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Penny Bickle

@pennybickle.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.2K following 166 posts

Archaeologist | Orienteerer | Wanderer. Professor of Funerary Archaeology at the University of York, specializing mostly in the central European Neolithic.

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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
When do you give up on tomatoes ripening on the plant and start making chutneys?
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Jim Leary @jimleary.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
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. A photo of two of the Devil’s Arrows.
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Jan Turek @janturek.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The excavation of the Neolithic causewayed enclosure and an Iron Age house at Chleby is nearly completed. Students are cheering their achievement! Well done guys🤎👍🤎
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Fantastic visit to the site of Vráble yesterday, currently under excavation for the @neolithicbodies.bsky.social . We were there for our ReNEW project - so many new and exciting discoveries to come from this complex site. 🤩 @uoyarchaeology.bsky.social @prehistory-berlin.bsky.social
A small group of people crowd around an archaeological trench currently under excavation. One is holding a video camera.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Looking for recommendations of non-walking activities in the Lake District? A sprained ankle turns out to be a few broken bones in my foot, but the holiday was already booked - I would have been running at the Lakes 5 days orienteering - but not very mobile in the boot.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
New paper (I had a very minor role) with lovely folks interested in complex past social systems. Focusing on the Carpathian basin, the article argues that while social groups change with environmental variations, they do so in unpredictable and unique ways. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Adaptive connectivity networks across climatic and ecological regimes from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages in the Carpathian Basin
Investigating long-term archaeological land-use patterns is crucial for understanding how past populations adjusted settlement strategies, resource ex…
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Last official day at Kings Manor. Lots of exciting things about the move, but today is is about what a place this is to have worked! 12 years in my sanctuary of an office.
A beautiful blue sky over a green grassy courtyard surrounded by a medieval cloister and 1960s block
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Dr Susan Greaney @suegreaney.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Come join our team in Exeter! We're looking for a Lecturer in Archaeology for a three year teaching post, focusing particularly on practical skills and fieldwork (closing date 30 June): careers.exeter.ac.uk/vacancies/95...
careers.exeter.ac.uk
Lecturer in Archaeology ​(Education and Scholarship) in Exeter | University of Exeter
View details and apply for this Lecturer in Archaeology ​(Education and Scholarship) vacancy in Exeter. Lecturer in Archaeology (Education and Scholarship) This full-time post is avail...
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
real question can someone explain to me in lay person terms why university finances work the way they do? You spend the first 9 months secretly bringing your own biscuits to meetings and the last 3 months over ordering the expensive pastries to spend the cash before the end of July.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Really delighted to be speaking to the Royal Archaeological Institute in York next April, giving the Talbot Green lecture. Will be attempting to blend a "prehistoric" cheese making demonstration with talking about how Neolithic diets trouble our assumptions about human history as progress. Join us!
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Definitely pre-ordering this! Cannot wait to read.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
If you are in Berlin and what to find out about our AHRC-DFG project ReNEW, rethinking Neolithic ontologies of Waste, please come along to this talk on 28th May: www.fu-berlin.de/sites/dhc/pr... Part of the Forschung im Dialog series with the Freie Universitat Berlin
fu-berlin.de
Forschung im Dialog: ReNEW
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Now Bluesky seems to have returned to normal here is our special issue on Domestic and Funerary Archaeologies in Dialogue with World Archaeology. Lots of really interesting perspectives on how to understand death mediated and found in domestic spaces. Thanks to everyone involved!
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Turns out special issues are like buses! Today marks publication day for our World Archaeology issue on Domestic and Funerary Archaeologies in Dialogue. It has 11 great papers from Europe, the Americas and northern Africa. www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwar20/5...
tandfonline.com
World Archaeology
Domestic and Funerary Archaeologies in Dialogue. Volume 56, Issue 5 of World Archaeology
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
A great summary thread on our recent special issue in CAJ on “Kinship Trouble”
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Sabina Cveček @sabinacvecek.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Very happy to see this special issue published! It was lovely working with @genshinimpact-en.bsky.social, @pennybickle.bsky.social on this! 👇
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
This is such a lovely thread of posts about Cate and Carly's paper - if you are interested in archaeologies of kinship, that so often are informed by the context in which the dead have been mourned, this is one for you!
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Umberto Albarella STOP THE GENOCIDE! @umbertoalbarella.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The statement appealing for greater democracy in the EAA has now been made public. You can find it here:  drive.google.com/file/d/1ehzn...   We are still collecting signatures here: ee-eu.kobotoolbox.org/x/xZZjy6le
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The special issue this is based on is now published - all papers are open access! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Latest issue | Cambridge Archaeological Journal | Cambridge Core
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Hot off the press!! New open access special edition of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal on "Kinship Trouble". www.cambridge.org/core/journal... All papers are open access, and the papers, I think, really capture this dynamic moment in studies of past kinship.
cambridge.org
Latest issue | Cambridge Archaeological Journal | Cambridge Core
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Job news!! We're looking for an archaeological chemist to join us on the ReNEW project: on waste management during the transition to the Neolithic. This role will be to carry out organic residue analysis. The PDRA position is for 2 years: jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/post... Please share!
jobs.york.ac.uk
Jobs - The University of York
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Particularly enjoyed this "journey through a cow" on my walk to work this morning: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... Very meditative and illuminating, and I'm glad to get some time to seriously think about Neolithic dung during our ReNew project!
bbc.co.uk
Illuminated - Journey through a cow - BBC Sounds
Join a farmer, a cheesemaker, a philosopher and a scientist on a guided tour through a cow
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Sabina Cveček @sabinacvecek.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
🌟Kinship Trouble: Virtual Launch🌟 Join us on Tuesday, 14 April at 5pm CET/4pm BST/11am ET. Register below. We will present our special issue in Cambridge Archaeological Journal, co-edited w @pennybickle.bsky.social & @genscapelab.bsky.social #archaeology #anthropology therai.org.uk/events/cambr...
therai.org.uk
Kinship Trouble: Cambridge Archaeological Journal Special Issue Launch - Royal Anthropological Institute
This virtual launch is co-organized with the Archaeology and Gender in Europe (AGE) Network of the European Association of Archaeologists. Tuesday 14 April 2026, 4-6pm (BST) To join on Zoom, please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AIj41HC-Q-uN5dyYFK9VrA#/registration Kinship Trouble: Traversing Interdisciplinary Boundaries between Archaeology, Archaeogenetics and Socio-cultural Anthropology Speakers: Sabina Cveček (Field Museum of Natural History, Austrian
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Reminder that the launch for the upcoming special issue on Kinship trouble in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal will be held next Tuesday (see post below for link to sign up). The issue itself will be published open access itself on the 14th before we launch. Hope you can come and join us!
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Ramiro Barberena @ramiro-arqueo.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
1/6 Just out in @Nature ! 🌽 The history of farming in the southern Andes. In a collaboration between archaeologists, geneticists and Huarpe Indigenous communities, we investigate its origins and consequences in the Uspallata Valley. Read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Local agricultural transition, crisis and migration in the Southern Andes - Nature
In the Uspallata Valley, agriculture was adopted by local populations, as evidenced by genetic continuity from earlier hunter-gatherers to farmers; maize-dependent groups from the same regional p...
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
To celebrate our upcoming issue on "Kinship Trouble" in the Cambridge Archaeological journal, we're hosting a virtual launch on publication day; 14th April, 4pm-6pm UK time. The event is co-hosted by the Royal Anthropological Institute and AGE. To join, register here: therai.org.uk/events/cambr...
therai.org.uk
Kinship Trouble: Cambridge Archaeological Journal Special Issue Launch - Royal Anthropological Institute
This virtual launch is co-organized with the Archaeology and Gender in Europe (AGE) Network of the European Association of Archaeologists. Tuesday 14 April 2026, 4-6pm (BST) To join on Zoom, please re...
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
New Open Access Paper! We present the site of Al Uyaynah, Pre-Pottery Neolithic in Saudi Arabia, excavated by my former PhD student Dr. Khalid Alasmari. New set of C14 dates, thanks to @isotopesuk.bsky.social funding onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @uoyarchaeology.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
New Results From the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic Site of Al Uyaynah, Tabuk, in Northwestern Saudi Arabia
Al Uyaynah is a low sandstone mound on an alluvial plain, long known for its extensive surface remains of stone-built circular and rectangular structures. Following test excavations in 2012, more det...
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Given the choice, my border terrier, Hutton, would also happily get 83% of his calories from blueberries!
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
New paper! Led by Łukasz Kowalski, on drinking milk in the Funnel Beaker Culture, arguing for the complex interplay between gender, burial rites, and potentially ritual drinking of dairy products. Open Access in Praehistorische Zeitschrift www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
degruyterbrill.com
A first toast in Kuyavia: New evidence for drinking rituals in Neolithic Europe from Sławęcinek, Poland
Excavations at Sławęcinek in central Poland, have yielded evidence for the Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture, concurrent with a sweeping set of changes that occurred across much of Europe in the mid-fou...
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Always lovely to make a trip to Cambridge to chat to the great staff and students. This time speaking to the BioAnth crew :-)
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Enrico R. Crema @ercrema.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
We are looking for a research project manager for the upcoming FORAGER ERC Synergy Project. Based at the University of York, this is an exciting opportunity to work in a team of 37 researchers from the UK, the US, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and Japan. Join us! jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/rese...
jobs.york.ac.uk
Jobs - The University of York
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Currently advertising: PhD project on Neolithic waste, based with Henny Piezonka. Project focuses on spatial analysis and the Neolithic. Deadline is 9th Feb. A chance to work with a cool range of sites from Serbia to Poland and you get to live in Berlin, so what's not to like! Link in next post.
fu-berlin.de
GK-PA02_2025-WiMi-AB_Piezonka_RENEW
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Evidence for contact between LBK and hunter-gatherers, it grows at every turn, but we are no closer to really understanding the range and scope of relationships. The site of Eilsleben gives us more evidence of just how close interaction could have been. Plus that deer antler mask 🤩
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Wonderful study on a cow called Veronica and her use of tools! The video abstract is a treat, as is this thread. Definitely using in future lectures to talk about how we approach animal sociality and mutuality of being in the past. We all know how good it is to scratch that itch!!
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TAG 2025 @ York @tag2025york.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Our Don Henson Prize runner-up, Lizzie Lovejoy (@lizzie_lovejoy_illustration @lizzielovejoy.bsky.social) also produced a poem during the conference, a TAG Group Self-Portrait. We hope you enjoy it. And TAG will return. At Exeter on 14th-16th Dec. Save the Date and look out for more details soon.
TAG - Group Self-Portrait Poem

We are…
Here.
We are quite stupid, but curious
We are disillusioned and anxious
But we are many

We can…
Find ourselves.
We can listen, observe and speak.
We can think.
We can come together.
We can change and adapt and help and remember.

We will…
Learn and theorise.
Prevaricate.
We will act.
We will take some rest (especially after a three day conference).
We will join together
And drink.
We will hold space.
We will return.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
This marks a rather lovely way to wrap TAG in York and formally pass on to Exeter for this year's conference! Announcing the Don Henson Prize winner and some runner ups, as the panel had such a tough time deciding. Congratulations to Liz, Max and Lizzie!!
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Best part of getting back to work emails - seeing all the Christmas and New Year messages from former students with updates on what they are doing. It really is joyful.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Thank you to everyone for coming! I have loved this conference ever since my first TAG in 2003. I really hope there were people at York having the same brilliant experience I had in Lampeter. It feels so good to have given my part to keep the theory flames going. Now to sleep till January...
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Absolutely delighted to give this year's TAG prize to the Trowelblazers. Great way to kick off TAG!
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
New article published today! Funerary Practices Among Central European First Farmers in the Light of New Radiocarbon Dates: The Case of Southern Moravia/Western Slovakia Open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Chronology matters when comparing different funerary rites.
link.springer.com
Funerary Practices Among Central European First Farmers in the Light of New Radiocarbon Dates: The Case of Southern Moravia/Western Slovakia - Journal of World Prehistory
This paper examines the temporal dynamics of Linearbandkeramik (LBK) mortuary practices in south-eastern Czechia and western Slovakia, focusing on the emergence and development of funerary traditions....
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Some lovely coverage of the new project in the independent :-) www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
independent.co.uk
The surprising things ancient rubbish can tell us about our ancestors
Researchers said ancient waste could tell us whether our ancestors were keen recyclers
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Here’s the press release for our new project on Neolithic wastescapes in English from the university of York. The project is funded jointly by the UK and Germany, allowing us to effectively collaborate Internationally. Can’t wait to get started with Henny and the team :-)
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
So very excited to announce our new project - From Reuse to Resource - joint with the Freie Universitaet Berlin, funded by DFG-AHRC. Starting early 2026, we're going to be analyzing the wastescapes of Neolithic settlements to rethink ontologies of rubbish nachrichten.idw-online.de/2025/11/25/u...
nachrichten.idw-online.de
Uralter Müll zeigt, wie Steinzeitbauern erstmals lernten, mit Abfall zu leben
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
New open access publication: Moving to Stay in (a Woman’s) Place: Was Patrilocality the Dominant Mode of Postmarital Residence across Later European Prehistory? Current Anthropology. Thanks to Wenner Gren for funding the workshop it emerged from! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
journals.uchicago.edu
Moving to Stay in (a Woman’s) Place : Was Patrilocality the Dominant Mode of Postmarital Residence across Later European Prehistory? | Current Anthropology
This paper questions whether forms of female mobility and their relation to kinship were uniform throughout later European prehistory. Patrilocality has become the primary way in which sex-based diffe...
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
A great account of the brilliant Kiel team's work at the LBK site of Vrable here. Andrew does such a good job of teasing out the complexity of that century of the LBK.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Only a month to go - alternating with excitement at everyone coming to York and sheer terror of how much there is to do in the next month 😱🥳😵‍💫😆
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
What a fantastic day yesterday was! Such a rich set of data and perspectives on kinship. I learnt so much. Huge thanks to everyone who made it happen. Also good showing from @uoyarchaeology.bsky.social with my paper, and Sophie Charleton speaking later on about the curious site of Banbury lane.
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Penny Bickle @pennybickle.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Want to help more people come to TAG - help us by building a bursary fund.
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TAG 2025 @ York @tag2025york.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Today is the deadline for bursary applications! Click the link to apply: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
TAG 2025 Bursary Application
Thank you for your interest in applying for a bursary to present at TAG 2025 in York. Please complete the form below to help us assess your eligibility and better understand the context of your applic...
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Cluster of Excellence ROOTS @clusterroots.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
You are an early-career scientist interested in social and environmental processes in the past? For our second phase, we are offering 5 positions for postdocs and 9 positions for doctoral students. Apply now! All the details: www.uni-kiel.de/en/cluster-r... #earlycareerscientists #jobs
Visual with the word ‘Jobs’ and the ROOTS logo
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