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Open Research at York @uoyopenres.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It’s wonderful to see our research finally out. It shows that the amazing Devil’s Arrows in Boroughbridge, Yorkshire were transported 18km from Brimham Rocks (not Plumpton!) to the site. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspa/article/4…

Two tall tapering megaliths forming the Devil’s Arrows.

A massive grey megalith with blue sky behind.

One of the more squat megaliths with a sunburst behind it.

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Reposted by Jim Leary

Researchers @uoyarchaeology.bsky.social and Curtin University have shed new light on a series of prehistoric stones in Yorkshire, revealing the 25-tonne structures were hauled 11 miles across land by Neolithic builders 🪨 Open access paper in @royalsociety.org Proc. A doi.org/10.1098/rspa... 🔓 📄

york.ac.uk

Neolithic ‘Devil’s Arrow’ stones travelled 11 miles across Yorkshire, study reveals

Researchers have shed new light on a series of prehistoric stones in Yorkshire, revealing the 25-tonne structures were hauled 11 miles across land by Neolithic builders.

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Thanks Adam. Appreciate your photos.

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We’re working on that at the moment.

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Try the link in the last post.

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As important, I think, is that we can reveal that the 15th-century Battle Cross in Aldborough is another ‘missing’ Arrow, hiding in plain sight.

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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

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For #StandingStoneSunday, I present the High and Low Bridestones on the exposed limestone pavement of Sleight's Moor, North York Moors, near the village of Grosmont. Neolithic or Bronze Age, they are a highly complex set of megalithic alignments and circles but poorly understood.

A leaning, grey megalith surrounded by purple heather.

More squat, grey stones in a line alongside purple heather.

Another image of the grey stones surrounded by moorland.

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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Ha - good point! There is a chance the buildings might float away.

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Reposted by Jim Leary

Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The stones in Utrecht are so wild that they have to be chained to the buildings. This unnamed stone (not the famous Devil’s Stone) was probably used to prevent carts from damaging the side of building. #StandingStoneSunday

A grey boulder lying on the side of a paved road, chained to the wall.

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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

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Reposted by Jim Leary

Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Someone’s excited! An Iron Age (c.600 BC) figure carved from oak and found in 1880 in Broddenbjerg bog near Viborg, Central Jutland. Now in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. #WoodWednesday (literally)

A photo of a roughly hewn wooden figure, with a penis so large it looks look like a third leg being lifted up.

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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

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Reposted by Jim Leary

I paid my respects to the Bronze Age Egtved Girl in Denmark this week. Around 17 years old and 160 cm tall, she was buried one summer's day in 1370 BC. I went to the National Museum in Copenhagen, and there she was. Or wasn’t, since hardly any of her remains survived.

Photo of the Egtved girl burial. A hollows log with cowskin laid in it and then the burial laid out.

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But the greatest impression came from the children’s playground, which was archaeologically themed. If we want to get the next generation into archaeology, this is the way to do it!

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I also travelled to the burial mound from which she was excavated, and it’s glorious. There’s an excellent, relatively new display with various reconstructions and lots of information.

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Two things I found most impactful about her burial were that mourners placed a small yarrow flower on the edge of her coffin. This tells us she was buried in the summer. But what really took my breath away is that you can still see the impression of her legs on the hide.

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At her feet is a small bark bucket that once held a mixture of beer and wine made from wheat and cranberry, sweetened with honey. As well as the wrapped cremated bones of a 5- or 6-year-old child were also placed with her. Was this a sibling?

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They buried her with her jewellery - a thin earring and two bronze arm rings. And placed a bronze belt plate decorated with spirals on her stomach. By her face is a bark box with a bronze awl and the remains of a hair net.

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Her short, fair hair has survived, as have her teeth, nails, and a little skin. And her clothing. She wore a short, crop-top blouse and a cord skirt that reached the knees. She died one summer, and mourners laid her on a cow skin in a log coffin.

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Quantum Sauce @quantum-sauce.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

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Reposted by Jim Leary

☀️A sunsenational night of solar science! Quantum Sauce meets @wxwakefield.bsky.social beneath #Helios, for chats about: - our sun’s life story🌌 - solstice religions🛘 - geothermal energy futures♨️ Massive thanks to Dr Felix Sainsbury-Martinez, @undertheground.bsky.social & @jimleary.bsky.social! 👏

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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Ahh - the Halnaker tree tunnel 💖

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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Grooved Ware is pretty well studied and emerges first in Orkney, around 3200BCE. Pretty much the whole of Late Neo culture in Britain and Ireland develops in Orkney and spreads from there. See papers in Copper at al. 2024.

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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

😂 He’s a passionate man!

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I know Fabio will have done an amazing job, but yeah more info. Ideally the press release should accompany a proper publication of the site.

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The original press release was pretty out there tbh. Ah - ahem - I think that must be a misquote …

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It think it’s because theories are like Stonehenge itself, they go round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel.

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It’s a shame, isn’t it? Stonehenge *is* an amazing site, but it’s flogged until it’s stone-cold dead, and it’s difficult to believe anything that’s said of it. Especially when there’s no accompanying publication. These findings, anywhere else, would not be newsworthy.

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A lot frustrates me about the press release put out. Why is the date so precise? All C14 dates are a range - is 2950BCE the median, the start, or the end of the range? And the interpretation of the (very nice) discoidal knife/scraper as a symbol of the sun disc is many levels of bonkers.

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