Oscar Lozada
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oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Oscar Lozada
@oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.1K following 520 posts
Prehistoric archaeologist and hunter-gatherer of interestingness 🏹🌾 | Sharing my love of all things ancient 🏺🏛️ | PhD student at Cambridge studying the Neanderthals of Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan

https://linktr.ee/oz_of_the_ancients
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oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Oscar Lozada @oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social · Mar 30
I got to talk about #Neanderthals all weekend!

A great time at #CamFest speaking to the public about my PhD research at Shanidar Cave! But am fully wrecked now 😵☠️

Still on for a week, come say hi if you're near #Cambridge!

More pics below

#sciencecommunication #scicomm #archaeology #camfest2025🏺
A group of people with their backs to the camera looking at a young man holding a grey and brown skull cast, who has his hand out and is gesturing towards it. Background is a wall of cabinets with geological specimens inside.
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
drnwillburger.bsky.social
A die made from animal bones, found in Burgstein Castle, dating 11th century.
Just like today, opposite sides of a die always add up to 7.
Dice were quite popular among all social classes during the Middle Ages. In the early 10th century, for instance, the scholar Ekkhardt IV of....🧵 1/2

📷 me
🏺
A close-up of a die made of bone. It is completely preserved.Its surface is porous, yet the detail is clear. Four pips are visible on the top face, one on the front, and five on the side.
November 19, 2025 at 2:11 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#TombTuesday This zigzag pattern is thought to have been carved 5000 years ago by Neolithic farmers on the wall of a tomb... 👀

What was this for? 🤔

📍 Holm of Papay South tomb, Orkney, Scotland

📸 Me

#archaeology #photooftheday
A zigzag carved into a stone in the wall of a dark tomb
November 18, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
kpw1453.bsky.social
Tile fragment from Roman Cirencester with graffiti depicting a house. The fragment is part of the collections at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester. 📸 My own. #TilesOnTuesday #RomanBritain #CoriniumMuseum #Cirecenster
November 18, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
kpw1453.bsky.social
Two 10th century hogback tombs - Part of the wonderful collection of early medieval sculpture at Govan Old Parish Church in Glasgow. Hogbacks are generally considered as grave markers or stylised 'houses' for the dead. 📸 My own. #TombTuesday #TheGovanStones #GovanHeritageTrust
November 18, 2025 at 7:24 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#MedievalMonday Another curious animal carving on the archway of St Bene't's Church in Cambridge, from the early 11th century

I can't tell what it is though 🤔

#archaeology #photooftheday
A stone carving of a four legged animal embedded in a wall
November 17, 2025 at 11:12 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#StandingStoneSunday The western arm of the fabulous Callanish Stones

📍 Isle of Lewis, Scotland

📸 Mine

#archaeology #photooftheday 🏺
Two large wide standing stones in a green field against a blue sky
November 16, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
kpw1453.bsky.social
The Iron Age ‘Battersea Shield’ which was found in the River Thames at Battersea in 1857. Dating to around 350-50 BC, the shield is now part of the collections at the British Museum. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #BatterseaShield #IronAge
November 14, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
lemoustier.bsky.social
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tessmachling.bsky.social Dr Tess Machling @tessmachling.bsky.social · 6d
Several minute piece on the BBC.
Lots of detectorists.
No archaeologists.
No-one from PAS.
No-one from museums.
No discussion of the costs or responsibilities involved.

😡

#Archaeology #Detecting #Treasure #BBC #News
A photo of my TV with a detectorist on the BBC News.
November 13, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
mattpope.bsky.social
How about "Where is our heritage demonstrably most risk from metal detecting"? It isn't lost, it's part of the archaeological record.
Cc @Tess_Machling🏺
#FindsFriday
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Where in the UK is the greatest amount of hidden treasure?
Objects uncovered have included precious Viking coins and a Roman earwax scoop
www.independent.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
drnwillburger.bsky.social
Nothing has changed - #Egyptian flip flops 😃: a pair of sandals made of woven reed and palm leaves. Dating around 1000 BC. It has been remarkably preserved because of Egypt's arid desert climate.

On display at National Museum Copenhagen.

📷 me

🏺 me
The picture shows a completely preserved pair of Egyptian sandals, they resemble modern flip flops. They are made of woven reed and palm leaves, the sole with bound edges.
November 14, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
At Upper Palaeolithic Helong Dadong 🇨🇳 they loved their obsidian tools! From over 800 27,300-24,100-year-old microblades, 94.7% were made from obsidian, indicating close ties to the obsidian-rich environment of the Changbaishan Mountains.

🔗 from 2024 (£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Different kinds of lithic tools (scrapers, endscrapers & bifacial points), predominantly made from obsidian.
November 13, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
stoneclub.bsky.social
Boscawen-Ûn
Boscawen-Ûn stone circle
November 12, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 DNA analysis finds the tomb of the grandmother of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang, contained an extinct species of gibbon (amongst other animals), indicating Empress Dowager Xia enjoyed keeping exotic pets 🐒

#ArchaeologyNews via @globaltimescn.bsky.social

www.globaltimes.cn/page/202511/...
Gibbon unearthed in tomb of China’s first emperor Qinshihuang’s grandmother verified to be new extinct species
An international team led by Chinese scientists has discovered that a gibbon unearthed from the tomb of grandmother of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), represents an…
www.globaltimes.cn
November 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW Made of thousands of aligned holes, the Andean monument Monte Sierpe (Band of Holes) is iconic, but its purpose is unknown. Research supports a new interpretation of this mysterious monument as part of an Indigenous system of accounting and exchange

#AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵

🏺 #Archaeology
Aerial photo of a row of holes running across a mountain ridge.
November 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#MedievalMonday A Late Anglo-Saxon carving on an archway inside St Bene't's Church, #Cambridge, 1000-1050 AD

It possibly shows a lion or maybe mythological creature

#archaeology #history #photooftheday
A stone carving of a lion-like animal in a stone wall
November 10, 2025 at 12:09 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
The Callanish VIII stones

This circle stands on the edge of Great Bernera island, leaning towards the mainland Isle of Lewis

I always wondered why it would be placed here...

#StandingStoneSunday #archaeology #photooftheday 🏺
Standing stones on a rocky slope looking out towards a narrow strait of water and mountains in the distance
November 9, 2025 at 8:26 AM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
A window to the ancient world...

The Roman Amphitheatre of El Djem, Tunisia

📸 Mine

#RomanSiteSaturday #archaeology #photooftheday 🏺
Gap in a wall looking onto the edge of a ruined Roman amphitheatre
November 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 New research shows how the people of the ancient Peruvian city of Caral survived a climate catastrophe, adapting and moving rather than resorting to violence

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Archaeologists discover how oldest American civilisation survived a climate catastrophe
Experts find artefacts left behind in Caral showing how population survived drought without resorting to violence
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 '100 years of Woodhenge'
Learn about the discovery and research of Stonehenge's 'lesser-known cousin' in @currentarchaeology.bsky.social

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews

the-past.com/feature/100-...
100 years of Woodhenge: Tracing an archaeological icon, from discovery to new dating evidence | The Past
December 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the identification of a remarkable prehistoric timber monument just two miles from Stonehenge in Wiltshire. Ama ...
the-past.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:15 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
#FindsFriday A set of walrus-tusk and whalebone pendants, from around 3000 BC!

These may have been strung together with small beads to form a necklace

Found at Skara Brae Neolithic village in Orkney, Scotland

#archaeology #museums 🏺
Four tooth-shaped bone pendants held on museum stands
November 7, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW Were the Picts of northern Scotland wiped out by Viking conquest? New radiocarbon dates from the 1st millennium AD settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney paint a more complex picture of cultural interaction in the Northern Isles.

#AntiquityThread 1/15 🧵

@northernpicts.bsky.social🏺 #Archaeology
Double-sided comb made from bone.
November 7, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
📝 Want to publish on a project that is still in progress? Antiquity publishes #ProjectGalleries: shorter, free-to-access articles that showcase ongoing #archaeological research 🏺

Find out more and submit an article here 👇
antiquity.ac.uk/submit
Aerial view of a square-shaped trench at the base of a rock face.
November 5, 2025 at 5:35 PM
oz-of-the-ancients.bsky.social
Neolithic carvings of eyes above the entrance to a tomb, 6000 years old... What were these for? 👀🤔

📍 Holm of Papay South chambered tomb, Orkney, Scotland

#TombTuesday #archaeology #photooftheday
The top of a tomb chamber with pockmarked carvings in the stone lintel
November 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
Map of Sweden with locations of some #Viking Age anthropomorphic figurines #MedievalMonday
Often studied for what they symbolised, new research analyses how they were made and used, moving beyond categorisation to understand how the objects 'intra-acted' with the world.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Map of south-east Sweden, annotated with arrows pointing to locations where anthropomorphic silver and bronze figurines were found alongside photographs of the miniatures.
November 3, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Oscar Lozada
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 New research finds evidence for human occupation in one of the least hospitable areas of prehistoric Iberia, challenging the belief that the highlands were abandoned during the last Ice Age

#AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @labrujulaverde.bsky.social

www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/10/a...
Ancient Evidence Challenges the Idea That Spain’s Highlands Were Empty During the Ice Age
For decades, archaeologists believed that the frigid, windswept plateaus at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula were abandoned during the last Ice Age. The region’s harsh continental climate and high…
www.labrujulaverde.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:15 PM