Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
@lemoustier.bsky.social
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
📚 KINDRED: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death & Art
🖋️ MATRIARCHA: Prehistory Re-imagined
🏛️ Honorary Researcher U. Cambridge & U. Liverpool
1/4 @trowelblazers.bsky.social
Rep: PEW Literary
Ah so now the latest PR push is that we all need "AI literacy" as an essential skill for modern life... 🙄
Yeah I actually understand how AI works already and I'm still not interested in using it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Yeah I actually understand how AI works already and I'm still not interested in using it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Generation AI: fears of ‘social divide’ unless all children learn computing skills
Children are growing up as AI natives and experts say computing skills should be on par with reading and writing
www.theguardian.com
January 5, 2026 at 10:09 PM
Ah so now the latest PR push is that we all need "AI literacy" as an essential skill for modern life... 🙄
Yeah I actually understand how AI works already and I'm still not interested in using it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Yeah I actually understand how AI works already and I'm still not interested in using it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Of course this means I'm back at work writing #Matriarcha, and at least today there is a beautiful view from my desk 📚✒️💻
January 5, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Of course this means I'm back at work writing #Matriarcha, and at least today there is a beautiful view from my desk 📚✒️💻
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🗃️ Thinking about ancient mothers: packing "two breads" lunches for their sons going to scribe school in Mesopotamia of the early 2200s BCE, and buying silk two millennia later in Qin China of 220s BCE for their soldier sons who plead "if you don't send it, I will just die, it is very important!"
January 5, 2026 at 1:30 PM
🗃️ Thinking about ancient mothers: packing "two breads" lunches for their sons going to scribe school in Mesopotamia of the early 2200s BCE, and buying silk two millennia later in Qin China of 220s BCE for their soldier sons who plead "if you don't send it, I will just die, it is very important!"
Of course this means I'm back at work writing #Matriarcha, and at least today there is a beautiful view from my desk 📚✒️💻
January 5, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Of course this means I'm back at work writing #Matriarcha, and at least today there is a beautiful view from my desk 📚✒️💻
🗃️ Thinking about ancient mothers: packing "two breads" lunches for their sons going to scribe school in Mesopotamia of the early 2200s BCE, and buying silk two millennia later in Qin China of 220s BCE for their soldier sons who plead "if you don't send it, I will just die, it is very important!"
January 5, 2026 at 1:30 PM
🗃️ Thinking about ancient mothers: packing "two breads" lunches for their sons going to scribe school in Mesopotamia of the early 2200s BCE, and buying silk two millennia later in Qin China of 220s BCE for their soldier sons who plead "if you don't send it, I will just die, it is very important!"
🧪 Genuinely don't see the point of this piece.
It contains no new info and only serves to give Colossal another opportunity to mend public reputation & boost hype.
(apparently their PR strategy now includes mentioning 'inspiring children' in all interviews...)
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
It contains no new info and only serves to give Colossal another opportunity to mend public reputation & boost hype.
(apparently their PR strategy now includes mentioning 'inspiring children' in all interviews...)
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
The bioscience startup has attracted billions in investment – and a flurry of criticism, but founder tells the Guardian plans to bring back the woolly mammoth will not be derailed
www.theguardian.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:30 PM
🧪 Genuinely don't see the point of this piece.
It contains no new info and only serves to give Colossal another opportunity to mend public reputation & boost hype.
(apparently their PR strategy now includes mentioning 'inspiring children' in all interviews...)
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
It contains no new info and only serves to give Colossal another opportunity to mend public reputation & boost hype.
(apparently their PR strategy now includes mentioning 'inspiring children' in all interviews...)
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🏺 Vogelherd, the OG horse, 40,000 years ago 🐎
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
January 4, 2026 at 9:24 PM
🏺 Vogelherd, the OG horse, 40,000 years ago 🐎
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
🏺 Vogelherd, the OG horse, 40,000 years ago 🐎
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
January 4, 2026 at 9:24 PM
🏺 Vogelherd, the OG horse, 40,000 years ago 🐎
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
(the detail you can see playing with this 3D model is insane)
skfb.ly/6zJ8H
This year has been noticeably un-wintered - hedge plants growing all December as if it's March
January 2, 2026 at 10:21 AM
This year has been noticeably un-wintered - hedge plants growing all December as if it's March
🏺
Very similar to #Neanderthal bifaces/handaxes : used for diverse things, and with complex histories of use, resharpening and sometimes wholesale reshaping.
Very similar to #Neanderthal bifaces/handaxes : used for diverse things, and with complex histories of use, resharpening and sometimes wholesale reshaping.
NEW #Neolithic axe-heads from the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney. One of the most iconic tools of Europe's first farmers, macroscopic wear analysis reveals they were treated in diverse ways, used for cutting wood, chiselling stone, scraping hides and more.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
January 2, 2026 at 10:16 AM
🏺
Very similar to #Neanderthal bifaces/handaxes : used for diverse things, and with complex histories of use, resharpening and sometimes wholesale reshaping.
Very similar to #Neanderthal bifaces/handaxes : used for diverse things, and with complex histories of use, resharpening and sometimes wholesale reshaping.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Final moonrise of 2025, wishing a Soaring Buzzard New Year to all 🌔 🦅
December 31, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Final moonrise of 2025, wishing a Soaring Buzzard New Year to all 🌔 🦅
Final moonrise of 2025, wishing a Soaring Buzzard New Year to all 🌔 🦅
December 31, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Final moonrise of 2025, wishing a Soaring Buzzard New Year to all 🌔 🦅
Shropshire Christmas Eve, the Black Hill settles itself down for a long winter's nap
December 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Shropshire Christmas Eve, the Black Hill settles itself down for a long winter's nap
A lovely thing: my hope as a writer is to both inform and also to evoke 📚
I read a bunch of good books this year and I will tell you about them! A lot of my reading served to comfort me. Rebecca Wragg Sykes' KINDRED: NEANDERTHAL LIFE, LOVE, DEATH AND ART put the scale of time into perspective, and felt like a balm in that sense.
December 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM
A lovely thing: my hope as a writer is to both inform and also to evoke 📚
Actually ❤️ this
A student's paper just described the interaction between Homo sapiens and Neandertals as "a situationship rather than a relationship" and I'm still laughing ten minutes later 💀🏺
December 22, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Actually ❤️ this
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Midwinter misty gloaming... calendrical New Year's Eve has never meant much to me (beyond partying when still young enough to avoid hangovers), but solstices are different.
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
December 21, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Midwinter misty gloaming... calendrical New Year's Eve has never meant much to me (beyond partying when still young enough to avoid hangovers), but solstices are different.
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
Midwinter misty gloaming... calendrical New Year's Eve has never meant much to me (beyond partying when still young enough to avoid hangovers), but solstices are different.
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
December 21, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Midwinter misty gloaming... calendrical New Year's Eve has never meant much to me (beyond partying when still young enough to avoid hangovers), but solstices are different.
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
I ❤️ Midsummer, but it's Yule that increasingly draws me to mark it, circling the flames as the year turns again 🕯️
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🏺🗃️ Been to loads of museums/exhibitions in the past year, am going to try and share more photos over the holidays, so here's a favourite object from the excellent #MadeInEgypt show at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge:
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
December 19, 2025 at 4:21 PM
🏺🗃️ Been to loads of museums/exhibitions in the past year, am going to try and share more photos over the holidays, so here's a favourite object from the excellent #MadeInEgypt show at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge:
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
#FossilFriday DAN5/P1, Gona, Ethiopia ~1.6 Ma: intricate evolutionary transition from early Homo to H. erectus + long persistence of small-brained, plesiomorphic Homo group(s) alongside other Homo groups that experienced continued encephalization doi.org/10.1038/s414...
December 19, 2025 at 8:18 AM
#FossilFriday DAN5/P1, Gona, Ethiopia ~1.6 Ma: intricate evolutionary transition from early Homo to H. erectus + long persistence of small-brained, plesiomorphic Homo group(s) alongside other Homo groups that experienced continued encephalization doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
And this is exactly the reason why there should be a professional ethics framework agreed with urgency for #gen-AI, in particular photo-realistic stuff : archaeologists and heritage orgs who use it for general outreach & #SciComm are contributing to this problem.
I’m increasingly uneasy about the flood of AI images on social media. They are mostly absurd and frustrating. They may sometimes be creative experiments, but the fact that so many users take them at face value says a lot about our collective loss of visual literacy.
www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...
www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...
December 19, 2025 at 8:52 AM
🏺 On #archaeology, the practice and meaning of it, as emotionally resonant & inspirational; reminds me of the affection and something more - wonder? reverence? - behind Detectorists, the soundtrack for that, and the musical connection through to Digging For Britain as Time Team's successor.
My last piece of writing this year is on @spaceshipmark.bsky.social's charming folk LP and zine in tribute to archaeology telly programme Time Team. Review features reference to the Einstürzende Neubauten hard hat worn by @durotrigesdig.bsky.social on the show:
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
Mark S Williamson – folklore, facts and fables 6: three days to find out | The Quietus
folklore, facts and fables 6: three days to find out by mark s. williamson Many Quietus readers will no doubt be familiar with Time Team, the archaeology programme broadcast by Channel 4 for a decade ...
thequietus.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:33 PM
🏺 On #archaeology, the practice and meaning of it, as emotionally resonant & inspirational; reminds me of the affection and something more - wonder? reverence? - behind Detectorists, the soundtrack for that, and the musical connection through to Digging For Britain as Time Team's successor.
🏺🗃️ Been to loads of museums/exhibitions in the past year, am going to try and share more photos over the holidays, so here's a favourite object from the excellent #MadeInEgypt show at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge:
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
December 19, 2025 at 4:21 PM
🏺🗃️ Been to loads of museums/exhibitions in the past year, am going to try and share more photos over the holidays, so here's a favourite object from the excellent #MadeInEgypt show at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge:
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
Tiny wood figurine of a woman with inlaid eyes, c. 1943-1898 BCE
🧪🦣 🏺 Super thread on complexity & pitfalls in using genetics to - crudely put - explain why H. sapiens are here but #Neanderthals aren't.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
A substantial proportion of people with archaic TKTL1 had college/university degrees, arguing against big impacts on cognition. The results show that the sometimes dramatic effects seen in lab-based experiments on evolutionary variants may not be a guide to real-world impacts in living humans. 11/n
December 19, 2025 at 12:57 PM
🧪🦣 🏺 Super thread on complexity & pitfalls in using genetics to - crudely put - explain why H. sapiens are here but #Neanderthals aren't.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
For me, it underlines as usual that while the DNA revolution has been amazing, the #archaeology - what humans actually did - remains central to understanding.
🏺🧪 I'll also note that in a lot of recent #gen-AI content I've seen specifically created for human origins /palaeoanth outreach, the extent of stereotypes and racial bias in images is striking (apparently unnoticed or ignored by producers)
And this is exactly the reason why there should be a professional ethics framework agreed with urgency for #gen-AI, in particular photo-realistic stuff : archaeologists and heritage orgs who use it for general outreach & #SciComm are contributing to this problem.
I’m increasingly uneasy about the flood of AI images on social media. They are mostly absurd and frustrating. They may sometimes be creative experiments, but the fact that so many users take them at face value says a lot about our collective loss of visual literacy.
www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...
www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...
December 19, 2025 at 8:58 AM
🏺🧪 I'll also note that in a lot of recent #gen-AI content I've seen specifically created for human origins /palaeoanth outreach, the extent of stereotypes and racial bias in images is striking (apparently unnoticed or ignored by producers)
And this is exactly the reason why there should be a professional ethics framework agreed with urgency for #gen-AI, in particular photo-realistic stuff : archaeologists and heritage orgs who use it for general outreach & #SciComm are contributing to this problem.
I’m increasingly uneasy about the flood of AI images on social media. They are mostly absurd and frustrating. They may sometimes be creative experiments, but the fact that so many users take them at face value says a lot about our collective loss of visual literacy.
www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...
www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...
December 19, 2025 at 8:52 AM