Lovely!

Thank you. I need it!

97,500 words, 103 images, a huge bibliography - my monograph has gone to the editor and now I can go on holiday!! 🎉

This whole volume looks great! Looking forward to reading.

7/10 for me. Not too bad, considering I did a quick skim through rather than e.g. testing all the links. I think their guide is excellent.

Prehistoric seal tooth pendant reveals ancient culture in Devon A reanalysis of a misidentified Stone Age seal-tooth pendant reveals new insights into ancient British technology and cultural connections, led by researchers from the UCL Institute of Archaeology.

A 15,000-year-old pendant is changing how we see Ice Age Britain.

Reanalysis of a Kents Cavern artefact shows it’s a modified grey seal tooth, likely worn as a pendant and transported over 100km inland.

#Archaeology #IceAge #Prehistory @ucl.ac.uk @nhm-london.bsky.social

Have you read David Lowenthal's The Heritage Crusade book? Always thought he was quite good on the link between inheritance and heritage.

Celtic eh? 🤨

Yeah! Was so nice to spend the day on site, even if it did rain on us quite a bit!

Two people in a grassy field, one holding GNSS survey kit, the other using her foot to work out where the edge of an earthworks slope is. Behind are hazel wattle fences and a pig shelter, and an oak tree.

Spent today teaching my PhD student Adele how to recognise and record earthworks! These are hollows created by her Tamworth/wild boar cross pigs in their enclosure. They leave behind distinct archaeology!

Yay!

Ah wonderful 🤗

Goodness, I'm flattered! And intrigued...

Map of the Peak District National Park, designated 13 April 1951

Happy birthday to the Peak District National Park, designated #otd 13 April 1951. Originally 555 square miles of moor and valley, the 'great north roof of England.' It would never have happened but for one woman... 1/4

The Ministry of Works puts them signs on ancient monuments not just to preserve the stones and walls. They put them up as they don't want nasty accidents, ghost-makers. The Ministry knows they've got a spectral overcrowding problem. They don't want it getting worse. – Jake Wheeler #VOH

Woohoo! Congratulations! Looks fab.

Got something to new to share about Neanderthal archaeology? The Prehistoric Society Europa conference in June this year is looking for papers (call will be extended):

Good spot! But not that one, which has already gone to print. The next one 😊

Why is the weather always glorious when I have a book to finish 😞 Oh and if we could have less horrendously distracting world events that might help.

And the BIG BAD I SAID NO blogpost is live! (If you know the cartoon I'm referring to, welcome: childhood memory unlocked). Huge thanks to everyone below who commented on my post about 'how [and whether!] to say no in academia'. drlauravarnam.wordpress.com/2026/04/02/t...

Fido the Lion - a handmade toy lion looking up out of a packing crate. His mane is soft and fluffy and his feet are inturned. He has a 'help me' expression. He belonged to, and provided much comfort to, a young girl who in 1916 had to cross the Atlantic due to the war.

Two plaster casts of the Formby prehistoric footprints

A model of a ferry boat painted in multi-coloured patches with stripes and patterns - created to honour the wartime dazzleships. It is displayed inside a packing crate with labels and storage mounts still attached.

General view of the exhibition, where visitors are looking at objects displayed in or on packing crates.

National Museums Liverpool is 40! The World Museum has a special exhibition, which opened today, of 40 objects from the stores, chosen by curators and staff to represent the collections. Well worth a visit! My faves included Fido the Lion, casts of the Formby footprints and a dazzleship ferry model.

Shamefully I've never been! We should do a Shire folks trip.

An oak leaf bud opening

The pleasures of spring are available to everybody and cost nothing

George Orwell

Two stone tools, one narrow and pointed the other leaf-shaped, laid out on a white background.

Calling all archaeologists with expertise in British stone tools! These two just turned up among my father-in-law’s house contents. Unfortunately no provenance data. The narrow one is quite thick, diamond-shaped in cross-section, and the flat end appears to be broken.

Thanks for the recommendations!

It's done throughout public facing exhibitions, museums and press stories. For example at Stonehenge there is a huge graphic reading 'Stonehenge is a masterpiece of engineering, built by sophisticated people'.

"Sapiens": One page at a time I've been co-teaching a course for several years in which we read Sapiens . I think I've read it eight times, now. That explains the gumband...

I love this! The brilliant Holly Dunsworth is reviewing Sapiens, one page at a time, separating myth from fact… Let’s dive in!

ecodevoevo.blogspot.com/2026/03/sapi...

I think to those of us working in the discipline it is such an obvious truism that it doesn't need countering.

Oh interesting! I really want to get into writing more about this stuff.

We could, but the trend of shoehorning it into every book and TV programme does annoy me, and it does get boring, when there are so many other interesting sites and debates.