Slightly delayed #FieldworkFriday post...not a bad view from the 'office' this week.

Very nice new paper systematically mapping different structural types in northwest Saudi Arabia (www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/8/...). Note distinction between different types of 'desert kites' (large hunting traps) in the study area.

#FlintFriday. Some beautiful Neolithic arrowheads from central Saudi Arabia that we published a few years ago (Alghabban et al., 2015).

Nice discussion! www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-10...

#FieldworkFriday. Serious science in the desert.

It was a pleasure for the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta to host a visit from the Ambassador of Ireland to Malta, Caroline Whelan.

Looks like a rather similar site setting to the Latnija site that we are excavating in Malta. Hunter-gatherers often like similar kinds of site.

Photos from some recent trips to Tarxien and Tas Silġ Neolithic 'temples' in Malta. Amazing remains from about 5000 years ago.

#FieldworkFriday. Nice looking through pictures from various fieldwork seasons for the talk I did the other day. Had some amazing adventures with great friends and colleagues.

Homo no-lead-i. ... in seriousness, this is an interesting new paper! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Just out, our new paper "The state of the late Quaternary megafauna extinction debate...". We review the various perspectives, methods, and datasets which have been used to explore the extinction of many large animals. Was it humans, climate, or a mix of both? The debate continues!

(1/4) Continuing studies demonstrate the broadly global distribution of mass kill hunting structures, known as 'desert kites' where they are most abundant and longest studied, in Southwest Asia.

🧪🦣🏺 Strong criticisms of recent study claiming super-ancient origin forlineage leading to H. sapiens, which is contradicted by DNA that points strongly to a last common ancestor more like 600,000 years ago rather than +1 million. Also, geopolitics & nationalism often intersect with #HumanOrigins

Fieldwork Friday with the TerraForm team.

Jane Goodall obituary: Pioneer primatologist who inspired generations of scientists 🏺🧪👩‍🔬 www.nature.com/articles/d41... She was a tireless advocate for conservation, the welfare of captive chimpanzees and the protection of habitats.

Looking forward to giving this talk on October 15th. Open to all.

Rest in peace Jane Goodall. A real hero.

Anatomy of a sunset. Wied iż-Żurrieq.

End of Latnija 2025 excavations

Just finished a very successful first excavation with my TerraForm team ❤

Had the privilege of being involved in investigations of Xrobb l-Għaġin Neolithic 'temple' today. Super interesting.

Some recent views of the lovely geology of the south coast of Gozo. Lovely limestone. ❤

The continuing saga of the Homo naledi trainwreck www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XJd...

Important new paper on early Neolithic pottery in Malta. Congrats to the authors. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit. Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil. 1🧵 #PlaymobilÖtzi #PlaymobilInfestation

Nubian Levallois technology associated with southernmost Neanderthals🏺🧪 J Blinkhorn @clement-zanolli.bsky.social @huwgroucutt.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @chrisbstringer.bsky.social @mdpetraglia.bsky.social et al www.nature.com/articles/s41... Btw ~ 70 and 50 kya they expanded into Levant

#FieldworkFriday. Biscuits with the coffee today.

Fieldwork essentials

Nice coverage of our ongoing research timesofmalta.com/article/cave...

Lovely Maltese olive oil

Summer is gradually running out of energy

Fieldwork Friday is actually Office Friday this week, but it has been a busy week of fieldwork otherwise!

Sandbags are useful!

Our Neanderthal cousins have been intensively studied. But every year we learn more and more about them. A couple of recent papers highlight the kinds of hypotheses that are being tested by ongoing research. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... and open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/5-205

#FieldworkFriday. Stone walls near the sea 👌

Lovely little fields in northern Malta near Latnija

That time of year again, fieldwork begins!

#FossilFriday. Cool new animal fossils dating to about 60 thousand years ago from Għar il-Fkieren, Malta. Congratulations Rochelle Xerri, Eleanor Scerri and co-authors. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Yay, one of my favourite flowers is coming out. Sea Squills (Drimia maritima) emerge from a bulb. Often growing on what looks like very unpromising ground for a large plant, they suddenly appear around the time of the first rains in the Mediterranean.

Nice Middle Palaeolithic refits from India, like a 3d jigsaw, this is piecing back together stone tools made by people tens of thousands of years ago. By Akash Pandey. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A traditional Maltese village festa. The statue emerges from the church and is slowly carried around the village before returning to the church. This week is the peak of the festa season, and with impeccable timing the 'L’Gharajjex (showers) ta Santa Maria' also came today!

Old (/Upper) Qeparo, Albania. Had an amazing time staying here recently.

#FieldworkFriday. Trying to find the Paliavlako site in Corfu where Middle Palaeolithic stone tools and hippo fossils were found a few years ago.

I loved seeing these moulds for terracotta goddess figurines recently in the Archaelogical Museum of Corfu!

Anthropology collections manager job at the AMNH @amnh.org in New York! Additional info: A PhD (or PhD candidacy) is required to apply. Prior training in collections management and databases is essential. This is not a research position. Salary range $93-98k/year. careers.amnh.org/postings/4509

New paper I was an author of "The impacts of lateral obliqueness and edge angle on Levallois point morphology", led by Dr Amal Al Kassem. journals.ed.ac.uk/lithicstudie...

Was lucky to recently visit the amazing site of Butrint in Albania, fascinating and beautiful.

No, you don't prounced the 'th' in Neanderthal (it sounds like Neander-tal). In case you'd forgotten.

The return of the majjistral (northwesterly) wind has pushed away the very hot weather, and the sea has woken up. Beautiful walk this morning in the Blata tal-Melh area of western Malta.