Small Things Big Stories

📢 New article out in Public Archaeology: Invisible Archaeologies of Decolonization: Western Asian Archaeology, a View from Türkiye

🔓 Open access: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

We make a strong start to 2026! 🎉

Our new chapter “Bodies and behaviours: archaeological material culture & the interpretation of identity at the Neolithic transition” critically revisits how identity has been approached in Neolithic SW Asia.

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Small things big stories: 2024 recap Small things big stories: 2024 recap

As the year comes to an end, here are some highlights from the year. We’ve been all over Anatolia and beyond, looking at personal ornaments & sharing results from the project.

Read our new blog post - 2024 recap www.smallthingsbigstories.com/post/small-t...

Happy new year everyone! 🎄

Small Things, Big Stories with Emma Baysal YouTube video by British Institute At Ankara

📌YouTube: m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvgJ...
📌Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1Jkn...
📌Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

📢 The latest episode of Heritage Türkiye is out!

In this episode, Dr. Işılay Gürsu and Dr. Peter Cherry talk with Dr. Emma L. Baysal about her National Geographic Society-supported project 'Small Things, Big Stories'.

Tune in on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify!

Hi! Can you please add us too? 👀 Many thanks!!

Small Things, Big Stories with Emma Baysal YouTube video by British Institute At Ankara

'Small Things, Big Stories' project is featured in the Heritage Türkiye podcast of @thebiaankara.bsky.social 📢

Watch @emmabaysal.bsky.social talking about the project and the fascinating stories personal ornaments can tell about the prehistory of identities 🐚

youtu.be/fvgJPUJn37A?...

And in summer 2024, we finished our pilot experimental study on #prehistoric #beadmaking techniques

We replicated the production process of a #Neolithic bead, from preparing the drills to grinding, polishing, and drilling using experimentally produced stone tools

Spring 2024 was very busy with our PI @emmabaysal.bsky.social presenting our ongoing research at METU and Bilkent in Ankara, Türkiye 🇹🇷 and several other places

We are back! Lets catch up 🎉

This summer we had a great session at the #EAA2024 discussing small things and identities all over the world from Palaeolithic to the Viking Age 🐚💎🗿

We are now working on publishing a collection of brilliant papers presented there. Keep an eye here for more updates❗️

#CallforPapers 📣

Join us in Rome this summer at the #EAA2024

We'd love to hear about research on artefacts close to the body from all areas of the world. It's time for some new perspectives on small things! 🔎🔬📿

Delving into the magnificent world of the beads – 2023 Museum study session Into the late autumn and early winter of 2023, Emma and Sera visited the fairy-tale-like old city of Mardin to start the study of personal ornaments from Neolithic Boncuklu Tarla. As the material is h...

Some recent news from the project!

Read on our postdoc @serayelozer.bsky.social 's blog post about the 2023 museum study phase of the "Small things, big stories" project: "Delving into the magnificent world of the beads – 2023 Museum study session" 📿

www.smallthingsbigstories.com/post/delving...

Read on our blog about the 2023 fieldwork phase of the "Small things, big stories" project: "Exploring ornaments - 2023 Summer fieldwork"

*Content warning: discussion of human burials*

www.smallthingsbigstories.com/post/explori...

Hello world 👋 Stay tuned to learn more about how "small things" shaped and transformed our identities since 10,000 BCE 🧿

smallthingsbigstories.com