Reposted by Michael E SmithMichael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 23/11/2024Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Archaeologist: The cup is a polished redware Aztec-period (1300-1520 CE) cup from an offering at the site of Coatetelco, Morelos. Most likely used to drink chocolate. 1245
Reposted by Michael E SmithWelwyn Archaeological Society @welwynarchsoc.bsky.social · 08/08/2026A tombstone from St Mary's churchyard in #Hitchin, #Hertfordshire for #SkullSaturday. It is so eroded the text is not readable and there are even holes right through the stone. @churchmonuments.bsky.social @graveyardarch.bsky.social 0123
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 18/07/2026This is one of the best books I've read in a long time! Some uncomfortable discussion, and much insight. It puts into context professional developments that I was aware of, but hadn't put it all together. Smart, incisive, very readable. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...press.princeton.eduWe Have Never Been WokeHow a new “woke” elite uses the language of social justice to gain more power and status—without helping the marginalized and disadvantaged 141
Reposted by Michael E Smith(Dr) Rena Maguire @justrena.bsky.social · 04/05/2026A senior archaeo mate sent this to me, dont know the source/artist to credit, but it's strangley accurate... 94314
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 07/07/2026After a long delay, my paper on ancient urban resilience is finally out: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...cambridge.orgCities, shocks, and persistence: new approaches to urban resilience in the past | Global Sustainability | Cambridge CoreCities, shocks, and persistence: new approaches to urban resilience in the past - Volume 9 152
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 06/07/2026New blog post, about why it is NOT a good idea to support a new predatory journal in archaeology. publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2026/07/just...publishingarchaeology.blogspot.comPublishing ArchaeologyJust What we DON’T Need: A New Predatory Journal in Archaeology I just got a notice about a new predatory journal, “ Archaeological Stud... 020
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 05/07/20261st look: A new archaeology journal! Yay! Closer look: Hmmm, it’s MDPI. New look: A new PREDATORY archaeology journal. Boo! www.mdpi.com/journal/arch...mdpi.com 031
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 05/07/2026Kino wondering why folks put so much effort last night into making big noises that didn’t bother him at all. This lab is the most chill doggo we have ever had. 000
Reposted by Michael E SmithHyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 05/07/2026In addition to hundreds of small-scale items linked to smuggling schemes, investigators have seized 120 objects worth between $20,000 and $26 million from The Met’s holdings since 2017.hyperallergic.comValue of Looted Objects at Met Museum Tops $95M After New SeizuresSeveral ancient sculptures and vessels acquired between 1971 and 2001 were among the objects extracted from The Met's collection this June. 02210
Reposted by Michael E SmithRachel Hope Cleves @rachelcleves.bsky.social · 30/06/2026An open letter, to readers, about Charity and Sylvia. I am very pained to feel the need to write this. #queerhistory #pride 1122271719
Reposted by Michael E SmithDavid Roberts @volts.wtf · 24/06/2026If you care about climate science, here's a great new site to bookmark:nytimes.comFormer NOAA Employees Revive Climate Site Shut by Trump Administration 9315119
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 24/06/2026Publishing Archaeology: How to give a bad conference talk! publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to…. (from 2011) 000
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Very strange; the journal Reviews in Anthropology has now published two (count ‘em, 2) low-quality reviews of Graeber and Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything. They published a superficial review article in 2022, and now they have published a 3-page description of the book (called ... 1/2 100
Reposted by Michael E SmithDuck of Minerva @duckofminerva.bsky.social · 05/06/2026Rest Well, Raul Pacheco-Vega Our community lost the inimitable Raúl Pacheco-Vega this week. Someone who knew him better than me should write a more definitive remembrance and maybe they have in some other corner of the internet. But, I haven’t seen a longer treatment yet (here is a terrific one!),…duckofminerva.comRest Well, Raul Pacheco-VegaOur community lost the inimitable Raúl Pacheco-Vega this week. Someone who knew him better than me should write a more definitive remembrance and maybe they have in some other corner of the internet. But, I haven’t seen a longer treatment yet (here is a terrific one!), so I thought I’d have a go at a remembrance. Raúl lived his life… 27126
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Wow, Willian Frej's photo book (Unforgotten: Ancient cities from a distant past) has won another book award! www.forewordreviews.com/awards/books... Email me if you want a pdf of my chapter, "Late Lessons from Early Cities." He is an incredible photographer, and this was a fun project for me 170
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2026I was diagnosed with cancer 10 weeks ago (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma non-Hodgkins, in my abdomen). I have had 3 rounds of chemotherapy at Mayo Clinic. Here I am at the start of treatment (I still had my hair then). A PET scan yesterday shows that the chemo is working; 1/2 330
Reposted by Michael E SmithKatharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 30/05/2026I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.” 380153255989
Reposted by Michael E SmithManisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 26/05/2026“Please stop. I don’t want an AI summary of my Google search. I don’t want an AI summary of the text message from my friend at work. I don’t want an AI summary of the email I’m about to read. Please just stop.” 💯 28863198
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 23/05/2026A few cactus flowers are out this morning. I can’t get videos to post to Bsky, so I can’t show the bees at work. These spectacular flowers bloom in the middle of the night, and by mid-morning they are gone. The bees don’t seem to find them before dawn. 052
Reposted by Michael E SmithSlenderSherbet @slendersherbet.bsky.social · 20/05/2026When assembling your dog, please make sure that you follow the instructions carefully. 616197042228
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 19/05/2026ASU professor (me), former research lab director retires after 20 years news.asu.edu/b/20260519-a... Well, its 43 years of teaching: Loyola University of Chicago, then SUNY-Albany, and finally, ASU.news.asu.eduASU professor, former research lab director retires after 20 years | ASU NewsWhen Michael Smith, professor at Arizona State University's School of Human Evolution and Social Change, read a book the summer after his freshman year of college at Brandeis University about the stor... 191
Reposted by Michael E SmithAlejandro Fábregas-Tejeda @alejandrofabregastejeda.com · 12/05/2026It is publication day for The Organism-Environment Pairing (@mitpress.bsky.social)! This 📗 has been deeply formative for me as a scholar, and it owes so much to so many wonderful people. I truly hope it finds many readers! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #booksky #philsci #histsci #philsky #evosky 820859
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 27/04/2026I’m eating peanuts and reading a senior honors thesis on the patio, listening to Bach partitas (keyboard), and Keno is keeping the yard free of cats. 010
Reposted by Michael E SmithEric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 22/04/2026This is a FRAUDULENT paper, AI-generated. My name was used as an author and I had nothing to do with it, never saw it until today e-pubmed.co.uk/journals/dig... The "Editors" Angelo Rossi Mori, David Mensah, and Zarnie Khadjesari and this "Journal" should be reported. 6224001033
Reposted by Michael E SmithMark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Congratulations to @stephenking.bsky.social for this well-deserved honor!👍 (Novels/Novellas: Approximately 65 to 67 Non-fiction books: 5 books. Short Stories: Over 200 Pseudonyms: 7 novels were published as Richard Bachman. Frequency: He has published at least one book almost every year since 1974) 1170328286196
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 10/04/2026Forty-seven years ago, Cindy and I were newlyweds excavating at Copan, Honduras (central Mexicanist grad students, slumming in Mayaland). During Semana Santa we took a trip to Tikal (Guatemala), and tonight our tickets from April 10, 1979 fell out of one of my books on Tikal (writing a paper). 2141
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 07/04/2026The bird is sometimes shown on a warrior shield. Colonial documents say that the dynasty of Calixtlahuaca was called chimalli, which is the Nahuatl word for shield. They also say the Spanish friars forcibly moved the population of Calixtlahuaca into Toluca to provide labor to build a church. 0144
Reposted by Michael E SmithAdam S. Green @adamsgreen.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Democracy isn't a modern luxury—it's a political strategy with deep roots. In our new study for Science Advances, we analyse 40 different societies and develop a framework for measuring human governance along a collective-autocratic axis. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgThe distribution of power and inclusiveness across deep timeDemocratic practice in the premodern world was not the exclusive domain of Greece and Rome. 13513
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Ha ha, the NY Post plagiarized parts of an unpublished report of mine on the "Roman" figurine from Calixtlahuaca, but ignored the logical conclusions and added bogus info to produce a sensationalized account. nypost.com/2026/03/19/s... My account is here: www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/tv...nypost.com2,000-year-old artifact may be evidence that Romans found New World — a thousand years before ColumbusWas there a New World order we didn’t know about? 162
Reposted by Michael E SmithVincent J Lynch 🐘🦣🦥 🦇🐋🐢🐍 @devoevomed.bsky.social · 13/03/2026This is just racketeering, #preprint and be done with it already… 121
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 08/03/2026Nice desert hikes with Kino last week and today 030
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 08/03/2026youtube.com/watch?v=APVw.... Truly awful video filmed at Teotihuacan, with Raquel Welch.youtube.comRaquel Welch - Aquarius & Let The Sunshine InYouTube video by MothraBlues 000
Reposted by Michael E SmithVincent J Lynch 🐘🦣🦥 🦇🐋🐢🐍 @devoevomed.bsky.social · 05/03/2026Apropos the obvious... substack.com/@devoevomed/...substack.comThe Extinction of TruthOr, a Colossal Pile of Bullshit 072
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 06/03/2026Just accepted for the journal Global Sustainability: "Cities, Shocks, and Persistence: New Approaches to Urban Resilience in the Past." 041
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 28/02/2026Time to read Robertson Davies again. I’ll start with the Deptford Trilogy. 020
Reposted by Michael E SmithMel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 20/02/2026I don’t think using large language models is unethical. I also don’t think it’s a good idea to use a nail gun as a toothbrush, even if the nail gun company runs late night television ads that say “makes a great toothbrush!” 1295
Reposted by Michael E SmithPat Savage @patrickesavage.bsky.social · 18/02/2026We (@johnmcbride4lyf.bsky.social, @yutoozaki.bsky.social, @mhoeschele.bsky.social, Alex Ruf, Raphaël Powis, @musiccognition.bsky.social & I) wrote this up into a formal critique of the Science paper claiming to demonstrate beat synchronization in macaques: doi.org/10.31234/osf... 0277
Reposted by Michael E SmithMichelle Bruton @michellebruton.bsky.social · 18/02/2026This GOOD BOY ran onto the course during the Women’s Cross-Country Skiing Team Sprint event, crossing the finish line and being automatically recorded by OMEGA’s photofinish camera 😆 101105012651
Reposted by Michael E SmithMaris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 17/02/2026Here is some essential reading on bulllshit publishing technologies, featuring a couple quotes from me. www.wired.com/story/why-ge...wired.comWhy Generative AI Won’t Disrupt BooksEvery new technology from the internet to virtual reality has tried to upend book culture. There's a reason they've all failed—and always will. 14011
Michael E Smith @michaelesmith.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Long thread at the other place on how Karl Polanyi distorted evidence from early economies in order to support an erroneous view of pre-capitalist economics. Too much effort to post in both places. x.com/MichaelESmit... 020