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TrowelBlazers

@trowelblazers

Pioneering women in archaeology, palaeontology & geology — past & present. Posts by Tori Herridge, Becky Wragg Sykes, Brenna Hassett, and Suzie Birch. www.trowelblazers.com

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18.10.2023
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Latest posts by TrowelBlazers @trowelblazers

Picture of Victorian geologist w text reading oh look another day where we celebrate an under represented group by asking them to do a bunch of work reminding us they have a legitimate reason to be. Elebrates

Picture of Victorian geologist w text reading oh look another day where we celebrate an under represented group by asking them to do a bunch of work reminding us they have a legitimate reason to be. Elebrates

Happy no-longer-boycotting-#IWD -actively-protesting-it-day ;)

Shout out to everyone does this work anyway ❤️💪
www.instagram.com/reel/DVnkI0R...

08.03.2026 09:26 👍 26 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 1

My ( @brennawalks.bsky.social ) talk, which was rather fabulously called ‘another dead lady : looking at women looking at women in archaeology ‘ has never been recorded or published, unless someone tells me different 😅

05.03.2026 14:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

That piece of research by Colleen (why can’t I tag anyone??? ) is here middlesavagery.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

05.03.2026 14:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The Names We Know: The Complexities of Coauthorship and Gender in Archaeology Peer-Reviewed Journals | Advances in Archaeological Practice | Cambridge Core The Names We Know: The Complexities of Coauthorship and Gender in Archaeology Peer-Reviewed Journals - Volume 14 Issue 1

How do we lose the history of women in academia? Well, start by losing their citations to better networked groups…

This makes me think of the citation analyses of ‘who gets taught’ in archaeology that Colleen Morgan at York did (and I tried elsewhere)

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

05.03.2026 14:27 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Article here the-past.com/feature/expa... (footnote ref to @trowelblazers.bsky.social)

01.03.2026 10:09 👍 10 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
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British School at Athens : Women Archaeologists and War Women Archaeologists and War Fourth workshop on Women in the Archaeology of Greece By the École française d’Athènes and the British School at Athens, with the support of the British […]

Ah this looks like a great series; hybrid as well. www.bsa.ac.uk/events/women...

02.03.2026 13:09 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Including very helpful information on women lecturing on archaeology at the Institute that we used in @beyondnotables.bsky.social database!

23.02.2026 12:42 👍 11 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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Instagram Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

I had no idea video of Margaret Murray existed! The one the only OG TrowelBlazer Witch 😍👑🙌 www.instagram.com/reel/DVRSsmZ...

28.02.2026 21:13 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

This should be great. Send us a copy!!!! 😜

20.02.2026 08:02 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Top left, portrait of Elizabeth Cobbold, her elbow on a table and her chin resting in her hand; bottom left, Nucula [now Acila] cobboldiae, a fossil bivalve illustrated by Sowerby; right, extracts from Sowerby's description of the species.

Top left, portrait of Elizabeth Cobbold, her elbow on a table and her chin resting in her hand; bottom left, Nucula [now Acila] cobboldiae, a fossil bivalve illustrated by Sowerby; right, extracts from Sowerby's description of the species.

11 February 1765, London: birth of Elizabeth Knipe, later Mrs Cobbold, poet, writer & pioneer fossil collector from the Plio-Pleistocene Red Crag Formation of Suffolk. From 1813 to 1824 she sent over 40 fossils to James Sowerby for his Mineral Conchology, one of which he named Nucula Cobboldiae.

11.02.2026 12:25 👍 24 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0
Close up photograph of the bony plates of an ichthyosaur eye, a circle of  buff-coloured bones in grey limestone.

Close up photograph of the bony plates of an ichthyosaur eye, a circle of buff-coloured bones in grey limestone.

#FossilFriday: Always worth keeping an eye out for this specimen if you visit @nhm-london.bsky.social, the ichthyosaur found at Lyme Regis by #MaryAnning and her brother in 1811–12, the first specimen to come to scientific attention, and its impressive ring of sclerotic plates.

13.02.2026 07:38 👍 79 🔁 16 💬 1 📌 0
marta with dyzio the feathered dilophosaurus from 1997

marta with dyzio the feathered dilophosaurus from 1997

A protoceratops family from the museum of evolution

A protoceratops family from the museum of evolution

Muzeum Przyrody i Techniki w Starachowicach

Muzeum Przyrody i Techniki w Starachowicach

It is International Day of Women in Science! For this ocassion, a thread on influential women that illustrate prehistoric life🧵

Marta Szubert. Creator of one of the first to-scale feathered dinosar models (1997). If you've been to Poland or Slovakia, you've probably seen her models on display.

11.02.2026 02:42 👍 734 🔁 288 💬 5 📌 4

And here's a video - Wild beaches! Cosy house! Gorgeous views! Ammonites galore! Gifts for #MaryAnning! The Cobb! Palaeontology-themed wine!

10.02.2026 09:29 👍 18 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

And here's a video - Wild beaches! Cosy house! Gorgeous views! Ammonites galore! Gifts for #MaryAnning! The Cobb! Palaeontology-themed wine!

10.02.2026 09:29 👍 18 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
Collage showing photos of MARY Anning statue, fireplace in Belmont, exterior of Belmont house with pink plaster and Coade stone, yellow observation tower with slate roof, stained glass memorial window for Mary Anning, giant icthyosaur skull in museum case, and a view of the Lyme River running down its narrow course between buildings.

Collage showing photos of MARY Anning statue, fireplace in Belmont, exterior of Belmont house with pink plaster and Coade stone, yellow observation tower with slate roof, stained glass memorial window for Mary Anning, giant icthyosaur skull in museum case, and a view of the Lyme River running down its narrow course between buildings.

Collage of 7 photos showing ammonites of various sizes in cobbles on the beach, in weather from cloudy to sunny.

Collage of 7 photos showing ammonites of various sizes in cobbles on the beach, in weather from cloudy to sunny.

Collage with photos of museum archives trip, including woman looking at exhibition display centred on Mary Anning; woman and man leaning over case with large fossil in; old album cover with handwritten label; inside a fossil ID book owned by Anning with crinoid image; two women looking at the album with pasted cuttings and written comments; three women in a room talking, behind them is the sea; close-ups of a page from the album showing old newspaper image of a fossil shop with a woman inside the door.

Collage with photos of museum archives trip, including woman looking at exhibition display centred on Mary Anning; woman and man leaning over case with large fossil in; old album cover with handwritten label; inside a fossil ID book owned by Anning with crinoid image; two women looking at the album with pasted cuttings and written comments; three women in a room talking, behind them is the sea; close-ups of a page from the album showing old newspaper image of a fossil shop with a woman inside the door.

Well what a week at Belmont in Lyme Regis!
Thanks to Landmark Trust Futures, we had a fully in-person, extended AGM, with time to think through & plan our future.
We also kicked off our new project on women connected with #MaryAnning, inc museum archives 🗃️, & really got into the fossiling vibe 🐚!

10.02.2026 09:22 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
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Gates Cambridge: Impact in Archaeology - Gates Cambridge Gates Cambridge Scholars have been doing outstanding work to shed light on our early history, from climate change to ancient snakes.

As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, my MPhil & PhD research were supported by the Gates Cambridge Trust. This month they're featuring scholars' impact in archaeology, including my work in understanding adaptation to climate and environmental change in past societies. www.gatescambridge.org/about/news/g...

06.02.2026 12:48 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

😂🙌

06.02.2026 14:24 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
trowelblazers on Instagram: "But have you ever had your own Victorian observation tower with hand cranked rotating roof. I ASK YOU. 😍🤩😍" But have you ever had your own Victorian observation tower with hand cranked rotating roof. I ASK YOU. 😍🤩😍

This Victorian observatory tower was 👌 www.instagram.com/reel/DUadfGP...

06.02.2026 13:24 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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@trowelblazers on Instagram: "Everyday is a Jurassic adventure on our epic @landmark_engagement stay at Belmont House in Lyme Regis. Today: damn the tides, damn the busses; we’re going to Charmouth! (... 4 likes, 0 comments - trowelblazers on February 5, 2026: "Everyday is a Jurassic adventure on our epic @landmark_engagement stay at Belmont House in Lyme Regis. Today: damn the tides, damn the busses;...

Everyday is a Jurassic adventure on our epic Landmark Trust stay at Belmont House in Lyme Regis. Today: damn the tides, damn the busses; we’re going to Charmouth! (And meeting a fossil shop dog 😍)

www.instagram.com/reel/DUYj0RE...

05.02.2026 17:16 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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It’s all Very Serious here ;)

03.02.2026 20:30 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Incredibly grateful to Landmark Trust for the opportunity for all four of us to come together in iconic #TrowelBlazers territory, Mary Anning’s Lyme Regis, to reflect on the last 13 years and figure out the next ;)

03.02.2026 16:58 👍 18 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Extremely excited to be down in Lyme for the first time (for me !). Utterly gorgeous house, and wonderful to have all four of us back together in one place - first time in over 6 years...

03.02.2026 08:47 👍 61 🔁 5 💬 5 📌 0
Photo of a large late 18th century house painted pink. It has decorative Coade stone detailing including urns on the roof. It's in a garden with tree, in which behind the house is a 19th century observation tower painted yellow with a slate roof.

Photo of a large late 18th century house painted pink. It has decorative Coade stone detailing including urns on the roof. It's in a garden with tree, in which behind the house is a 19th century observation tower painted yellow with a slate roof.

Photo of interior of sitting room, a fireplace with fire burning in raised grate, above which is a decorative Coade stone mantel, with candlesticks on it, and a large oval mirror above. In front of the fire is a coffee table with a tea set on it.

Photo of interior of sitting room, a fireplace with fire burning in raised grate, above which is a decorative Coade stone mantel, with candlesticks on it, and a large oval mirror above. In front of the fire is a coffee table with a tea set on it.

Photo of the sitting room, with three women, two in armchairs by fire and one standing in front of a large wooden bookcase. The room is decorated in Regency style with paintings.

Photo of the sitting room, with three women, two in armchairs by fire and one standing in front of a large wooden bookcase. The room is decorated in Regency style with paintings.

Photo from outside front of house, zoomed in looking past the decorative gates down towards Lyme bay, the sea is visible and beyond that large cliffs and hills. It's cloudy and misty.

Photo from outside front of house, zoomed in looking past the decorative gates down towards Lyme bay, the sea is visible and beyond that large cliffs and hills. It's cloudy and misty.

We're down on the Jurassic Coast at Lyme Regis for a week of @trowelblazers.bsky.social work inc planning new writing project on #MaryAnning, and some epic fossiling - staying at the stunning late 18th-early 19th century Belmont House thanks to Landmark Trust Futures grant

03.02.2026 08:38 👍 20 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1
Black and white inked plan of an Iron Age hillfort showing areas of excavation and roundhouse hollows

Black and white inked plan of an Iron Age hillfort showing areas of excavation and roundhouse hollows

The Iron Age hillfort of Chalbury in #Dorset was investigated by archaeologist Margaret Whitley in 1939

Her report, with this excellent site plan, was published in the Antiquaries Journal (23) in 1943 🤩

@trowelblazers.bsky.social @antiquaries.bsky.social

#HillfortsWednesday

28.01.2026 08:09 👍 73 🔁 17 💬 2 📌 0

My love of stone anchors is all down to my mini obsession with Honor Frost, the trowelblazer who pioneered underwater archaeology. If you don’t know her, then check out @gabemoshenska.bsky.social’s fabulous troweltoon

@trowelblazers.bsky.social

29.01.2026 16:35 👍 24 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 2

Buckland wrote this despite understanding that women of his time, whether his wife Mary, or #MaryAnning whose work he benefitted from, were serious, skilled palaeontological fieldworkers & thinkers...
Here's the @trowelblazers.bsky.social article on Mary Buckland
trowelblazers.com/2014/05/09/m...

02.02.2026 14:46 👍 48 🔁 30 💬 2 📌 0

In preposterous gen- #AI news, a grokipedia (ugh) entry on us ENTIRELY INVENTS an inaugural TrowelBlazers meeting
"over drinks in a London pub in 2013".
This never happened (we only all met IRL years after forming) 🙄
plus, it makes up criticism of our work...

p.s. not giving it traffic by linking

26.01.2026 11:32 👍 35 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 1

Also three people wearing skirts in the trenches!

26.01.2026 11:16 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

No sign of Mortimer Wheeler in this photo (maybe he took it himself?) but that’s almost certainly Tessa Verney Wheeler at the top right. #TrowelBlazers #archaeology

11.10.2025 10:18 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 1