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Dr. Rebecca Wragg Sykes Profile picture
Dr. Rebecca Wragg Sykes
@LeMoustier
Archaeologist, word-witcher, author of #KINDRED (#PENHessellTiltman winner 2021), now writing #MATRIARCHA 1/4 @trowelblazers Rep @pew_literary
Aug 2, 2023 • 13 tweets • 9 min read
Been pondering a lot since the new #HomoNaledi articles & #CaveOfBones film came out.
While I’m thinking of writing something longform, am also now sharing specific thoughts on #RisingStar interpretations as a 🧵:
- Access
- Fire
- Burial
- Aesthetics

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Image A few things at the outset: Palaeolithic archaeology is HARD; cave archaeology especially, & mortuary archaeology in caves even trickier.
Rising Star is fascinating, exciting, perplexing, and immensely challenging logistically not just to dig but to study & explain.

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Feb 9, 2022 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
V excited to see this out.
I talk a lot in #Kindred about #GrotteMandrin, its strange Néronien layer & who might have made it.
Now strong evidence it was Homo sapiens... who then apparently were replaced for millennia by #Neanderthals.
We need more nuanced extinction narratives! The Néronien at #GrotteMandrin has +1300 Levallois points, a uniquely huge amount, plus some are tiny (smaller than from any #Neanderthal contexts) & suggest light projectile weapons.
Even before tooth ID, this was culturally distinct & much more like IUP assoc w/ H. sapiens. Image
Jul 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
New paper showing more structured material engagement by #Neanderthals: alternating engraved marks on giant deer bone, Einhornhöhle (Unicorn Cave), Germany.
Congratulations to the authors!

(transparency: peer review docs are available, I signed as R1)
nature.com/articles/s4155… 3D model publicly available here : denkmalpflege.niedersachsen.de/live/instituti…
Aug 7, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
#FlintFriday
Flint and clay-ironstone resharpening flakes, Ash Tree Cave, Derbyshire.

Even tiny objects show #Neanderthals moving around their land.
These two artefacts were waste from tool edge maintenance (scrapers or bifaces), but don't match anything in the cave.
1/n Red-brown thin stone flake, under 2 cm long.White flint flake with fine tiny scars, 2 cm wide. But a few kms from Ash Tree Cave is @CreswellCrags, where scrapers & bifaces made of these stones were found in Church Hole and Robin Hood Cave.

We can't know if they were directly connected, but #Neanderthals were using the caves at Creswell & Ash Tree differently.

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Apr 9, 2020 • 15 tweets • 8 min read
Aaaand it's out!

#Neanderthals made fine twine 45-50,000 years ago!

newscientist.com/article/224011…

I gave comments to the above article, and here's my more detailed thread (on THREAD)

😁 This find comes from Abri du Maras, SE France, which has already shown exceptional organic preservation due to unusual thin mineral films on the artefacts.
Previous finds included proof of small game butchery: fragments of raptor feathers, rabbit/hare fur and fish scales.
Feb 18, 2020 • 26 tweets • 8 min read
Oh my GOSH
1st new #Neanderthal skeleton in +20 years

This is BIG stuff: plenty of bits & pieces found in that time plus vital re-examination of old claimed burials, but what's been missing is a new mostly-complete find we can use 21stC methods on

[off to read paper] Might tweet as I read 😁

But note: Shanidar is a tricky site and there's long been evidence of both potential intentional body deposits, AND natural rockfall as ways #Neanderthal bodies got into the ground.
Jan 15, 2019 • 33 tweets • 10 min read
Right I can't bear #Brexit so am treating everyone to a GIGANTIC THREAD on TRADE- #Neanderthal-style.

Hold onto your handaxes!
1/n DID #NEANDERTHALS TRADE? An excellent question but extremely hard to answer (even for early Homo sapiens) because it relies on a lot of assumptions about how Neanderthal society was organised.
We’ve got two ways in:
- how things were moved around
- how people moved around