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Diversos taxones vegetales en herramientas de percusión de 780 ka: Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel: alimentos de distintos paisajes, estaciones y modos de trabajo. Starch-rich plant foods 780,000 y ago: Evidence from Acheulian percussive stone tools https://buff.ly/3X1ThZB

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Honored to announce I’m writing a book! We understand the importance of stone tools in the Stone Age. But what about socks? Rope? Water bottles? Boats? How did we go from knocking rocks together to the Saturn V rocket? This work takes a long view perspective on how the things we make, make us.

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

A study in Scientific Reports of remains from the Maszycka Cave from 18,000 years ago finds evidence of cannibalism among these Magdalenian groups. https://go.nature.com/4hwUqAQ 🧪 🏺

submitted 13 days ago • 3 comments

A paper in Nature reports that the loggerhead turtle can learn and remember the magnetic signature of an area and does a ‘turtle dance’ when in a location that they associate with food. https://go.nature.com/4jSQEDo 🐢 🧪

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

On the shoulders (and above the mailboxes) of giants.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Does a scientific understanding of our world conflict with the marvelous wonder we experience in it? In a word: No. “The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.” - Anaïs Nin

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Both 10/10 contents AND 10/10 cover.

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. CARL SAGAN

submitted 31 days ago • 37 comments

A marble rendering of AL 288-1, better known as Lucy the Australopith. Very possibly our collective 10^5 great-grandmother. “Santa Lucia,” by Gabriel Vinas.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

The Earth’s magnetic North Pole is on the move, and at pace. Please pass this on to any mole rats, robins, eels, whales, butterflies, sea turtles, lobsters or other creatures that use magnetic fields to navigate (thankfully dung beetle navigation by the stars remains unaffected) 🧪🧭🐋🦞🦋🐢🪶🪲

submitted 36 days ago • 2 comments

Sound on for the Carnyx! This is what Romans would have heard going into battle against the Celts, who fought naked with severed enemy heads hanging from their saddles.

submitted 36 days ago • 2 comments

c. 12,000-year-old engraving of human figures, maybe pregnant women. Early Mesolithic period, Denmark.

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment

Archaeologists -by definition- only find things that survive. Usually that means durable materials; stone, bone, ceramics, glass and the like. This 3,500-year-old Egyptian axe shows how the stone head -often the only surviving component- once articulated with a wooden haft and leather bindings.

submitted 39 days ago • 1 comment

At almost 2,000 years old, this child’s wooden toy sword for ‘playing soldiers’ is a remarkable survival from Roman times! Dimensions: 29 cm (L) x 4.7 cm (W) From Vindolanda, a fort on the Roman Empire’s northern frontier. 📷 by me #RomanFortThursday #Archaeology

submitted 42 days ago • 14 comments

#whatsmoon

submitted 42 days ago • 2 comments

Sometimes archaeological sites yield truly exceptional finds. For example, this 3,000-year-old ball of yarn, bobbin, and woven fabric. Made from nettle or flax in the Bronze Age; Must Farm, Cambridgeshire, England.

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

Ursula K. LeGuin on technology

submitted 45 days ago • 113 comments

Resonant words for a winter Sunday: “When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.” Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

Don't forget to submit the abstract for the next #SAfA2025 before 31st of January !

submitted 52 days ago • 0 comments

One of my favorite rock art panels from Tassili n’Ajjer, SE Algeria; “The Great God of Sefar.” 8,000ish bp.

submitted 52 days ago • 0 comments

A wintry start to 2025 prompts a chilling blog post as my first of the year. From Scott of the Antarctic to the art of disarticulation, I dive into the history and science of wild orcas building waves to attack ice-bound seals. But is it tool use? 🧪🏺🦭 twig.technology/blog/killer-whale-wave-washing

submitted 55 days ago • 4 comments

#FossilFriday The beautifully preserved Jebel Irhoud 1 basal H. sapiens skull from Morocco, dated about 300,000 years old

submitted 55 days ago • 3 comments

2025 fashion icons/street style goals: The Lepinski Vir statuettes, c 9,000 bp from modern Serbia. Via Wikipedia, an “Impressive…embodiment of the female principle of the fishlike beings.” “Canonical, symmetrical, and rigid.” “Mysterious and lonely,” complete with “eyebags.” “Essential.”

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

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Interested in science communication? Want to more effectively spread the good news about Very Old Stuff? Apply for this awesome (expenses-covered) fellowship at Harvard!

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

An avowed artifact gal, this might be my very favorite one: an almost thousand-year-old rabbit net woven from human hair. statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhib...

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

Very cool. Makes me wonder about the relationship between this and a fractal. “Mathematicians soon realised that they could construct ever-larger infinite sets, creating a hierarchical ladder of sets that is itself infinite…”

submitted 72 days ago • 0 comments

Singing a song

submitted 99 days ago • 0 comments

“As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great (Christmas) Tree of Life”. -Chuck D

submitted 74 days ago • 1 comment