Dr. Ellery Frahm
@elleryfrahm.com
Archaeologist • Research Faculty at Yale • Director, Yale Initiative for the Study of Ancient Pyrotechnology • Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports • www.elleryfrahm.com
You’ve heard of Neanderthals, of course. But have you heard of… ?
From “The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution” (1955)
From “The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution” (1955)
November 19, 2025 at 10:55 PM
You’ve heard of Neanderthals, of course. But have you heard of… ?
From “The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution” (1955)
From “The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution” (1955)
Ready to talk stone tools with Yale first-years and give them a chance to try making their own
October 8, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Ready to talk stone tools with Yale first-years and give them a chance to try making their own
I find the title of this 1993 article hilarious — it’s just so bizarrely blunt. My wife, though, doesn’t see the humor (“Explain to me again why you think it’s funny”). What do you think?
August 12, 2025 at 11:08 PM
I find the title of this 1993 article hilarious — it’s just so bizarrely blunt. My wife, though, doesn’t see the humor (“Explain to me again why you think it’s funny”). What do you think?
Let’s count the clues in just this part of the email that this is super dodgy: 1. This person doesn’t exist and has a nonsensical affiliation. 2. Which scholarly society, hmm? 3. Their US headquarters address is mangled… And as a bonus, 4. I have never asked for an author’s WhatsApp number.
August 4, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Let’s count the clues in just this part of the email that this is super dodgy: 1. This person doesn’t exist and has a nonsensical affiliation. 2. Which scholarly society, hmm? 3. Their US headquarters address is mangled… And as a bonus, 4. I have never asked for an author’s WhatsApp number.
Here's the free-for-50-days link for my new paper in Quaternary Science Reviews: "Scales of toolstone transport in the Armenian Highlands during MIS 3: The contribution of Ararat-1 Cave (Ararat Depression) to reconstructing opportunities for social interactions"
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kt3c-4PSD...
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kt3c-4PSD...
April 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Here's the free-for-50-days link for my new paper in Quaternary Science Reviews: "Scales of toolstone transport in the Armenian Highlands during MIS 3: The contribution of Ararat-1 Cave (Ararat Depression) to reconstructing opportunities for social interactions"
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kt3c-4PSD...
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kt3c-4PSD...
What's new in obsidian artifact sourcing? This link offers free access (for 50 days) to my new article – Archaeological obsidian sourcing: Looking from the first 60 years to the next – for the 50th anniversary special issue of Journal of Archaeological Science – authors.elsevier.com/a/1koEW15SlU...
March 21, 2025 at 2:24 PM
What's new in obsidian artifact sourcing? This link offers free access (for 50 days) to my new article – Archaeological obsidian sourcing: Looking from the first 60 years to the next – for the 50th anniversary special issue of Journal of Archaeological Science – authors.elsevier.com/a/1koEW15SlU...
I didn’t expect to see my favorite demonic Mesopotamian deity appear on “Saturday Night Live” in a sketch with Lady Gaga, but sure enough, they invoked Lamashtu, featured on my favorite stone amulets! 😍
March 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM
I didn’t expect to see my favorite demonic Mesopotamian deity appear on “Saturday Night Live” in a sketch with Lady Gaga, but sure enough, they invoked Lamashtu, featured on my favorite stone amulets! 😍
Well, now I'm hungry for soft-serve vanilla ice cream – and it would go great with the Babylonian Collection tablet cookies
March 7, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Well, now I'm hungry for soft-serve vanilla ice cream – and it would go great with the Babylonian Collection tablet cookies
Doing some Saturday morning reading for research and teaching — yes, comic books count
March 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Doing some Saturday morning reading for research and teaching — yes, comic books count
It’s gonna be lit 🔥 in Experimental Archaeology class today as we start fires the *really* old-fashioned way: flint, pyrite, and tinder fungus — Paleolithic archaeologists are really just undercover survivalists
February 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM
It’s gonna be lit 🔥 in Experimental Archaeology class today as we start fires the *really* old-fashioned way: flint, pyrite, and tinder fungus — Paleolithic archaeologists are really just undercover survivalists
An entry that I wrote on XRF and #obsidian sourcing for an #archaeology encyclopedia was published at a such limited subscription level that even Yale doesn't have access – and our libraries have almost everything! Anyway, I've posted a free preprint version – enjoy! doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/khpx9_v1
February 9, 2025 at 6:23 PM
An entry that I wrote on XRF and #obsidian sourcing for an #archaeology encyclopedia was published at a such limited subscription level that even Yale doesn't have access – and our libraries have almost everything! Anyway, I've posted a free preprint version – enjoy! doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/khpx9_v1
My freeze-dried mammoth meat has arrived 🦣🥩
January 23, 2025 at 7:55 PM
My freeze-dried mammoth meat has arrived 🦣🥩
Re: the JHE situation – Just to be sure that I was being factual and that my impressions were indeed correct, I reached out to my contacts at Elsevier, and the answer was exactly what I thought and consistent with the statement that Elsevier put out yesterday: there is NO use of AI in copyediting...
January 7, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Re: the JHE situation – Just to be sure that I was being factual and that my impressions were indeed correct, I reached out to my contacts at Elsevier, and the answer was exactly what I thought and consistent with the statement that Elsevier put out yesterday: there is NO use of AI in copyediting...
Today I oversaw returning 63 boxes of excavated materials from the Eli Whitney Gun Factory to the Eli Whitney Museum, including this box of firearm parts (note the bayonet and the revolver component). The museum plans to exhibit the materials, including the finds from the employee barracks.
December 19, 2024 at 10:59 PM
Today I oversaw returning 63 boxes of excavated materials from the Eli Whitney Gun Factory to the Eli Whitney Museum, including this box of firearm parts (note the bayonet and the revolver component). The museum plans to exhibit the materials, including the finds from the employee barracks.
Me twinning with #Neanderthals, occasionally having a brow ridge contest on the side
December 18, 2024 at 11:47 PM
Me twinning with #Neanderthals, occasionally having a brow ridge contest on the side
I have apparently become an extra-credit meme in my friend @jaysongillpaleo.bsky.social’s class… I approve.
December 17, 2024 at 2:40 PM
I have apparently become an extra-credit meme in my friend @jaysongillpaleo.bsky.social’s class… I approve.
100+ more followers, so here's another fantastic obsidian artifact I've studied: an Old Babylonian cylinder seal carved out of obsidian. I couldn't find a geochemical match to Middle Eastern obsidian until I started looking at East African sources. It matches to an Egyptian artifact! That's a first!
December 5, 2024 at 8:30 PM
100+ more followers, so here's another fantastic obsidian artifact I've studied: an Old Babylonian cylinder seal carved out of obsidian. I couldn't find a geochemical match to Middle Eastern obsidian until I started looking at East African sources. It matches to an Egyptian artifact! That's a first!
I’ve seen a lot of reproduction movie posters for “The #Neanderthal Man” (1953), but I’d never seen this before, so I had to have it — it’s the left side of a newspaper-thin duoble-bill poster (the other side seems to have been torn off, possibly thanks to a cinema manager who was showing this film)
December 2, 2024 at 11:08 PM
I’ve seen a lot of reproduction movie posters for “The #Neanderthal Man” (1953), but I’d never seen this before, so I had to have it — it’s the left side of a newspaper-thin duoble-bill poster (the other side seems to have been torn off, possibly thanks to a cinema manager who was showing this film)
#Archaeology students... If you have questions about pXRF of obsidian, ceramics, or other materials, I’m happy to try and answer them, even chat with you, and not charge $100+ for access to a recorded 2-hour SAA webinar. I’m not RPA-certified, but my sourcing research is published in Science & PNAS.
December 2, 2024 at 7:54 PM
#Archaeology students... If you have questions about pXRF of obsidian, ceramics, or other materials, I’m happy to try and answer them, even chat with you, and not charge $100+ for access to a recorded 2-hour SAA webinar. I’m not RPA-certified, but my sourcing research is published in Science & PNAS.
Molecular modeling meets brutalist sculpture 🧪 I love walking past this handmade model, built in the 1970s by biochemist Dr. Ann Korner, of E. coli transfer RNA in Yale’s Environmental Science Center. She completed her MPhil here in 1972 and her PhD in 1974. It's built to scale too: 2 cm equals 1 Å!
December 2, 2024 at 6:55 PM
Molecular modeling meets brutalist sculpture 🧪 I love walking past this handmade model, built in the 1970s by biochemist Dr. Ann Korner, of E. coli transfer RNA in Yale’s Environmental Science Center. She completed her MPhil here in 1972 and her PhD in 1974. It's built to scale too: 2 cm equals 1 Å!
#Textiles aren’t my specialty (they rarely show up at sites after millennia), so these fabric pieces in custom frames are a bit of a mystery to me. Attempts at ID using Google Lens haven’t been terribly insightful. Any ideas as to origin or age? Can you help a stone-tool-loving #archaeologist out?
December 2, 2024 at 5:23 PM
#Textiles aren’t my specialty (they rarely show up at sites after millennia), so these fabric pieces in custom frames are a bit of a mystery to me. Attempts at ID using Google Lens haven’t been terribly insightful. Any ideas as to origin or age? Can you help a stone-tool-loving #archaeologist out?
The obsidian bowl was a hit, so here is another special item. This is, to my knowledge, one of only five known Mesopotamian obsidian amulets, inscribed with spells to protect the wearer from Lamaštu, a demon who tormented pregnant women and kidnapped babies. The obsidian came from central Turkey.
December 1, 2024 at 6:16 PM
The obsidian bowl was a hit, so here is another special item. This is, to my knowledge, one of only five known Mesopotamian obsidian amulets, inscribed with spells to protect the wearer from Lamaštu, a demon who tormented pregnant women and kidnapped babies. The obsidian came from central Turkey.
I have many new followers since I last introduced myself. I'm an #archaeologist at Yale, and one of my specialties is identifying the geological origins of obsidian artifacts using nondestructive chemical tests. This carved obsidian bowl, for example, originated from a source in northeastern Turkey.
November 30, 2024 at 4:13 PM
I have many new followers since I last introduced myself. I'm an #archaeologist at Yale, and one of my specialties is identifying the geological origins of obsidian artifacts using nondestructive chemical tests. This carved obsidian bowl, for example, originated from a source in northeastern Turkey.