iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Rachel King

Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/09/2026

We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/

a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Spending some family time in the tent at home before taking it on the road for this year’s @uclarchaeology.bsky.social #ArchaeoTech ⛺️🌦️

Photograph of the inside of a tent. A pile of cushions sits on top of a bean bag, with a small electric lantern, a cuddly toy, and a copy of the book ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’ on the tent floor in the foreground.

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

#TimCurry voiced Hexus in #FernGully, which probably did more than any other childhood film to teach me about empathy and how different evils can intersect. What a gift to leave us with.

A still from the film Fern Gully showing the villain Hexus. Hexus is a large cloud of toxic black smoke with a human face and hands, smiling against a fiery sky as he leads the charge to destroy Ferm Gully.

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The number of times I’ve been on a bus in #Lesotho and everyone starts singing along with #Jolene ❤️

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

'The career ladder in academia is of particular interest as it is a “greedy” occupation due to its lack of substitutability among workers, long hours with increasing returns to productivity, and the importance of establishing and maintaining personal contacts.' Academia is a "greedy" occupation.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

The lack of women at the top of the academic ladder is driven by unequal childcare responsibilities - LSE Impact

Motherhood, and the unequal childcare responsibilities that follow, explain a large share of the observed gender gap in academic employment. Sofie Cairo, Ria Ivandic, Anne Sophie Lassen and Valentina ...

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Jen Baird @jenbaird.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Lovely to see "Pathways to Inclusive Digital Archaeological Archives" available now via firstview in Advances in Archaeological Practice (open access). www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

Pathways to Inclusive Digital Archaeological Archives | Advances in Archaeological Practice | Cambridge Core

Pathways to Inclusive Digital Archaeological Archives

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Our paper on archival approaches to large digital cultural resource databases is now out open access! 🏺🗃️: doi.org/10.15184/aqy... We describe a method derived from #archive science as a complement to #BigData approaches to #development-led datasets, applied to #SouthAfrica but relevant globally

doi.org

Project biography: an archival approach to large digital cultural resource management datasets | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

Project biography: an archival approach to large digital cultural resource management datasets

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Be kind to our colleagues. Be canny for our colleagues. Be outraged for our colleagues. Be vocal about our colleagues' plight, which is not of their making. Be there for our colleagues. Be an ally in whatever way we can. 3/3

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

In these dark times it’s good to remember the joys of archaeology: a colleague just accidentally sent an auguring plan for a Medieval cock-fighting ring to a Teams channel and now this is all I care about

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Grateful for lovely things like an evening read outside with a fire and a run through a riot of colour

Photograph of a table with a cup of wine and the novel ‘The Jealous One’ by Celia Fremlin, next to a Basotho blanket

A photograph of a footpath surrounded by grass leading to a field of bright yellow rape, under a blue sky

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Graeme Warren @graemewarren.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Hooray! Our @britishacademy.bsky.social Prehistoric Policies project now has a website 👇👇👇👇. PP examines how & why contemporary environmental policy makes claims about the deep time human past, and why that matters!

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Human Evolution Research Institute at University of Cape Town @heriuct.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Since 2019, HERI has run women-focused field camps for archaeology & geology students. Female-led and hands-on, they provide field skills, mentorship, and safe spaces—building confident, resilient researchers ready to study #Africa’s rich heritage.

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Essential reading from @mininghistory.bsky.social on Anglo American winding down operations in Southern Africa

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Duncan Money @mininghistory.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Interesting argument in this recent article about fragmented digital historical data that historians need to change how we reference things. I almost always reference the physical document, but this does not reflect how I found many of these things. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Paragraph from an article. Text reads:
" For users of data

1. Change citation practices to account for the nature of data. Historians are trained in the art of finding and citing research materials. However, best practices for which version of a non-unique document is cited remain inchoate, despite important research and advocacy around citation practices for physical versus digitised copies. For many, it is still the norm to cite the material document that sits behind a digital resource rather than the digital document or dataset"
The sentence "it is still the norm to cite the material document that sits behind a digital resource rather than the digital document" is highlighted in yellow.

Excerpt from an article. Text reads:
"(e.g. the edition of the early printed book, rather than Early English Books Online). This not only obscures what the researcher has actually observed in order to make their claim; it also hides how hugely reliant we are now as a research community on the products of digitisation and online portals. This occlusion means that it remains extremely hard to measure how much historical research data (in terms of both commercial platforms and data deposited on repositories) is actually being used and contributing to research. Historians must play a role in demonstrating the value of digitised collections by choosing to cite the digital sources. Doing so allows data creators such as cultural heritage organisations"
The sentence "This not only obscures what the researcher has actually observed in order to make their claim; it also hides how hugely reliant we are now as a research community on the products of digitisation" is highlighted in yellow.

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Mary Lewis @maryosteokids2.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Glad to see this paper finally out. Its been fascinating, if not scary, to write - and I am certain the UK is not alone. Lost or overused: legal, ethical and research imperatives for a centralised human-remains database in the UK | Antiquity | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

Lost or overused: legal, ethical and research imperatives for a centralised human-remains database in the UK | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

Lost or overused: legal, ethical and research imperatives for a centralised human-remains database in the UK

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Dr Alex Fitzpatrick @animalarchaeology.com · 29/03/2026

it’s beautiful that historians and archaeologists and archivists can all bond over how our disciplines are constantly misunderstood as “directly extrapolating the past from the source material” tbh

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Relevant to my interests as someone constantly being asked BUT ARE YOU ARCHAEOLOGY OR HERITAGE

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Standing ovation for the headline of this briefing from The Continent (and for the always-stellar reporting across the board).

Screenshot of a news item from The Continent. Tagged as related to ‘South Africa’, the headline reads ‘How dare you table a fabled-gable relabel’. Above the headline is a photo of Robert Sobukwe’s grave taken against a backdrop of the Graaf Reinet landscape.

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John Aerni-Flessner @lesothojohn.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

New piece just landed in @theconversation.com about the history and present of the #Lesotho Highlands #Water Project (#LHWP) -Why people are sour on a project that fundamentally WORKS! -What governments of Lesotho and #SouthAfrica could do to win popular support theconversation.com/the-lesotho-...

theconversation.com

The Lesotho Highlands Water project is 40 years old and going strong: but history weighs on its successes

The Lesotho-South Africa water deal was clinched during the apartheid era and without public consultation.

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Excellent 🧵 and the the environmentalisms of the 1960s-1970s. The neo-Malthusian thinking that Ehrlich represented is all over UNESCO activities (esp re urban heritage preservation) during this period

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Dr Matt Pope @mattpope.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Applications are now open to join our 2026 UCL Master's programme in human evolution. Covering the Palaeolithic, Palaeoanthropology & other key disciplines, the course is designed to equip you for a career in the deep human past. #PaPa 🦣📷https://tinyurl.com/5duy6twh

The UCL Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic (PaPa) MSc programme is a pioneering course in human origins delivered by a world-leading university. It will bring you a deep and expert understanding of the record of human evolution combining opportunities for the study of palaeolithic archaeology, palaeoanthropology and wider scientific approaches to the early human story.
Coordinated by UCL’s Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology departments and drawing on expertise from across the University and other institutions, it will provide you with training in the specialisms of your choice.
Having run now for over 15 years, we have PaPa alumni actively leading a new generation of human origins research across the world. Our programme is a proven springboard to PhD programmes, careers in academia, archaeological science, specialist archaeological fieldwork, science media and much more.

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

🚨🏺 Come work with us! 2-year full time Lecturer in Archaeology and Anthropology teaching our fabulous undergraduates. Salary £54,931-£64,644. www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

ucl.ac.uk

Job Vacancy: Lecturer (Teaching) in Archaeology and Anthropology

The UCL Institute of Archaeology currently has a vacancy for a Lecturer (Teaching) in Archaeology and Anthropology (Ref.: B03-02939).

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UCL Institute of Archaeology @uclarchaeology.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Day 12 of 200: The first of our Free Open Access books for you! Today UCL loA Rachel King & Trinidad Rico (editors) "Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies" link, and more info, in today's story and do follow UCL Press for the link. #UCL200 📲 uclpress.co.uk/book/methods...

Image shows the front page of a book with the writing;

Day 12 of 200: The first of our Free Open Access books for you! Today UCL loA Dr
Rachel King (editor) "Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies" link, and more info, in today's story and do follow UCL Press for more...

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John Aerni-Flessner @lesothojohn.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Publication Day! 'White Gold and Thirsty Communities: The Cold War, Apartheid, and the #Lesotho Highlands Water Project' is out TODAY! Can be found at all South African bookstores! exclusivebooks.co.za/products/978... (and in North America/Europe: www.rienner.com/title/White_...)

exclusivebooks.co.za

White Gold and Thirsty Communities

The story of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is a tale both of international diplomacy and of the ways that high politics and the antiapartheid struggle played out—and continue to play out—...

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

John’s book is fantastic. A truly staggering amount of detail told with nuance and care, which is hard to do with Cold War geopolitics!

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

In a 1968 submission to UNESCO the UK rep said ‘nah we don’t need heritage regulation because the aristos own the heritage and it’s fine’. Hewison’s 1987 ‘Heritage Industry’ noted nothing had changed in 20 yrs except increasing imperial nostalgia. And now …

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Katrina Navickas @katrinanavickas.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Very much looking forward to going to Reading and seeing the Radical Rural trail at @themerl.bsky.social soon. #ContestedCommons #LandRights

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

The only Super Bowl thread anyone should be reading

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John Aerni-Flessner @lesothojohn.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Cape Town! Are you interested in the history of #water? Specifically the history of the #Lesotho Highlands Water Project (#LHWP)? Well, I wrote a book on it! Launch: 27 Feb, Exclusive Books, Waterfront, 1800 RSVP here and come hear me talk! exclusivebooks.co.za/pages/events...

exclusivebooks.co.za

Events

Get FREE delivery to all EXCLUSIVE BOOKS stores nationwide. FREE delivery to your door on all orders over R450, within South Africa.

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Dr Matt Pope @mattpope.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

More Breaking Palaeo-news! 🐘 Boxgrove preserved oldest Elephant Bone beyond Africa. 🐘 Early Neanderthals using bone to shape beautiful tools. 🐘 New research from Simon Parfitt @uclarchaeology.bsky.social Silvia Bello of the @nhm-london.bsky.social. 🦣🏺🐘https://share.google/20WUjY5TybDAr4QoT

share.google

Prehistoric tool made from elephant bone is the oldest discovered in Europe

A remarkable prehistoric hammer made from elephant bone, dating back nearly half a million years ago, has been uncovered in southern England and analyzed by archaeologists from UCL and the Natural His...

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I tried something new this year by building a suite of #archaeological #theory practicals, so a 🧵 on resources I (and my students) loved 🏺. I’ve linked to online materials but will happily share purpose-made stuff:

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

A tower of crates containing c9000-year-old lithics fell over, snapped my laptop in two, and gave me the odd scrape. My career as a lithicist was dying already but that really clinched it.

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John Aerni-Flessner @lesothojohn.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Just now discovering that #SouthAfrican academic and activist Renfrew #Christie passed away. He did his PhD on the history of #electricity generation is South Africa so he could figure out how to sabotage RSA's #AtomicBomb efforts during #apartheid. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/w...

nytimes.com

Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program

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Gabe Moshenska @gabemoshenska.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Just published a paper on the complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir meme, the decade-old tumblr in-joke that continues to impact the public understanding of the ancient world. Paywalled but email me if you want a copy. 🏺

Title section of a journal article: The Legend of Ea-Nasir: How a Babylonian
Businessman Became an Internet Meme. By Gabriel Moshenska, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK, g.moshenska@ucl.ac.uk
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JCA/article/view/30204
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.30204

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Jennie Morgan @drmorgan.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Funded PhD opp. Uni of Stirling “situated at the intersection of built heritage, housing, and climate justice, focusing on tenants in historic tenements in Stirling”https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/2026-ahrc-doctoral-landscape-award-collaborative-doctoral-award-cda-phd-studentship/?p193000

findaphd.com

2026 AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award- Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) PhD Studentship at University of Stirling on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - 2026 AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award- Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) PhD Studentship at University of Stirling, listed on FindAPhD.com

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Sam Holley-Kline @sholleykline.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Just out! In this piece, I argue that the United Fruit Company served as a conduit through which political economies of racialized labor were brought to bear on archaeological practice. This one was three years in the making and it's available #OpenAccess here: doi.org/10.1017/S001... 🗃️📚🏺🇬🇹

cambridge.org

How the United Fruit Company Racialized Archaeological Labor in Guatemala, 1910–1953 | Comparative Studies in Society and History | Cambridge Core

How the United Fruit Company Racialized Archaeological Labor in Guatemala, 1910–1953

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

A reminder to us all of the good people at Traffic Scotland giving us even more amazing gritter names www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac... Carrie Bradthaw Brinestone Ploughboy Spready Mercury Skid Vicious Gritney Spears (x2) Stone Cold Steve Frostin

traffic.gov.scot

Gritter tracker | Traffic Scotland

Traffic Scotland gives you the real-time information you need about Scotland’s trunk road network

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Dr Matt Pope @mattpope.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Does anyone else take great pleasure in printing out vintage line-hachure drawings of prehistoric monuments? Sometimes I mount them on card, sometimes I create handouts for field trips from them. I just love the detail and tangibility of these beautiful, evocative, technical works. 🏺

A black and white line drawing of a hillfort and field system on a cutting board mat.

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Hilarious and heartbreaking, and not just because I would absolutely try to make this sandwich (see: me raiding the dining area at a certain morally bankrupt surveillance tech company when my employee friend invites me over)

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

I love so much about this fascinating research … but it can make its point perfectly well without referencing entombment etc, which simply aren’t the analogies they’re made out to be here

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Rachel King @rachelking.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Shout out to the extreme passive aggression of my daughter’s pre-school, who sent her home with a sealed envelope full of loose glitter

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