It's #FatBearWeek

If you invested in conkers this year, congratulations. Yields are off the scale. I'm seeing some really big numbers.

We only have a couple of small pear trees but they did us proud this year.

For the Equinox, and with thanks to SunCal. Does anyone see a Lunulae?

Flinders University has abolished the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Another destructive restructure is about to happen.

Making peri-Equinox pancakes

The start of a new term imminent at @uclarchaeology.bsky.social and Gordon Square is looking very welcoming and summery still. It's been great starting to meet the new MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic archaeology students this year. 🦣🏺🧪

Jeez

There is always some special about the new moon and Venus sharing the same corner of sky.

18/9/25 - nocturn

Be part of Within|Without, the archaeology conference exploring how partitions shape who we are. 🗓 Saturday 18 October 2025 🕘 9:15 AM – 5:30 PM 📍 Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin 🌍 In-person and online options 👉 bit.ly/Within-Without #WithinWithout2025 #NMSArchaeologyConference

Ever wonder why the universe exists, which countries have no mosquitoes, or where Boudicca is buried? Over at @livescience.com we’ve got a newsletter that answers them all! 🧪🏺

It's sausage night!

More evidence this week that the Palaeolithic record is at huge risk in Britain from inconsistencies in the planning system from county to county. We've known this for over a quarter of a century but remedies only ever piecemeal and inadequate, meanwhile we are losing our early prehistoric past. 🏺🦣

We're delighted to announce that Dr Alexandra Ault FSA has been appointed as our new Head of Collections & Library. Alexandra comes to the Society from the British Library, where she was Lead Curator of Manuscripts (1601-1850). She will start as Head of Collections and Library later this month.

Something beautiful for the weekend! An extraordinary Acheulean handaxe knapped around a fossil shell c. 500,000-300,000 years ago! The shell’s central display has been described as an example of aesthetic intention by the toolmaker. West Tofts, Norfolk. 📷 MAA Cambridge University #Archaeology

The Blue Eye, in the mountains near Teth, Albania, is a natural spring and associated spring fed-pools. Although the word 'spring' doesn't really do it justice, get above it and you are looking into a 10m wide circular chasm into a karstic system constantly discharging huge amounts of water.

Waking up at one of my favourite places

Any handwriting experts out there? Oh wait, we don’t need one because we have eyes…

In #Palaeolunch today we discussed the updated Berger et al Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi. There is a lot of good taphonomic detail and more nuance, we cant reconcile that with the title of the paper. #PaPa 🏺🦣 elifesciences.org/articles/891...

Stone sculptures of Romanesque monsters from the 13th century church of St Mary, Apollonia, Albania.

Butrint: Greek Polis, Temple to Asclepius, Roman City and Byzantine Bishopric. All by the side of an inlet to Strait of Corfu which seems to be rising to claim the ruins.

Full Moon. I always see the brow ridges first.

The island of Othonoi on our horizon

Apollonia, a Greek colony and subsequent Roman city in Ilyria, now in central Albania. Octavian was studying here when he heard Ceaser had been assassinated. Its just a short trip back to Italy from here.

popping my head in to post this on behalf of and at the request of my very dear friend and colleague matt walsh who is not very online. #eaa2025

Good evening from the Ceraunian Mountains. This evening doing what it says on the tin ⚡

It's really sinking in that the EAA are requiring session volunteers, the least powerful people at a conference, to enforce their anti democratic decision to curb the academic free speech of presenters. It's despicable.

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...

Tirana cityscapes

‘Let us not risk getting trapped in the last war.’ My piece for @pbe.co.uk on why the wellbeing v GDP framing has run out of road pbe.co.uk/insights/bey...

The floating museum Galeón Andalucía looking spectacular and formidable in harbour at Shoreham-by-Sea today.

I meant to share a pic of the first crumble of the season before we demolished it.

It's an odd detail, but in the 80s the launch keys for U.S. thermonuclear weapons, which were capable of incinerating millions, had dymo labels reminding the crew to turn them 'gently'

Why, you might ask, do the BBC and Sky News, casting their editorial guidelines to the wind, keep giving massive airtime to the far right, while shutting out leftwing voices? Don't their bosses understand the likely consequences? Only one explanation now remains. They do. And it is what they want.

The coverage the BBC have given to Reform today is quite something.

Carl Spitweg's 1848 painting of The First Railway. Just 8 years before the discovery of the Neanderthal human, this image of human progress, subterranean worlds and mythic beings resonates. 🏺🦣

Not impressed with the lack of flags outside Buckingham Palace.

open.spotify.com/episode/79uJ... Feel so privileged to have interviewed Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley, who’s died aged 91, back in April. Her life story was extraordinary - arrived in UK on the Kindertransport,,started women only software business, pioneered remote working, major philanthropist

Yesterday Truce Words came up in conversation. True to the map, in our playground it was absolutely Fainites. Do these survive today? Do kids still use these words to surrender to someone twisting their arm, or get out of being in goal?

Last night, at Falmer Pond. Now a mere shadow of it's former self. I don't know how reduced the pond was in 1976 but it seems hard to know how this will recover easily. The dessication cracks go deep and with sand geology at shallow depth, it's existence at all was never certain.

A snapshot from my feed. Are you ok @danherb10.bsky.social ?

There are patrons and then there are patrons... Down in the labs at @uclarchaeology.bsky.social 🏺

MPP would disagree

🚨 Archaeology orgs, we need you! We’re reviewing CBA Organisational Membership as part of #ReconnectingArchaeology, and your input will shape how we support groups of all sizes across the UK. 🗓 Complete the survey by 5 Sept for a chance to win a £200 voucher. 👉 surveymonkey.com/r/3CNC8SZ

Open Day today! A rare chance in Jersey to see archaeology undertaken at the scale that answers questions and makes sense of settlement in landscape context. All under the direction of a great professional field archaeologist. 1/2 🏺

Coming soon....

1983 and Citadel Miniatures (presumably Rick Preistley) musing on how you might adapt Warhammer 1st edition for science fiction settings. Probably would have been the moment to invest.

Sunday Reading Sorted

Really proud of what we achieved working with Jersey Heritage's curatorial team, volunteers and some of our brilliant MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology students. #PaPa #IceAgeIsland 🦣🏺