Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Colin D. Wren

Catherine Frieman @cjfrieman.bsky.social · 6d

A MacArthur 'genius' gleans surprising lessons from ancient bones, shards and trash

Kristina Douglass wanted to find out the truth about how past communities adapted to environmental change. Her revelatory work has earned her a MacArthur award.

www.npr.org

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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 6d

What human-made structures are visible from space, and what does this mean?
🧪 🏺 #PlanetSci

Things seen from space: the Great Wall of China

I t's quite a claim to make: that such-and-such a 'man-made' thing can be seen from space. The one people are probably most familiar with is...

zoharesque.blogspot.com

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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 6d

📰 What was thought to be a Palaeolithic oil lamp was likely in fact a 13,000-year-old paint pallet, and contains the oldest instance of blue pigment in Europe!

🏺 #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @smithsonianmag.bsky.social

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

These Archaeologists Set Out in Search of Animal Fat. Instead, They Found the Oldest Blue Pigment Ever Discovered in Europe

Blue residue on a 13,000-year-old stone artifact, long believed to be an oil lamp, may paint a new picture of Paleolithic art and culture

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Anne Pisor @annepisor.bsky.social · 14d

📢 Come join us! Penn State Anthropology is hiring *two tenure-track assistant professors*, one in human reproductive ecology and one in archaeology. Here are just a few reasons why working at Penn State is awesome:

A photo of the Susan Welch Liberal Arts building at sunrise

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Tobias Rüttenauer @ruettenauer.bsky.social · 27d

@sriucl.bsky.social is HIRING 2 permanent Lecturers 🚀 in #QuantitativeSocialScience!

It comes with smart and lovely colleagues🌟, a central London office, and many big ideas and questions 🧐

Apply now! www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

www.ucl.ac.uk

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Reposted by Colin D. Wren

Jake Holland-Lulewicz @archaeojake.bsky.social · 7d

Don’t be puzzled by the lack of deadline in the ad. This is an imposed HR quirk. Reviews will begin c. November 1st! Happy to field any questions! #archaeology

Jake Holland-Lulewicz @archaeojake.bsky.social · 14d

🚨 Hey!! We’re hiring an archaeologist!! Come hang out with us!!

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/PSU_Academic...

Assistant Professor of Archaeology

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Colin D. Wren

Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 9d

🧪🏺
"My work takes up the theoretical challenge first posed fifty years ago that reliance on agriculture is responsible for a Neolithic increase in disease"

Brenna is one of the most modest AND most sharp scholars I know - this project will be fantastic!

Brenna Hassett @brennawalks.bsky.social · 9d

so... the wellcome trust gave me a £1,000,000? and i didnt even have to hold the world to ransom.

i am super excited, going to be recruiting SOON for a phd and a postdoc, and could not do anything without my amazing collaborators <3

www.lancashire.ac.uk/news/grant-t...

Archaeology research project receives £1 million grant to better understand how people got sick

University of Lancashire’s Dr Brenna Hassett receives Wellcome funding to understand how the invention of farming, herding, and sedentism changed human disease.

www.lancashire.ac.uk

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Reposted by Colin D. Wren

Bob Patalano @robertpatalano.bsky.social · 12d

For more on this site and others in central Tanzania, check out our recent paper in African Archaeological Review 🏺

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Reposted by Colin D. Wren

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 14d

A perfect souvenir from a day at the chariot races! This pottery cup or jar has barbotine (liquid clay) decoration, piped on just like cake icing. It depicts four quadrigae (four-horse chariots) in an endless circular race. 🏺 #ancientbluesky 1/

Colchester, 2nd c. CE. 📸 me

Large cup or jar, dark brown (it would have been glossy black when new) depicting a chariot race in barbotine decoration, which unsurprisingly looks a lot like cake icing details, because it's piped onto the cup in the same way, with a bag. The auriga - charioteer - wears long-sleeved jerkin and leggings, and a leather helmet. He holds a whip in his right hand, and the reins of the four horses in his left. Another chariot is fast on his heels.

Found at Colchester, Essex. British Museum (1857,0806.1)

Same description as the first image. The cup rests on a very small, stumpy foot which flares up into a broad vase shape, slightly tapering at the top. This is taken on the adjacent side to the left of the other chariot, and this chariot is the one at his heels.

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Gabriele Russo @gabrieleru1.bsky.social · 14d

Schöningen never stops to amaze!
Scientists have just recovered 300,000-year-old #horse #aDNA from the site 🤯 the oldest ever found in open air.
And those horses? Ancestors of all modern horses 🐎🧬
🧪🏺🦣

Links here 👇

Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Press: uni-tuebingen.de/en/universit...

Mitochondrial genomes of Middle Pleistocene horses from the open-air site complex of Schöningen - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Mitochondrial DNA from horses at the Middle Pleistocene archaeological site of Schöningen reveals insight into the evolutionary history of horses and advances techniques for the analysis of ancient DNA retrieved from highly degraded samples.

www.nature.com

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Born Under a Wandering Star @ballbob.bsky.social · 15d

🏺 tinyurl.com/2u8ctkwh

30,000-year-old 'personal toolkit' found in the Czech Republic provides 'very rare' glimpse into the life of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer

Archaeologists have found an extraordinary cluster of Stone Age artifacts that may have been the personal gear of a single prehistoric individual.

tinyurl.com

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Colin D. Wren @cdwren.bsky.social · 15d

FYI the morphobank project seems to still be unpublished, I'm guessing it'll be at this link but I get "access denied": morphobank.org/index.php/Pr...

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Reposted by Colin D. Wren

Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 18d

#FossilFriday Replicas of Yunxian 2 reconstruction (L) and Sangiran 17 Homo erectus from Java. Our research indicates that Yunxian is not an erectus, but is an early member of the group containing Homo longi, other Chinese fossils, and Denisovan material

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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 19d

My explainer about the Yunxian 2 study

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Paige Madison @fossilhistory.bsky.social · 15d

Netherlands to return 'Java Man' fossils to Indonesia. 🏺 www.dw.com/en/netherlan...

Netherlands to return 'Java Man' fossils to Indonesia – DW – 09/26/2025

The Netherlands will give back the "Java Man" fossils that were taken "against the will of the people" from colonial Indonesia. The fossils were the first to show links between apes and humans.

www.dw.com

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Rob Foley @robfoley.bsky.social · Jul 18

Fabulous news that @martamlahr.bsky.social has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy 🍾🍾🍾

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Marta Mirazon Lahr @martamlahr.bsky.social · 18d

#ESHE2025
Harold Berghuis ‘Madura Strait, the first subsea Homo erectus site in Sundaland (Indonesia)’
Underwater fossils 🌟!
Subsidence in Sundaland: key to biogeography. Submerged river valley-MIS6, w rich fossil record! hunting bovids?
H erectus: frontal & parietal frags– aff Java late erectus
😍

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Colin D. Wren @cdwren.bsky.social · 22d

Please tell your students to get in touch if they are interested in our program. First semester will be Fall 2026 and applications are due in January!

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Colin D. Wren @cdwren.bsky.social · 22d

We have three tracks within the MA program to choose from: 1) Cultural Resource Management (CRM), 2) Museum Practice, & 3) Environmental Resource Management. We have courses on project management, technical writing, and heritage & environmental law as well as lots of electives.

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Colin D. Wren @cdwren.bsky.social · 22d

I am happy to announce we have created a new Master's program in Cultural Heritage and Environmental Resource Management (CHERM)! 🥳🥳 This is a blended program of Archaeology + Geography & Environmental Studies focused on public & private sector careers 🏺 anthropology.uccs.edu/cherm

Cultural Heritage and Environmental Resource Management, MA | Department of Anthropology

UCCS is home to more than 12,000 driven students and over 800 experienced faculty members. Choose from more than 100 options within 50 undergraduate, 24 graduate, and seven doctoral degrees. Take a vi...

anthropology.uccs.edu

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Colin D. Wren @cdwren.bsky.social · 23d

Nice story on Reich's research on ancient DNA "Claims of pure bloodlines? Ancestral homelands? DNA science says no." 🏺🧪 news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Pure bloodlines? Ancestral homelands? DNA science says no. — Harvard Gazette

Geneticist explains recent analyses made possible by tech advances show human history to be one of mixing, movement, displacement.

news.harvard.edu

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · 24d

Content warning for (many) human remains ☠️ 🏺 "Earliest evidence of smoke-dried mummification: More than 10,000 years ago in southern China and Southeast Asia" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Stefani Crabtree 🦀🌲 @stefanicrabtree.bsky.social · 29d

It's official, my first solo-authored book (my second book altogether) is coming out the end of October! 🧪👩🏺
And the thing I'm the proudest is I painted (watercolor) the cover! 1/2
www.routledge.com/Thinking-thr...

Thinking through Archaeological Complexity

Thinking Through Archaeological Complexity explores how archaeologists can engage with complex adaptive systems, examining dynamic interactions between humans and environments across space and through...

www.routledge.com

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Colin D. Wren @cdwren.bsky.social · Sep 4

🚨Tenure-track job posting!!🚨 My department at Uni of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) is seeking applicants for our Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology position! Please share and distribute widely! 🏺 cu.taleo.net/careersectio...

Landscape photo showing UCCS in the foreground and the Rocky Mountains in the background

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Kim Connor @theotherkim.bsky.social · Sep 15

William & Mary is looking for a Linguistic Anthro with experience working with Indigenous communities in the US! 🏺📂

Assistant Professor of Anthropology (Linguistic Anthropology)

Job Requisition: JR100833 Assistant Professor of Anthropology (Linguistic Anthropology) (Open) Job Posting Title: Assistant Professor of Anthropology (Linguistic Anthropology) Job Family: Faculty - Te...

williammary.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com

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