Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
@nerbsatullo.bsky.social
Arch Sci Lab Manager at UCL. Studies technology, innovation, and the weird cool things people do with fire. Also the Caucasus.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of opening up the results from a big batch of radiocarbon dates, and having them confirm all things you hoped and suspected but weren't quite sure about. Kudos to the amazing #ProjectARKK team for capturing all the stratigraphic and chronological subtleties
November 21, 2025 at 2:37 PM
There's nothing quite like the feeling of opening up the results from a big batch of radiocarbon dates, and having them confirm all things you hoped and suspected but weren't quite sure about. Kudos to the amazing #ProjectARKK team for capturing all the stratigraphic and chronological subtleties
I've been cycling in the UK for 8 years now, but having started cycling in London regularly for the first time, I am stunned by the number of people cycling through heavy rush-hour traffic with headphones in (even over-ear noise-cancelling ones), sometimes while simultaneusly taking calls.
October 31, 2025 at 2:31 PM
I've been cycling in the UK for 8 years now, but having started cycling in London regularly for the first time, I am stunned by the number of people cycling through heavy rush-hour traffic with headphones in (even over-ear noise-cancelling ones), sometimes while simultaneusly taking calls.
Was having a hard time coming up with something until the perfect one came to me:
"Said to be from"
"Said to be from"
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story only someone in your profession would understand
"landowner used an excavator"
"landowner used an excavator"
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story only someone in your profession would understand
“papers in IEEE format”
“papers in IEEE format”
October 13, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Was having a hard time coming up with something until the perfect one came to me:
"Said to be from"
"Said to be from"
Reposted by Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
'Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests.'
Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens
University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 10, 2025 at 5:56 AM
'Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests.'
Reposted by Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
UKHE is a world class export sector, but has financial problems because the state both doesn’t want unis charging market rates to domestics and doesn’t want to subsidise them. To make up for this, unis have been forced to take on more foreign students, and the gov response is to punish them for it
The CAS debacle is testament to how anti-business the government is willing to be: let's turn away students who pay upward of £40k in tuition for a year of study in the UK
October 4, 2025 at 5:49 PM
UKHE is a world class export sector, but has financial problems because the state both doesn’t want unis charging market rates to domestics and doesn’t want to subsidise them. To make up for this, unis have been forced to take on more foreign students, and the gov response is to punish them for it
Thrilled with the coverage our recent paper on copper metallurgy and iron invention is getting. Not so thrilled with this definitely-AI generated furnace image that was used to illustrate one of those pieces.
Link to our article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Link to our article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Thrilled with the coverage our recent paper on copper metallurgy and iron invention is getting. Not so thrilled with this definitely-AI generated furnace image that was used to illustrate one of those pieces.
Link to our article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Link to our article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
My recent work covered in Popular Mechanics! Excellent furnace photo (not even mine).
www.popularmechanics.com/science/arch...
www.popularmechanics.com/science/arch...
A 3,000-Year-Old Furnace May Have Accidentally Started the Iron Age, Scientists Say
This global shift may have come as a result of smelters looking for ways to increase copper yields.
www.popularmechanics.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:56 PM
My recent work covered in Popular Mechanics! Excellent furnace photo (not even mine).
www.popularmechanics.com/science/arch...
www.popularmechanics.com/science/arch...
I'm all about "funny looking rocks"! Nice to see press coverage of my recent paper. www.popsci.com/science/iron...
This ‘funny-looking rock’ holds 3,000 years of Iron Age secrets
Experimenting with copper may have led to our eventual breakthroughs with making iron.
www.popsci.com
September 26, 2025 at 10:05 PM
I'm all about "funny looking rocks"! Nice to see press coverage of my recent paper. www.popsci.com/science/iron...
New paper out today, showing how a little known site first excavated nearly 70 years ago helps us understand the origins of iron. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:54 AM
New paper out today, showing how a little known site first excavated nearly 70 years ago helps us understand the origins of iron. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Currently writing the report for my @gerda-henkel-stiftung.de "Surviving the Crisis Years" grant, centred around our excavations of a LBA-EIA fortress in the Caucasus. It's amazing what we've accomplished in two years--so proud of my team! Photo: @shmills.bsky.social excavating the fortress gate.
September 23, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Currently writing the report for my @gerda-henkel-stiftung.de "Surviving the Crisis Years" grant, centred around our excavations of a LBA-EIA fortress in the Caucasus. It's amazing what we've accomplished in two years--so proud of my team! Photo: @shmills.bsky.social excavating the fortress gate.
I will never get over how sharply the Greater Caucasus range rises from the Alazani plain.
June 20, 2025 at 1:37 PM
I will never get over how sharply the Greater Caucasus range rises from the Alazani plain.
Very cool. We found an Abbasid dirham in my excavations in the Caucasus last summer.
Just because you need more archaeological finds in your feed.
As FLO, you know it is serious, when metal detectorists call you on a Sunday afternoon asking to hand in finds right away.
As FLO, you know it is serious, when metal detectorists call you on a Sunday afternoon asking to hand in finds right away.
June 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Very cool. We found an Abbasid dirham in my excavations in the Caucasus last summer.
A short drama in three parts:
Day 1: "Would be cool for this paper to make a quick diagram to summarize the different Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani chronologies and cultural groupings for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, seems like no one has ever done it."
Day 1: "Would be cool for this paper to make a quick diagram to summarize the different Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani chronologies and cultural groupings for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, seems like no one has ever done it."
May 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM
A short drama in three parts:
Day 1: "Would be cool for this paper to make a quick diagram to summarize the different Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani chronologies and cultural groupings for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, seems like no one has ever done it."
Day 1: "Would be cool for this paper to make a quick diagram to summarize the different Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani chronologies and cultural groupings for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, seems like no one has ever done it."
Wow, the Etruscans must have really liked khinkali.
La pera, "the pear," or "pietra acheruntica" (from the Acheron river of Hades), set up along via S Martino in Pisa, is actually an Etruscan marble tomb marker from around 500 BCE, moved here in the middle ages from a necropolis west of the city. Today it serves as a canine territorial marker...
🏺
🏺
April 6, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Wow, the Etruscans must have really liked khinkali.
Nice piece by my PhD student Alex Rodzinka, covering our work with the ISIS Muon and Neutron Source. the-past.com/feature/what...
What can we learn from trafficked finds? Revealing the results of neutron tomography of Iranian swords | The Past
Recovering an assemblage of trafficked prehistoric swords from Iran presented an opportunity to undertake scientific analysis of these weapons. The results ...
the-past.com
March 24, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Nice piece by my PhD student Alex Rodzinka, covering our work with the ISIS Muon and Neutron Source. the-past.com/feature/what...
Our excavations at Dmanisis Gora have literally put it on the (Google) map. With a 5 star review! (and not by me). Google maps image was annoyingly taken during backfill, juuuuust too late to get us an end-of-season final photo from space.
March 22, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Our excavations at Dmanisis Gora have literally put it on the (Google) map. With a 5 star review! (and not by me). Google maps image was annoyingly taken during backfill, juuuuust too late to get us an end-of-season final photo from space.
There are many great names for archaeological sites, but the the name of a Bronze Age copper mine way up in the Caucasus mountains, "Zaargash" goes so hard.
Sounds like the source for Sauron's copper supply.
Sounds like the source for Sauron's copper supply.
March 4, 2025 at 2:21 PM
There are many great names for archaeological sites, but the the name of a Bronze Age copper mine way up in the Caucasus mountains, "Zaargash" goes so hard.
Sounds like the source for Sauron's copper supply.
Sounds like the source for Sauron's copper supply.
Reposted by Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
Dr Sainsbury (@vsainsbury.bsky.social) just got back from a fieldtrip in Jordan exploring sites & analysing glass. Whilst at the @cbrl.bsky.social she joined a workshop on #recycling through time. #womeninstem & made it into The Jordanian Times! www.jordantimes.com/news/local/c...
CBRL workshop highlights continuity of recycling practices through time
AMMAN — The CBRL Amman Institute has recently organised a workshop led by Deputy Director of the CBRL Fatma Marii titled “From Past to Present: Recycling and Reusing Materials in Antiquity and Today.”...
www.jordantimes.com
March 3, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Dr Sainsbury (@vsainsbury.bsky.social) just got back from a fieldtrip in Jordan exploring sites & analysing glass. Whilst at the @cbrl.bsky.social she joined a workshop on #recycling through time. #womeninstem & made it into The Jordanian Times! www.jordantimes.com/news/local/c...
Reposted by Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
Britain’s carnival of reaction nationalist theme park is going to be built by French businessmen with links to the far right and Putin. It’s entirely fitting with the bombastic but surface level understanding of history that informs the resurgent British far right.
Far-right links and Putin praise: fears over £600m UK history theme park plan
French family behind project visited Kremlin in 2014 to discuss building ‘Tsarland’ in annexed Crimea
www.theguardian.com
February 22, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Britain’s carnival of reaction nationalist theme park is going to be built by French businessmen with links to the far right and Putin. It’s entirely fitting with the bombastic but surface level understanding of history that informs the resurgent British far right.
Reposted by Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
🔊Calling all School of Archaeology staff, students, projects and alumni! So far I've found 27 of our School community on here, let us know if there are more! go.bsky.app/JX5CP1k
January 15, 2025 at 4:13 PM
🔊Calling all School of Archaeology staff, students, projects and alumni! So far I've found 27 of our School community on here, let us know if there are more! go.bsky.app/JX5CP1k
Another of the better pieces on my paper on Caucasus fortresses. Great to see such wide coverage. Can't wait to share more of the cool finds from the site. arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Archaeologists just mapped a Bronze Age megafortress in Georgia
This recently mapped Bronze Age fortress is just one among hundreds.
arstechnica.com
January 20, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Another of the better pieces on my paper on Caucasus fortresses. Great to see such wide coverage. Can't wait to share more of the cool finds from the site. arstechnica.com/science/2025...
More coverage of our work! This one did a nice job of contextualizing the broader anthropological significance. www.newsweek.com/archaeology-...
Secrets of 3,000-year-old Bronze Age "mega-fortress" revealed
Researchers have uncovered new insights into an ancient fortress settlement, casting new light on the history of human urbanism.
www.newsweek.com
January 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM
More coverage of our work! This one did a nice job of contextualizing the broader anthropological significance. www.newsweek.com/archaeology-...
New paper out today using aerial photogrammetry to study an exceptionally large and well-preserved fortress in southern Georgia!
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Mega-fortresses in the South Caucasus: new data from southern Georgia | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
Mega-fortresses in the South Caucasus: new data from southern Georgia
www.cambridge.org
January 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM
New paper out today using aerial photogrammetry to study an exceptionally large and well-preserved fortress in southern Georgia!
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Congrats to Cranfield PhD student Alex Rodzinka on her first peer reviewed paper, on neutron tomography of Iron Age Iranian daggers, out today #OpenAccess in JAS! Massive thanks to our partners at the British Museum and the ISIS Muon and Neutron Source.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Neutron tomography reveals extensive modern modification in Iron Age Iranian swords
Early Iron Age Iranian bladed weaponry plays a significant role in discussions of metallurgical development in the ancient Near East. Due to its ubiqu…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 8, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Congrats to Cranfield PhD student Alex Rodzinka on her first peer reviewed paper, on neutron tomography of Iron Age Iranian daggers, out today #OpenAccess in JAS! Massive thanks to our partners at the British Museum and the ISIS Muon and Neutron Source.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...