believed was going on.
(someone once commented I use the word "fat/fatty" a lot in the narrative/poetic sections of #Kindred, THIS IS WHY)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#Neanderthal Fat Factory!
V. exciting to see new, massive evidence of this grease-rendering behaviour which we've long believed was going on.
(someone once commented I use the word "fat/fatty" a lot in the narrative/poetic sections of #Kindred, THIS IS WHY)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
July 3, 2025 at 9:39 AM
🏺🧪🦣
#Neanderthal Fat Factory!
V. exciting to see new, massive evidence of this grease-rendering behaviour which we've long believed was going on.
(someone once commented I use the word "fat/fatty" a lot in the narrative/poetic sections of #Kindred, THIS IS WHY)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#Neanderthal Fat Factory!
V. exciting to see new, massive evidence of this grease-rendering behaviour which we've long believed was going on.
(someone once commented I use the word "fat/fatty" a lot in the narrative/poetic sections of #Kindred, THIS IS WHY)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Finn Stileman
#Neanderthals Ran “Fat Factories” 125,000 Years Ago. Groundbreaking discovery by @paleomonrepos.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social @leizarchaeology.bsky.social and the LDA in Saxony reveals large-scale fat processing by Neanderthals:
idw-online.de/de/news854632
#archaeology #paleolithic #prehistory
idw-online.de/de/news854632
#archaeology #paleolithic #prehistory
Neanderthals Ran “Fat Factories” 125,000 Years Ago
idw-online.de
July 3, 2025 at 6:23 AM
#Neanderthals Ran “Fat Factories” 125,000 Years Ago. Groundbreaking discovery by @paleomonrepos.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social @leizarchaeology.bsky.social and the LDA in Saxony reveals large-scale fat processing by Neanderthals:
idw-online.de/de/news854632
#archaeology #paleolithic #prehistory
idw-online.de/de/news854632
#archaeology #paleolithic #prehistory
My latest weekend pastime has been to model clay replicas for my little museum! Particularly fond of the Neanderthal (La Ferrassie 1) skull!
June 30, 2025 at 11:13 AM
My latest weekend pastime has been to model clay replicas for my little museum! Particularly fond of the Neanderthal (La Ferrassie 1) skull!
Reposted by Finn Stileman
40,000-year-old mammoth tusk boomerang is oldest in Europe — and possibly the world www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Stone Age boomerang is oldest in Europe — and possibly the world
A new analysis of a carved mammoth tusk first discovered four decades ago reveals it may be the world's oldest boomerang.
www.livescience.com
June 26, 2025 at 9:07 AM
40,000-year-old mammoth tusk boomerang is oldest in Europe — and possibly the world www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Reposted by Finn Stileman
Finally got round to finishing this drawing of a 300,000 year old #handaxe from Stoke Newington, London, found by S.H. Warren in 1894. Now this little-un, along with others from Stoke Newington that I've drawn, lives at the British Museum
June 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Finally got round to finishing this drawing of a 300,000 year old #handaxe from Stoke Newington, London, found by S.H. Warren in 1894. Now this little-un, along with others from Stoke Newington that I've drawn, lives at the British Museum
Reposted by Finn Stileman
'Scientists discovered a new kind of human with its pinkie bone. Now we have a skull' www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
This is the first ever confirmed skull of a Denisovan
Finally, we can put a face on a Denisovan.
www.nationalgeographic.com
June 18, 2025 at 3:36 PM
'Scientists discovered a new kind of human with its pinkie bone. Now we have a skull' www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
Reposted by Finn Stileman
Calling all palaeolithic archaeologists. Come and work with me on a really exciting new survey and excavation project in Uganda: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/348570
INTERNATIONAL TENDER FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF A POST-DOCTORAL ASSOCIATE RESEARCHER
International tender to recruit one (1) ) post-doctoral initial level researcher to perform duties in the scientific area of Palaeolithic Archaeology or related areas, under the research project “ERC ...
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
June 18, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Calling all palaeolithic archaeologists. Come and work with me on a really exciting new survey and excavation project in Uganda: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/348570
And here's the scan from the same handaxe! A razor (tranchet sharpened) tip!
June 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
And here's the scan from the same handaxe! A razor (tranchet sharpened) tip!
Reposted by Finn Stileman
Giant egos, hidden fossils and Machiavellian scheming in the academy - in this tale about what might (or might not) be the oldest hominin. A thrilling read!
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
The curse of Toumaï: an ancient skull, a disputed femur and a bitter feud over humanity’s origins
The long read: When fossilised remains were discovered in the Djurab desert in 2001, they were hailed as radically rewriting the history of our species. But not everyone was convinced – and the bitter...
www.theguardian.com
May 27, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Giant egos, hidden fossils and Machiavellian scheming in the academy - in this tale about what might (or might not) be the oldest hominin. A thrilling read!
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Spent the day with master flint knapper, John Lord, to 3D scan handaxes. Some were made by him, but this one was collected from a quarry spoil heap at Lynford and dates to 65,000 years ago! Fresh as the day it was made!
June 9, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Spent the day with master flint knapper, John Lord, to 3D scan handaxes. Some were made by him, but this one was collected from a quarry spoil heap at Lynford and dates to 65,000 years ago! Fresh as the day it was made!
Reposted by Finn Stileman
June 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Finn Stileman
🧪 But seriously, this one study has more clear creations of form as a means of 'marking' a medium (in this case, water) than we have for the entirety of the #Neanderthal archaeological record.
If they can control the shape enough to make the perfect O, then the other forms may be intentional too?
If they can control the shape enough to make the perfect O, then the other forms may be intentional too?
June 5, 2025 at 10:18 PM
🧪 But seriously, this one study has more clear creations of form as a means of 'marking' a medium (in this case, water) than we have for the entirety of the #Neanderthal archaeological record.
If they can control the shape enough to make the perfect O, then the other forms may be intentional too?
If they can control the shape enough to make the perfect O, then the other forms may be intentional too?
Been trying my hand lately at the 'coup de tranchet' ("slicing blow") technique that's famously abundant on Boxgrove handaxes. A tricky detail that testifies to complex cultural transmission 500,000 years ago!
June 6, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Been trying my hand lately at the 'coup de tranchet' ("slicing blow") technique that's famously abundant on Boxgrove handaxes. A tricky detail that testifies to complex cultural transmission 500,000 years ago!
A wet knapping session with intresting flint! Any ideas what the inclusion could be??
June 5, 2025 at 3:25 PM
A wet knapping session with intresting flint! Any ideas what the inclusion could be??
My favourite thing to make has always been handaxes! This making process is my central research interest; how do knapping kits affect tool forms, and what drives hammer choice? Can we infer cultural variation not only from handaxes but also from the broader technologies that support flint knapping?
June 3, 2025 at 4:02 PM
My favourite thing to make has always been handaxes! This making process is my central research interest; how do knapping kits affect tool forms, and what drives hammer choice? Can we infer cultural variation not only from handaxes but also from the broader technologies that support flint knapping?