Julien Riel-Salvatore
@julienrs.bsky.social
Archaeologist, full professor & chair / Archéologue, professeur titulaire & directeur / Université de Montréal. Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, human-environment interactions, disinformation in archaeology. ⚜️ 🇨🇦 🇮🇹
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
A 15,000-year-old painted limestone, from the Hohle Fels Cave, Swabian Jura. The shapes of the dots are symmetrical and executed precisely. The accuracy indicates that the dot rows were painted using a tool or stamp.
On display at our branch museum urmu, Blaubeuren.
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology
On display at our branch museum urmu, Blaubeuren.
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology
February 10, 2026 at 11:45 AM
A 15,000-year-old painted limestone, from the Hohle Fels Cave, Swabian Jura. The shapes of the dots are symmetrical and executed precisely. The accuracy indicates that the dot rows were painted using a tool or stamp.
On display at our branch museum urmu, Blaubeuren.
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology
On display at our branch museum urmu, Blaubeuren.
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology
... now with pictures instead of random black squares!
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon worn as an ornament. My team recovered it from the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed Neve at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. 🏺🧪 #superbowl
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon worn as an ornament. My team recovered it from the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed Neve at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. 🏺🧪 #superbowl
February 9, 2026 at 4:14 AM
... now with pictures instead of random black squares!
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon worn as an ornament. My team recovered it from the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed Neve at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. 🏺🧪 #superbowl
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon worn as an ornament. My team recovered it from the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed Neve at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. 🏺🧪 #superbowl
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon, incised to be used an ornament. My team recovered it in a pit next to the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed 'Neve' at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. 🏺🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02804-z
www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02804-z
February 8, 2026 at 10:46 PM
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon, incised to be used an ornament. My team recovered it in a pit next to the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed 'Neve' at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. 🏺🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02804-z
www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02804-z
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon, incised to be used an ornament. My team recovered it in a pit next to the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed 'Neve' at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. #superbowl 🏺🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 8, 2026 at 10:29 PM
It has arrived, the day of the superb owl! Here's a 10,000 year-old eagle-owl talon, incised to be used an ornament. My team recovered it in a pit next to the burial of a newborn girl nicknamed 'Neve' at Arma Veirana, a cave in the Italian Maritime Alps. #superbowl 🏺🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
New article! "Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing" in Current Anthropology, by a giant collaborative group of coauthors fearlessly led by Jess Beck and including @bridgetalex.bsky.social @benmarwick.bsky.social @christinawarinner.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
www.journals.uchicago.edu
February 4, 2026 at 7:21 PM
New article! "Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing" in Current Anthropology, by a giant collaborative group of coauthors fearlessly led by Jess Beck and including @bridgetalex.bsky.social @benmarwick.bsky.social @christinawarinner.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
Don't forget, our call for paper and poster abstracts is open for submissions! Head over to the conference page on the CAA website to submit your abstracts before March 31st! 🎉
#archaeology #conference
canadianarchaeology.com/caa/annual-m...
#archaeology #conference
canadianarchaeology.com/caa/annual-m...
February 3, 2026 at 6:05 PM
Don't forget, our call for paper and poster abstracts is open for submissions! Head over to the conference page on the CAA website to submit your abstracts before March 31st! 🎉
#archaeology #conference
canadianarchaeology.com/caa/annual-m...
#archaeology #conference
canadianarchaeology.com/caa/annual-m...
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
I’m gonna name it. This isn’t a case of “legitimately differing opinions.” It is blatant professorial malpractice to adopt/allow genAI (or really *any* new edtech) just b/c we are told that we must. Especially in the humanities classroom, the only “ethical use” or reasonable stance is to keep it out
February 4, 2026 at 1:36 PM
I’m gonna name it. This isn’t a case of “legitimately differing opinions.” It is blatant professorial malpractice to adopt/allow genAI (or really *any* new edtech) just b/c we are told that we must. Especially in the humanities classroom, the only “ethical use” or reasonable stance is to keep it out
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
Tucker Carlson has a new pseudoarchaeology interview with AJ Gentile that, within the first 10 mins alone, brings up many of pseudoarch's Greatest Hits (archaeologists taking money to protect our reputations, pyramids weren't built by Egyptians, Smithsonian is hiding evidence of giants).
a man wearing glasses holds up a card that says boring
Alt: A man wearing glasses and a colourful orange floral shirt holds up a handwritten card that says boring
media.tenor.com
February 3, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Tucker Carlson has a new pseudoarchaeology interview with AJ Gentile that, within the first 10 mins alone, brings up many of pseudoarch's Greatest Hits (archaeologists taking money to protect our reputations, pyramids weren't built by Egyptians, Smithsonian is hiding evidence of giants).
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
Call for Papers #UISPP 2026 Poznań
Join our session - Moving on: updated scales, concepts and approaches to mobility in the Late Pleistocene (Thematic Session 4D)
Abstract Deadline: 28 Feb 2026
uispp2026.syskonf.pl
@timocanessa.bsky.social @palomadelalasca.bsky.social @aliceleplongeon.bsky.social
Join our session - Moving on: updated scales, concepts and approaches to mobility in the Late Pleistocene (Thematic Session 4D)
Abstract Deadline: 28 Feb 2026
uispp2026.syskonf.pl
@timocanessa.bsky.social @palomadelalasca.bsky.social @aliceleplongeon.bsky.social
February 3, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Call for Papers #UISPP 2026 Poznań
Join our session - Moving on: updated scales, concepts and approaches to mobility in the Late Pleistocene (Thematic Session 4D)
Abstract Deadline: 28 Feb 2026
uispp2026.syskonf.pl
@timocanessa.bsky.social @palomadelalasca.bsky.social @aliceleplongeon.bsky.social
Join our session - Moving on: updated scales, concepts and approaches to mobility in the Late Pleistocene (Thematic Session 4D)
Abstract Deadline: 28 Feb 2026
uispp2026.syskonf.pl
@timocanessa.bsky.social @palomadelalasca.bsky.social @aliceleplongeon.bsky.social
Also worth nothing that there is not one original idea or "solution" in this document... a real solid investment of the thousands of dollars that it probably cost to commission.
Another typical higher ed planification document, unsurprisingly based largely on vibes as opposed to data. The kind of stuff to feed the white hot rage of anyone busting their ass to sustain a social science unit in the age of AI and focused disinvestment in the arts, humanities & social sciences.
Leaked consultant's report at Queen's University points to a push to massively downsize the humanities and social sciences as well as the eradication of disciplinary based departments. I wouldn't be surprised if my university has the same consultants.
www.queensjournal.ca/leaked-consu...
www.queensjournal.ca/leaked-consu...
January 31, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Also worth nothing that there is not one original idea or "solution" in this document... a real solid investment of the thousands of dollars that it probably cost to commission.
Another typical higher ed planification document, unsurprisingly based largely on vibes as opposed to data. The kind of stuff to feed the white hot rage of anyone busting their ass to sustain a social science unit in the age of AI and focused disinvestment in the arts, humanities & social sciences.
Leaked consultant's report at Queen's University points to a push to massively downsize the humanities and social sciences as well as the eradication of disciplinary based departments. I wouldn't be surprised if my university has the same consultants.
www.queensjournal.ca/leaked-consu...
www.queensjournal.ca/leaked-consu...
Leaked consultant document details proposed restructuring at Queen’s - The Queen's Journal
As Queen’s unveiled its Bicentennial Vision for 2041, a leaked consultant document obtained by The Journal outlined specific structural changes on a similar timeline. Announced in the Queen’s Gazette ...
www.queensjournal.ca
January 31, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Another typical higher ed planification document, unsurprisingly based largely on vibes as opposed to data. The kind of stuff to feed the white hot rage of anyone busting their ass to sustain a social science unit in the age of AI and focused disinvestment in the arts, humanities & social sciences.
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
Some academic publishing contract advice: make sure your contract specifies 1. a qualified human copyeditor will copyedit on the MS; 2. a qualified human proofreader will proofread the MS; 3. that production must have a proper system for version control (!).
January 28, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Some academic publishing contract advice: make sure your contract specifies 1. a qualified human copyeditor will copyedit on the MS; 2. a qualified human proofreader will proofread the MS; 3. that production must have a proper system for version control (!).
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
Our volume on Stone Age clothing is now online and completely open access:
Jöris, O., Dietrich, O., Risch, R., & Meller, H. (Hrsg.). (2026). A Stone Age History of Clothing: Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 26. bis 28. September 2024 in Halle (Saale).
doi.org/10.11588/pro...
Jöris, O., Dietrich, O., Risch, R., & Meller, H. (Hrsg.). (2026). A Stone Age History of Clothing: Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 26. bis 28. September 2024 in Halle (Saale).
doi.org/10.11588/pro...
January 28, 2026 at 9:39 AM
Our volume on Stone Age clothing is now online and completely open access:
Jöris, O., Dietrich, O., Risch, R., & Meller, H. (Hrsg.). (2026). A Stone Age History of Clothing: Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 26. bis 28. September 2024 in Halle (Saale).
doi.org/10.11588/pro...
Jöris, O., Dietrich, O., Risch, R., & Meller, H. (Hrsg.). (2026). A Stone Age History of Clothing: Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 26. bis 28. September 2024 in Halle (Saale).
doi.org/10.11588/pro...
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
It was such a privilege to get to work on this amazing material from an incredible site and team - now the earliest handheld wooden tools in the archaeological record, taking evidence back to 430,000 years! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Evidence for the earliest hominin use of wooden handheld tools found at Marathousa 1 (Greece) | PNAS
The Middle Pleistocene (MP; ca. 774 to 129 ka) marks a critical period of human evolution,
characterized by increasing behavioral complexity and th...
www.pnas.org
January 27, 2026 at 11:01 AM
It was such a privilege to get to work on this amazing material from an incredible site and team - now the earliest handheld wooden tools in the archaeological record, taking evidence back to 430,000 years! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The absolute eye rolls I got from my kids at dinner yesterday when I told them that the oldest rock art in the world was now dated to... 6-7 thousand years ago 😂
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi - Nature
A hand stencil painted on a cave wall on a small island off the coast of Sulawesi more than 67,800 years ago suggests a very early occupation of Wallacea.
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 2:22 PM
The absolute eye rolls I got from my kids at dinner yesterday when I told them that the oldest rock art in the world was now dated to... 6-7 thousand years ago 😂
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
This is going to be a really fun and stimulating session on pseudoarchaeology and communicating archaeology at the upcoming meeting of the @can-arch.bsky.social in beautiful Canmore, AB, May 6-10!
Let's get this party started!🏺🇨🇦
Looking for papers for #CAA2026
How do you share archaeology?
What has been your experience navigating the muddy waters between pseudoarchaeology and real research?
How can we do better as a field, a discipline, and community to combat anti-intellectualism?
Looking for papers for #CAA2026
How do you share archaeology?
What has been your experience navigating the muddy waters between pseudoarchaeology and real research?
How can we do better as a field, a discipline, and community to combat anti-intellectualism?
January 18, 2026 at 4:34 PM
This is going to be a really fun and stimulating session on pseudoarchaeology and communicating archaeology at the upcoming meeting of the @can-arch.bsky.social in beautiful Canmore, AB, May 6-10!
This is going to be a really fun and stimulating session on pseudoarchaeology and communicating archaeology at the upcoming meeting of the @can-arch.bsky.social in beautiful Canmore, AB, May 6-10!
Let's get this party started!🏺🇨🇦
Looking for papers for #CAA2026
How do you share archaeology?
What has been your experience navigating the muddy waters between pseudoarchaeology and real research?
How can we do better as a field, a discipline, and community to combat anti-intellectualism?
Looking for papers for #CAA2026
How do you share archaeology?
What has been your experience navigating the muddy waters between pseudoarchaeology and real research?
How can we do better as a field, a discipline, and community to combat anti-intellectualism?
January 18, 2026 at 4:34 PM
This is going to be a really fun and stimulating session on pseudoarchaeology and communicating archaeology at the upcoming meeting of the @can-arch.bsky.social in beautiful Canmore, AB, May 6-10!
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
He laid out the m.o. of modern pseudo-archaeology, i.e., repeat false claims and never correct them: " “Chariots of the Gods” was followed by more than two dozen similar books, spawning a literary niche in which fact and fantasy were mixed together against all historical and scientific evidence."
Erich von Däniken, Swiss writer who spawned alien archaeology, dies at 90
Erich von Däniken, the Swiss author whose books on the extraterrestrial origins of ancient civilizations brought him both fame and scorn, has died at age 90.
www.seattletimes.com
January 11, 2026 at 3:41 PM
He laid out the m.o. of modern pseudo-archaeology, i.e., repeat false claims and never correct them: " “Chariots of the Gods” was followed by more than two dozen similar books, spawning a literary niche in which fact and fantasy were mixed together against all historical and scientific evidence."
He laid out the m.o. of modern pseudo-archaeology, i.e., repeat false claims and never correct them: " “Chariots of the Gods” was followed by more than two dozen similar books, spawning a literary niche in which fact and fantasy were mixed together against all historical and scientific evidence."
Erich von Däniken, Swiss writer who spawned alien archaeology, dies at 90
Erich von Däniken, the Swiss author whose books on the extraterrestrial origins of ancient civilizations brought him both fame and scorn, has died at age 90.
www.seattletimes.com
January 11, 2026 at 3:41 PM
He laid out the m.o. of modern pseudo-archaeology, i.e., repeat false claims and never correct them: " “Chariots of the Gods” was followed by more than two dozen similar books, spawning a literary niche in which fact and fantasy were mixed together against all historical and scientific evidence."
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
January 8, 2026 at 5:38 PM
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
In Dec 2025, I published a short comment on whether the emergence of AI has been as revolutionary as other moments of innovation in our species' history (e.g., emergence of technology or agriculture). On balance, current evidence suggests to me that it isn't.
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
January 6, 2026 at 7:46 PM
In Dec 2025, I published a short comment on whether the emergence of AI has been as revolutionary as other moments of innovation in our species' history (e.g., emergence of technology or agriculture). On balance, current evidence suggests to me that it isn't.
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
In Dec 2025, I published a short comment on whether the emergence of AI has been as revolutionary as other moments of innovation in our species' history (e.g., emergence of technology or agriculture). On balance, current evidence suggests to me that it isn't.
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
January 6, 2026 at 7:46 PM
In Dec 2025, I published a short comment on whether the emergence of AI has been as revolutionary as other moments of innovation in our species' history (e.g., emergence of technology or agriculture). On balance, current evidence suggests to me that it isn't.
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
www.isita-org.com/jass/Content...
Reposted by Julien Riel-Salvatore
These four “frictions” laid out here are helpful. Worth a read.
"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction."
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books
We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.
www.publicbooks.org
January 2, 2026 at 10:11 PM
These four “frictions” laid out here are helpful. Worth a read.