Annemieke Milks

Two Sticks: What a new find from Schöningen tells us about Pleistocene hominins

Yesterday the discovery of a second short wooden stick from the site of Schöningen 13 II-4 (Germany) was published in Nature: Ecology and Evolution. Schöningen 13 II-4 dates to around 300,000 years ago and is best known for its collection of complete and nearly complete wooden spears and the remains of a large quantity ofContinueContinue reading “Two Sticks: What a new find from Schöningen tells us about Pleistocene hominins”

American Museum of Natural History: my child’s perspective

Today I am sharing a co-authored post. My eight year old daughter and I review our recent visit to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. We’ve visited museums together in many countries, and she usually enjoys them. She had a very negative reaction to the AMNH, and although I was surprised,ContinueContinue reading “American Museum of Natural History: my child’s perspective”

The Arch & Anth Podcast

This is just a short post to let people know about my friend Dr. Michael Rivera’s new adventure – The Arch & Anth Podcast! Michael is a biological anthropologist who studies human behaviour through skeletal remains. He’s started the podcast – going out three times a week – because he’s passionate about science communication, archaeology,ContinueContinue reading “The Arch & Anth Podcast”

Skills Shortage! Or The Replicator’s Conceit

Experimental archaeology has run as a thread throughout my postgraduate studies, and I’ve conducted a number of different types of experiments on Pleistocene hunting weapons. Something that was clear early on in designing my experiments is that we have a present-day skills shortage in terms of how humans used early hunting spears. Once upon aContinueContinue reading “Skills Shortage! Or The Replicator’s Conceit”

What’s in a name? Defining prehistoric weaponry

I have researched Palaeolithic weapons for almost 10 years and (miraculously) I still love writing and talking about them. I’ve written up some basics below on prehistoric weaponry, including some definitions, classifications, and a few archaeological ‘firsts’. But I want to think very briefly first why we need these definitions and classifications. We use definitionsContinueContinue reading “What’s in a name? Defining prehistoric weaponry”