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Andrew Millard

@archaeometer

Professor of Archaeology, Durham University|Christian|Archaeological Scientist|Genealogist|Chair http://genuki.org.uk|All views my own

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28.04.2025
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Latest posts by Andrew Millard @archaeometer

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This is Archaeology. Collaboration in Action: the excavation and conservation of the Melsonby Hoards A talk with Prof. Emily Williams, exploring the wonders of the Melsonby Hoards.

Join us on 18th March for the next This is Archaeology lecture with Prof. Emily Williams, exploring the remarkable Melsonby Hoards, one of the largest groupings of Iron Age metalwork ever discovered in England.

Free to attend (donations welcome) ๐Ÿ‘‰ tinyurl.com/un9kp8z4

13.03.2026 17:45 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Pity Me โ€“ really? - SNSBI Many place-names are deceptive, so it's not surprising that many people have assumed that the striking name Pity Me (best known from County Durham, but found more widely) can't really be what it seems...

Many place-names are deceptive, so itโ€™s not surprising that many people have assumed that the striking place-name Pity Me canโ€™t really be what it seems. What is it, though?
Today's name story is written by Emeritus Professor Diana Whaley of @newcastleuni.bsky.social.
www.snsbi.org.uk/exploring-na...

03.03.2026 10:16 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
A montage of images showing three people smiling at the camera, holding an award, a close up of the award and the Iron Age hoard being excavated from the ground.

A montage of images showing three people smiling at the camera, holding an award, a close up of the award and the Iron Age hoard being excavated from the ground.

Readers of Current Archaeology Magazine have voted to make the Melsonby Hoard Iron Age find its โ€˜Rescue Project of the Yearโ€™.

The hoard was excavated by @arcdurham.bsky.social, including Archaeological Services, with support from The British Museum and Historic England ๐Ÿ‘‰ tinyurl.com/cjfmauj9

02.03.2026 16:25 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The first meeting in Ancient Biomolecules in Latin America is here! ๐Ÿคฉ and it will be held in Peru ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ช on Nov 2026 . More info ๐Ÿ‘‡

20.02.2026 12:58 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Medieval Diets Varied by Social Status in England, Study Finds - Medievalists.net New isotope research reveals how social status shaped medieval diets in England, showing differences between friars, townspeople, rural residents, and hospital burials.

๐Ÿ“ฐ Chemical signatures preserved in human bones show how social inequality in medieval England could be "measured at the dinner table" ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ

๐Ÿบ #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @medievalists.bsky.social

www.medievalists.net/2026/02/medi...

18.02.2026 13:45 ๐Ÿ‘ 36 ๐Ÿ” 14 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

๐Ÿบ Brilliant stuff Harry! Genetics of people inhabiting the Lower Rhine-Meuse area through prehistory highlights the variable dynamics and regional diveristy in the interactions between groups carrying disparate ancestries. Lots of complicated stuff to unpack. Rhine-Meuse ancestry associated with...

12.02.2026 11:57 ๐Ÿ‘ 29 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Premiรจre confรฉrence de la Communautรฉ de Recherche en Archรฉologie Biomolรฉculaire et isotopique - Sciencesconf.org CRABi - Communautรฉ de Recherche en Archรฉologie Biomolรฉculaire et isotopique - Bordeaux - Novembre 2026

๐Ÿšฉpremiรจre confรฉrence de la CRABi (Communautรฉ de Recherche en #Archรฉologie #Biomolรฉculaire et #isotopique) ร  Bordeaux les 12 et 13 novembre prochain.
toutes les informations sur crabi.sciencesconf.org

L'appel ร  communication est ouvert jusqu'au jeudi 2 avril (23h59 CET).

09.02.2026 11:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

๐Ÿ“ขFellowship alert! We are recruiting 6 ECR Addison Wheeler Fellowships starting 01 Oct 2026 (for 36 months). Any discipline, any nationality. Details at www.dur.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/advanced-study/fellowships-funding/addison-wheeler-fellowship/ and durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

04.02.2026 15:07 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The Gefrin Trust is delighted to announce the publication of a landmark volume by Roger Miket entitled "Ad Gefrin: Brian Hope-Taylor and His Quest for the Early Medieval Kingdom of Northumbria." Get your copy at the Ad Gefrin Shop in Wooler! #Yeavering

02.02.2026 16:39 ๐Ÿ‘ 11 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

They do point out that their methods recover damaged aDNA and will probably not pick up currently active bacteria, so we can't really say whether any of the species are active or not.

12.01.2026 18:21 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I finally found time to read this. They don't discuss that their major identifications are soil-dwelling bacteria and not gut bacteria, which represent different hypotheses of the causes of bioerosion. Perhaps soil bacteria are what one would expect under both hypotheses after centuries of burial.

12.01.2026 15:50 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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PhDs being offered across the Iapetus DTP for an October 2026 start:
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

Please broadcast details of our Diversifying Talent Scholarship scheme too:
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

@ukri.org #BlackAFinSTEM #firstgen

16.12.2025 08:52 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
Redirecting

New paper out, mostly the work of my brilliant PhD student Meng Zhang!
Isotopic evidence for changing diet and agriculture in China from the Neolithic to the Early Han period (10-2 ka BP)
doi.org/10.1016/j.qu...
Changing exploitation of millet & rice, and animal husbandry regimes over 8 millennia.

09.12.2025 09:04 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Help deliver a unique FreePROBATE search service โ€“ Big Give Free UK Genealogy provides free online access to over 500 million family history records, so anyone can build their own โ€ฆ

The #BigGive #ChristmasChallenge is in progress! This is your chance help Free UK #Genealogy deliver its FreePROBATE service โ€“ and to have the value of your donation doubled by those (including the Society for #OnePlaceStudies) who have pledged match funding. To find out more and to donate... ๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿป

06.12.2025 10:44 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 9 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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๐Ÿ“ข IMEMS and University College (Durham Castle) are delighted to invite applications for the 2026/27 Slater Fellowship, a three-month residential, senior fellowship at @durham.ac.uk during Epiphany Term 2027.

โœ‰ Read more and apply here: www.durham.ac.uk/research/ins...

28.11.2025 11:50 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 7 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Professor of Cultural and Natural Heritage Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

My department has an opening for a Professor of Cultural and Natural Heritage as part of Durham Universityโ€™s strategic Heritage 360 initiative durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

18.11.2025 09:29 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Lessons learned: Recommendations for reproducible paleogenomic data analyses Souilmi et al. propose essential guidelines to improve the reproducibility of paleogenomic data analysis. As ancient DNA research often relies on the destructive sampling of finite resources, these re...

www.cell.com/ajhg/abstrac...

08.11.2025 14:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Confounding fuels misinterpretation in human genetics | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences The scientific literature has seen a resurgence of interest in genetic influences on human behaviour and socioeconomic outcomes. Such studies face the central difficulty of distinguishing possible cau...

Full OA paper here: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

07.11.2025 19:06 ๐Ÿ‘ 13 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
A composite image of vegetation change at the Sevilleta LTER site in New Mexico USA, illustrating how grass landscapes on the left of the image are progressively invaded by shrubs,  leading to a shrub-dominated landscape on the right.  Image by John Wainwright

A composite image of vegetation change at the Sevilleta LTER site in New Mexico USA, illustrating how grass landscapes on the left of the image are progressively invaded by shrubs, leading to a shrub-dominated landscape on the right. Image by John Wainwright

Anyone interested in a PhD project modelling resilience of dryland ecosystems in a changing climate, led by @ecogeo.bsky.social and with @blindmath.bsky.social, Denis Patterson and Roy Sanderson, please apply to our
@iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD position iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

03.11.2025 17:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Computational innovation for the energy transition: Bayesian stratigraphic correlation of subsurface data

Funded PhD opportunity at Durham University. Bayesian approaches to stratigraphic correlation. With me, @palaeosmith.bsky.social & Kilian Eichenseer. See the Iapetus site for details of eligibility and widening participation scheme. iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

05.11.2025 09:49 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Now out on Early View: "U/Th Dating of Secondary Carbonate Deposits in Underground Galleries of Fourviรจre Hill (Lyon, France) Reveals a Water Supply System in Operation From the Roman Period to the Middle Ages" buff.ly/76PpH8q

04.11.2025 09:05 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Was descent in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe patrilineal or bilateral? | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Many studies have attempted to gain insights into the kinship systems of past human populations using ancient DNA data. Several studies focusing on Neolithic and Bronze Age European sites reported a h...

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Probably posted a preprint version of this before but good to see some formal testing of different hypotheses of descent/residence in prehistoric cemeteries of Europe, rather than just eyeballing the trends.

30.10.2025 20:23 ๐Ÿ‘ 21 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I'm hiring!โญ As part of the DFF Sapere Aude-funded project MiddleEarth, I am looking for 1 postdoctoral researcher and 1 research assistant.

27.10.2025 09:54 ๐Ÿ‘ 14 ๐Ÿ” 23 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
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StratoBayes: a Bayesian method for automated stratigraphic correlation and age modelling Abstract. Stratigraphic correlation and age modelling are fundamental to reconstructing Earth's history, biological evolution, and palaeoclimate, and underpin the exploration for subsurface resources....

Our new paper is out: StratoBayes: a Bayesian method for automated stratigraphic correlation and age modelling doi.org/10.5194/gchr... with @palaeosmith.bsky.social Kilian Eichenseer & Matthias Sinnesael

27.10.2025 09:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
detailed poll results for selecting Radiocarbon 26 Conference host. 58% Tokyo, 28% Cologne, 16% Ottawa, 1% other

detailed poll results for selecting Radiocarbon 26 Conference host. 58% Tokyo, 28% Cologne, 16% Ottawa, 1% other

The poll for selecting the host city of the Radiocarbon 26 in 2028 is closed.

The winner is Tokyo, receiving 58% of all votes!

Congratulations to Tokyo team!

Thanks to the Cologne and Ottawa teams for their excellent proposals.

Thanks to Kim from @14cjournal.bsky.social for running the poll.

06.10.2025 09:29 ๐Ÿ‘ 10 ๐Ÿ” 5 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hello, Bluesky! Weโ€™re Radiocarbon, an international peer-reviewed journal (since 1959) dedicated to advancing radiocarbon research, from calibration and chronology to applications across archaeology, geology, environmental science, and more. Weโ€™re glad to be here. #Radiocarbon #Geochronology

03.10.2025 17:10 ๐Ÿ‘ 45 ๐Ÿ” 18 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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On the Identity (and Individuation) of Proper Names Though this blog has been rather quiet for rather longer than we might have liked, this doesnโ€™t mean work isnโ€™t being doneโ€ฆitโ€™s just quiet, background work. But thereโ€™โ€ฆ

New blog post! We're not dead!

"On the Identity (and Individuation) of Proper Names"

dmnes.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/o...

02.10.2025 10:45 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Redirecting

New paper by Tamsin Oโ€™Connell:

This is a MUST read for all archaeologists who include isotopes in their projects.

โ€œThe signal and the noise: inherent challenges for isotopic studies in bioarchaeologyโ€

doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

#stableisotopes

25.09.2025 07:30 ๐Ÿ‘ 28 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Contextualizing descent in Neolithic northern Europe Introduction Our ability to investigate kinship practices in Neolithic communities has been revolutionized by combining measurements of biological relatedness through ancient DNA analyses with oste...

๐Ÿบ

A fine new article by Chris Fowler discussing the complexities of genetic relatedness at Neolithic funerary sites across Europe. Argues the emphasis on patrilineal patterns and fitting established kinship/marriage schemes means subtle complexities are missed.

journals.openedition.org/bmsap/16175

25.09.2025 18:20 ๐Ÿ‘ 14 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Free UK Genealogy, the charity behind FreeBMD, FreeREG and FreeCEN, has started a crowdfunder for a new free probate records website:

www.whodoyouthinkyouaremaga...

13.08.2025 10:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 11 ๐Ÿ” 7 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1