She is terrible and wonderful, and is in #Matriarcha 😊
Life on the front ... and death on the back. #Neolithic figurine from #Catalhöyük, Türkiye, depicting a pregnant woman from one side and a skeletonized person from the other side, with ribs, shoulder blades, the spine and the pelvic bones showing.
Source: www.catalhoyuk.com/archive_repo...
Source: www.catalhoyuk.com/archive_repo...
November 20, 2024 at 11:30 AM
She is terrible and wonderful, and is in #Matriarcha 😊
Over 4,000 years old, the Bronze Age Glebe Cairn in Kilmartin Glen, Argyll, covers two stone cist burials.
The original cist, surrounded by two concentric stone circles, seems to have been for a woman. This individual was buried with jet or jet-like necklace beads and an Irish-style ceramic bowl.
The original cist, surrounded by two concentric stone circles, seems to have been for a woman. This individual was buried with jet or jet-like necklace beads and an Irish-style ceramic bowl.
February 24, 2026 at 10:19 PM
🏺🧪 Oh this is FASCINATING - and a site that was already in #Matriarcha!
DNA rarely preserves well in the Sahara, limiting knowledge of this region’s genetic history & demographic past but now we have genomic data from the Central Sahara, obtained from 2 approx 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage - Nature
Pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into the Green Sahara, where an isolated, distinct North African ancestry persisted.
www.nature.com
April 2, 2025 at 7:20 PM
🏺🧪 Oh this is FASCINATING - and a site that was already in #Matriarcha!
But right now for #Matriarcha am writing about weeping, gender policing & Iron Age masculinities 🏺✒️📚
crossing my fingers for some exciting archaeologically-related 2026 plans to come together, and for something else to unfurl from an encounter happening later this week
#CrypticExcitements
#CrypticExcitements
December 1, 2025 at 5:59 PM
But right now for #Matriarcha am writing about weeping, gender policing & Iron Age masculinities 🏺✒️📚
#Matriarcha Metal Ages chapter status:
BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS
BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS
January 21, 2025 at 10:19 AM
#Matriarcha Metal Ages chapter status:
BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS
BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS BEADS
🏺 More evidence prehistoric women essentially invented the world 💅... #Matriarcha
**this post is a joke but also not
**this post is a joke but also not
Twelve-thousand years ago, people in a coastal village in the Levant used stone weights on their spindles to spin thread faster and more evenly—and, archeologists are arguing, in the process they pioneered the basic mechanics that eventually made cart wheels possible. arstechnica.com/science/2024...
Key wheel ideas may have come from weaving
The tools used to make threads could have seeded concepts that eventually led to the wheel.
arstechnica.com
November 19, 2024 at 9:19 AM
🏺 More evidence prehistoric women essentially invented the world 💅... #Matriarcha
**this post is a joke but also not
**this post is a joke but also not
October 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Needless to say, this is all part of #Matriarcha! 📚
November 28, 2024 at 3:08 PM
Needless to say, this is all part of #Matriarcha! 📚
🏺 One of the Iron Age women of power in #Matriarcha... incredible symbolism in the necklace of amphorae
I’ve been fascinated by the “Dama de Elche” since I first learned about her, a mysterious statue from the 4th century BC discovered by a 19th-century farmer in a field in Valencia. Finally saw it in person today #ancientsky
July 14, 2025 at 8:38 AM
🏺 One of the Iron Age women of power in #Matriarcha... incredible symbolism in the necklace of amphorae
As far as I can make out, fibre craft of all sorts must have been a nearly constant activity for women in prehistory, even when they were doing other things
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
My entirely serious takeaway from building Iron Age houses at Flag Fen is that, amongst other things, some people must have spent an extraordinary amount of time making string.
My question for the “medieval peasants had more free time than modern middle class Americans” people is what they think the peasants *did* with their copious leisure time
June 22, 2026 at 5:31 AM
As far as I can make out, fibre craft of all sorts must have been a nearly constant activity for women in prehistory, even when they were doing other things
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
Some recent dawns of note during early morning alfresco #Matriarcha wrangling ✒️ 🌄
September 10, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Some recent dawns of note during early morning alfresco #Matriarcha wrangling ✒️ 🌄
Back at the Black Hill, for a few days undisturbed #Matriarcha writing on later prehistoric material worlds - appropriately surrounded by adorable lambs 🐑
April 10, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Back at the Black Hill, for a few days undisturbed #Matriarcha writing on later prehistoric material worlds - appropriately surrounded by adorable lambs 🐑
Writing about vaginas and sperm and bipedalism this morning, and finding myself wondering whether how Lucy preferred to "do it" matched our evolutionary theories...
Yes I am a serious author
#Matriarcha 📚
Yes I am a serious author
#Matriarcha 📚
March 3, 2026 at 9:21 AM
Writing about vaginas and sperm and bipedalism this morning, and finding myself wondering whether how Lucy preferred to "do it" matched our evolutionary theories...
Yes I am a serious author
#Matriarcha 📚
Yes I am a serious author
#Matriarcha 📚
February 24, 2026 at 8:41 PM
🏺 🐺 🐕 My pet theory is that wolves' musicality and ability to sing WITH PEOPLE is a key reason why we were mutually attracted - domestication through shared aesthetic sensibility, not merely economics of being good at hunting or guarding or pulling sleds...
(this is going to be in #Matriarcha 📚)
(this is going to be in #Matriarcha 📚)
'Singing' dogs may show the evolutionary roots of musicality www.newscientist.com/article/2518...
'Singing' dogs may show the evolutionary roots of musicality
Some Samoyeds adjust the pitch of their howls depending on the music being played, showing a form of vocal ability they might have inherited from their wolf ancestors
www.newscientist.com
March 9, 2026 at 4:24 PM
🏺 🐺 🐕 My pet theory is that wolves' musicality and ability to sing WITH PEOPLE is a key reason why we were mutually attracted - domestication through shared aesthetic sensibility, not merely economics of being good at hunting or guarding or pulling sleds...
(this is going to be in #Matriarcha 📚)
(this is going to be in #Matriarcha 📚)
🏺🗃️ Something else I love about this? It shows women together gaming: they're playing knucklebones
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
November 26, 2025 at 10:50 AM
🏺🗃️ Something else I love about this? It shows women together gaming: they're playing knucklebones
#Matriarcha
#Matriarcha
Love this! Naia's story is in #Matriarcha
Naia of Hoyo Negro. Teenager who lived 12,000-13,000 years ago in the Yucatan peninsula.
September 4, 2024 at 6:50 PM
Love this! Naia's story is in #Matriarcha
I want it. (It is not yet published, and is still in the process of being written)
www.rebeccawraggsykes.com/matriarcha
www.rebeccawraggsykes.com/matriarcha
Matriarcha | Rebecca Wragg Sykes - Archaeologist & Author | UK
Rebecca's second book, titled MATRIARCHA, was announced in January 2023 and reported in The Bookseller, Publisher's Marketplace and The Publishing Post. Matriarcha is about the first women, and perha...
www.rebeccawraggsykes.com
January 9, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I want it. (It is not yet published, and is still in the process of being written)
www.rebeccawraggsykes.com/matriarcha
www.rebeccawraggsykes.com/matriarcha
🏺🧪 Was so excited to see a talk about this, and thrilled it's now published so I can include it in #Matriarcha!
The more we look, the greater variety of data we find for matrifocal prehistoric social & communal organisation
The more we look, the greater variety of data we find for matrifocal prehistoric social & communal organisation
8,000 years ago, two babies were buried at Çatalhöyük West. Excavated and analyzed during our excavations, their DNA links them to East Mound — now part of this amazing paper. Very, very happy to contribute & huge thanks to the teams involved!
🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Female lineages and changing kinship patterns in Neolithic Çatalhöyük
Combining 131 paleogenomes with bioarchaeological and archaeological data, we studied social organization and gendered practices in Çatalhöyük East Mound (7100 to 5950 BCE), a major Neolithic settleme...
www.science.org
June 27, 2025 at 5:12 PM
🏺🧪 Was so excited to see a talk about this, and thrilled it's now published so I can include it in #Matriarcha!
The more we look, the greater variety of data we find for matrifocal prehistoric social & communal organisation
The more we look, the greater variety of data we find for matrifocal prehistoric social & communal organisation
😍
While middle Bronze Age woollen clothing preserved in oak coffin burials in Denmark does seem to have been made from largely undyed wools of varying textures, I am loving this hyper-colour vibe
(anyone want to weave me one to wear for #Matriarcha events?!)
While middle Bronze Age woollen clothing preserved in oak coffin burials in Denmark does seem to have been made from largely undyed wools of varying textures, I am loving this hyper-colour vibe
(anyone want to weave me one to wear for #Matriarcha events?!)
'A 2800-year-old red and blue checked dress found in an Early Iron Age grave in the Netherlands might be the oldest double-colour woven garment in Europe.' 🏺🧪
Ancient checked dress may be Europe's oldest two-colour garment
Textile fragments found in a 2800-year-old grave in the Netherlands were once part of a woven dress with a red and blue checked pattern, molecular analysis has revealed
www.newscientist.com
December 30, 2024 at 3:15 PM
😍
While middle Bronze Age woollen clothing preserved in oak coffin burials in Denmark does seem to have been made from largely undyed wools of varying textures, I am loving this hyper-colour vibe
(anyone want to weave me one to wear for #Matriarcha events?!)
While middle Bronze Age woollen clothing preserved in oak coffin burials in Denmark does seem to have been made from largely undyed wools of varying textures, I am loving this hyper-colour vibe
(anyone want to weave me one to wear for #Matriarcha events?!)
Just booked 4 hotels, 3 flights and a ferry, which together mean I am going Somewhere Very Exciting neat year for #Matriarcha... 🏛️ 🌋 🌊 🏺🐂
November 26, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Just booked 4 hotels, 3 flights and a ferry, which together mean I am going Somewhere Very Exciting neat year for #Matriarcha... 🏛️ 🌋 🌊 🏺🐂
🗃️🏺 Been thinking about ancient female literacy a lot recently for #Matriarcha, in Bronze Age Aegean and Near East, and the extent to which we might underestimate it not just in elite or scribal settings, but mercantile/trade contexts too.
📜 Women Scribes in the Middle Ages
A new study finds that at least 1.1% of medieval manuscripts were copied by female scribes - suggesting over 110,000 manuscripts were written by women.
🔗 doi.org/10.1057/s415...
#SciComm #WomenInSTEM 🧪
A new study finds that at least 1.1% of medieval manuscripts were copied by female scribes - suggesting over 110,000 manuscripts were written by women.
🔗 doi.org/10.1057/s415...
#SciComm #WomenInSTEM 🧪
How many medieval and early modern manuscripts were copied by female scribes? A bibliometric analysis based on colophons - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - How many medieval and early modern manuscripts were copied by female scribes? A bibliometric analysis based on colophons
doi.org
March 12, 2025 at 8:15 PM
🗃️🏺 Been thinking about ancient female literacy a lot recently for #Matriarcha, in Bronze Age Aegean and Near East, and the extent to which we might underestimate it not just in elite or scribal settings, but mercantile/trade contexts too.
Grabbed half an hour by the Beaune to work on #Matriarcha...
Leaving Les Eyzies tomorrow 😢 but travelling on to Pech Merle 🖌️🐎 ❤️
Leaving Les Eyzies tomorrow 😢 but travelling on to Pech Merle 🖌️🐎 ❤️
June 10, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Grabbed half an hour by the Beaune to work on #Matriarcha...
Leaving Les Eyzies tomorrow 😢 but travelling on to Pech Merle 🖌️🐎 ❤️
Leaving Les Eyzies tomorrow 😢 but travelling on to Pech Merle 🖌️🐎 ❤️
📚 🗃️ ✒️ #Matriarcha writing this past week has included:
- discovering sperm whale 'monkey lips'
- reconstructing #Neanderthal language
- Virginia Woolf & Mesopotamian nadītu
- imagining pregnant ichthyosaurs
- speculative fictions of the Iron Age
- discovering sperm whale 'monkey lips'
- reconstructing #Neanderthal language
- Virginia Woolf & Mesopotamian nadītu
- imagining pregnant ichthyosaurs
- speculative fictions of the Iron Age
October 15, 2025 at 11:53 AM
📚 🗃️ ✒️ #Matriarcha writing this past week has included:
- discovering sperm whale 'monkey lips'
- reconstructing #Neanderthal language
- Virginia Woolf & Mesopotamian nadītu
- imagining pregnant ichthyosaurs
- speculative fictions of the Iron Age
- discovering sperm whale 'monkey lips'
- reconstructing #Neanderthal language
- Virginia Woolf & Mesopotamian nadītu
- imagining pregnant ichthyosaurs
- speculative fictions of the Iron Age
This sounds fantastic and resonates v hard with the way that we routinely erase women's capacity as tradespeople, merchants and entrepreneurs in prehistory.
I'm writing a ton on this for #Matriarcha! 📚
I'm writing a ton on this for #Matriarcha! 📚
New article has just been published OA @womenshistoryrev.bsky.social !
Lots of archival work in here tracing the the women who ran “Indian houses” in #17thc London.
Including one woman who may have helped plot the Glorious Revolution!! #earlymodern
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Lots of archival work in here tracing the the women who ran “Indian houses” in #17thc London.
Including one woman who may have helped plot the Glorious Revolution!! #earlymodern
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
July 3, 2026 at 9:05 AM
This sounds fantastic and resonates v hard with the way that we routinely erase women's capacity as tradespeople, merchants and entrepreneurs in prehistory.
I'm writing a ton on this for #Matriarcha! 📚
I'm writing a ton on this for #Matriarcha! 📚