Welp here we are again, fresh out of Archaeologists for Skype a Scientist matches. This fall, we have matched 248 groups with Archaeologists for online Q&As. I have 38 more groups who need a match, but I'm out of Archaeologists! Archaeologists! Please volunteer www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

Excited to be giving a talk this Thursday for the Badenoch Heritage Festival on Croftgowan (the sometimes-forgotten site from my PhD! www.eventbrite.com/e/fragments-...

🗣️ New paper! 🗣️ The mobility patterns of the population of Gallo-Roman Tienen (Belgium) are keeping you up at night? Wondering if there is more than mobility reflected in these 87Sr/86Sr results? This is very relatable, and conveniently, I have the right paper for you! It's accessible right there 👇

Ever wondered what life was like at the end of the Ice Age? What did people eat? How did they make tools? Come and meet the PALaEoScot team at Explorathon on Sept 14th 11am-4pm at UoA’s King’s College in Old Aberdeen and meet our living prehistorians at their camp! Link below ⬇️

BTC Call for Action - EAA EAA reversed its decision to exclude Israeli institutions complicit in the genocide of Palestinians after intimidation campaigns. Read & share the full statement: blacktrowelcollective.wordpress.com/2025/09/02/b...

We are on our way to @isba11.bsky.social 🚅 Ready for a week of archaeology and science 🏺🦴🦷🧪⚛️🥼🍝🍕

A slightly more accessible route in to our research on Neolithic Ireland and the early breakdown of genetic kin as an organising principle for burial, as early at 3600 BC (from memory) - due to increasing mobility. Thanks for the heads up @pennybickle.bsky.social 👍🏼

Also - come and get my job! Which I’m still partially doing, but someone needs to take up the slack/ allow me to send them to far flung locations to retrieve mysterious ancient samples. See the World*! *mainly Britain. crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Our bioavailable strontium baseline for Corsica is out! ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ranges from 0.7075 to 0.7169 and was established from 245 plant & soil leachate samples from 125 sites. Check out the article here lnkd.in/e6pDJFCY and the dataset can be downloaded from the IsoArcH database here lnkd.in/eFNS5Xbw

Impromptu talk by @lucyjkoster.bsky.social on determining animal versus human bone on trench, following up on yesterday's training our volunteers had with our reference collection.

After a rainy few days, we're finally getting into the nitty gritty and delving into the silty sand.

I had a wonderful time celebrating my PhD and saying goodbye to @uoa-archaeology.bsky.social last week! Especially grateful to @flinklinus.bsky.social and @whatkatiedigs.bsky.social for being excellent supervisors and seeing me off!

Taking a couple of weeks away from @brusselsbioarch.bsky.social for fieldwork at @sedgefordarch.bsky.social in Norfolk! Our human remains volunteers have made an excellent start so far and I will be spamming updates as we go 😊💀💀

I've had the best time in Aberdeen! I'm sad to be leaving but excited for everything to come in Belgium ☺️

Meet Patxi Pérez Ramallo, new SHOC member! Patxi will be working as a postdoctoral researcher on the Make-Up of the cities project under the supervision of Bart Lambert. Click on the link below to read his bio. shoc.research.vub.be/en/patxi-per...

Honestly, same. People are like "well you *must* be smart with a PhD!". Absolutely not, I am merely obsessively interested in an extremely niche topic and far more stubborn than is good for my health, and otherwise I am content to bumble through my life, occasionally walking into walls.

This is useful, from Scientific American Biology doesn’t give us a simple binary model of sex Society, law and infrastructure needs to catch up so that everybody can have privacy, dignity and safety www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-...

Biological sex is messy. It’s isn’t a simple case of XX and XY. It’s far more complicated than that. So how can you define a woman based on biological sex? What is meant by ‘biological sex’? This ruling by the UK Supreme Court is just so stupid, dangerous and a travesty for trans women, 1/

I would like to say that I have never felt that trans women's rights in any way reduce my rights as a cis gendered woman.

The law needs to catch up with our understanding of human biology - this book is out early next month and is v illuminating: if we can cope as a society with the embodied complexities of how people develop and experience a spectrum of sexualities, then we can cope with a gender-sex spectrum

Solidarity with the trans community from this ally today! With those ace, intersex, & all who see themselves LGBTQIA+, too! I expected the SC ruling tbh (it's not a liberally minded outfit) but I'm also putting this out there because even biological sex is massively complex & certainly not binary.

'What’s the problem? Well, pretty much everything. These aren’t species returned from extinction.' @oxfordgeography.bsky.social's Dr Richard Grenyer argues that extinction is, for the time being, a symptom of our global economic system ⬇️

Inside me there are two wolves. One of them has a 15 genome edits the other 20 genome edits. Neither of them is a dire wolf.

NO THEY ARE NOT DIRE WOLVES. These animals do not have their ecosystem to return to. These animals do not have a real pack to rear them. And DO NOT BE BAMBOOZLED- storing and archiving animal's genetic material is NOT an effective bulwark against the human-driven planetary extinction crisis.

Truth.

It's been a week since I passed my viva and became Dr Koster (pending minor corrections)! The most exciting part was of course my excellent long cist cake by the wonderful @whatkatiedigs.bsky.social #PhDdone

A massive thank you goes to everyone who has donated, as thanks to you we have met our target! Were also happy to say that we're putting some of the gift aid towards our John Hensby Bursary fund, which subsidises places for those who who cannot take part for financial reasons.

We're 94% of the way to our goal, so are very close to being able to achieve our goals of becoming more sustainable and eco-friendly.

Twigstats, a new method for high-resolution analysis of genetic history using #aDNA published yesterday in @nature.com, is an exciting move towards more nuanced studies of past human interactions and mobility. www.crick.ac.uk/news-and-rep...

Finally have a #HillfortsWednesday contribution! Caer Bran on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall from the family walk yesterday, featuring views of the sea from all sides

Chaos occurring in the Koster household! Cornish cream tea with Welsh jam on Dutch oliebollen 🤣 Happy New Year!

Happening everywhere. By increasing toxicity, micromanagement, and money-squandering in academia, management opens the door for downscaling & even closure, which will be loved by those in power. In the ideal neoliberal society, culture & education must be suppressed. www.scotsman.com/education/co...

Want to have a go at archaeology? Don't know what to get an archaeology-mad person for Christmas? SHARP runs 'dig for the day' taster sessions. These include getting to dig on a real archaeological site, as well as taking part in processing finds and enviro samples.

Who better to help grade an essay on cat domestication than a thoroughly domesticated cat?

It's that time of year again. The extended anticipation of knowing exactly what you want but wondering if you'll get it. 🎁 #AcademicSky #postdoc #PhDsky [Comic by The Upturned Microscope]

Terry Pratchett was a wise and gifted writer!

Dr Shalen Prado talks about her research on phytoliths and ceramics to help uncover what plant-based foods were used by the Picts. Some of this research was covered in a recent publication, check that out too: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bq1...

I'm Lucy, and I am autistic, have several mental health conditions, chronic pain, and am proud to be #DisabledinSTEM. I am a biomolecular archaeologist and I've just finished my PhD on isotopes and aDNA in early medieval Scotland!

Once upon a time (a very long time ago) universities were communities of teachers and scholars (universitas magistrorum et scholarium) rather than a means of making profits

I realise that we all think our immediate world is the most important. But… this is mad, right? Half of the UK universities overturning departments & programmes and government utterly disinterested? The Education Committee not even wanting to ask questions?

I've been writing about memes in archaeology all day, which reminded me of this one that I came up with in a flash of inspiration a few months ago. Thought I'd share it here for those that didn't see it on the other place...

Starting my Sunday with a book and a cup of tea... Finally have the time and energy post-thesis submission! 📚

A quick plug for the GB isotope biosphere map and its video explanation update. www.bgs.ac.uk/datasets/bio...

www.bajrfed.co.uk/bajrpress/ar... Today we release the BAJR Poverty Impact Report 2024, continuing the work begun with the first Report in 2022. Contained within are the voices of 644 colleagues. Read, absorb and act. Discussions on BAJR Facebook [ this time with Image ]

This little goon (Viktor) thinks cuddles are more important than grading...

Hi, I'm Lucy! I'm an #archaeologist specialising in human #isotopes, #aDNA, and #osteoarchaeology, and I've just submitted my PhD thesis at the University of Aberdeen! I'm also a supervisor with sedgefordarch.bsky.social, and cat mum to Smokey and Viktor.