24th Sara Champion Memorial lecture 21st October, 5pm online & in-person. Dr Barbara Oosterwijk: 'Traces of Touch: From Palaeolithic Embodied Markings to Amazonian Decorated Hands'. Lecture preceded by awards & drinks reception follows: www.prehistoricsociety.org/events/2025-... #Archaeology 🏺

I wrote a review of Deborah Hallam's Neolithic Life and Death in the Yorkshire Dale's for the @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social. www.prehistoricsociety.org/publications...

The work on the stunning Rosemarkie Bronze Age hoard, discovered in Scotland, has been published - #Archaeology 🏺 www.guard-archaeology.co.uk/GALNews/?p=792

Opens today!! We've seen the exhibition and it's definitely well worth a visit! #Archaeology 🏺 www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/muse...

🆓 Download free-access articles on #EuropeanArchaeology, for #EAA2025Belgrade: 📲✅ https://cup.org/42bmHqP Free access (where not already OA) until 30/09/25. @archaeologyeaa.bsky.social @antiquity.ac.uk @cam-archaeology.bsky.social @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social @saa-aap.bsky.social#EuropeanArchaeology#EAA2025Belgrade#EAA2025

Some real gems in here including Alasdair Whittle laying the smack down on scholars of the Neolithic North Atlantic Archipelago for playing down connections between Britain and Ireland.

Four First View papers ready for the weekend, and 3 are open access! From hafting adze heads and African houses to piggy pannage and Neolithic relations between Britain and Ireland, there's something for everyone... #Archaeology 🏺 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

From the Museum of Liverpool: 'Treasure: History Unearthed' will feature largest collection of archaeological treasure ever shown in the region, with finds from the North West & Wales, celebrating archaeology & the work of Portable Antiquities Scheme. www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/muse...

What a fabulous paper to kick off with! Well done Sue, and of course the @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social team! 👏

This is the first paper I've seen through to completion as editor of @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social journal. It's a fantastic study, showing feasting on pork took place at Newgrange over the winter period in the late Neolithic, when all those timber monuments & henges were being constructed nearby:

@prehistoricsociety.bsky.social @chrisbstringer.bsky.social Lady Smith Woodward's preface to SW's The Earliest Englishman 1948: "Miss Tassert re-drew the illustrations". These include: "Imaginary portrait of Piltdown Man by John Cooke frontispiece". Any clues to Miss Tassert or the Cooke original?

Do you have exciting prehistoric research you want to share? Deadline for submission to newsletter PAST (Autumn) is 12th Sept. Articles c. 800 words (with 1-2 images) or c. 1200 words (with 3-4 images). Please send contributions to [email protected] & we look forward to reading them!

Feel very privileged to be part of this new dream team of editors for Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. We've got a new editorial board, a more rigorous approval process, and we're working on some exciting papers which will be in a new look, new format journal! @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

PAST 110 is now online and free to read: with articles about Ukrainian landscape survey, Mesolithic Gwent, stelae from Morocco, and so much more, it's a really good read! #Archaeology 🏺 www.prehistoricsociety.org/publications...

Who was NG10 and what was the world they lived in? The sister paper to our CAJ paper is now out in Antiquity and the cover image no less! Working on these papers with this group, has been one of the richest academic experiences I have had in my career. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

@prehistoricsociety.bsky.social Is there any best practise on whether art that can be moved is mobile or portable? I'm seeing both.

A newspaper obituary observed that the PSEA already ranked "almost as a National Society, with members in all parts of the country". It took 10 more years for the 'East Anglia' bit to be (unanimously) excised from the name but we wouldn't have today's @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social without W.G.C.

Check it out @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social!

Following the @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social AGM, we have the star of the show, Prof Martin Bell himself, giving the Europa lecture. He is showcasing evidence for prehistoric movement (especially cross-topographic routes) across Severn Estuary, Kennet Valley, Somerset Levels, Uffington, Kent...

Congratulations to Prof. Martin Bell and a huge thank you to all our speakers, attendees and organisers... ...and to all those who've been posting online about the #Europa2025Reading conference, for those who couldn't be there. It's been a wonderful day and we look forward to seeing you in 2026!

And finally, the main event: the Europa 2025 Lecture by Professor Martin Bell! ‘Landscape connectivity in prehistory: can old routes enhance lives and can we go it alone?’

We are delighted to announce that Dr Bob Bewley has accepted our invitation to become the next President of the Prehistoric Society. 1/2

Wish I’d known @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social were in Reading for #Europa2025Reading and to celebrate Martin Bell. The Society came to @themerl.bsky.social in 1954. Ploughs were exhibited, a tree was felled with a reconstructed axe, and quern stones were demonstrated.

It's time for Martin Bell's Europa Lecture! Looking forward to learning all about landscape connectivity in Prehistory 🏺 @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social #Europa2025Reading

And now to the main event - the Europa lecture from Martin Bell - route-ways and paths as ‘entanglement made manifest’ for human and non-human entities. Movement is the ‘connective tissue between sites’ - inspirational! @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

Enjoy #openaccess articles on #prehistory and #prehistoric #archaeology from Cambridge, marking The Prehistoric Society Europa Conference 2025 in Reading this weekend: 🔎 cup.org/4dQdVmE

And the final paper today - Richard Brunning synthesising all the evidence for prehistoric trackways and landscape changes across the Somerset Levels. An area united by water, rather than divided by it. #Europa2025Reading

Popping over to Somerset, Dr Richard Brunning is presenting ‘Journeys in life and death across prehistoric wetlands in Somerset’ He said Glastonbury Lake Village is the most important Iron Age site in the UK and I’m not even going to fight him on that (it’s in my study region and I am biased lolol)

Middle Bronze metalwork deposition along river valleys and coasts in south Wales now with Chris Griffiths - huge increase in finds since 1997 #Europa2025Reading

For the penultimate talk at the Europa meeting we have Richard Bunning on trackways and water transport in the Somerset Levels - pondering how humans navigated and understood the very different worlds of marsh land, wetland, high ground and sea @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

Staying on the theme of connections to other worlds at Europa and to Bronze Age landscapes in Wales and the deliberate deposition of weapons and other metalwork with (a virtual) Chris Griffiths @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

Niels Nørkjaer Johannsen - clearly showing how late TRB 'stony graves' on Jutland peninsula, Denmark are likely to be cart burials, laid out alongside routeways. Later round barrows also alongside these same routes. #Europa2025Reading

Dr Niels Nørkjær Johannsen has travelled all the way from Aarhus University, Denmark, to present his research ‘Neolithic routes, everyday mobility and journeying in life and death on the Jutland Peninsula’ This includes early cattle burials with what is likely two-wheeled carts - this is my JAM! 🤩

Now a ‘slice of Danish’ (his words), Niels Nøtkjær Johannsen on the fascinating landscapes and graves of Neolithic Jutland. More animals too - cattle burials, along with perhaps near-invisible carts that could have traversed local trackways in death as in life @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

Sally Taylor demonstrating clear differences between lowland and upland early Neolithic enclosures in Cumbria - lowland are associated with Langdale axes, upland are not but are strung out along the Eden Valley #Europa2025Reading

Nick Barton kicking off the afternoon with a quote from Martin Bell and @jimleary.bsky.social on how we need to understand movement in prehistory at human scales. #EuropaReading2025

Dr Sally Taylor is giving her talk titled ‘The Connectivity between Artefacts and Monuments in Early Neolithic Cumbrian Landscapes’ This included a lovely interlude with 360 degree video footage from three different Neolithic monuments!

Jumping ahead to the Neolithic and northwards to Cumbria with Sally Taylor at the Europa meeting. Spatial relationships between monuments and enclosures in the uplands demonstrate shadowing but also respect of the cairns in time and space by settlements @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

It’s apparently National Trails Day! Not sure if it’s coincidence or intent, but what a fitting day to be celebrating landscape connectivity and Martin Bell’s contributions to our understanding of past paths taken at the Europa conference @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

Nick Ashton speaking about some interesting Mesolithic sites. At King Arthur's Cave and Madawg Shelter in the Wye Valley they found microliths, animal bones, fruit remains and perforated cowrie and periwinkle (marine) shells. But no fish - surprising given salmon river below! #Europa2025Reading

Very excited to see some molluscan representation at the @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social's Europa conference! Nick Barton is presenting on connectivity in the Mesolithic landscape, including shell beads from Mesolithic sites in South Wales 🐚🏺 #Europa2025Reading

Now landscape connectivity and lithics at @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social’s Europa meeting with Nick Barton - wonderful insights into the Mesolithic, complete with refits, at Welsh lake sites

I feel this may be a good point to introduce Adelle who, along with George Prew, will be taking over our event organisation!! (Plenty more opportunities for banner selfies coming...! 🤣)

Catherine Barnett is describing some key case studies that show the Mesolithic activity along the Kennet Valley. The Historic England Tracing Their Steps project has pulled together loads of data to predictively model key areas of activity - basically the whole valley! #Europa2025Reading

Closer to home again at the Thatcham Reedbeds with Catherine Barnett. Lovely to see multiple lines of env arch evidence integrated to paint such a vivid picture of these rich marsh environments that were centres of human and animal interaction in the mesolithic @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

Online from Italy, Dr Elisa Dalla Longa has been tracking changes in Bronze Age settlement locations in the Upper Po Valley, Italy. This valley was a crucial part of a north-south routeway between the Med and northern Europe #Europa2025Reading

#Europa2025Reading thread 🧵

The conference has moved to exotic Verona and the Middle Bronze Age Landscapes of Italy with Elisa Dalla Longa - the theme of rivers as connectors across landscapes is emerging as a common theme across many of the talks today - food for thought! 🐟 @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

Tom Lawrence from Newcastle Uni is explaining his analysis of flint assemblages from Meso-Neo transition in south England and northern France. Network analysis of knapping 'traditions' seems to indicate fascinating cross-Channel connections during this period #Europa2025Reading

Post-caffeine we are listening to Chantal Conneller exploring Mesolithic activity and routes through the Pennies, and also in the Cherhill/Avebury area. Some beautiful test pits! Possible placed deposits include aurochs skull, a lovely antler mattock and an engraved rib #Europa2025Reading