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Jim Leary @Jim_Leary

Archaeologist & writer. Senior Lecturer @UniOfYork. Prehistory. Books: The Story of Silbury Hill. The Remembered Land. New book #Footmarks. Agent: J.P. Marshall

Joined April 2010
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1,840 Photos and videos
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Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
23 Jan 2023
Announcement 📣: This is very exciting! #Footmarks will be out this June! It is a book about tracks and trackways, holloways and roads. A book about feet and shoes, wheels and boats. A book about putting one foot in front of the other, about crossing seas, pilgrims and migrants.
Icon Books@iconbooks
23 Jan 2023
** NEW ON NETGALLEY ** #Footmarks @Jim_Leary : netgal.ly/k1Xk2u Coming 1 June 2023:waterstones.com/book/footmar…
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Jim Leary retweeted
Dr Tom Horne@HorneSupremacy
Jun 6
Chop, Chop! Axe-Marked Bronze Age Timber Found in Yorkshire 🪵🪓 Archaeologists excavating at Skipsea in Yorkshire have discovered a Bronze Age timber that has preserved the marks of the sockered axe used to fell the tree! Thanks, @Jim_Leary! 📰 AWLOH: open.substack.com/pub/histor…
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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
May 29
For #FindsFriday, I'm gifting you this fantastic Bronze Age felled tree we’ve just excavated from #Skipsea in Holderness. The marks of the socketed bronze axe are clearly visible, and the thud of the axe is almost audible. Used - we think - as a post, perhaps for a trackway.
A photo of the end of a log showing hundreds of small, curved facets.

ALT A photo of the end of a log showing hundreds of small, curved facets.

A photo of the end of a log showing hundreds of small, curved facets.

ALT A photo of the end of a log showing hundreds of small, curved facets.

A photo of the end of a log showing hundreds of small, curved facets.

ALT A photo of the end of a log showing hundreds of small, curved facets.

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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
May 23
What have we found at #Skipsea this week? Well, on the edge of a small pond fed by springs and streams, we found this Iron Age horse’s head and neck. There is no body with it, and I can’t help thinking of it lying there with its large eyes closed and mane gently washed by water.
A 3d scan of the horses skull.

ALT A 3d scan of the horses skull.

An overhead photo of the horses head and articulating neck.

ALT An overhead photo of the horses head and articulating neck.
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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
May 20
Well, this is a wonderful find from the ancient lake edge at #Skipsea - a 1.3m worked wooden pole. A digging stick, possibly Mesolithic, is our best on-site guess, but we’ll know more when it’s back at the labs and reviewed by our wood expert. #WoodenWednesday #Prehistory #Peat
A photo of a long stick lying on peaty mud. It has a W shape at one end and a point at the other.

ALT A photo of a long stick lying on peaty mud. It has a W shape at one end and a point at the other.

The worked end of the stick showing multiple facets.

ALT The worked end of the stick showing multiple facets.

Archaeologists on hands and knees excavating the stick from peat.

ALT Archaeologists on hands and knees excavating the stick from peat.

The W shaped end.

ALT The W shaped end.

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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
May 15
For #FindsFriday, we have this wonderful piece of worked wood from our trench on the edge of the palaeolake at #Skipsea. Our student, Lydia, found it in an area that was once alder carr. At the moment, we don’t know its date, but it is likely prehistoric.
Two hands hold a waterlogged wooden stake with a worked end.

ALT Two hands hold a waterlogged wooden stake with a worked end.

A student holds a waterlogged wooden stake.

ALT A student holds a waterlogged wooden stake.

Students on hands and knees excavating wood and peat.

ALT Students on hands and knees excavating wood and peat.

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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
May 8
And continuing the diminutive finds theme - here is a small early medieval gaming counter from the site.
A small circular disc of shale.

ALT A small circular disc of shale.
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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
May 8
For #FindsFriday I have the smallest of Small Finds for you - a titchy but beautiful Mesolithic shale bead. One of many that would have been strung on a necklace. Found out of context but not far from the edge of a lake at Skipsea in Holderness.
A small, perforated, teardrop shaped piece of pink shale.

ALT A small, perforated, teardrop shaped piece of pink shale.

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For #FindsFriday I have the smallest of Small Finds for you - a titchy but beautiful Mesolithic shale bead. One of many that would have been strung on a necklace. Found out of context but not far from the edge of a lake at Skipsea in Holderness.
A small, perforated, teardrop shaped piece of pink shale.

ALT A small, perforated, teardrop shaped piece of pink shale.

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And continuing the diminutive finds theme - here is a small early medieval gaming counter from the site.
A small circular disc of shale.

ALT A small circular disc of shale.
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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
May 1
I love digging prehistoric peat - the way the ground bounces with every movement, the soft, sucking nature of it, and the anticipation of what we’ll find in it. Skipsea, Holderness, preparing trenches for the student field school.
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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
Apr 29
It’s that time of year again when swallows arrive and skim the fields, and archaeologists flock to Skipsea in Holderness to open trenches.
A large orange mechanical digger digs soil@in the foreground, while an archaeologist in orange hi-vis shovels nearby. Skipsea castle mound in the background, visible through the arch of the diggger arm.

ALT A large orange mechanical digger digs soil@in the foreground, while an archaeologist in orange hi-vis shovels nearby. Skipsea castle mound in the background, visible through the arch of the diggger arm.
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Jim Leary retweeted
Jim Leary@Jim_Leary
Mar 22
The cart tracks of the North York Moors. Last year’s devastating fire on Fylingdales Moor has revealed archaeology in graphic detail. Medieval holloways and seventeenth and eighteenth-century cart tracks are visible for the first time and look as fresh as the day they were made.
Two parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

ALT Two parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

A series of parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

ALT A series of parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

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The cart tracks of the North York Moors. Last year’s devastating fire on Fylingdales Moor has revealed archaeology in graphic detail. Medieval holloways and seventeenth and eighteenth-century cart tracks are visible for the first time and look as fresh as the day they were made.
Two parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

ALT Two parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

A series of parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

ALT A series of parallel grooves run along burnt ground.

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more replies
In places, Second World War tank tracks overwrite the cart tracks. Lying in one is even the rusted remains of a tank fire extinguisher. And in places, actual tank tracks have been reused as bollards.
Deep, straight grooves in burnt ground.

ALT Deep, straight grooves in burnt ground.

A rusted iron object.

ALT A rusted iron object.

Rusted tracks forming a circle.

ALT Rusted tracks forming a circle.

Rusted tracks.

ALT Rusted tracks.

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None of these would have been revealed without the fire. But the devastation is shocking - ecosystems, whole woodlands even, gone. It looks apocalyptic and will take decades to recover.
Burnt trees on burnt moorland.

ALT Burnt trees on burnt moorland.

Burnt trees on burnt moorland.

ALT Burnt trees on burnt moorland.

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