Dr. Abigail Desmond
@abigaildesmond.bsky.social
Archaeologist. Technologist. Lecturer in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard.
https://heb.fas.harvard.edu/people/abigail-desmond
https://heb.fas.harvard.edu/people/abigail-desmond
There are few greater joys than being employed to read stuff like this
October 22, 2025 at 7:09 PM
There are few greater joys than being employed to read stuff like this
Always a pleasure to see hominin graffiti. Tbilisi, Georgia.
August 9, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Always a pleasure to see hominin graffiti. Tbilisi, Georgia.
True for the individual, and true for evolution.
June 11, 2025 at 1:53 PM
True for the individual, and true for evolution.
Laughed out loud reading archaeologists characterized - by a physical anthropologist - as “… the senile playboys of science rooting in the rubbish heaps of antiquity.” Subtitle: If Earnest Hooton is insulting you, you must be cool. From Trigger’s “A History of Archaeological Thought”.
April 3, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Laughed out loud reading archaeologists characterized - by a physical anthropologist - as “… the senile playboys of science rooting in the rubbish heaps of antiquity.” Subtitle: If Earnest Hooton is insulting you, you must be cool. From Trigger’s “A History of Archaeological Thought”.
Leslie White (1942) on human tool use. Simply breathtaking.
March 21, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Leslie White (1942) on human tool use. Simply breathtaking.
Honored to announce I’m writing a book! We understand the importance of stone tools in the Stone Age. But what about socks? Rope? Water bottles? Boats? How did we go from knocking rocks together to the Saturn V rocket? This work takes a long view perspective on how the things we make, make us.
February 17, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Honored to announce I’m writing a book! We understand the importance of stone tools in the Stone Age. But what about socks? Rope? Water bottles? Boats? How did we go from knocking rocks together to the Saturn V rocket? This work takes a long view perspective on how the things we make, make us.
On the shoulders (and above the mailboxes) of giants.
February 4, 2025 at 10:04 PM
On the shoulders (and above the mailboxes) of giants.
Both 10/10 contents AND 10/10 cover.
January 31, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Both 10/10 contents AND 10/10 cover.
A marble rendering of AL 288-1, better known as Lucy the Australopith.
Very possibly our collective 10^5 great-grandmother.
“Santa Lucia,” by Gabriel Vinas.
Very possibly our collective 10^5 great-grandmother.
“Santa Lucia,” by Gabriel Vinas.
January 24, 2025 at 8:37 PM
A marble rendering of AL 288-1, better known as Lucy the Australopith.
Very possibly our collective 10^5 great-grandmother.
“Santa Lucia,” by Gabriel Vinas.
Very possibly our collective 10^5 great-grandmother.
“Santa Lucia,” by Gabriel Vinas.
Original video here m.youtube.com/watch?v=jRIQ...
January 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Original video here m.youtube.com/watch?v=jRIQ...
Sound on for the Carnyx! This is what Romans would have heard going into battle against the Celts, who fought naked with severed enemy heads hanging from their saddles.
January 22, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Sound on for the Carnyx! This is what Romans would have heard going into battle against the Celts, who fought naked with severed enemy heads hanging from their saddles.
c. 12,000-year-old engraving of human figures, maybe pregnant women. Early Mesolithic period, Denmark.
January 22, 2025 at 1:57 PM
c. 12,000-year-old engraving of human figures, maybe pregnant women. Early Mesolithic period, Denmark.
Archaeologists -by definition- only find things that survive. Usually that means durable materials; stone, bone, ceramics, glass and the like.
This 3,500-year-old Egyptian axe shows how the stone head -often the only surviving component- once articulated with a wooden haft and leather bindings.
This 3,500-year-old Egyptian axe shows how the stone head -often the only surviving component- once articulated with a wooden haft and leather bindings.
January 19, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Archaeologists -by definition- only find things that survive. Usually that means durable materials; stone, bone, ceramics, glass and the like.
This 3,500-year-old Egyptian axe shows how the stone head -often the only surviving component- once articulated with a wooden haft and leather bindings.
This 3,500-year-old Egyptian axe shows how the stone head -often the only surviving component- once articulated with a wooden haft and leather bindings.
Sometimes archaeological sites yield truly exceptional finds. For example, this 3,000-year-old ball of yarn, bobbin, and woven fabric. Made from nettle or flax in the Bronze Age; Must Farm, Cambridgeshire, England.
January 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Sometimes archaeological sites yield truly exceptional finds. For example, this 3,000-year-old ball of yarn, bobbin, and woven fabric. Made from nettle or flax in the Bronze Age; Must Farm, Cambridgeshire, England.
Ursula K. LeGuin on technology
January 13, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Ursula K. LeGuin on technology
One of my favorite rock art panels from Tassili n’Ajjer, SE Algeria; “The Great God of Sefar.” 8,000ish bp.
January 6, 2025 at 2:15 PM
One of my favorite rock art panels from Tassili n’Ajjer, SE Algeria; “The Great God of Sefar.” 8,000ish bp.
2025 fashion icons/street style goals: The Lepinski Vir statuettes, c 9,000 bp from modern Serbia. Via Wikipedia, an
“Impressive…embodiment of the female principle of the fishlike beings.”
“Canonical, symmetrical, and rigid.”
“Mysterious and lonely,” complete with “eyebags.”
“Essential.”
“Impressive…embodiment of the female principle of the fishlike beings.”
“Canonical, symmetrical, and rigid.”
“Mysterious and lonely,” complete with “eyebags.”
“Essential.”
January 2, 2025 at 11:16 AM
2025 fashion icons/street style goals: The Lepinski Vir statuettes, c 9,000 bp from modern Serbia. Via Wikipedia, an
“Impressive…embodiment of the female principle of the fishlike beings.”
“Canonical, symmetrical, and rigid.”
“Mysterious and lonely,” complete with “eyebags.”
“Essential.”
“Impressive…embodiment of the female principle of the fishlike beings.”
“Canonical, symmetrical, and rigid.”
“Mysterious and lonely,” complete with “eyebags.”
“Essential.”
Interested in science communication? Want to more effectively spread the good news about Very Old Stuff? Apply for this awesome (expenses-covered) fellowship at Harvard!
December 21, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Interested in science communication? Want to more effectively spread the good news about Very Old Stuff? Apply for this awesome (expenses-covered) fellowship at Harvard!
An avowed artifact gal, this might be my very favorite one: an almost thousand-year-old rabbit net woven from human hair.
statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhib...
statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhib...
December 20, 2024 at 10:43 PM
An avowed artifact gal, this might be my very favorite one: an almost thousand-year-old rabbit net woven from human hair.
statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhib...
statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhib...
“As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great (Christmas) Tree of Life”. -Chuck D
December 15, 2024 at 3:03 AM
“As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great (Christmas) Tree of Life”. -Chuck D