sera yelozer
@serayelozer.bsky.social
archaeologist • feminist • PhD in prehistory • digs and studies prehistoric beads, bodies, identities -
occasionally writes stuff @pre-identity.bsky.social too - go check it out & follow!
occasionally writes stuff @pre-identity.bsky.social too - go check it out & follow!
Reposted by sera yelozer
New paper. Recording the female experience of UK archaeology 1990-2010. Anne Teather and I document how an industry EDI agenda evolved in the 1990s and was dismantled, uncovering the ramifications of that for women archaeologists over the next decade.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#openaccess✅
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#openaccess✅
Documenting the profession: Recording historic access and retention issues for women in UK archaeology | Archaeological Dialogues | Cambridge Core
Documenting the profession: Recording historic access and retention issues for women in UK archaeology
www.cambridge.org
September 26, 2025 at 10:56 AM
New paper. Recording the female experience of UK archaeology 1990-2010. Anne Teather and I document how an industry EDI agenda evolved in the 1990s and was dismantled, uncovering the ramifications of that for women archaeologists over the next decade.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#openaccess✅
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#openaccess✅
Reposted by sera yelozer
NEW Finds from 13,200–10,700 cal BC Eşek Deresi Cave in the Central Taurus Mountains 🇹🇷
The material culture shares features from both Central Anatolia and the Levant, indicating Epipalaeolithic connections via the Taurus Mountains.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
The material culture shares features from both Central Anatolia and the Levant, indicating Epipalaeolithic connections via the Taurus Mountains.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
October 8, 2025 at 7:13 AM
NEW Finds from 13,200–10,700 cal BC Eşek Deresi Cave in the Central Taurus Mountains 🇹🇷
The material culture shares features from both Central Anatolia and the Levant, indicating Epipalaeolithic connections via the Taurus Mountains.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
The material culture shares features from both Central Anatolia and the Levant, indicating Epipalaeolithic connections via the Taurus Mountains.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
Reposted by sera yelozer
One other I’d add is that this means that senior people—and many already do—need to grasp the mettle and act like this is no longer business as usual.
We are at risk of losing a generation of researchers. It’s worse than the 1980s. I’d say: only do a PhD for its own sake. The work you do s as an ECR is itself important work. But this period of contractions is going to be incredibly hard for all career stages, & impossible for ECRs.
“Cataclysmically bad”
This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised.
1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there:
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
🗃️
This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised.
1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there:
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
🗃️
September 17, 2025 at 9:48 AM
One other I’d add is that this means that senior people—and many already do—need to grasp the mettle and act like this is no longer business as usual.
Reposted by sera yelozer
'It is so cataclysmically bad' for #ECR now. So painfully true.
It's abt historians, but has been like this in #archaeology since yrs. I'm one of the privileged ones, and has taken me 10 ys post-PhD to land a permanent position after changing countries eight times.
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
It's abt historians, but has been like this in #archaeology since yrs. I'm one of the privileged ones, and has taken me 10 ys post-PhD to land a permanent position after changing countries eight times.
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
September 17, 2025 at 10:07 AM
'It is so cataclysmically bad' for #ECR now. So painfully true.
It's abt historians, but has been like this in #archaeology since yrs. I'm one of the privileged ones, and has taken me 10 ys post-PhD to land a permanent position after changing countries eight times.
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
It's abt historians, but has been like this in #archaeology since yrs. I'm one of the privileged ones, and has taken me 10 ys post-PhD to land a permanent position after changing countries eight times.
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
Reposted by sera yelozer
A separate but equally important point: we *still* need to get rid of the unilineal evolutionary narratives! You can’t rope in later people on the other end of Europe in order to recreate a narrative that patrilineslity replaced matrilineality as some kind of universal process. 16/
June 27, 2025 at 5:42 PM
A separate but equally important point: we *still* need to get rid of the unilineal evolutionary narratives! You can’t rope in later people on the other end of Europe in order to recreate a narrative that patrilineslity replaced matrilineality as some kind of universal process. 16/
Reposted by sera yelozer
There is a lot going on here but these results are wonderful (even if I find some of the archaeologists’ comments problematic). Here are a few notes to be followed up with a blog post at “Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives” 1/
Stone Age farmers’ households passed from mother to daughter
Moms and daughters were at the center of the family in ancient Çatalhöyük, ancient DNA and archaeological evidence suggest
www.science.org
June 27, 2025 at 5:09 PM
There is a lot going on here but these results are wonderful (even if I find some of the archaeologists’ comments problematic). Here are a few notes to be followed up with a blog post at “Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives” 1/
Reposted by sera yelozer
Since our big Science paper on female lineages at Çatalhöyük is out now, it seems like a good time to repost our related paper that we published earlier this year on material and biological ties🙂🌼
“A Network of Mutualities of Being”: Socio-material Archaeological Networks and Biological Ties at Çatalhöyük - Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
Recent advances in archaeogenomics have granted access to previously unavailable biological information with the potential to further our understanding of past social dynamics at a range of scales. Ho...
link.springer.com
June 27, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Since our big Science paper on female lineages at Çatalhöyük is out now, it seems like a good time to repost our related paper that we published earlier this year on material and biological ties🙂🌼
Reposted by sera yelozer
💥 Job Alert 💥
We’re currently seeking a Heritage Science Technician to join us in the Department of Classics & Archaeology at the University of Nottingham.
Closing date July 24th 2025.
Details here:
jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
#archaeology #archaeologicalscience
We’re currently seeking a Heritage Science Technician to join us in the Department of Classics & Archaeology at the University of Nottingham.
Closing date July 24th 2025.
Details here:
jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
#archaeology #archaeologicalscience
Job Vacancy at the University of Nottingham: Heritage Science Technician (Fixed term)
Following £1.6 million UKRI-investment in our Archaeological Science Laboratories, we are delighted to offer this exciting opportunity to bring specialist technical expertise to our new AHRC-funded cl...
jobs.nottingham.ac.uk
June 26, 2025 at 3:04 PM
💥 Job Alert 💥
We’re currently seeking a Heritage Science Technician to join us in the Department of Classics & Archaeology at the University of Nottingham.
Closing date July 24th 2025.
Details here:
jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
#archaeology #archaeologicalscience
We’re currently seeking a Heritage Science Technician to join us in the Department of Classics & Archaeology at the University of Nottingham.
Closing date July 24th 2025.
Details here:
jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
#archaeology #archaeologicalscience
Matrilocal not matriarchal. I’m really unsure how comfortable I feel about returning to this type of a power/hierarchy discussion laden with a strict gender binary—esp when considering how far we finally managed to come along thanks to intersectional feminist perspectives.
A Matriarchal Society Existed in Çatalhöyük During the Neolithic More Than 10,000 Years Ago, Researchers Find www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/06/a...
A Matriarchal Society Existed in Çatalhöyük During the Neolithic More Than 10,000 Years Ago, Researchers Find
On the Anatolian plains, more than ten thousand years ago, one of humanity’s first major farming communities flourished, burying its dead beneath the floors of its homes. Now, two recently published s...
www.labrujulaverde.com
June 27, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Matrilocal not matriarchal. I’m really unsure how comfortable I feel about returning to this type of a power/hierarchy discussion laden with a strict gender binary—esp when considering how far we finally managed to come along thanks to intersectional feminist perspectives.
Reposted by sera yelozer
Obsidian tools from c.8300–7900 BC Balıklı (modern Türkiye) 🏺
They are different to those nearby, suggesting despite cultural connections, the early sedentary community did not participate in wider obsidian-exchange networks in South-west Asia.
Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
They are different to those nearby, suggesting despite cultural connections, the early sedentary community did not participate in wider obsidian-exchange networks in South-west Asia.
Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
May 13, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Obsidian tools from c.8300–7900 BC Balıklı (modern Türkiye) 🏺
They are different to those nearby, suggesting despite cultural connections, the early sedentary community did not participate in wider obsidian-exchange networks in South-west Asia.
Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
They are different to those nearby, suggesting despite cultural connections, the early sedentary community did not participate in wider obsidian-exchange networks in South-west Asia.
Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Reposted by sera yelozer
🧪1/2 Here’s a sample of words flagged by US agencies for restriction/avoidance, according to government documents as Trump seeks to purge the federal government of progressive initiatives. Archaeology has never been so disruptive! shorturl.at/dka55 #sciencenotsilence @standupforscience.bsky.social
The Words Federal Agencies Are Discouraged From Using Under Trump
Federal agencies have issued guidance to employees on hundreds of terms to limit or avoid using. An analysis of government websites shows many of the same words being removed.
www.nytimes.com
March 9, 2025 at 11:25 AM
🧪1/2 Here’s a sample of words flagged by US agencies for restriction/avoidance, according to government documents as Trump seeks to purge the federal government of progressive initiatives. Archaeology has never been so disruptive! shorturl.at/dka55 #sciencenotsilence @standupforscience.bsky.social
Reposted by sera yelozer
I'm very proud to have contributed to this new paper led by Camilla Mazzucato, which combines aDNA and material culture data in order to understand social organisation and kinship systems at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, Türkiye 🏺
“A Network of Mutualities of Being”: Socio-material Archaeological Networks and Biological Ties at Çatalhöyük - Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
Recent advances in archaeogenomics have granted access to previously unavailable biological information with the potential to further our understanding of past social dynamics at a range of scales. Ho...
link.springer.com
January 23, 2025 at 10:25 AM
I'm very proud to have contributed to this new paper led by Camilla Mazzucato, which combines aDNA and material culture data in order to understand social organisation and kinship systems at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, Türkiye 🏺
We had a lovely time yesterday in Leicester talking about how we can create a decolonial, feminist perspective for Neolithic archaeology in Türkiye. Many thanks to the Wednesday Seminar Team for organising this!
@emmabaysal.bsky.social @archanchistleic.bsky.social
@emmabaysal.bsky.social @archanchistleic.bsky.social
January 23, 2025 at 8:11 AM
We had a lovely time yesterday in Leicester talking about how we can create a decolonial, feminist perspective for Neolithic archaeology in Türkiye. Many thanks to the Wednesday Seminar Team for organising this!
@emmabaysal.bsky.social @archanchistleic.bsky.social
@emmabaysal.bsky.social @archanchistleic.bsky.social
Reposted by sera yelozer
🧪The Oxford Handbook of Mesolithic Europe is available, featuring my chapter on Identity, Gender, and Social Dynamics. Happy to contribute to this comprehensive volume alongside valued colleagues @univbordeaux.bsky.social @cnrsecologie.bsky.social
#Archaeology shorturl.at/VfnRU
#Archaeology shorturl.at/VfnRU
January 16, 2025 at 7:01 AM
🧪The Oxford Handbook of Mesolithic Europe is available, featuring my chapter on Identity, Gender, and Social Dynamics. Happy to contribute to this comprehensive volume alongside valued colleagues @univbordeaux.bsky.social @cnrsecologie.bsky.social
#Archaeology shorturl.at/VfnRU
#Archaeology shorturl.at/VfnRU
Reposted by sera yelozer
Don't Panic! How to fight fascism as an archaeologist.
Hey, archaeologists! As archaeologists, we tend to be the doing sort, the busybodies shoveling and sorting, keeping and caring, custodians of time, places, people, it's time to lean into that!
blacktrowelcollective.wordpress.com/2024/11/13/d...
Hey, archaeologists! As archaeologists, we tend to be the doing sort, the busybodies shoveling and sorting, keeping and caring, custodians of time, places, people, it's time to lean into that!
blacktrowelcollective.wordpress.com/2024/11/13/d...
Don’t Panic! How to Fight Fascism as an Archaeologist
Hey, archaeologists! As archaeologists, we tend to be the doing sort, the busybodies shovelling and sorting, keeping and caring, custodians of time, places, people. It’s time to lean into that, to …
blacktrowelcollective.wordpress.com
November 13, 2024 at 10:45 AM
Don't Panic! How to fight fascism as an archaeologist.
Hey, archaeologists! As archaeologists, we tend to be the doing sort, the busybodies shoveling and sorting, keeping and caring, custodians of time, places, people, it's time to lean into that!
blacktrowelcollective.wordpress.com/2024/11/13/d...
Hey, archaeologists! As archaeologists, we tend to be the doing sort, the busybodies shoveling and sorting, keeping and caring, custodians of time, places, people, it's time to lean into that!
blacktrowelcollective.wordpress.com/2024/11/13/d...
Reposted by sera yelozer
Individual people making the decision to leave academia because it’s not feasible with their financial/caring responsibilities happens every day, and it doesn’t select for the most excellent people to stay in academia & become profs, it selects for those that can socially and financially afford it🧪
January 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Individual people making the decision to leave academia because it’s not feasible with their financial/caring responsibilities happens every day, and it doesn’t select for the most excellent people to stay in academia & become profs, it selects for those that can socially and financially afford it🧪
Reposted by sera yelozer
I’ve been saying for a long time that encouraging more girls/women(/underrepresented groups) into academia does not solve inequality @ higher ranks, which is due to the leaky pipeline ie job insecurity, high mobility onus, unconscious bias and overall lack of supports. Good but sad to see the data.
"Even in scientific areas in which women are well represented, they are up to 40% more likely than men to leave research within 20 years."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Who’s quitting academia? Data reveal gender gaps in surprising fields
Even in scientific areas in which women are well represented, they are up to 40% more likely than men to leave research within 20 years.
www.nature.com
January 10, 2025 at 11:48 PM
I’ve been saying for a long time that encouraging more girls/women(/underrepresented groups) into academia does not solve inequality @ higher ranks, which is due to the leaky pipeline ie job insecurity, high mobility onus, unconscious bias and overall lack of supports. Good but sad to see the data.
Reposted by sera yelozer
As the year comes to an end, here are some highlights from the year. We’ve been all over Anatolia and beyond, looking at personal ornaments & sharing results from the project.
Read our new blog post - 2024 recap www.smallthingsbigstories.com/post/small-t...
Happy new year everyone! 🎄
Read our new blog post - 2024 recap www.smallthingsbigstories.com/post/small-t...
Happy new year everyone! 🎄
Small things big stories: 2024 recap
Small things big stories: 2024 recap
www.smallthingsbigstories.com
December 27, 2024 at 9:28 AM
As the year comes to an end, here are some highlights from the year. We’ve been all over Anatolia and beyond, looking at personal ornaments & sharing results from the project.
Read our new blog post - 2024 recap www.smallthingsbigstories.com/post/small-t...
Happy new year everyone! 🎄
Read our new blog post - 2024 recap www.smallthingsbigstories.com/post/small-t...
Happy new year everyone! 🎄
Reposted by sera yelozer
Great piece by SE Asian archaeologists challenging us to think beyond the Three Age system and unlinear Eurocentric models of the past:
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
It’s Time to Replace “Prehistory” With “Deep History”
Archaeologists in Southeast Asia are pushing toward a deeper understanding of history that amplifies Indigenous and local perspectives.
www.sapiens.org
December 9, 2024 at 10:23 AM
Great piece by SE Asian archaeologists challenging us to think beyond the Three Age system and unlinear Eurocentric models of the past:
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
Mine is like this with short and longer-term moves bw Istanbul-Groningen-back to Ist-Edinburgh-Nice-back to Ist-Bordeaux-and now again back to Ist. Yellow dots: mostly fieldwork locations where I practically moved to for 1-2 months every summer… Not messier but def very tired already at this point 🫠
December 8, 2024 at 11:01 AM
Mine is like this with short and longer-term moves bw Istanbul-Groningen-back to Ist-Edinburgh-Nice-back to Ist-Bordeaux-and now again back to Ist. Yellow dots: mostly fieldwork locations where I practically moved to for 1-2 months every summer… Not messier but def very tired already at this point 🫠
Reposted by sera yelozer
New paper out! Children actively made hand-stencils and flutings in the Upper Palaeolithic, but can we identify children's cave art without anatomical measurements? We present a new framework using universal features of young children's drawings 🏺 www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3...
Children as playful artists: Integrating developmental psychology to identify children’s art in the Upper Palaeolithic: Hunter Gatherer Research: Vol 0, No 0
Children’s agential behaviours in the archaeological record have often been overlooked.
Despite efforts to centre children in the past through ‘an archaeology of childhood’,
there remains a fundamenta...
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
December 2, 2024 at 1:00 PM
New paper out! Children actively made hand-stencils and flutings in the Upper Palaeolithic, but can we identify children's cave art without anatomical measurements? We present a new framework using universal features of young children's drawings 🏺 www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3...
Reposted by sera yelozer
Looking for a postdoc in use-wear analysis of Pleistocene expedient osseous tools? Check out this offer from the #ERCStG ExOsTech project at #universitébordeaux euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/296676
Post-doctoral researcher on Western European Expedient Osseous Technology
The Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 PACEA of the CNRS, Univ.
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
December 4, 2024 at 11:34 AM
Looking for a postdoc in use-wear analysis of Pleistocene expedient osseous tools? Check out this offer from the #ERCStG ExOsTech project at #universitébordeaux euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/296676
Reposted by sera yelozer
FELLOWSHIPS for Scholars at Risk
Applications until 20.01.2025 at 23:59 (CET). #SAFE offers 60 fully-funded fellowships (up to 24 months) for doctoral & postdoctoral researchers of non-EU nationality.
Read the call carefully, contact potential supervisor in your academic field.
saferesearchers.eu
Applications until 20.01.2025 at 23:59 (CET). #SAFE offers 60 fully-funded fellowships (up to 24 months) for doctoral & postdoctoral researchers of non-EU nationality.
Read the call carefully, contact potential supervisor in your academic field.
saferesearchers.eu
SAFE - Supporting
At-risk researchers
with Fellowships in Europe
As a pilot fellowship scheme, the SAFE project offers 60 fully-funded fellowships (up to 24 months) for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers of any non-EU nationality to work at a research institutio...
saferesearchers.eu
December 1, 2024 at 9:18 PM
FELLOWSHIPS for Scholars at Risk
Applications until 20.01.2025 at 23:59 (CET). #SAFE offers 60 fully-funded fellowships (up to 24 months) for doctoral & postdoctoral researchers of non-EU nationality.
Read the call carefully, contact potential supervisor in your academic field.
saferesearchers.eu
Applications until 20.01.2025 at 23:59 (CET). #SAFE offers 60 fully-funded fellowships (up to 24 months) for doctoral & postdoctoral researchers of non-EU nationality.
Read the call carefully, contact potential supervisor in your academic field.
saferesearchers.eu
Reposted by sera yelozer
Yusra's contribution was brought to light in the 2000s by historian Pamela Smith, after which @trowelblazers.bsky.social featured her in a 2014 post. This year, she was mentioned in an article by Loay Abu Aisaud discussing pioneering Palestinian archaeologists
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) Contributions to the Archaeology of Palestine by Overlooked Twentieth-Century Palestinian Archaeologists, Yusra Al-Ḥaifawiyah, Naṣr Dwekat and Ibrahim Al-Fanni
PDF | On Jan 11, 2024, Loay Abu Alsaud published Contributions to the Archaeology of Palestine by Overlooked Twentieth-Century Palestinian Archaeologists, Yusra Al-Ḥaifawiyah, Naṣr Dwekat and Ibrahim ...
www.researchgate.net
November 29, 2024 at 4:29 PM
Yusra's contribution was brought to light in the 2000s by historian Pamela Smith, after which @trowelblazers.bsky.social featured her in a 2014 post. This year, she was mentioned in an article by Loay Abu Aisaud discussing pioneering Palestinian archaeologists
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Reposted by sera yelozer
🏺 The first remains of Tabun 1 were recognised by Yusra, a Palestinian woman who had already dug for years with Garrod. Here is Yusra in 1932 with other young women fieldworkers named as Rashidi and Amui Haj, and in 1934 with Dorothy Garrod.
November 29, 2024 at 4:22 PM
🏺 The first remains of Tabun 1 were recognised by Yusra, a Palestinian woman who had already dug for years with Garrod. Here is Yusra in 1932 with other young women fieldworkers named as Rashidi and Amui Haj, and in 1934 with Dorothy Garrod.