Rebecca Wragg Sykes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wragg Sykes in 2019

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.

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.[1]

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.[2][3]

Science communication[]

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

In 2020, Wragg Sykes published Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art[9] which won the 2021 Current Archaeology Book of the Year Award,[10][11] and has been favourably reviewed by Current Archaeology,[12] London Review of Books,[13] Nature,[14] The Guardian[15] and The New York Times;[16] reviews have been published in other media outlets as well.[17][18][19]

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".[16] 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".[9] 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.[20]

TrowelBlazers[]

In 2013 Wragg Sykes started, together with fellow scientists Brenna Hassett, Suzanne Birch, and Victoria Herridge, 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.[21]

References[]

  1. ^ Brian Cox Meets Rebecca Wragg Sykes – The Lost World of Neanderthals, archived from the original on 1 November 2020, retrieved 28 February 2021
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ "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.
  4. ^ "Becky Wragg Sykes". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  5. ^ "Stories by Rebecca Wragg Sykes". Scientific American. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Rebecca Wragg Sykes". Aeon. Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Family ties and reshaping history". BBC. 17 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  8. ^ "You're dead to me". BBC. 21 November 2020. Archived from the original on 21 November 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  9. ^ a b Wragg Sykes, Rebecca (2020). Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. London: Bloomsbury Sigma. ISBN 978-1472937490.
  10. ^ "Current Archaeology Awards". Current Archaeology. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  11. ^ Julian Richards (5 March 2021). "Current Archaeology Awards 2021". Current Archaeology. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  12. ^ "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.
  13. ^ Lanchester, John (17 December 2020). "Twenty Types of Human". London Review of Books. 42 (24). ISSN 0260-9592. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  14. ^ 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. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  15. ^ "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.
  16. ^ a b 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.
  17. ^ Community, npj Science of Learning (13 November 2020). "Book Review: A Fresh Look at Our Neanderthal Relatives". npj Science of Learning Community. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  18. ^ "'Kindred' Dismantles Simplistic Views Of Neanderthals". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  19. ^ October, Emma Pomeroy 27; 2020 (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.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Hassett, B.; Birch, S.P.; Herridge, V.; Sykes, R.W. (2018). "TrowelBlazers: accidentally crowdsourcing an archive of women in archaeology". Shared Knowledge, Shared Power: 129–141.
Retrieved from ""