CK Watts
@ckwatts.bsky.social
Archaeology PhD Candidate & CRM (she/they)
microscopic usewear, raw material sourcing, experimental archaeology, landscapes, provenance, geochemistry, & crystallography • ground stone tools 🇪🇸 & megaliths 🇮🇩
🏺⚒️🧪
microscopic usewear, raw material sourcing, experimental archaeology, landscapes, provenance, geochemistry, & crystallography • ground stone tools 🇪🇸 & megaliths 🇮🇩
🏺⚒️🧪
Pinned
CK Watts
@ckwatts.bsky.social
· Nov 16
Figured it was time for an introduction! I’m Corinne, a PhD candidate at the University of Iowa. My research broadly focuses on how humans collect and use rocks/minerals in the past and the present, particularly how environmental and cultural changes influence these practices.
Excellent to see the aurora here in Iowa
November 12, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Excellent to see the aurora here in Iowa
What a week to be lecturing on monuments as propaganda 🏺
October 20, 2025 at 9:00 PM
What a week to be lecturing on monuments as propaganda 🏺
Filing this away for the next time I teach my Monuments class 🏺
Conservative-leaning tech investors are racing to build a new American colossus, and they want something much, much bigger than the Statue of Liberty. Meet the new monuments men of the tech right and their plans for statue-maxing:
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
America’s Tech Right Is Obsessed With Building Giant Statues
With proposals for a 450-foot statue of Prometheus on Alcatraz and a 650-foot George Washington, MAGA adherents are racing to build America’s largest statue.
www.bloomberg.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Filing this away for the next time I teach my Monuments class 🏺
Reposted by CK Watts
Here I am. Once again. I'm out of archaeologists.
We matched 576 groups w/archaeologists, leaving 13 groups unmatched. This brings me pain! We've never run out of scientists like this before. 598 requests for one category is A LOT. But still.
Archaeologists 🥺
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
We matched 576 groups w/archaeologists, leaving 13 groups unmatched. This brings me pain! We've never run out of scientists like this before. 598 requests for one category is A LOT. But still.
Archaeologists 🥺
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
Sign Up
Skype a Scientist gives you the opportunity to connect with students and the public around the world.
www.skypeascientist.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Here I am. Once again. I'm out of archaeologists.
We matched 576 groups w/archaeologists, leaving 13 groups unmatched. This brings me pain! We've never run out of scientists like this before. 598 requests for one category is A LOT. But still.
Archaeologists 🥺
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
We matched 576 groups w/archaeologists, leaving 13 groups unmatched. This brings me pain! We've never run out of scientists like this before. 598 requests for one category is A LOT. But still.
Archaeologists 🥺
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
Reposted by CK Watts
Happy International Geodiversity Day! ⚒️ 🧪 #PhiGeo
@geodiversityday.bsky.social
youtu.be/LtFzkDMsYtI?...
www.geodiversityday.org/what-is-geod...
@geodiversityday.bsky.social
youtu.be/LtFzkDMsYtI?...
www.geodiversityday.org/what-is-geod...
Geodiversity: Biodiversity's Silent Partner
YouTube video by Oxford Geoheritage Virtual Conference
youtu.be
October 6, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Happy International Geodiversity Day! ⚒️ 🧪 #PhiGeo
@geodiversityday.bsky.social
youtu.be/LtFzkDMsYtI?...
www.geodiversityday.org/what-is-geod...
@geodiversityday.bsky.social
youtu.be/LtFzkDMsYtI?...
www.geodiversityday.org/what-is-geod...
Reposted by CK Watts
262 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️
Sillimanite:
- An aluminosilicate mineral
- A polymorph of both of kyanite and andalusite; same formula (Al2SiO5) but different structure
- Forms in high grade metamorphic rocks
- Named after Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), a chemistry/geology professor #minerals
Sillimanite:
- An aluminosilicate mineral
- A polymorph of both of kyanite and andalusite; same formula (Al2SiO5) but different structure
- Forms in high grade metamorphic rocks
- Named after Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), a chemistry/geology professor #minerals
September 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM
262 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️
Sillimanite:
- An aluminosilicate mineral
- A polymorph of both of kyanite and andalusite; same formula (Al2SiO5) but different structure
- Forms in high grade metamorphic rocks
- Named after Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), a chemistry/geology professor #minerals
Sillimanite:
- An aluminosilicate mineral
- A polymorph of both of kyanite and andalusite; same formula (Al2SiO5) but different structure
- Forms in high grade metamorphic rocks
- Named after Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), a chemistry/geology professor #minerals
Reposted by CK Watts
September 24, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by CK Watts
The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.
Texas A&M University System orders audit of all courses after gender identity lesson goes viral
Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
September 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.
Reposted by CK Watts
🏺 For #EAA members (past and present!) still looking to sign the call for an emergency meeting following the events of #EAA2025 - here’s the new link. ⬇️
📣 EAA Members 📣
If you haven't signed yet or have been trying to sign today, the original Google form was removed (all data saved, thankfully!)
🍉✊🏼🍉
Here is the NEW LINK: saco.csic.es/apps/forms/s...
If you haven't signed yet or have been trying to sign today, the original Google form was removed (all data saved, thankfully!)
🍉✊🏼🍉
Here is the NEW LINK: saco.csic.es/apps/forms/s...
SACO
saco.csic.es
September 10, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by CK Watts
September 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by CK Watts
your periodic reminder that “archaeology isn’t political” is a political statement
September 3, 2025 at 12:10 PM
your periodic reminder that “archaeology isn’t political” is a political statement
Reposted by CK Watts
"What mattered, I realized, was not to be some imaginary perfect mentor with all the answers, but to get to know my mentee ... and offer whatever guidance and support I could based on my own experiences." #ScienceWorkingLife https://scim.ag/3URUdys
September 1, 2025 at 2:49 PM
"What mattered, I realized, was not to be some imaginary perfect mentor with all the answers, but to get to know my mentee ... and offer whatever guidance and support I could based on my own experiences." #ScienceWorkingLife https://scim.ag/3URUdys
Finishing up my Monuments and Megaliths syllabus and I only wish I could add in more fun projects for the semester! But unfortunately there is only so much time 🗿
August 15, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Finishing up my Monuments and Megaliths syllabus and I only wish I could add in more fun projects for the semester! But unfortunately there is only so much time 🗿
Reposted by CK Watts
Something that I have been thinking about with attribution of "PhD level intelligence" or "PhD level expertise" to a machine is that it reflects an increasing trend among these AI bros and their sycophants to want the products of highly skilled training without actually doing any of the work.
August 9, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Something that I have been thinking about with attribution of "PhD level intelligence" or "PhD level expertise" to a machine is that it reflects an increasing trend among these AI bros and their sycophants to want the products of highly skilled training without actually doing any of the work.
Reposted by CK Watts
There’s an active shooter at a building ancross the street from the main CDC HQ in Atlanta.
I just received a photo from inside a CDC office building of a window full of bulletholes.
I just received a photo from inside a CDC office building of a window full of bulletholes.
August 8, 2025 at 9:17 PM
There’s an active shooter at a building ancross the street from the main CDC HQ in Atlanta.
I just received a photo from inside a CDC office building of a window full of bulletholes.
I just received a photo from inside a CDC office building of a window full of bulletholes.
Reposted by CK Watts
CALL FOR PRESENTERS 🏺♿🧵
Overcoming Access Barriers in Archaeology
A Lightning Round session at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology #saa2026
April 29–May 3, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Overcoming Access Barriers in Archaeology
A Lightning Round session at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology #saa2026
April 29–May 3, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Call for Presenters: "Overcoming Access Barriers in Archaeology" Lightning Round, SAA 2026, San Francisco
Title: Overcoming Access Barriers in Archaeology
Participants:
Moderators: Joshua Vallejos & Sarah Surface-Evans
Chairs: Tara Larson, Jaimie Adams, Laura Heath-Stout (pending space)
Up to 15 Panelist...
docs.google.com
August 4, 2025 at 5:53 PM
CALL FOR PRESENTERS 🏺♿🧵
Overcoming Access Barriers in Archaeology
A Lightning Round session at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology #saa2026
April 29–May 3, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Overcoming Access Barriers in Archaeology
A Lightning Round session at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology #saa2026
April 29–May 3, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Reposted by CK Watts
My University has opened a virtual scholar scheme for scholars from Gaza. Please share widely and help stop scholasticide. www.exeter.ac.uk/faculties/ha...
August 3, 2025 at 7:45 AM
My University has opened a virtual scholar scheme for scholars from Gaza. Please share widely and help stop scholasticide. www.exeter.ac.uk/faculties/ha...
Summer this year looks like syllabus prepping, writing fellowship applications, and harvesting about 10 lbs of tomatoes a day
August 2, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Summer this year looks like syllabus prepping, writing fellowship applications, and harvesting about 10 lbs of tomatoes a day
Reposted by CK Watts
🧵
No one disputes that students deserve to learn. But there is literally decades of research on learning that shows that students aren’t able to assess if they have learned within the time span of a course. Using testing over time to show if students retain knowledge. 1/
August 1, 2025 at 12:22 AM
🧵
Reposted by CK Watts
“Some of us aren’t creative enough to brainstorm without ChatGPT!” Well then maybe you should sit this one out.
July 31, 2025 at 11:22 PM
“Some of us aren’t creative enough to brainstorm without ChatGPT!” Well then maybe you should sit this one out.
We’ve had some absolutely disastrous flooding in parts of Iowa this week & while the area I live in is largely unscathed (thankfully) the house I live in is not. Our basement flooded Friday and contractors had to remove all the flooring Saturday morning with no idea of when it will be replaced 🥲
July 13, 2025 at 11:29 PM
We’ve had some absolutely disastrous flooding in parts of Iowa this week & while the area I live in is largely unscathed (thankfully) the house I live in is not. Our basement flooded Friday and contractors had to remove all the flooring Saturday morning with no idea of when it will be replaced 🥲
Reposted by CK Watts
It’s always “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, drop out of the public sphere and become a tradwife” and never “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, form a union.”
July 11, 2025 at 3:45 PM
It’s always “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, drop out of the public sphere and become a tradwife” and never “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, form a union.”
Reposted by CK Watts
We are almost there: let's do this!
"Because of your contributions so far, we have been able to cover tuition for 9 out of the 12 students. All students are deeply thankful for your help and are currently focused on completing their semester exams" @gmandreou.bsky.social
"Because of your contributions so far, we have been able to cover tuition for 9 out of the 12 students. All students are deeply thankful for your help and are currently focused on completing their semester exams" @gmandreou.bsky.social
Inviting all the classicists, archaeologists and historians who care about Palestinian colleagues/students/heritage to donate a little something to @gmandreou.bsky.social's fundraiser for Gazan students in archaeology and history: everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2025/05/19/h...
July 9, 2025 at 1:08 AM
We are almost there: let's do this!
"Because of your contributions so far, we have been able to cover tuition for 9 out of the 12 students. All students are deeply thankful for your help and are currently focused on completing their semester exams" @gmandreou.bsky.social
"Because of your contributions so far, we have been able to cover tuition for 9 out of the 12 students. All students are deeply thankful for your help and are currently focused on completing their semester exams" @gmandreou.bsky.social
Reposted by CK Watts
Augen means “eyes” in German, and are formed by the metamorphic shearing and deformation of rocks. This is a beautiful example. TY Callan Bentley.
July 8, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Augen means “eyes” in German, and are formed by the metamorphic shearing and deformation of rocks. This is a beautiful example. TY Callan Bentley.
Reposted by CK Watts
This ca. 5,000-year-old Neolithic polished flint axe with its original ash wood handle is remarkable well preserved.
During the Neolithic period in Denmark, as agriculture began to expand, farmers had to clear the forests, which involved felling trees and burning away...🧵1/2
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology
During the Neolithic period in Denmark, as agriculture began to expand, farmers had to clear the forests, which involved felling trees and burning away...🧵1/2
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology
June 30, 2025 at 7:05 AM
This ca. 5,000-year-old Neolithic polished flint axe with its original ash wood handle is remarkable well preserved.
During the Neolithic period in Denmark, as agriculture began to expand, farmers had to clear the forests, which involved felling trees and burning away...🧵1/2
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology
During the Neolithic period in Denmark, as agriculture began to expand, farmers had to clear the forests, which involved felling trees and burning away...🧵1/2
📷 me
🏺 #archaeology