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
🏺 Many excellent projects shortlisted for Engagement & Participation, but having seen @johnhenryphillips.bsky.social's incredible talk (at @chalkefestival.bsky.social) about The Close, it really felt like a perfect example of the power of archaeology, for both practitioners & wider communities.
November 28, 2025 at 6:49 PM
🏺 Many excellent projects shortlisted for Engagement & Participation, but having seen @johnhenryphillips.bsky.social's incredible talk (at @chalkefestival.bsky.social) about The Close, it really felt like a perfect example of the power of archaeology, for both practitioners & wider communities.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
So, bad news and good news then?
![Extract from FT article.
According to the Al agency Graphite, at least 52 per cent of internet content was machine-generated by May this year. Not only does this Al-generated content threaten the integrity of the web, it could also endanger the resilience of future AI models.
[Graphic showing that AI-generated content has surpassed human-written articles since early 2025]
If Al models ingest too much synthetic data then there is a danger they might go "mad" - or suffer from model autophagy disorder. When the input for new models increasingly becomes the output of older models then it risks model collapse, says Ethan Smith, Graphite's chief executive.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/bafkreigof2qnhtn5dlbo7igg56kbmmktjddpy4atiuexl2dkhocvlrzq7i@jpeg)
November 28, 2025 at 4:41 PM
So, bad news and good news then?
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
A pair of gold armbands from the Colchester Fenwick hoard, buried before Boudica’s attack in AD60. As the Roman last stand took place where Colchester Castle now sits, the owner may have perished where their jewellery is now displayed @ColMuseums.bsky.social
#FindsFriday #BoudicaFriday #Echolands
#FindsFriday #BoudicaFriday #Echolands
November 28, 2025 at 3:45 PM
A pair of gold armbands from the Colchester Fenwick hoard, buried before Boudica’s attack in AD60. As the Roman last stand took place where Colchester Castle now sits, the owner may have perished where their jewellery is now displayed @ColMuseums.bsky.social
#FindsFriday #BoudicaFriday #Echolands
#FindsFriday #BoudicaFriday #Echolands
Found an AI-generated quote purporting to be from me, but which I don't recognise, which appears in a blogpost apparently about Palaeolithic reproduction, but is in fact on a Chinese "AI-driven shopping guide platform" commerce site (and contains links to buy scarves?!).
November 28, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Found an AI-generated quote purporting to be from me, but which I don't recognise, which appears in a blogpost apparently about Palaeolithic reproduction, but is in fact on a Chinese "AI-driven shopping guide platform" commerce site (and contains links to buy scarves?!).
🏺 Archaeology = materiality, connection, deep-time relevance to present & future
New landmark research out today: We've just launched Trowel and Error, the most in-depth look in 25 years at how audiences want to engage with archaeology. The findings are clear: people want human, accessible, story-led archaeology.
Read the report here 👉 www.archaeologyuk.org/our-work/tro...
Read the report here 👉 www.archaeologyuk.org/our-work/tro...
November 28, 2025 at 2:52 PM
🏺 Archaeology = materiality, connection, deep-time relevance to present & future
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Springer-Nature statement
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town
Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Springer-Nature statement
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
🧪 This had *7 months* between submission & acceptance yet apparently nobody noticed... it's FIGURE 1 ffs
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
November 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
🧪 This had *7 months* between submission & acceptance yet apparently nobody noticed... it's FIGURE 1 ffs
'Tis the season
November 27, 2025 at 9:03 PM
'Tis the season
🏺 Two things have become clear in researching #Matriarcha:
1) direct evidence of how dangerous birth is – skeletons with stuck at-term babies inside them – goes back many millennia
2) humans/hominins have likely been obligate social birthers for about as long as they've been obligate tool users
1) direct evidence of how dangerous birth is – skeletons with stuck at-term babies inside them – goes back many millennia
2) humans/hominins have likely been obligate social birthers for about as long as they've been obligate tool users
Point of order: all human births are “natural.” Medical interventions in fertility are a fundamental part of the deep history of our species. Stop mom-shaming women who want and need medicine for being, um, human. Cheers!
November 27, 2025 at 6:06 PM
🏺 Two things have become clear in researching #Matriarcha:
1) direct evidence of how dangerous birth is – skeletons with stuck at-term babies inside them – goes back many millennia
2) humans/hominins have likely been obligate social birthers for about as long as they've been obligate tool users
1) direct evidence of how dangerous birth is – skeletons with stuck at-term babies inside them – goes back many millennia
2) humans/hominins have likely been obligate social birthers for about as long as they've been obligate tool users
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🏺 I look at this gorgeous piece of materiality and performance, and think that we don't consider eccentricity enough as a motivator for unique, beautiful things in prehistory...
One of the most beautiful bits of english eccentricity and glorious design is coming back to Sotheby’s and should be bought by a musuem (or me) for THE NATION. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Jewelled golden hare that sparked national treasure hunt set for auction
Artist and author Kit Williams hid a golden hare with clues to its precise location given in his 1979 book
www.independent.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 9:49 AM
🏺 I look at this gorgeous piece of materiality and performance, and think that we don't consider eccentricity enough as a motivator for unique, beautiful things in prehistory...
🏺 I look at this gorgeous piece of materiality and performance, and think that we don't consider eccentricity enough as a motivator for unique, beautiful things in prehistory...
One of the most beautiful bits of english eccentricity and glorious design is coming back to Sotheby’s and should be bought by a musuem (or me) for THE NATION. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Jewelled golden hare that sparked national treasure hunt set for auction
Artist and author Kit Williams hid a golden hare with clues to its precise location given in his 1979 book
www.independent.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 9:49 AM
🏺 I look at this gorgeous piece of materiality and performance, and think that we don't consider eccentricity enough as a motivator for unique, beautiful things in prehistory...
🧪 This situation is why we need broad scientific community guidelines on the use of gen-AI and LLMs, especially for public-facing work.
Whatever the prompting process/input in individual cases, ethical problems remain:
- systems trained on data obtained contra to copyright law
- energy issues
Whatever the prompting process/input in individual cases, ethical problems remain:
- systems trained on data obtained contra to copyright law
- energy issues
My art is not "AI slop"
I am very proud of the artwork on the cover of our recent Phil Trans issue on consciousness. It was the product of 10+ hours of hard artistic work on my part, drawing, painting, and interacting with ChatGPT to try to get something in the style of an old Victorian engraving.
I am very proud of the artwork on the cover of our recent Phil Trans issue on consciousness. It was the product of 10+ hours of hard artistic work on my part, drawing, painting, and interacting with ChatGPT to try to get something in the style of an old Victorian engraving.
November 26, 2025 at 6:40 PM
🧪 This situation is why we need broad scientific community guidelines on the use of gen-AI and LLMs, especially for public-facing work.
Whatever the prompting process/input in individual cases, ethical problems remain:
- systems trained on data obtained contra to copyright law
- energy issues
Whatever the prompting process/input in individual cases, ethical problems remain:
- systems trained on data obtained contra to copyright law
- energy issues
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
🏺🗃️ Something else I love about this? It shows women together gaming: they're playing knucklebones
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
November 26, 2025 at 10:50 AM
🏺🗃️ Something else I love about this? It shows women together gaming: they're playing knucklebones
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
Just booked 4 hotels, 3 flights and a ferry, which together mean I am going Somewhere Very Exciting neat year for #Matriarcha... 🏛️ 🌋 🌊 🏺🐂
November 26, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Just booked 4 hotels, 3 flights and a ferry, which together mean I am going Somewhere Very Exciting neat year for #Matriarcha... 🏛️ 🌋 🌊 🏺🐂
🏺🗃️ Something else I love about this? It shows women together gaming: they're playing knucklebones
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
November 26, 2025 at 10:50 AM
🏺🗃️ Something else I love about this? It shows women together gaming: they're playing knucklebones
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
🏺 Wonder if people in prehistory experienced whiplash nostalgia for new-revolutionary-but-eventually-tainted-by-human-foolishness tech?
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
November 25, 2025 at 2:36 PM
🏺 Wonder if people in prehistory experienced whiplash nostalgia for new-revolutionary-but-eventually-tainted-by-human-foolishness tech?
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
[juxtaposition taken from my TL just now]
🏺🗃️
If we, here in 2025, don’t expect women in the 1930s to have been physical, to be undertaking manual excavation tasks, it probably says more about later 20th century stereotypes of womanhood than it does about women in e. 20th century archaeology.
November 25, 2025 at 2:29 PM
🏺🗃️
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
“Let me get this straight, you want me to sail over the Baltic to Gotland with a full-grown wolf in my boat?”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
🐺 Wolves in dog's clothing 🐺
Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry.
Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?
Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry.
Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?
November 24, 2025 at 10:10 PM
“Let me get this straight, you want me to sail over the Baltic to Gotland with a full-grown wolf in my boat?”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
“Don’t worry, he’s pescatarian.”
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Thinking about UK, misinformation crisis & attempts to sow distrust in expertise...
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
November 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Thinking about UK, misinformation crisis & attempts to sow distrust in expertise...
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
#BBC should stop chasing big audiences and offering 24 hr news, and return to what it was long valued for: reliability.
- fact-checked reports vs instant reaction
- grown-up science & research vs. edutainment
🏺🧪
New open access publication: Moving to Stay in (a Woman’s) Place: Was Patrilocality the Dominant Mode of Postmarital Residence across Later European Prehistory? Current Anthropology.
Thanks to Wenner Gren for funding the workshop it emerged from!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Thanks to Wenner Gren for funding the workshop it emerged from!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Moving to Stay in (a Woman’s) Place : Was Patrilocality the Dominant Mode of Postmarital Residence across Later European Prehistory? | Current Anthropology
This paper questions whether forms of female mobility and their relation to kinship were uniform throughout later European prehistory. Patrilocality has become the primary way in which sex-based diffe...
www.journals.uchicago.edu
November 24, 2025 at 5:16 PM
🏺🧪
All of Tori's radio & pod stuff is fantastic, but this one is especially lovely
On the Origin of Species was published on this day in 1859.
It really did change the world, and the way much of humanity views our place in nature.
I spoke to Radio 4's Opening Lines about it's importance -- both to science, and to me on a personal level
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
It really did change the world, and the way much of humanity views our place in nature.
I spoke to Radio 4's Opening Lines about it's importance -- both to science, and to me on a personal level
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Opening Lines - On the Origin of Species - BBC Sounds
John Yorke investigates Charles Darwin’s world-changing book On The Origin of Species.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 5:05 PM
All of Tori's radio & pod stuff is fantastic, but this one is especially lovely
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Celebrating an incredible coincidence of history today: #OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and 115 years later, to the day, Lucy was found. 🏺
November 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Celebrating an incredible coincidence of history today: #OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and 115 years later, to the day, Lucy was found. 🏺
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
'On The Origin Of Species', a book that changed the world forever, was published #onthisday, 1859. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, contained within, didn’t just revolutionise science, it had a profound impact on how we view ourselves and our place in the natural world. What a wonderful man.
November 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
'On The Origin Of Species', a book that changed the world forever, was published #onthisday, 1859. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, contained within, didn’t just revolutionise science, it had a profound impact on how we view ourselves and our place in the natural world. What a wonderful man.
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Orangutan youngsters reach the broad diet they need to survive only if they culturally learn what to eat & where to find it
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
Our New Paper is out in Nature Human Behaviour: 🚨 Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials! 🦧 www.nature.com/articles/s41.... See 🧵
Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials - Nature Human Behaviour
Howard-Spink et al. develop an empirically based model of orangutan diet development, which suggests that social learning is vital for orangutans to acquire varied diets.
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Orangutan youngsters reach the broad diet they need to survive only if they culturally learn what to eat & where to find it
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
-> This is the first clear evidence for cultural dependency of any kind in apes <-
More info, and link to the paper in this thread by Elliot [the master-modeller behind this]
Reposted by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
November 24, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen