Dr Sam Leggett
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samleggs22.bsky.social
Dr Sam Leggett
@samleggs22.bsky.social
1.6K followers 690 following 61 posts
Lecturer in Biomolecular & Medieval Archaeology at Edinburgh Uni - data viz & R enthusiast (she/her)
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samleggs22.bsky.social
Dr Sam Leggett @samleggs22.bsky.social · Jan 1
🌟New Year exciting new OA paper🌟 doi.org/10.1080/0076... from myself @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social, @shakenbeck.bsky.social & TC O'Connell @cam-archaeology.bsky.social "Large-Scale Isotopic Data Reveal Gendered Migration into Early Medieval England c ad 400–1100" using #isotopes & #aDNA🧵⬇️ 1/
Graphical abstract for the paper. Skeletons with male & female grave goods (sword and brooches with bead string), with arrows to a tooth showing the type of analyses & subsequent information you can get from them. First arrow goes to isotopes which tell about individual migration; strontium is linked to food and underlying soils/geology; oxygen is linked to drinking water and to the climate. The second arrow goes to DNA which informs about ancestry and relatedness. To the right is a map of Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa with a big oval of arrows to indicate movement around all areas of the map, and a map pin in England with arrows from various regions leading to it, to show that people moved from all across the map into England in the early medieval period.
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
rorynaismith.bsky.social
For anyone who's interested @waterstones.bsky.social is running a special pre-order offer (no pun intended) on my new book about King Offa of Mercia, valid from Friday 20 Feb. eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
February 13, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
isabellemarie.bsky.social
New study maps where wheat, barley and rye grew before the first farmers found them. #Archaeology
phys.org/news/2026-02...
New study maps where wheat, barley and rye grew before the first farmers found them
Using advanced machine learning and climate models, researchers have shown that the ancestors of crops like wheat, barley, and rye probably were much less widespread in the Middle East 12,000 years ag...
phys.org
February 13, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
meganleitch.bsky.social
Medievalist friends! Applications are open until end of Feb for a fully-funded PhD in Arthurian Literature with the brilliant Louise D'Arcens @medievalafterlives.bsky.social and myself, based between Sydney (Australia) and Groningen (The Netherlands).

Please share widely!

tinyurl.com/f7su6urv
Global PhD on Middle English Arthurian romance
The University of Groningen and Macquarie are offering a co-funded scholarship to support a student undertaking doctoral research in medieval literature.
tinyurl.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:58 PM
samleggs22.bsky.social
Great new study on early medieval foodways, specifically a lack of fish in cooking pots! Glad it's not just our #ArchaeoFINS pots that lack 🐟! Implication with the human isotopes is that the Vikings adapted to local cuisine & left their fishy ways behind! doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Cuisine and culture-contact: lipid residue analysis reveals lack of aquatic products in pottery from Viking Age England | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
Cuisine and culture-contact: lipid residue analysis reveals lack of aquatic products in pottery from Viking Age England
doi.org
February 13, 2026 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
drnwillburger.bsky.social
In the early medieval period, colorful glass beads were a mark of prestige and fashion. This striking necklace, comprising over 60 beads in vibrant reds, blues, yellows, and intricate patterns, was discovered in the burial of a woman at Bissingen, southwest Germany, dating 7th century. 🧵1/2

🏺
The picture shows a necklace made of glass beads. The beads are of different size, shape and colour. Some are patterned, others monochrome.
February 12, 2026 at 11:26 AM
samleggs22.bsky.social
Congratulations to our former MSc student Luisa and my amazing colleagues Sophie and @drbutty.bsky.social on a very cool CT method paper with some interesting implications about osteoporosis in medieval Scotland #MedievalSky #edinarch
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social Edinburgh Archaeology @edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social · 1d
📣 Published #OpenAccess in AJBA @bioanth.org 📣 “The Use of Micro-CT Analysis of the Second Metacarpal to Assess Cortical Bone Loss in Archeological Human Skeletal Remains” by Luisa Less, @drbutty.bsky.social & Dr SL Newman onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🩻 @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social 1/3
micro-CT scan cross-sections of metacarpals from the study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.70209. Credit: Luisa Less.
February 12, 2026 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
cjfrieman.bsky.social
Aus arch! there are two continuing, full time archaeology-adjacent professional staff jobs open at ANU! These are a collections coordinator for CASS and a lab coordinator primarily for my school
jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/collect...

jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/laborat...
February 12, 2026 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social
‼️Published @royalsociety.org Open Science‼️ "From rugged isles to managed pastures: morphological changes in Soay sheep (Ovis aries) metacarpal bones following anthropogenic translocation" @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social 🐑🐏 doi.org/10.1098/rsos... @soaysheep.bsky.social
Photograph of a Soay Sheep lamb with tags in its ears facing the camera, standing on grass. Source - A New Twist on an Animal Model Reveals Environmental Constraints on Selection. Gross L, PLoS Biology, Vol. 4/7/2006, e236. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040236, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1479004
February 11, 2026 at 10:07 AM
samleggs22.bsky.social
Awesome work from one of our PhD students Vera! Check out this mega isotope dataset! 🧪 ⚛️ 🦷🦴
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social Edinburgh Archaeology @edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social · 3d
📣 New #OpenAccess Dataset 📣 led by @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social's Vera Haponava (PhD candidate), Prof Catriona Pickard & Ricardo Fernandes "The North-Eastern Europe and Northern Asia isotopic dataset of bioarchaeological samples (NEENA)" 🔗 rdcu.be/e2kNw 🧪 18700+ measurements! #IsoMemo #Pandora #NEENA
Spatial distribution of sites included in the dataset. The size of the circle reflects the number of entries originating from a specific location, while colour intensity reflects their density. The map was created in QGIS 3.34 software using ESRI Terrain basemap. Nested pie charts of the NEENA data. Distribution of the human and animal stable isotopic measurements in NEENA by isotope type and analysed component. Human data 76% collagen (d13C and d15N data predominantly, 1% d34S), 18% enamel, 6% other. Animal data 57% collagen (27% d13C, 27% d15N, 3% d34S), 41% enamel (19% d13C, 19% d18O), 2% other.
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social
🇫🇷 Thursday’s Research Seminar 12/2/26 @16:15 in the Meadows LT will be given by Dr Florian Cousseau (Durham) “Central #Brittany in the Middle #Neolithic: A Landscape Far from Empty” 🔗https://hca.ed.ac.uk/news-events/events/research-seminars/archaeology-seminars @hcaatedinburgh #edinarch #archaeology
February 9, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social
☠️ The next Munro Lecture 12/03/26 is by Professor Sabrina C. Agarwal @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social 'Necropolitics in the collection: From colonial legacy to antiracist futures' FREE but booking is essential 🔗 http://hca.ed.ac.uk/updates-events/events/munro-lecture-necropolitics-in-the-collection
February 3, 2026 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social
🦴 This week's ArchSoc/One Health Archaeology Research Group seminar will be by Simon Mays (Historic England) 'Osteoporosis past and present: Age-related deterioration in the nano-platelets of bone hydroxyapatite'. 🕰️📍 Thurs 5th February, Meadows LT, 16:15pm - all welcome! @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social
February 2, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
castlestudies.bsky.social
Between 2018-21 we awarded Duncan Wright of @newcastleuni.bsky.social 3 grants totalling less than 5k, to explore Laughton en le Morthen castle. This led to an AHRC grant to investigate the transition of power btwn Saxons & Normans. This is what they found: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2026/02...
February 1, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
aidanosullivan.bsky.social
Early Medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100. The evidence from Archaeological excavations

Only €9.99 as an ebook from @ria.ie

shop.ria.ie/products/ear...
Early Medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100
How did people create and live in their own worlds in early medieval Ireland? What did they actually do? And to what end did they do it? This book investigates and reconstructs from archaeological evi...
shop.ria.ie
January 23, 2026 at 6:51 PM
samleggs22.bsky.social
This absolute behemoth of a book landed on my doorstep this week, excited to dive into it - but it’s so huge it might take me a good long while! But I spy lots of C14, isotopes & aDNA! ⚛️🧬The much awaited tome on Llanbedrgoch! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ⚔️ #medievalsky #archaeology @oxbowbooks.bsky.social
Photo of the book “From Farm to Viking-Age Trading Centre: the 1994-2012 Excavations at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey” by Mark Redknap. Book cover has photos of the landscape, a Thor’s hammer pendant, a coin and a metal fitting.
January 23, 2026 at 8:44 PM
samleggs22.bsky.social
If you’re in/around London next week & want to hear me speak about lots of fun early medieval isotopes + aDNA come along on Tuesday! ⚛️🧬☠️
uclioabmmedieval.bsky.social UCL Institute of Archaeology / British Museum Medieval Seminar @uclioabmmedieval.bsky.social · 24d
*HNY!* A gentle reminder for our first seminar of 2026 next Tuesday 27 January at 18:15 in Room 209 @uclarchaeology.bsky.social. We will welcome @samleggs22.bsky.social (Edinburgh) for her talk on isotopes and aDNA in early medieval England. In person, free, open to all. We hope to see you there!
January 21, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social
☠️ This week’s OHA/ArchSoc research seminar is by Dr Jess Thompson (National Museums Scotland) “Curating Scotland’s Archaeological Human Remains: Past, Present & Future” 22/01 @ 16:15 in the Meadows LT 📷 Credit: Neil Hanna https://hca.ed.ac.uk/news-events/events/research-seminars/archaeology-seminars
January 19, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
sarahebond.bsky.social
🦷 “analysis of tooth enamel samples collected from the remains of people buried in England b/w the end of Roman rule in Britain around A.D. 400 & the arrival of the Normans around 1100 indicates that migration to the island was continuous throughout the period” 🦷 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
News - Medieval Migration to England Tracked in Tooth Enamel Study - Archaeology Magazine
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND—According to a statement released by the University of Edinburgh, analysis of tooth enamel […]
archaeology.org
January 18, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social
☠️ Our seminar 15/01 @ 4:15pm is by Prof @ancientchildren.bsky.social "Forgotten Children: The fetal and infant skeletal remains from the W.D. Trotter Anatomy Museum, New Zealand" @universityofotago.bsky.social NB: this seminar is online only. #edinarch #archaeology #osteology  📷 EDITH LEIGH
January 13, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
official-smbe.bsky.social
The Young Investigator Travel Award provides support for young researchers (postdoctoral researchers and graduate students) to attend SMBE2026.

📨 Award applications
smbe2026.org/abstracts

#SMBE2026
Young Investigator Travel Award
January 13, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
tandfresearch.bsky.social
Calling all medieval scholars - uncover the gendered, continuous migration that shaped early England! ⚔️🧬

This #OpenAccess study presents the results of a large-scale isotopic meta-analysis of early medieval England which reveals migration patterns from c. AD 400–1100 👇
edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social Edinburgh Archaeology @edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social · Jan 5
📣 Published Open Access! 📣 "Large-Scale Isotopic Data Reveal Gendered Migration into Early Medieval England c AD 400-100" 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2025.2583016 by @samleggs22.bsky.social @shakenbeck.bsky.social & O'Connell @cam-archaeology.bsky.social 🧬⚛️🧪🦷 #EdinArch #archaeology #medieval
January 12, 2026 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
boothicus.bsky.social
🏺

‘The cathedral says findings on the likely identities of those interred are expected later in 2026, while the wider project is planned to reach its conclusion by 2027.’

Well…fancy that.
January 9, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
cam-archaeology.bsky.social
A new study by @samleggs22.bsky.social, @shakenbeck.bsky.social & Tamsin O'Connell 'Large-Scale Isotopic Data Reveal Gendered Migration into Early Medieval England c ad 400–1100'

arch.cam.ac.uk/news/roots-of-medieval-migration-into-england-uncovered-in-new-study
January 8, 2026 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
chiara-bonacchi.bsky.social
Really excited that our *new paper* is finally out 🔥 This study is the first to quantitatively investigate museum visitors’ perceptions of historical analogies that compare concepts from the deep past to modern political ideas.
doi.org/10.1057/s415...
January 7, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Dr Sam Leggett
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
More on the stunning Iron Age carnyx found in #Norfolk with boar standard and shield bosses

👇👇👇

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Found by PreConstruct Archaeology and featuring in episode 2 of the new series of #DiggingForBritain with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social on BBC2

Wowzers 🤩
Iron Age Copper alloy war trumpet being excavated c Norfolk Museum Service Iron Age shield bosses and wild boar standard Iron Age Copper alloy boar standard being cleaned c Norfolk Museum service
January 7, 2026 at 9:31 AM