Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
@lemoustier.bsky.social
Archaeologist, word-witcher, scicomm, consultancy
📚 KINDRED: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death & Art
🖋️ MATRIARCHA: Prehistory Re-imagined
🏛️ Honorary Researcher U. Cambridge & U. Liverpool
1/4 @trowelblazers.bsky.social
Rep: PEW Literary
📚 KINDRED: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death & Art
🖋️ MATRIARCHA: Prehistory Re-imagined
🏛️ Honorary Researcher U. Cambridge & U. Liverpool
1/4 @trowelblazers.bsky.social
Rep: PEW Literary
R A D I O 3
2000-now: Storyville, I May Destroy You, In Our Time, Springwatch, 6 Music, Happy Valley, RuPaul's Drag Race UK, Gardener's World, A House Through Time, Fleabag, WILTY, Top Gear, Gone Fishing, This Country, CBBC, Dr Who, The Office, Sherlock, Wolf Hall, Glastonbury, Only Connect, The Traitors.
November 11, 2025 at 12:58 PM
R A D I O 3
And yet, it still makes more sense to hunt large fauna: research by @jamescolearch.bsky.social from 2017
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
November 11, 2025 at 10:01 AM
And yet, it still makes more sense to hunt large fauna: research by @jamescolearch.bsky.social from 2017
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
I genuinely struggle to think of another context on BBC and media more broadly where a group (a protected minority!) whose rights and interests and even perception of reality are routinely being discussed/debated/dismissed, without their presence and ability to speak.
How many trans people have the BBC had on this week discussing the BBC's pro-trans bias?
Zero.
Zero.
November 11, 2025 at 9:59 AM
I genuinely struggle to think of another context on BBC and media more broadly where a group (a protected minority!) whose rights and interests and even perception of reality are routinely being discussed/debated/dismissed, without their presence and ability to speak.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
How many trans people have the BBC had on this week discussing the BBC's pro-trans bias?
Zero.
Zero.
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
How many trans people have the BBC had on this week discussing the BBC's pro-trans bias?
Zero.
Zero.
🧪 Astronomy (broadly, but this kind of thing especially and also planetary geology) is my Sliding Doors career, and just looking at this gorgeous image gives me that same swoony feeling I get at a really exciting, unexpected new archaeology/human origins finding ❤️
Mere months after its long-awaited debut, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is beginning to deliver on its promise to rewrite cosmic history
go.nature.com/3JJK6tp
go.nature.com/3JJK6tp
Surprise ‘tail’ found on an iconic galaxy may rewrite its history
First image from Vera C. Rubin telescope reveals a previously unnoticed feature of galaxy M61 that may explain its mysterious properties.
go.nature.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:58 PM
🧪 Astronomy (broadly, but this kind of thing especially and also planetary geology) is my Sliding Doors career, and just looking at this gorgeous image gives me that same swoony feeling I get at a really exciting, unexpected new archaeology/human origins finding ❤️
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🏺 🧪 Research and publications like this really matter, since even when one theory is not supported by later evidence, it opens up interesting new perspectives and scenarios for #humanevolution.
Rather, in terms of metrics and morphology, it matches best to impact from a hammerstone, likely used to access the liquid within-bone nutrients such as marrow and bone grease.
November 10, 2025 at 1:52 PM
🏺 🧪 Research and publications like this really matter, since even when one theory is not supported by later evidence, it opens up interesting new perspectives and scenarios for #humanevolution.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Love how this actually looks like textile art
"When evil screams throughout the world, when all three suns converge, when all that's fair and fine seems lost... a hero will emerge!"
Aimed at younger players with a more forgiving parser and puzzles.
📺: The Dark Crystal (Hi-Res Adventure #6), Sierra On-Lline, 1983 (Apple II version.)
Aimed at younger players with a more forgiving parser and puzzles.
📺: The Dark Crystal (Hi-Res Adventure #6), Sierra On-Lline, 1983 (Apple II version.)
November 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Love how this actually looks like textile art
Love how this actually looks like textile art
"When evil screams throughout the world, when all three suns converge, when all that's fair and fine seems lost... a hero will emerge!"
Aimed at younger players with a more forgiving parser and puzzles.
📺: The Dark Crystal (Hi-Res Adventure #6), Sierra On-Lline, 1983 (Apple II version.)
Aimed at younger players with a more forgiving parser and puzzles.
📺: The Dark Crystal (Hi-Res Adventure #6), Sierra On-Lline, 1983 (Apple II version.)
November 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Love how this actually looks like textile art
🏺 Not a specialist in this area, but digging +5000 <1m deep holes to count produce seems a strange use of energy... if local settlement had massive irrigation system nearby, then could the holes have been part of that?
Mysterious holes in Andean mountain may be an Inca spreadsheet www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Mysterious holes in Andean mountain may be an Inca spreadsheet
Thousands of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru could have been a monumental accounting device for trade and tax
www.newscientist.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:33 PM
🏺 Not a specialist in this area, but digging +5000 <1m deep holes to count produce seems a strange use of energy... if local settlement had massive irrigation system nearby, then could the holes have been part of that?
💯
I'll never not be grateful for the quality children's programming that BBC rapidly created during covid, including Greg's Homeschool History podcast
(which I'm also proud to have contributed to)
I'll never not be grateful for the quality children's programming that BBC rapidly created during covid, including Greg's Homeschool History podcast
(which I'm also proud to have contributed to)
Obviously, it’s been a tough day for the BBC. Big organisations, working under big pressure, will sadly make errors
But I still feel huge pride in hosting a BBC podcast, and having previously spent 11 years making a world-renowned children’s show that no other broadcaster would have made
But I still feel huge pride in hosting a BBC podcast, and having previously spent 11 years making a world-renowned children’s show that no other broadcaster would have made
November 10, 2025 at 2:08 PM
💯
I'll never not be grateful for the quality children's programming that BBC rapidly created during covid, including Greg's Homeschool History podcast
(which I'm also proud to have contributed to)
I'll never not be grateful for the quality children's programming that BBC rapidly created during covid, including Greg's Homeschool History podcast
(which I'm also proud to have contributed to)
Claiming BBC is biased because it sometimes includes positive content about trans people is truly preposterous, but makes perfect sense if you're trying to push moral panic by arguing that they are inherently something to be debated/fake/suspicious/threatening: distilled, extreme prejudice
November 10, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Claiming BBC is biased because it sometimes includes positive content about trans people is truly preposterous, but makes perfect sense if you're trying to push moral panic by arguing that they are inherently something to be debated/fake/suspicious/threatening: distilled, extreme prejudice
🏺 🧪 Research and publications like this really matter, since even when one theory is not supported by later evidence, it opens up interesting new perspectives and scenarios for #humanevolution.
Rather, in terms of metrics and morphology, it matches best to impact from a hammerstone, likely used to access the liquid within-bone nutrients such as marrow and bone grease.
November 10, 2025 at 1:52 PM
🏺 🧪 Research and publications like this really matter, since even when one theory is not supported by later evidence, it opens up interesting new perspectives and scenarios for #humanevolution.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Years of work and collab with an incredible team at #BBCStudios #AppleTV @framestore.bsky.social ... involving so many camera operators, writers, producers, effects people, artists and others, #PrehistoricPlanetaIceAge is out on #AppleTV Nov 26th. A definitive vision of Ice Age wildlife worldwide.
November 7, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Years of work and collab with an incredible team at #BBCStudios #AppleTV @framestore.bsky.social ... involving so many camera operators, writers, producers, effects people, artists and others, #PrehistoricPlanetaIceAge is out on #AppleTV Nov 26th. A definitive vision of Ice Age wildlife worldwide.
📚🗃️ Another good stay at @gladlib.bsky.social, esp. pleased to see this research about their strong links to both Transatlantic slave economy & colonial indentured labour. Made me look twice as I had my coffee too..
(truly, the fuss made about this kind of thing at National Trust sites is pathetic)
(truly, the fuss made about this kind of thing at National Trust sites is pathetic)
November 7, 2025 at 9:07 PM
📚🗃️ Another good stay at @gladlib.bsky.social, esp. pleased to see this research about their strong links to both Transatlantic slave economy & colonial indentured labour. Made me look twice as I had my coffee too..
(truly, the fuss made about this kind of thing at National Trust sites is pathetic)
(truly, the fuss made about this kind of thing at National Trust sites is pathetic)
In case of use to anyone else, it removes all the 'extra' sub-sections of video, images too!
This seems to help:
tedium.co/2024/05/17/g...
So e.g. I use this page as my main search interface:
udm14.com
tedium.co/2024/05/17/g...
So e.g. I use this page as my main search interface:
udm14.com
How I Made Google’s “Web” View My Default Search
Forget AI. Google just created a version of its search engine free of the extra junk it has added over the past decade-plus. You just need one URL parameter.
tedium.co
November 7, 2025 at 12:47 PM
In case of use to anyone else, it removes all the 'extra' sub-sections of video, images too!
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Amud I. 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴. Late Pleistocene. Israel. #FossilFriday
Courtesy of Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Tel-Aviv Universit
@erc.europa.eu @cenieh.bsky.social #FECYT
Courtesy of Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Tel-Aviv Universit
@erc.europa.eu @cenieh.bsky.social #FECYT
November 7, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Amud I. 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴. Late Pleistocene. Israel. #FossilFriday
Courtesy of Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Tel-Aviv Universit
@erc.europa.eu @cenieh.bsky.social #FECYT
Courtesy of Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Tel-Aviv Universit
@erc.europa.eu @cenieh.bsky.social #FECYT
Is there any way to turn google search results back to just delivering websites, rather than forcing you to also see sub-sections for images and videos and "people also search for"?
November 7, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Is there any way to turn google search results back to just delivering websites, rather than forcing you to also see sub-sections for images and videos and "people also search for"?
I'd also like to see similar 'drop this shit' energy directed at Facebook.
It's become a default community organising platform, used (because it's 'free') as an information dissemination source even for public, state-funded things like primary schools, where opting out is practically v difficult.
It's become a default community organising platform, used (because it's 'free') as an information dissemination source even for public, state-funded things like primary schools, where opting out is practically v difficult.
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
I'd also like to see similar 'drop this shit' energy directed at Facebook.
It's become a default community organising platform, used (because it's 'free') as an information dissemination source even for public, state-funded things like primary schools, where opting out is practically v difficult.
It's become a default community organising platform, used (because it's 'free') as an information dissemination source even for public, state-funded things like primary schools, where opting out is practically v difficult.
🏺
Check out this fine #Pleistocene-themed wall art photographed by my buddy Paul Stewart in Kennington, Oxford
November 6, 2025 at 2:52 PM
🏺
I actually quite like the idea of "æfterbears", as something going back to the Old English, and which avoids odd interpretations
Afterbears!
November 6, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I actually quite like the idea of "æfterbears", as something going back to the Old English, and which avoids odd interpretations
Interesting, and relevant to so much right now, that we don't seem to have a future equivalent for "forebears" - we need a word for those who will come after, that encompasses humans who aren't our direct descendants, but is more personal than just "posterity".
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Interesting, and relevant to so much right now, that we don't seem to have a future equivalent for "forebears" - we need a word for those who will come after, that encompasses humans who aren't our direct descendants, but is more personal than just "posterity".
Sadly this has had to be cancelled due to low ticket sales meaning that it would make a loss and the overall charity effort was going to suffer.
But @flintdibble.bsky.social & I still like our performance idea so you might see it in another form at some other future event!
But @flintdibble.bsky.social & I still like our performance idea so you might see it in another form at some other future event!
We always try to get Nine Lessons shows beyond London - it is never profitable but we hope it makes it accessible for others - This year is CARDIFF - but no one seems to want to come - so we will pull it next week if we see that it is going to lose us too much money
www.glee.co.uk/performer/ni...
www.glee.co.uk/performer/ni...
Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People - The Glee Club
The iconic Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People season extravaganza is headed to Cardiff for the first time
www.glee.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Sadly this has had to be cancelled due to low ticket sales meaning that it would make a loss and the overall charity effort was going to suffer.
But @flintdibble.bsky.social & I still like our performance idea so you might see it in another form at some other future event!
But @flintdibble.bsky.social & I still like our performance idea so you might see it in another form at some other future event!
🏺 Since Titan has an active atmosphere and weather patterns that deposit material over its annual (long, c. 29 Earth yrs) seasons, if we ever get back there to look at the archaeology of this historic lander site, we may well have to excavate it
This is the surface of Saturn's giant icy moon Titan, photographed by the Huygens probe on 14 January 2005.
It is the farthest place from Earth where we have so far landed.
It is the farthest place from Earth where we have so far landed.
November 5, 2025 at 4:00 PM
🏺 Since Titan has an active atmosphere and weather patterns that deposit material over its annual (long, c. 29 Earth yrs) seasons, if we ever get back there to look at the archaeology of this historic lander site, we may well have to excavate it
This is good context to my earlier post, but I'd still argue that we should change the name.
If it's not just about religion, let's call it something more accurate and appropriate than RE.
bsky.app/profile/huma...
If it's not just about religion, let's call it something more accurate and appropriate than RE.
bsky.app/profile/huma...
Some wonderful news this morning 🎉
We've campaign on this for decades. Now, we look forward to working with the UK Government to make it happen.
When it comes to religion and belief, children deserve an objective, broad, and balanced education.
We've campaign on this for decades. Now, we look forward to working with the UK Government to make it happen.
When it comes to religion and belief, children deserve an objective, broad, and balanced education.
November 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
This is good context to my earlier post, but I'd still argue that we should change the name.
If it's not just about religion, let's call it something more accurate and appropriate than RE.
bsky.app/profile/huma...
If it's not just about religion, let's call it something more accurate and appropriate than RE.
bsky.app/profile/huma...
Re: tendencies to ascribe personhood to #AI:
"...it was impossible not to invest the machine with some faculty of intellect; it seemed to have made the first step from brute matter to life and purpose, showing its progress by great power."
Dorothy Wordsworth, 1803, encountering steam-powered pump
"...it was impossible not to invest the machine with some faculty of intellect; it seemed to have made the first step from brute matter to life and purpose, showing its progress by great power."
Dorothy Wordsworth, 1803, encountering steam-powered pump
November 5, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Re: tendencies to ascribe personhood to #AI:
"...it was impossible not to invest the machine with some faculty of intellect; it seemed to have made the first step from brute matter to life and purpose, showing its progress by great power."
Dorothy Wordsworth, 1803, encountering steam-powered pump
"...it was impossible not to invest the machine with some faculty of intellect; it seemed to have made the first step from brute matter to life and purpose, showing its progress by great power."
Dorothy Wordsworth, 1803, encountering steam-powered pump