Jim Leary

@jimleary.bsky.social

4085 Followers 1191 Following

Archaeologist & writer. Senior lecturer at Uni of York. Books: The Story of Silbury Hill; The Remembered Land; Footmarks, a journey into our restless past. Agent: JP Marshall.

A photo of the end of a log showing hundreds of small, curved facets.
A 3d scan of the horses skull.
A photo of a long stick lying on peaty mud. It has a W shape at one end and a point at the other.
Two hands hold a waterlogged wooden stake with a worked end.
A small circular disc of shale.
A small, perforated, teardrop shaped piece of pink shale.
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.
Burnt trees on burnt moorland.
Deep, straight grooves in burnt ground.
Lines of grooves run into grass and heather.
Three parallel lines run through burnt moorland.
Two parallel grooves run along burnt ground.
A photo of the Rudston Monolith with a church behind it and gravestones around it. Green grass and daffodils in the foreground.
A photo of Silbury Hill taken from the lay-by, showing the green grass-covered mound surrounded by a water-filled ditch.
A photo of York students excavating a Saxon building with Skipsea castle in the background.
Photo of wooden club-like handle with a greenstone axe inserted into a socket within it.
A photo of three cream coloured chalk cylinders with geometric patterns carved on them. They also have little eyes and monobrows.
A photo of a small, thin fragment of bone, perforated at one end to be worn as a pendant, and with the outline of a wolverine engraved onto it.
A photo of part of a rib with engravings of the heads of three reindeer and, in the middle, an ibex.
A photo of a fragment of bone with the outline of a reindeer calf carved onto it.
A photo of the working peat face.
A photo of long, parallel lines of stacked drying lengths of peat on grass. The remnants of a raised bog in the background.
A photo of long, parallel lines of stacked drying lengths of peat on grass. The remnants of a raised bog in the background.
A photo of a pale pillar-like standing stone surrounded by a circular bricked area on grass in the foreground, with views out across the landscape in the background.
A photo of a long thin grey rocket-like tower surrounded by gravestones.
A photo showing a grey stone dolmen on green grass and with cloudy skies above. Another stone, a single surviving kerb stone is located slightly further away.
A photo of a large, grey square building with a white door.
Another photo of the dolmen - grey stone slabs on grass and wildflowers.
A photo of grey, limestone box-like monument made of flat slabs of stone.
A photo of one of the Carrowkeel passage tombs. Grey stones piled over bright green grass and a doorway like a portal into the mound.
A photo of the Knowth macehead on mottled brown and white stone and showing a spiral pattern.
A photo of a large throne-like stone. Dog for scale.
A photo of the main mound at Loughcrew, showing the entrance to the passage tomb (with a closed gate across it). A dog walking in front for scale.
A photo of a slab of rock with the engraving of a crude face and two lozenge-shaped eyes.
A photo of one of the stone recesses. The lintel stone is decorated with lozenges.
A photograph of a rock with a pecked engraving of three intersecting spirals.
A photo of a hand holding an elegant honey-coloured flint point.
A photo of a partly made amber bead held between fingers.
A photo of an archaeological trench. Archaeologists kneel around a beaten earth floor, troweling its edges.
A selfie in front of the digger, complete with hard hat and hi vis.
A photo of a digger poised to open a trench in a field of winter barley, with Skipsea castle mound in the background.
A screenshot of a news article that reads: Elliott & Thompson wins Jim Leary book on Neolithic people in five-way auction
A photo of yellow dirt path across the moors.
A photo of a long line of flagstones across brown moorland.
A photo of a dog standing in a deep, dark holloway, verdant with moss and covered in spindly trees.
A photo of a small, stone church with a square tower.
A photo of the cave with someone nearby as scale.
A photo of a golden limestone cliff face with, high up, a dark slit of an entrance in it.
A photo of a golden limestone cliff face with, high up, a dark slit of an entrance in it.
The front cover and spine - a grey, green, blue rocky image with some buildings at the top and bird footprints waddling across it. The word ‘Footmarks’ written in Chinese figures emblazoned across it.
Me holding a Mars bar that has a post-it note saying ‘UoY Bluesky starter pack 100th member.’
The signboard at the burial ground.
A photo of the path leading to the burial ground.
A plaque at the burial ground.
A photo looking into the burial ground.
A photo of trees against the enclosing graveyard wall.