Rachel King
Assoc Prof at UCL
History in/of archaeological thought, disorder, 🇱🇸🗻🇿🇦, mobility: tinyurl.com/4rb3av9n
Neoliberalism + heritage: tinyurl.com/5bedkshr
Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies: tinyurl.com/92rmc887
- Reposted by Rachel KingCape Town! Are you interested in the history of #water? Specifically the history of the #Lesotho Highlands Water Project (#LHWP)? Well, I wrote a book on it! Launch: 27 Feb, Exclusive Books, Waterfront, 1800 RSVP here and come hear me talk! exclusivebooks.co.za/pages/events...
- Reposted by Rachel KingMore Breaking Palaeo-news! 🐘 Boxgrove preserved oldest Elephant Bone beyond Africa. 🐘 Early Neanderthals using bone to shape beautiful tools. 🐘 New research from Simon Parfitt @uclarchaeology.bsky.social Silvia Bello of the @nhm-london.bsky.social. 🦣🏺🐘https://share.google/20WUjY5TybDAr4QoT
- I tried something new this year by building a suite of #archaeological #theory practicals, so a 🧵 on resources I (and my students) loved 🏺. I’ve linked to online materials but will happily share purpose-made stuff:
- First, for a session on how science is socially produced, a combo of students’ field diaries (we ask them to keep these for all fieldwork), Çatalhöyük sketch diaries db.catalhoyuk.com//dailysketches.html, and copies of Kathleen Kenyon’s field diaries from #Sabratha (taken from my research)
- For sessions on change and scale, I made a choose-your-own-adventure style game with the Atlas of #Hillforts hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk, using attribute tables and C14 + finds catalogues + magnetometry data
-
View full threadPS this is a class with 113 students so doing practicals at that scale was a steep learning curve!!
- A tower of crates containing c9000-year-old lithics fell over, snapped my laptop in two, and gave me the odd scrape. My career as a lithicist was dying already but that really clinched it.
- Reposted by Rachel KingJust now discovering that #SouthAfrican academic and activist Renfrew #Christie passed away. He did his PhD on the history of #electricity generation is South Africa so he could figure out how to sabotage RSA's #AtomicBomb efforts during #apartheid. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/w...
- Reposted by Rachel KingHoly hell, what an obituary
- Reposted by Rachel KingThe Norfolk Carnyx: a Playmobil story in 4 parts. 🧵 #DiggingForBritain #DrawingDiggingForBritain #PlaymobilInfestation @profaliceroberts.bsky.social @pcaarchaeology.bsky.social 1: Life
- Reposted by Rachel KingJust published a paper on the complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir meme, the decade-old tumblr in-joke that continues to impact the public understanding of the ancient world. Paywalled but email me if you want a copy. 🏺
- In honour of #HillfortsWednesday I’m pleased to report that since my second years have asked for MORE HILLFORTS next year’s class will indeed be getting MORE HILLFORTS
- Reposted by Rachel KingFunded PhD opp. Uni of Stirling “situated at the intersection of built heritage, housing, and climate justice, focusing on tenants in historic tenements in Stirling”https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/2026-ahrc-doctoral-landscape-award-collaborative-doctoral-award-cda-phd-studentship/?p193000
- Reposted by Rachel KingJust out! In this piece, I argue that the United Fruit Company served as a conduit through which political economies of racialized labor were brought to bear on archaeological practice. This one was three years in the making and it's available #OpenAccess here: doi.org/10.1017/S001... 🗃️📚🏺🇬🇹
- A reminder to us all of the good people at Traffic Scotland giving us even more amazing gritter names www.traffic.gov.scot/gritter-trac... Carrie Bradthaw Brinestone Ploughboy Spready Mercury Skid Vicious Gritney Spears (x2) Stone Cold Steve Frostin
- Reposted by Rachel KingDoes anyone else take great pleasure in printing out vintage line-hachure drawings of prehistoric monuments? Sometimes I mount them on card, sometimes I create handouts for field trips from them. I just love the detail and tangibility of these beautiful, evocative, technical works. 🏺
- Hilarious and heartbreaking, and not just because I would absolutely try to make this sandwich (see: me raiding the dining area at a certain morally bankrupt surveillance tech company when my employee friend invites me over)
- This was probably meant to be a late-night post: I spent eight months working on a stunt blog about a $200 sandwich. Or, no, I did an end-of-year post about my mental health and the federal funding crisis. I'm not sure which. Maybe you can figure it out. www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/epi...
- ‘Curriculum Effectiveness Enhancement and Quality Magnification and Intensification’ 🎯 www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-...
- I love so much about this fascinating research … but it can make its point perfectly well without referencing entombment etc, which simply aren’t the analogies they’re made out to be here
- Shout out to the extreme passive aggression of my daughter’s pre-school, who sent her home with a sealed envelope full of loose glitter
- 🏺guys, I’ve found the book for all of us in #HigherEd teaching admin. Magic school, with Ofsted and risk assessments for demonic possession, and just generally great fun uk.bookshop.org/p/books/unti...
- Reposted by Rachel KingHiba's seminar will be first in Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies series, on "Collaborative Archaeologies in (Post)Conflict Contexts". All welcome, in-person only, book via this link: www.bbk.ac.uk/events?tag=1...
- Shout out to everyone who thinks about this scene in Mad Men at least once a week
- This is *such* a good description of this trend. I’ve said ‘whiplash’ in I don’t know how many meetings at this point
- Reposted by Rachel KingApplications due 30 December for the Malmberg Fellowship at the University of #Pittsburgh (USA) to study for a fully-funded #masters degree. Open ONLY to #Lesotho nationals! www.global.pitt.edu/cas/students...
- Reposted by Rachel KingClosing date Dec 3rd. 1 year post as Researcher on our Prehistoric Policies project. 👇👇👇
- Project Researcher (environmental policy) @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social Temporary 12 months post of Project Researcher as part of the @britishacademy.bsky.social funded ‘Prehistoric Policies’ project. Job Ref 019121, search www.ucd.ie/workatucd/jo.... @iaiarchaeo.bsky.social, @cifa-ec.bsky.social
- Instead of a dozen AI tools I never asked for why can’t I have a device that lets me cook with fresh thyme and not have 100s of little twiglets in my food
- Reposted by Rachel KingNew report on how people engage with archaeology is out - Trowel and Error: A Public User Needs Survey. Lots to digest but key conclusions are: 1) archaeologists risk undervaluing and hiding ourselves, our practices and the role we play in society... www.archaeologyuk.org/our-work/tro...
- It’s historical archaeology! Its heritage! It came out 24 hours before my first child! Not my most recent book but maybe my most obscure (and beloved) for the above reasons Unformatted open access version on my UCL Profiles page
- Reposted by Rachel KingAre you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research? We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections. Find out more: collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/
- THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR LET’S GOOOOOO
- Reposted by Rachel KingOur first speaker for the series will be Hiba Alkhalaf (Voices of Heritage/Aswat Alturath). She'll be speaking about "From Destruction to Recovery: Syrian Heritage, Fourteen Years on". Link to book below. www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
- Reposted by Rachel KingThere is nothing better than Robert Lloyd Parry reading a ghost story in a chapel in December. It is as much a part of Christmas as carols, presents and watching It's A Wonderful Life for the forty-first time.
- Reposted by Rachel KingIn the immortal words of Sir Mix-a-Lot: "And ugh, double-up, ugh, ugh". 2 doggy papers are so much better than 1. Both studies a testament to slow science & international collaboration between brilliant people. What it's all about. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Rachel King🚨 Job Klaxon! 🚨 @ucl.ac.uk Institute of Archaeology currently has a vacancy for an Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Islamic Archaeology (Ref.: B03-02751) The post is available from 1 Jan 2026 & is funded until 31 Dec 2028 in the first instance, providing cover for Corisande Fenwick bit.ly/4oxQgfp
- Super excited to use this fabulous ‘Behind the Paper’ article by @petravaiglova.bsky.social and @kjkillackey.bsky.social to teach my undergrad theory students about how good visualisations are well-theorised ones. Such a wonderful piece of sci comm! 🏺🧪 communities.springernature.com/posts/making...
- Reposted by Rachel Kingpre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
- Reposted by Rachel KingMy name is Ozymandias, king of kings! Look on my UNESCO World Heritage list works and advance neoliberal governmentality!
- Reposted by Rachel KingThe latest output from my milk research with Johanna Zetterström-Sharp @uclarchaeology.bsky.social published in @theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-politics...
- Reposted by Rachel KingJust over a week out from publication day for my book, In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico (@univnebpress.bsky.social). Read more below or at www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/978.... 🗃️📚🇲🇽🏺 #skystorians #Mexico #archaeology #heritage
- Look at the cool things my colleagues are doing! ✨
- "first successful detection of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in bones, teeth and dental calculus, opening a way to identify pregnancy in the archaeological record." phys.org/news/2025-10... #histmed #WomensHealth #MedievalSky
- So very excited to be a panellist at #UAD25 @uclarchaeology.bsky.social! Come ask me anything (and entertain my kids who will be on their own half term adventure) 🏺
- Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for - our panel sessions for University Archaeology Day #UAD25! Our expert panels will be answering questions from YOU in the audience @britishacademy.bsky.social or at home - come along to ask everything you've ever wanted to ask about archaeology!
- Book cultures in archaeology YESPLEASE!🏺
- New: 'How to Get Ahead in Archaeology...' by Heather Keeble doi.org/10.11141/ia.... It explores the role that book reviews in British periodicals played in establishing the public credibility of archaeologists as the discipline was in a state of flux & undergoing processes of professionalisation
- Reviewer 2 says I need to ‘engage with Rachel King’s work more’ in this paper and 1) right on, but also 2) do I not have a distinctive writing voice?! Is this a hidden superpower?
- Reposted by Rachel KingNEW Sudan is a diverse country with a rich cultural heritage that is under threat from conflict. In a guest editorial, Habab Idriss Ahmed & Geoff Emberling discuss the brave efforts of the Sudanese antiquities department (NCAM) to protect Sudan's #archaeology 🏺 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
- Reposted by Rachel KingAre you a student at a UK university and looking for support to come to TAG York? Did you know the Royal Archaeological Institute Cheney Bursary is available to support you? You can find more details here: www.royalarchinst.org/grants/bursa... @royalarchinst.bsky.social
- Teaching the 2019 Big Gods paper (retractionwatch.com/2021/07/07/c...) as a cautionary tale in archaeological theory, and also in how not to use excel
- Super excited for this! And what excellent timing now that we’re putting together a module on (among other things) gaming 🤗
- Pre-orders for Carved in Stone are open!! This book is gorgeous, and I am so grateful to use it (and the artwork!) in my videos. You can pre-order from @stoutstoat.co.uk here: www.stoutstoat.co.uk/carvedinstone Thanks to @archaeonado.bsky.social for the endorsement! 🏺 #archaeology #ArchaeologySky
- Reposted by Rachel King🏺🗃️
- Reposted by Rachel KingThe British university mess is so clearly what happens when the incentives of the people administering and consulting on the system bear no relation to those of anyone actually working in it
- 🏺Putting together an exercise using field diaries for my archaeological theory class and wondering whether anyone knows of any digitised/archived *laboratory* diaries that would be good to teach with? 🙏🏻 (Before anyone asks the Catalhoyuk research portal search isn’t working 🙃)
- Reposted by Rachel KingToday is August 1. Asking an academic how their book is going is a felony.
- Reposted by Rachel KingLike science? Then you better be interested when *someone* starts putting out hit pieces on scientists. This is beyond the pale ethically and honestly anyone who doesn’t want to slide to hell on a slick of ai generated content that benefits billionaire business, maybe now is the time to get angry.
- Reposted by Rachel King2/ On that direction of travel, I wrote this earlier this year: apollo-magazine.com/usaid-abolit...
- My children have complementary approaches to birthday cake
- Me, photographing archives in 2023: I really should get these catalogued and onto a hard drive now so I’m not scrambling to do this when I need to write a talk Me, scrambling to write a conference talk in 2025: curse these totally foreseeable consequences!
- Amazing funding scheme for postgraduates, working on amazing projects with the best people. Yes, I really am that excited.
- So pleased that we have MA funding available this year for our MA Archaeology & Heritage Programme. Please spread the word (or get in touch if you have questions)! www.bbk.ac.uk/student-serv...
- Reposted by Rachel KingSo pleased that we have MA funding available this year for our MA Archaeology & Heritage Programme. Please spread the word (or get in touch if you have questions)! www.bbk.ac.uk/student-serv...
- Reposted by Rachel King"digital asbestos" is fantastic framing.
- 5yo is doing a unit on African countries so naturally I’ve primed her to pedantically correct anyone who mispronounces Lesotho. I’m sure this will not affect her popularity in any way.
- Reposted by Rachel King
- 🏺 So pleased to have this out for ACHS #Currents about my adventures in economic history, how markets have valued the past, and how #heritage buys into growth (but doesn’t have to!). 🙏🏻 @heritagethings.bsky.social for being the most patient editor! www.criticalheritagestudies.org/currents-cri...
- Reposted by Rachel KingCheck out the freshly launched TSOSI (Transparency to Sustain Open Infrastructure) website and take a peek at the list of PCI supporters! tsosi.org/entities/ba7...
- Reposted by Rachel KingWe're excited to announce the next @icarehb.bsky.social Alt-Ac Paths conversation, with Luíseach Nic Eoin @roinnanluisigh.bsky.social and Tansy Branscombe @tansybranscombe.bsky.social, who now work at @natecoevo.nature.com and @barpublishing.bsky.social. Thurs 19th June, 11am (GMT), Zoom link below.
- Students for my ‘Critical Heritage Research Skills’ module write a grant application as their final assessment and these are always a DELIGHT. Cats as stewards of heritage sites! Carceral heritage! Someone fund these ASAP!
