Dr Huw Groucutt
@huwgroucutt.bsky.social
Archaeologist, Senior Lecturer at University of Malta, PI: TerraForm ERC project.....posting about old stones, and occasional bones. Exploring human responses to climate change, particularly in Malta and Arabia. http://www.huwgroucutt.com
The arrival of a storm
September 20, 2026 at 6:31 AM
The arrival of a storm
Another lovely visitor to site today. Love her eye movements :)
September 17, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Another lovely visitor to site today. Love her eye movements :)
Excavating a 500,000 year old elephant in the Nefud Desert with Prof. Eleanor Scerri and pals a few years ago, happy times!
September 15, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Excavating a 500,000 year old elephant in the Nefud Desert with Prof. Eleanor Scerri and pals a few years ago, happy times!
After over 100 days without rain, and a long hot summer that felt like one long heat wave, the clouds have gathered and the first rains come.
September 15, 2026 at 4:16 PM
After over 100 days without rain, and a long hot summer that felt like one long heat wave, the clouds have gathered and the first rains come.
Nice new paper, showing human presence at the site by 55 thousand years ago, consistent with other evidence the arrival of humans in Australia. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
September 14, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Nice new paper, showing human presence at the site by 55 thousand years ago, consistent with other evidence the arrival of humans in Australia. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Homo naledi even made it to Ireland! www.bbc.com/news/article...
Cave art discovery suggests first humans in Ireland came from Wales
During the most recent Ice Age, researchers believe there was a "lost land bridge" between Wales and Ireland.
www.bbc.com
September 8, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Homo naledi even made it to Ireland! www.bbc.com/news/article...
Was just reminded of this figure i'd made in a paper from 2014. I like it. Illustrations of stone tools made by Neanderthals in SW Asia, some 55 thousand years ago. The darker the colour the later the flake removal in the sequence of preparation.
September 7, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Was just reminded of this figure i'd made in a paper from 2014. I like it. Illustrations of stone tools made by Neanderthals in SW Asia, some 55 thousand years ago. The darker the colour the later the flake removal in the sequence of preparation.
Fieldwork Friday.....flashback to a few years ago, this is the remains of an ancient lake in the Nefud Desert, dating to about 100 thousand years ago. We found interesting fossils at this site.
September 4, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Fieldwork Friday.....flashback to a few years ago, this is the remains of an ancient lake in the Nefud Desert, dating to about 100 thousand years ago. We found interesting fossils at this site.
Today the Prime Minister of Malta, the Minister of Culture, and many other dignitaries came to visit our excavations at Latnija. timesofmalta.com/article/mell...
Mellieħa dig helping reconstruct 300,000 years of Malta’s climatic history
Ta’ Latnija cave excavations continue to reshape understanding of Malta’s earliest human history
timesofmalta.com
September 2, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Today the Prime Minister of Malta, the Minister of Culture, and many other dignitaries came to visit our excavations at Latnija. timesofmalta.com/article/mell...
We have a lot of rocks to deal with in our excavation. So I enjoy building a wall behind which we can pile smaller rocks.
August 27, 2026 at 8:38 AM
We have a lot of rocks to deal with in our excavation. So I enjoy building a wall behind which we can pile smaller rocks.
We had the best visitor to site today ❤
August 26, 2026 at 3:25 PM
We had the best visitor to site today ❤
A long fieldwork season coming up, means it's time for an official team hot sauce. Introducing 'Brain Attack by Red Dragon Hot Sauce Ltd
August 21, 2026 at 6:03 PM
A long fieldwork season coming up, means it's time for an official team hot sauce. Introducing 'Brain Attack by Red Dragon Hot Sauce Ltd
#FieldworkFriday. Modern terracing in construction (but to store rubbish rather than soil for agriculture).
August 21, 2026 at 1:01 PM
#FieldworkFriday. Modern terracing in construction (but to store rubbish rather than soil for agriculture).
Reposted by Dr Huw Groucutt
Neanderthals may have trekked through the Saudi Arabian desert 55,000 years ago, farther south than experts thought possible www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Neanderthals may have trekked through the Saudi Arabian desert 55,000 years ago, farther south than experts thought possible
Stone tools from a lakeside site in Saudi Arabia hint that Neanderthals were adapted to the arid Arabian interior, not just to cold places.
www.livescience.com
August 18, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Neanderthals may have trekked through the Saudi Arabian desert 55,000 years ago, farther south than experts thought possible www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Nice new article on our work
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Neanderthals may have trekked through the Saudi Arabian desert 55,000 years ago, farther south than experts thought possible
Stone tools from a lakeside site in Saudi Arabia hint that Neanderthals were adapted to the arid Arabian interior, not just to cold places.
www.livescience.com
August 18, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Nice new article on our work
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
New paper just published: "Bayesian modelling of the latent human influence field in archaeological urban sediments at Koh Ker, Cambodia". Began life when Chris was a postdoc in my group, nice to see it published :) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Bayesian modelling of the latent human influence field in archaeological urban sediments at Koh Ker, Cambodia
Reconstructing the spatiotemporal trajectories of massive ancient cities remains difficult because archaeological excavation offers temporal depth but…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 17, 2026 at 6:55 PM
New paper just published: "Bayesian modelling of the latent human influence field in archaeological urban sediments at Koh Ker, Cambodia". Began life when Chris was a postdoc in my group, nice to see it published :) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis to support this argument, which both suggests that the Neanderthals were more ecologically flexible than had been understood, and that we have a poor knowledge on where admixture between sapiens & Neanderthals could have happened.
August 17, 2026 at 11:42 AM
We conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis to support this argument, which both suggests that the Neanderthals were more ecologically flexible than had been understood, and that we have a poor knowledge on where admixture between sapiens & Neanderthals could have happened.
Hot sauce time! Nice little harvesting of three of my chilli plants
August 16, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Hot sauce time! Nice little harvesting of three of my chilli plants
Behind this innocuous little gate on a hillside in South Wales lies the 33 km long Agen Allwedd cave system. Digging efforts are currently underway deep beneath Mynydd Llangatwg to connect the cave to the neighbouring Ogof y Daren Cilau. This will make a cave system more than 60 km long.
August 6, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Behind this innocuous little gate on a hillside in South Wales lies the 33 km long Agen Allwedd cave system. Digging efforts are currently underway deep beneath Mynydd Llangatwg to connect the cave to the neighbouring Ogof y Daren Cilau. This will make a cave system more than 60 km long.
Some pleasing capers at Għar il-Kbir.
August 5, 2026 at 9:55 PM
Some pleasing capers at Għar il-Kbir.
This looks great! Just downloaded it.
Can confirm (it's OA)
August 4, 2026 at 11:58 AM
This looks great! Just downloaded it.
A short video explainer on our new paper; Neanderthals in the Desert! youtu.be/AHcaIbBG42g
August 2, 2026 at 8:21 AM
A short video explainer on our new paper; Neanderthals in the Desert! youtu.be/AHcaIbBG42g
Great to see our new paper out; evidence for Neanderthals in Arabia! Time to stop imagining our hominin cousins as only being found in cold northern forests! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
August 2, 2026 at 8:05 AM
Great to see our new paper out; evidence for Neanderthals in Arabia! Time to stop imagining our hominin cousins as only being found in cold northern forests! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...