Rebecca Wragg Sykes

Last updated

Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Rebecca Wragg Sykes October 2021.jpg
Wragg Sykes in 2021
NationalityBritish
Alma mater University of Bristol (BA), University of Southampton (MA), University of Sheffield (PhD)
Occupation(s)Paleolithic archaeologist, broadcaster, writer
Known forMiddle Palaeolithic studies, Neanderthal research, co-founding TrowelBlazers
Notable workKindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

Rebecca Wragg Sykes is a British paleolithic archaeologist, broadcaster, popular science writer and author who lives in Wales. She is interested in the Middle Palaeolithic, specifically in the lives of Neanderthals; and she is one of the founders of TrowelBlazers, a website set up to celebrate the lives of women in archaeology, palaeontology and geology. She is a patron of Humanists UK. [1]

Contents

Career

Wragg Sykes studied as an undergraduate at the University of Bristol, before gaining her BA in Archaeology in 2003, and MA in the Archaeology of Human Origins from the University of Southampton in 2004. Her doctoral thesis from the University of Sheffield, which examined evidence for late Neanderthals in Britain, was awarded in 2010. [2]

Following her Ph.D, Wragg Sykes was awarded a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship at Université de Bordeaux, working in the PACEA laboratory on Neanderthal and prehistoric sites in the Massif Central mountains. She is currently an Honorary Fellow in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and chercheur bénévole (Honorary Fellow) at the Université de Bordeaux. [3] [4]

Science communication

Wragg Sykes has written for The Guardian , [5] Scientific American [6] and Aeon , [7] and appeared on history and science programmes for BBC Radio 3 [8] and Radio 4. [9]

In 2020, Wragg Sykes published Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art [10] which won the 2021 Current Archaeology Book of the Year Award, [11] [12] the 2021 Hessel-Tiltman History Prize, the 2022 Public Anthropology Award from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and the 2022 President's Award from The Prehistoric Society. Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love Death and Art was also a finalist in the 2022 Premio Galileo Awards and has been favourably reviewed by Current Archaeology, [13] London Review of Books , [14] Nature , [15] The Guardian [16] and The New York Times ; [17] reviews have been published in other media outlets as well. [18] [19] [20]

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind , thought Wragg Sykes had done "a remarkable job synthesizing thousands of academic studies into a single accessible narrative". [17] Alice Roberts, author and presenter of the television series The Incredible Human Journey , said it was "a wonderful portrait of these enigmatic, long-lost relatives". [10] Writing in The Sunday Times about the best philosophy and ideas books of the year 2020, James McConnachie praised how it reveals the latest theories about Neanderthal life, from the tools they used to the funerals they performed. [21]

Wragg Sykes has also written for DK and was one of the authors for the book Big History, [22] although she and the other authors were "aligned with" the OER Project rather than members of the organization. [23]

TrowelBlazers

In 2013, Wragg Sykes started, together with other female scientists, the TrowelBlazers project, a public-led experiment in participatory archaeology, originating from the lack of visibility of women in science. TrowelBlazers has highlighted women from the fields of archaeology, geology and palaeontology. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svante Pääbo</span> Swedish geneticist (born 1955)

Svante Pääbo is a Swedish geneticist and Nobel Laureate who specialises in the field of evolutionary genetics. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the Neanderthal genome. In 1997, he became founding director of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Since 1999, he has been an honorary professor at Leipzig University; he currently teaches molecular evolutionary biology at the university. He is also an adjunct professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Humanist Association</span> US secularist advocacy organization

The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism.

The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize is awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content covering a period up to and including World War II, and published in the year of the award. The books are to be of high literary merit, but not primarily academic. The prize is organized by the English PEN. Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman was a member of PEN during the 1960s and 1970s; on her death in 1999 she bequeathed £100,000 to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name. Each year's winner receives £2,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cashman</span> British politician and actor (born 1950)

Colin Michael Maurice Cashman, Baron Cashman, is a British actor, dancer, politician, and LGBT rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 1999 to 2014. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2014. He is a patron of Humanists UK.

<i>Night at the Museum</i> 2006 film by Shawn Levy

Night at the Museum is a 2006 American fantasy comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. It is based on the 1993 children's book of the same name by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc. The film had an ensemble cast of Ben Stiller in the lead role, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, and Robin Williams. It tells the story of a divorced father who applies for a job as a night watchman at New York City's American Museum of Natural History and subsequently discovers that the exhibits come to life at night, animated by a magical Egyptian artifact. 20th Century Fox released the film on December 22, 2006, and it grossed $574.5 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2006, but received mixed reviews from critics.

Kindred is one's family and relations by kinship. It may also refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Goldstein</span> American philosopher and writer (born 1950)

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is an American philosopher, novelist, and public intellectual. She has written ten books, both fiction and non-fiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University, and is sometimes grouped with novelists such as Richard Powers and Alan Lightman, who create fiction that is knowledgeable of, and sympathetic toward, science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Roberts</span> English academic, TV presenter and author

Alice May Roberts is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK between January 2019 and May 2022. She is now a vice-president of the organisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larkin Poe</span> American blues rock band

Larkin Poe is an American roots rock band led by sisters Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell. The band originated in north Georgia and is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. Known for their strong southern harmonies, heavy electric guitar riffs, steel guitar, Larkin Poe often draws comparisons to the style of the Allman Brothers. The Lovell sisters have gained recognition for their energetic performances and musical prowess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuval Noah Harari</span> Israeli historian and philosopher (born 1976)

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli medievalist, military historian, public intellectual, and writer. He currently serves as professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the popular science bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011), Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016), and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018). His writings examine free will, consciousness, intelligence, happiness, and suffering.

Victoria Louise "Tori" Herridge, born 1980, is a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London and one of the founders of TrowelBlazers, which celebrates women archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists.

<i>Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</i> 2014 book by Yuval Harari

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a book by Yuval Noah Harari, first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 based on a series of lectures Harari taught at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in English in 2014. The book, focusing on Homo sapiens, surveys the history of humankind, starting from the Stone Age and going up to the twenty-first century. The account is situated within a framework that intersects the natural sciences with the social sciences.

<i>The Dig</i> (2021 film) British drama film directed by Simon Stone

The Dig is a 2021 British drama film directed by Simon Stone, based on the 2007 historical novel of the same name by John Preston, which reimagines the events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. It stars Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott, Archie Barnes, and Monica Dolan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TrowelBlazers</span> Grouping for women archeo-scientists

TrowelBlazers is a project aimed at increasing the representation of women in the fields of archaeology, geology and palaeontology. The project is run by Brenna Hassett, Victoria Herridge, Suzanne Pilaar Birch and Rebecca Wragg Sykes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenna Hassett</span> American British bioarchaeologist

Brenna R. Hassett is an American British bioarchaeologist at University College London (UCL), author, public speaker and one of the founders of TrowelBlazers, which celebrates women archaeologists, paleontologists and geologists.

Amara Thornton is a historian of archaeology. Her work focuses on British archaeologists in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She situates archaeology within its broader historical context, including the history of tourism, the history of publishing and popular media, the history of education, government policies and women's history. She is an Honorary Research Associate at UCL.

<i>Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art</i> 2020 book by Rebecca Wragg Sykes

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art is a 2020 book by Rebecca Wragg Sykes that examines Neanderthals. The book has three "positive" reviews and eight "rave" reviews according to review aggregator Book Marks.

<i>The Neanderthals Rediscovered</i> 2013 non-fiction book

The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science is Rewriting Their Story is a 2013 non-fiction book by Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse, published by Thames & Hudson. The book focuses on the history, culture, and extinction of Neanderthals, the closest known relatives of anatomically modern humans. Neanderthals are widely stereotyped as primitive or unintelligent compared to modern humans, a myth dispelled by research in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Written to summarize substantial advances in Neanderthal research in the previous few decades, The Neanderthals Rediscovered addresses subjects like how Neanderthals used tools, how they hunted, the societies they formed, and potential reasons for their extinction. The book is fully illustrated, including 16 all-illustration pages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cueva Des-Cubierta</span> Spanish cave site of Neanderthal remains

Cueva Des-Cubierta is the name of a cave in Pinilla del Valle, Community of Madrid, Spain where Neanderthal presence is noted for possible Neanderthal ritual significance due to specifically arranged collections of animal bones. The name has a double meaning in Spanish, as "Des-Cubierta" can be interpreted as both "discovered" and "uncovered", and the site was discovered during the removal of plant mass which uncovered the cavity of the site.

References

  1. "Michael Cashman, Rebecca Wragg Sykes, and Roger Hutton join Humanists UK as new patrons". Humanists UK. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  2. Brian Cox Meets Rebecca Wragg Sykes – The Lost World of Neanderthals, archived from the original on 1 November 2020, retrieved 28 February 2021
  3. "Conversations with: Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes". Conversations in Human Evolution. 21 August 2020. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  4. "Michael Shermer with Rebecca Wragg Sykes — Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art". Skeptic. 27 October 2020. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  5. "Becky Wragg Sykes". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  6. "Stories by Rebecca Wragg Sykes". Scientific American . Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  7. "Rebecca Wragg Sykes". Aeon. Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  8. "Family ties and reshaping history". BBC. 17 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  9. "You're dead to me". BBC. 21 November 2020. Archived from the original on 21 November 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  10. 1 2 Wragg Sykes, Rebecca (2020). Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. London: Bloomsbury Sigma. ISBN   978-1472937490.
  11. "Current Archaeology Awards". Current Archaeology. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  12. Julian Richards (5 March 2021). "Current Archaeology Awards 2021". Current Archaeology. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  13. "Review – Kindred: Neanderthal life, love, death, and art". Current Archaeology. 21 September 2020. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  14. Lanchester, John (17 December 2020). "Twenty Types of Human". London Review of Books. Vol. 42, no. 24. ISSN   0260-9592. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  15. Glausiusz, Josie (18 August 2020). "Horse eyeballs and bone hammers: surprising lives of the Neanderthals". Nature. 584 (7821): 342–343. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02420-3. S2CID   221146679.
  16. "Kindred by Rebecca Wragg Sykes review – a new understanding of humanity". The Guardian. 20 December 2020. Archived from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  17. 1 2 Harari, Yuval Noah (7 November 2020). "At Home With Our Ancient Cousins, the Neanderthals". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  18. "Book Review: A Fresh Look at Our Neanderthal Relatives". npj Science of Learning Community. 13 November 2020. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  19. "'Kindred' Dismantles Simplistic Views Of Neanderthals". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  20. Pomeroy, Emma (27 October 2020). "A nuanced portrait of Neanderthals encourages empathy and understanding". Books, Et Al. Archived from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  21. McConnachie, James (29 November 2020). "Best philosophy and ideas books of the year 2020". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  22. Bohan, Elise; Dinwiddie, Robert; Challoner, Jack; Stuart, Colin; Harvey, Derek; Wragg-Sykes, Rebecca; Chrisp, Peter; Hubbard, Ben; Parker, Phillip; et al. (Writers) (February 2016). Big History. Foreword by David Christian (1st American ed.). New York: DK. ISBN   978-1-4654-5443-0. OCLC   940282526.
  23. "Big History by DK: 9780744048445". Penguin Random House. 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  24. Hassett, B.; Birch, S.P.; Herridge, V.; Sykes, R.W. (2018). "TrowelBlazers: accidentally crowdsourcing an archive of women in archaeology". Shared Knowledge, Shared Power. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology: 129–141. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-68652-3_9. ISBN   978-3-319-68651-6.