🪓 Stone flakes = ancient tool care? #ICArEHB's David Nora's introduces a module flake approach in his new paper: doi.org/10.1007/s108... #Lithics #Archaeology

New publication alert!‼️ Wrapping up 2025 with my fifth paper of the year in the SAJS! The paper reviews how stone tools reveal social connections, noting similar patterns can also arise independently and suggesting ways to better distinguish the two. 💫 🔗 doi.org/10.17159/saj...

Paper alert! 🚨 New research on the hunting strategies at the Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla! 🐂🦴 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

About Nesher Ramla hunting strategies

“Snakes and Ladders” is not a game, but a model for how Stone Age people maintained their tools. From fresh edges (M0) to full rejuvenation (M4), each flake is a step on the ladder of technological decision-making. rdcu.be/eRutD

Posibles diferencias de tradiciones culturales y aprendizaje social entre los grupos neandertales de Amud y Kebara: Cut from the same cloth? Comparing Neanderthal processing of faunal resources at Amud and Kebara caves (Israel) through cut-marks analyses

Join us for an archaeological field school exploring the Armenian Palaeolithic! Open to students from any university and any major. More info here: app.studyabroad.uconn.edu/index.cfm?Fu...

We’re losing so many legends in archaeology. Here is a lovely tribute to Tony Marks, who died in August. He was incredibly encouraging to me, and supported our work revisiting the Nubian technology he first characterised. He will be missed. www.icarehb.com/portfolio/in...

Meet the team behind the ERC Matrix Project! We introduce Carli Peters, researcher and biomolecular archaeologist at icarehb.bsky.social Carli studies ancient human–animal interactions using palaeoproteomics and ZooMS to extract and identify ancient proteins from bone fragments.

It was a fantastic season! Very thankful to @lausanrom.bsky.social and @jorios.bsky.social !!!

In another exciting news I am kicking off a new project generously supported by the @royalsociety.org 🙏 The title tells you the whole story: “SOUTHERN DUSTSCAPES – Reconciling scales of past dust fluxes and their impact on climate in the Southern Hemisphere.” #LoessIsMore #Dust #Quaternary

The MATRIX Project, ERC Starting Grant, led by @veraaldeias.bsky.social and based at @icarehb.bsky.social, explores the replacement of Neanderthals by early modern humans by analyzing intact blocks of sediment as archives of ancient DNA, proteins, and lipids. Follow us and visit matrix.icarehb.com

👥 Meet the team behind the ERC Matrix Project! 🔬 Today: Vera Aldeias, PI of Matrix and a geoarchaeologist decoding past human behaviour through sediments. 🧬 Vera’s team uses ancient DNA & proteins in soils to trace modern humans’ arrival in Europe & Neanderthals’ disappearance.

👥 Meet the team behind the ERC Matrix Project! We introduce Hussein Kanbar, postdoc researcher and experimental geochemist at @icarehb.bsky.social Hussein explores how DNA moves, binds, and survives in soils and sediments. His work builds bridges between archaeology, geochemistry, and genetics.

🧪🏺🦣 Hugely exciting area for faunal & hominin ID using tiny fragments of bone within sediment sample blocks, allowing attribution to micro-layers: crucial to advance knowledge in Palaeolithc sites, especially those already excavated. Sites tested: Bacho Kiro Cave, La Ferrassie, and Quinçay

📄 New paper 📣 of @matrixerc.bsky.social & @welkergroup.bsky.social! We show that microstratigraphic-scale #paleoproteomics works in intact sediments - opening new ways to explore ancient ecosystems & hominin behaviour 🌍🦴 @erc.europa.eu @icarehb.bsky.social 🔗 academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Hace 45-70 ka los neandertales de El Castillo (España) usaban materia prima local, pero también adquirida a grandes distancias. Neanderthal mobility over very long distances: The case of El Castillo cave (northern Spain) and the ‘Vasconian’ Mousterian

Wrapping up another amazing field season in #AmaldaIII with this fantastic team @jorios.bsky.social @yannismicrooikon.bsky.social Antxieta Arkeologi Taldea, Martin Arriolabengoa

Here we are #AmaldaIII with @jorios.bsky.social @yannismicrooikon.bsky.social and Antxieta Arkeologi Taldea group 📷 from the cave by @yannismicrooikon.bsky.social

📣Our new paper presents new a high-resolution luminescence and radiocarbon chronology for the Naisiusiu Beds at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. This site is crucial for understanding the cultural and biological evolution of Homo sapiens in the Late Pleistocene. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Wonderful HEAS Road Trip to Willendorf, Nussdorf and Traismauer! - We explored the prehistoric and Roman archaeology of the Traisen and Wachau valleys. @heasvienna.bsky.social @rebaysalisbury.bsky.social @dominikhartmann.bsky.social @uhaunivienna.bsky.social @univie.ac.at @palarchgroup.bsky.social

HEAS Member @philipnigst.bsky.social has been awarded an FWF grant for the project “Residential Mobility in Upper Palaeolithic Europe” @palarchgroup.bsky.social @uhaunivienna.bsky.social @fwf-at.bsky.social 👇

Cut from the same cloth? Comparing Neanderthal processing of faunal resources at Amud and Kebara caves (Israel) through cut-marks analyses 🏺🧪 www.frontiersin.org/journals/env... Suggests distinctive butchering between Amud and Kebara caves despite comparable occupation, lithics, and resources.

Very excited to receive an ERC Starting Grant to study the earliest archaeological and biomolecular evidence of Homo sapiens in NW Europe Watch this space for new positions in Bristol in 2026! 🎉 #HorizonEurope #ERCStG

Considering the EAA’s contradictory statements and its position of holding volunteers responsible for limiting free speech, shaming the professional class, I will not present this year, will not renew my membership, and call for the Executive Board’s resignation.

#1 New Publication! Kumar Akhilesh, Susana Rubio-Jara, Joaquín Panera, Manuel Santonja, Alfredo Pérez-González, Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Patricia Bello-Alonso & Shanti Pappu. 2025. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41982-025-00224-3#citeas Read this thread...

New Publication! Kumar Akhilesh, Susana Rubio-Jara, Joaquín Panera, Manuel Santonja, Alfredo Pérez-González, Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Patricia Bello-Alonso & Shanti Pappu. 2025. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41982-025-00224-3#citeas

Animals don’t just live in their environments—they transform them. And in doing so, they may also shape their own evolutionary trajectories. Our new paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution introduces a framework for zoogeochemical niche construction. A thread 👇

I feel exactly the same! Really enjoying chatting about caves, carnivores and extictions. Looking forward to working together!

We’re delighted to be hosting Dr Meir Orbach (AKA @meirzooarch.bsky.social) on a Rothschild Fellowship this year. Meir is working with Prof Hannah O’Regan on lateglacial faunas and extinction. #archaeology #caves #zooarch 🧪🏺

Carnivores, caves, #fossils and #archaeology. I’m really enjoying chatting with Meir about the Pleistocene and the beasties that inhabited it. Nothing like a bit of #Quaternary #palaeontology to start the #palaeoecological thoughts going again. It’s great to have you join us in Nottingham, Meir!

Mechanical experiments are in progress at TraCEr by @eduardopaixao.bsky.social, testing the impact of different raw materials on the crushing of raw tubers. This study is part of broader research on early human behavior and percussive tool use at the Acheulean site of Melka Wakena, Ethiopia

The first week of excavations and stratigraphic documentation at Dalarik-1 Cave was very successful! The trip to Kalavan village - and the homonymous Palaeolithic sites - was the best treat for a day-off! A stop at Gutanasar volcano was a must! @humendylab.bsky.social #TransCause

Volcanos, glacial lakes, #Kalavan, and new friends #Armenia @humendylab.bsky.social

@arikmalinsky-b.bsky.social @norarch.bsky.social @yannismicrooikon.bsky.social @lausanrom.bsky.social @dr-eva-martellotta.bsky.social

Back to Armenia, back to Dalarik-1 Cave, with a large international team from Armenia, Spain, Israel, Greece, France, Portugal, Italy & beyond! Let the excavation of this unique Middle Pleistocene site start! 🎉 #TransCause @humendylab.bsky.social

Here we are! #TransCause team in Armenia @humendylab.bsky.social

The HEAS Podcast is back! In this episode we meet with @marcel-weiss.bsky.social and @aurelienmounier.bsky.social to talk about Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, Archaeology and Geometric Morphometrics and more! www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vMe...

📢New research paper, led by Theo Karampaglidis & colleagues, integrates geomorphological mapping & sediment analysis & dating (Cosmogenic Nuclides & OSL) to reconstruct environmental history over the past 900,000 years in Ararat Depression! Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thanks @drloessismore.bsky.social it was a pleasure to get it done together

Our new study lead produced enhanced paleo‑geomorphological mapping of the Ararat Depression to decode how shifting landforms shaped human movement and settlement in the Late Pleistocene doi.org/10.1016/j.qu... @humendylab.bsky.social @arikmalinsky-b.bsky.social @yannismicrooikon.bsky.social

Read the latest from the @flindersuniversity.bsky.social #Archaeology #humanevolution and #dispersal Research Group, @richardjhewitt.bsky.social @mikegeoarch.bsky.social and yours truly, and @Universidad de Alcalá archaeologist @Manuel Alcaraz-Castaño. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Paleolithic hominin occupations and Quaternary geomorphological evolution in the NE Ararat Depression (Armenia) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Middle Palaeolithic Human occupations, cultural behaviours and demogra... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We made it to the news this week;) "A 100,000-year-old burial site in Israel " www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/art... #prehistory #archaeology #funerary #paleolithic

A glimpse into our excavation at Tinshemet Cave! Slow process but amazing finds! One more month to go this season with hopefully nice results coming! 🦴⛏️💀 youtu.be/etGVHIBDHIw?...

If you want to know what I am doing every summer for the past 10 years ;)

📢 New publication: "The role of lithic technology in shaping mobility and decision-making: The case of Ararat-1 Cave" by Nora, D., Frahm, E., et al., in Quaternary Science Reviews (2025). 🔗 More info: doi.org/10.1016/j.qu...

🚨New paper alert!🧪 We explore the #Aurignacian at Grotta della Cala (southern Italy), providing robust evidence of human settlement shortly after the #CampanianIgnimbrite eruption (ca. 40 ka). 1/5 🌋 @tommyhigham.bsky.social @lucdoyon.bsky.social @boneslab.bsky.social & the University of Siena

🚨 New paper landing soon. An invited review for Cambridge Prisms: Drylands (www.cambridge.org/core/journal...) about #Quaternary #dryland dynamics. Some areas of emerging consensus, plus remaining contradictions. A short review (<5,000 words): selective not exhaustive