We’re deep into Stonehenge silly season. A few comments from me here. www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

Chop, Chop! Axe-Marked Bronze Age Timber Found in Yorkshire 🪵🪓 Archaeologists excavating at Skipsea in Yorkshire have discovered a Bronze Age timber that has preserved the marks of the sockered axe used to fell the tree! Thanks, @jimleary.bsky.social! 📰 AWLOH: open.substack.com/pub/historyh...

For #FindsFriday, I'm gifting you this fantastic Bronze Age felled tree we’ve just excavated from #Skipsea in Holderness. The marks of the socketed bronze axe are clearly visible, and the thud of the axe is almost audible. Used - we think - as a post, perhaps for a trackway.

What is it about the Ridgeway that makes people ignore the dating of archaeologists and describe it as ‘Britain’s oldest road’? And the date of 5,000 years old is so strangely random. Every stretch of Roman road is older than the Ridgeway.

What have we found at #Skipsea this week? Well, on the edge of a small pond fed by springs and streams, we found this Iron Age horse’s head and neck. There is no body with it, and I can’t help thinking of it lying there with its large eyes closed and mane gently washed by water.

For #FindsFriday, I'm gifting you this fantastic Bronze Age felled tree we’ve just excavated from #Skipsea in Holderness. The marks of the socketed bronze axe are clearly visible, and the thud of the axe is almost audible. Used - we think - as a post, perhaps for a trackway.

What is it about the Ridgeway that makes people ignore the dating of archaeologists and describe it as ‘Britain’s oldest road’? And the date of 5,000 years old is so strangely random. Every stretch of Roman road is older than the Ridgeway.

What have we found at #Skipsea this week? Well, on the edge of a small pond fed by springs and streams, we found this Iron Age horse’s head and neck. There is no body with it, and I can’t help thinking of it lying there with its large eyes closed and mane gently washed by water.

Well, this is a wonderful find from the ancient lake edge at #Skipsea - a 1.3m worked wooden pole. A digging stick, possibly Mesolithic, is our best on-site guess, but we’ll know more when it’s back at the labs and reviewed by our wood expert. #WoodenWednesday #Prehistory #Peat

Well, this is a wonderful find from the ancient lake edge at #Skipsea - a 1.3m worked wooden pole. A digging stick, possibly Mesolithic, is our best on-site guess, but we’ll know more when it’s back at the labs and reviewed by our wood expert. #WoodenWednesday #Prehistory #Peat

For #FindsFriday, we have this wonderful piece of worked wood from our trench on the edge of the palaeolake at #Skipsea. Our student, Lydia, found it in an area that was once alder carr. At the moment, we don’t know its date, but it is likely prehistoric.

For #FindsFriday, we have this wonderful piece of worked wood from our trench on the edge of the palaeolake at #Skipsea. Our student, Lydia, found it in an area that was once alder carr. At the moment, we don’t know its date, but it is likely prehistoric.

For #FindsFriday I have the smallest of Small Finds for you - a titchy but beautiful Mesolithic shale bead. One of many that would have been strung on a necklace. Found out of context but not far from the edge of a lake at Skipsea in Holderness.

For #FindsFriday I have the smallest of Small Finds for you - a titchy but beautiful Mesolithic shale bead. One of many that would have been strung on a necklace. Found out of context but not far from the edge of a lake at Skipsea in Holderness.

I love digging prehistoric peat - the way the ground bounces with every movement, the soft, sucking nature of it, and the anticipation of what we’ll find in it. Skipsea, Holderness, preparing trenches for the student field school.

I love digging prehistoric peat - the way the ground bounces with every movement, the soft, sucking nature of it, and the anticipation of what we’ll find in it. Skipsea, Holderness, preparing trenches for the student field school.

It’s that time of year again when swallows arrive and skim the fields, and archaeologists flock to Skipsea in Holderness to open trenches.

It’s that time of year again when swallows arrive and skim the fields, and archaeologists flock to Skipsea in Holderness to open trenches.

The cart tracks of the North York Moors. Last year’s devastating fire on Fylingdales Moor has revealed archaeology in graphic detail. Medieval holloways and seventeenth and eighteenth-century cart tracks are visible for the first time and look as fresh as the day they were made.

The cart tracks of the North York Moors. Last year’s devastating fire on Fylingdales Moor has revealed archaeology in graphic detail. Medieval holloways and seventeenth and eighteenth-century cart tracks are visible for the first time and look as fresh as the day they were made.

I was back doing some fieldwork at one of my favourite Neolithic monuments yesterday. The neck-craning, almost 8m Rudston Monolith, a great, grey Yorkshire leviathan. The warden of the Wolds. No other standing stone in the UK beats it in sheer stature. #StandingStoneSunday

I was back doing some fieldwork at one of my favourite Neolithic monuments yesterday. The neck-craning, almost 8m Rudston Monolith, a great, grey Yorkshire leviathan. The warden of the Wolds. No other standing stone in the UK beats it in sheer stature. #StandingStoneSunday

The heart-quickening sight of an old friend. #SilburyHill - the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. A Neolithic monument I once spent a year inside. It is a mass of ancient matter, and quicksilver - substantial, heavy, brilliant, yet can’t be pinned down. #Neolithic

Get your popcorn 🍿 ready for tonight - 8pm BBC2, our excavations at #Skipsea in Holderness will be on #DiggingforBritain. @uoyarchaeology.bsky.social

Get your popcorn 🍿 ready for tonight - 8pm BBC2, our excavations at #Skipsea in Holderness will be on #DiggingforBritain. @uoyarchaeology.bsky.social

The Ehenside Tarn axe, found in Cumbria in 1869, now in the British Museum. An early Neolithic stone axe from Langdale, with its original wooden handle still attached. The haft always reminds me of Captain Caveman’s club! #FindsFriday

The Ehenside Tarn axe, found in Cumbria in 1869, now in the British Museum. An early Neolithic stone axe from Langdale, with its original wooden handle still attached. The haft always reminds me of Captain Caveman’s club! #FindsFriday

Hello old friends! A trip to London isn’t complete without a visit to say hello to the Folkton Drums. These Neolithic carved chalk cylinders found in a child’s burial in Yorkshire. I love their surprised little faces. #FindsFriday

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝟏𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐚𝐭 𝟓 𝐩𝐦 Dr Jim Leary and Dr Elaine Jamieson will be presenting our next lecture on ‘Life on the lake: The prehistory and history of Skipsea, Holderness’. At Burlington House and on youtu.be/dTxePLmT25I

Today’s fire path. The sun a flame-throwing marmalade ball.

Well, I was startled and delighted to hear that the Chinese-language edition of my book #Footmarks has won an Openbook Best Book of the Year award at a ceremony in Taipei. I wish I could’ve been there - instead I recorded my acceptance 👇 www.openbook.org.tw/article/p-71...

For #FindsFriday I offer this gorgeous 15,000 year old engraving of a reindeer calf, nervously standing next to its mum. Found in the Madeleine rock shelter in the Dordogne, France. Part of the excellent Ice Age Art exhibition at the Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley, Bradford. 🏺

For #FindsFriday I offer this gorgeous 15,000 year old engraving of a reindeer calf, nervously standing next to its mum. Found in the Madeleine rock shelter in the Dordogne, France. Part of the excellent Ice Age Art exhibition at the Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley, Bradford. 🏺

I loved Galway, but this is so sad to see - lines of drying peat cut to fuel heaters and warm homes. This is an incalculable loss to the environment and to archaeology🏺. It's not big business doing this, but small householders keeping a tradition alive that should be long dead.

I loved Galway, but this is so sad to see - lines of drying peat cut to fuel heaters and warm homes. This is an incalculable loss to the environment and to archaeology🏺. It's not big business doing this, but small householders keeping a tradition alive that should be long dead.

For #StandingStoneSunday I offer the Stone of Destiny, Lia Fáil, a one-metre granite pillar on a raised platform on the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath, Ireland. According to legend, High Kings of Ireland were crowned at the stone, which cried out if it was the true king. 🏺

For #StandingStoneSunday I offer the Stone of Destiny, Lia Fáil, a one-metre granite pillar on a raised platform on the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath, Ireland. According to legend, High Kings of Ireland were crowned at the stone, which cried out if it was the true king. 🏺

I love Irish round towers! Like giant grey pencils or a child’s drawing of a rocket. They date to the medieval period and were probably used as belfries or places of refuge. This one is at Kilmacduagh monastery in Co. Galway. It’s over 30m tall and has a decidedly eccentric lean. 🏺

I love Irish round towers! Like giant grey pencils or a child’s drawing of a rocket. They date to the medieval period and were probably used as belfries or places of refuge. This one is at Kilmacduagh monastery in Co. Galway. It’s over 30m tall and has a decidedly eccentric lean. 🏺

Topping off the top four megalithic sites in Ireland is Carrowmore in Co. Sligo. It is classified as part of the Neolithic passage tomb tradition, but many monuments look more like dolmens to me. It is a gorgeously striking site (and sight) though. 🏺

Topping off the top four megalithic sites in Ireland is Carrowmore in Co. Sligo. It is classified as part of the Neolithic passage tomb tradition, but many monuments look more like dolmens to me. It is a gorgeously striking site (and sight) though. 🏺

Another iconic monument ticked off the bucket list. Poulnabrone dolmen is one of Ireland's most photographed and photogenic monuments. It is set in the desolate and magnificent landscape of the Burren, Co Clare. #TombTuesday #Neolithic #Ireland

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Another iconic monument ticked off the bucket list. Poulnabrone dolmen is one of Ireland's most photographed and photogenic monuments. It is set in the desolate and magnificent landscape of the Burren, Co Clare. #TombTuesday #Neolithic #Ireland

Carrowkeel in Co Sligo, Ireland, is one of the most extraordinary Neolithic sites I’ve visited. The passage tombs are set in the Bricklieve Mountains (Speckled Mountain) and overlook Lough Arrow. The views, the sky, the purpling heather - magical! 🏺 #StandingStoneSunday

Carrowkeel in Co Sligo, Ireland, is one of the most extraordinary Neolithic sites I’ve visited. The passage tombs are set in the Bricklieve Mountains (Speckled Mountain) and overlook Lough Arrow. The views, the sky, the purpling heather - magical! 🏺 #StandingStoneSunday

This exquisitely carved 5000-year-old ceremonial macehead is one of Neolithic Europe’s finest works of art. Excavated from the passage tomb at Knowth in the Boyne Valley, Ireland, it is less than 8cm long and made of a hard, mottled cream-coloured flint. #FindsFriday #Neolithic

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This exquisitely carved 5000-year-old ceremonial macehead is one of Neolithic Europe’s finest works of art. Excavated from the passage tomb at Knowth in the Boyne Valley, Ireland, it is less than 8cm long and made of a hard, mottled cream-coloured flint. #FindsFriday #Neolithic

For #TombTuesday, I offer this beauty: the main passage tomb at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle in County Meath, Ireland. It has a series of smaller satellite tombs around it. The monuments sit on a series of hills and date to the Middle Neolithic period, around 5000 years ago.