🚨❗What do the proposed reforms to planning policy (NPPF) mean for archaeology and heritage? Join this webinar on 26 Feb to find out and inform your response to the public consultation: www.archaeologyuk.org/get-involved...

So much this:

What's with all the ducks?

My first step would be to introduce a license (with fee) granted after completion of test on, & agreement to follow, code of practice. Rewards capped to token amount. In perfect world, we'd be claiming everything of #archaeology interest... and funding heritage properly!!! #Treasure #Detecting 🏺

This case has made many aghast today. But, as Tess has long been asking, how do we change this broken system, the law? Rewards need to be capped, hobbyists should not be paid by those who can ill afford it (museums). Those of us on boards or councils of organisations need to raise the issue.

As a professional archaeologist, it is disheartening to see "treasure" finds celebrated as financial windfalls while the skilled site assistants who record our heritage every day struggle for a living wage. ​

Urgent witness appeal following the death of 65yo Nick Stone in Bristol after contact with police where he ended up on the ground at an antifascist counterdemonstration against the far right Bristol Patriots on 10th January 2026.

Happy Valentine’s Day, from us to you. Tag your exes. Xoxox

The sun actually shone this morning. Had a great walk along the beach at Weston-super-Mare and around Uphill. Here is the round barrow on Walborough Down. Look, blue sky!

OK, this is weird but I have to know. Does anyone remember a cute British comfort food restaurant in Manchester's Northern Quarter that served Mrs Kirkham's Cheese On Toast and, and here we come to the point, a dish named after Michael Palin. Mention in next book for info received.

🚨 We have heard that the County Archaeologist for Hampshire is being made redundant, with no plans to replace him. 🚨 If you live in Hampshire please write to your MP and Councillors. If you live elsewhere treasure and support your County Archaeologists, and stand by to protect them. 🏺

Come join our Ecologies of Governance team: we have a 30 month fieldwork based PDRA advertised @newcastleuni.bsky.social as a part of our AHRC funded project. Will work at Rendelsham, Dunadd, Navan Fort, Llangorse, Milfield royal palace sites for project. Pls RT: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQM271/f...

Well now I'm craving sweets

Proud that after five years of careful analysis and discussion our paper "Lasting Lower Rhine-Meuse forager ancestry shaped Bell Beaker expansion" has now been published.

The European Association of Archaeologists Executive has worked hard to bury this result inside a long document. But we're going to make this triumph of compassion, common sense & demand for transparency known to all. Help us by sharing. @archagainstaparth.bsky.social @blacktrowel.bsky.social

Sighting the sun - and moon? at Stonehenge. Online lecture by Prof Clive Ruggles, tomorrow night. Hosted by @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social and @cornwallarch.bsky.social www.prehistoricsociety.org/events/2026-...

Getting some fab ideas from the undergrads for their dissertation topics

Did you know that a new education centre is being built by hand at Stonehenge? It is based on Durrington 68, a late Neolithic square-in-circle timber structure. Watch regular updates from Luke, the project leader, here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LATY...

I created a PRIVATE Facebook group 'Non-permanent MCRs in Humanities' at www.facebook.com/groups/14504... This is a temporary measure and aims at carrying out a survey among the MCRs and offering initial peer support and advice while gathering together those with 7+ years from PhD... #MCRNetwork

This was a highly enjoyable way to spend Sunday afternoon, listening to the brilliant Armando Iannucci being interviewed about his work in radio, TV and film:

I am overwhelmed by my to-do list this morning, can't even start. So posting about it instead #helpful

Artificial Intelligence as a Threat to Academic Labor. Who benefits when AI is introduced into higher education? By Ulises A. Mejias (adapted from an earlier op-ed at Future U blog.) www.aaup.org/issue/winter...

Quite the worst drawn knight in horseback 😂

🚨 Love history? Obsessed with uncovering ancient stories? 🚨 Applications are now OPEN for Oxford Archaeology’s ACE (Archaeological Careers Experience) in Oxford, Cambridge, and Lancaster! 📅 1st & 2nd April 2026 👥 Must be between 16-18 years old 📍 Oxford, Cambridge, or Lancaster. 🪙 FREE

This is a really useful guide if you're marking student submitted work that you suspect is at least partly AI generated - those ones that feel wrong but you can't put your finger on anything specific:

My students added a top hat to the bear in that photo of V. Gordon Childe for their class presentation #proud

Research funding news! Our very own Prof Naomi Sykes will be spending the next three years working on a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, providing important context on the value of archaeological archives. More details here: news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

Exploring the itineraries of King Edward I 🤓

Niche question but my brain and a search of the literature is failing me - what examples do we have of cursus monuments with clusters of arrowheads at the terminus ends? I feel like this is an oft-repeated 'fact' but don't know any sites where this is the case.

Excellent article but stark reminder that for all the perceptions of universities as ivory towers for elites, they are actually vital hubs in towns n cities supporting local businesses and providing key services as well as education….

Funny how so many people moan about potholes and then buy extremely heavy SUVs...

Kids walking to school along my street are singing 'Its raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...' which has cheered up this (very wet) morning.

I feel like this should be a 'tag yourself' post but doing that would be too depressing 😞

Archaeology is political. Heritage is political. The past is political.

Visited the Bristol Aerospace Museum yesterday. Rather enjoyed this sign and left wishing I had worked there in the mid-20th century. Also got to see Concorde.

Great Bustard nests have been discovered at Cranborne Chase for the first time, providing further evidence of the species' gradual recovery and expansion in southern England:

Saturday #morningread The end of January!

This is a clever tool - enter your postcode to find out how retail and businesses on your local high street have changed: www.theguardian.com/business/ng-...

Are you a heritage consultant? Do you carry out impact assessments? Have you come across rock art sites in your studies? And if you do, how do you incorporate these sites into your assessments and what mitigation to you consider? Do you feel that you know enough about it to mitigate risks? Thanks!

Just listened to Radio 3 news. GenAI training to be rolled out to every adult in the UK. Do to what? Make 'content' apparently. I'm not sure we need more 'content', let alone a tidal wave of AI slop.

Our interns have been cataloguing our long-neglected drawers of artefact collections, and found these Stonehenge stone samples! Sent to the uni in 1956. Going to use these for teaching ASAP!

I read this with megalithic monuments in mind:

Really worth a read. An important issue but also admire the authors dedication to their acronym throughout, including the colour choices on their charts!

Happy St Dwynwen's Day! Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus! 💘

Just squeezed in a visit to @wiltshiremuseum.bsky.social Downland exhibition before it closes. Rose Ferraby's collages are just lovely.

An amazing 5th C bronze cauldron now going on display after 10 years of restoration and research france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/grand-est/au...

📊 Just launched: An interactive dashboard for visualising UK university finance data published by HESA. Compare universities. Explore key financial indicators, trends and correlations. 🔗 shiny.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/lpzjd/uni-fi... #UKHE #OpenData #rstats #AcademicSky

Ugh, marking takes so much longer in this era of genAI, I hate having to be so suspicious.

Friday's lecture gets a meme: