Dr Emma Pomeroy and colleagues awarded the 2021 Antiquity Prize

Dr Emma Pomeroy On Dig At Shalimar Cave 2018 -1 Credit Graeme Barker

Congratulations to Dr Emma Pomeroy and her colleagues, who have won the 2021 Antiquity Prize for the article “New Neanderthal remains associated with the ‘flower burial’ at Shanidar Cave”. This remarkable article changed perspectives on Neanderthal society, and received international news coverage. 

Lead author Dr Emma Pomeroy said, “We’re absolutely delighted to be awarded the Antiquity Prize for 2021. Antiquity is renowned for the huge diversity of world-leading archaeological research it publishes, spanning all time periods and regions of the globe, so to receive this prize is a real honour”. We interviewed Emma about her fascinating research in 2019,

Project director Professor Graeme Barker said, “Antiquity is the premier journal in archaeology and publishes around 100 papers a year, so to be selected as their top paper for 2020 is a huge accolade, reflecting both the importance of our discoveries – the most significant new Neanderthal remains for a generation – and also the quality of the team of archaeological scientists involved in their study”.

The current work was carried out by an interdisciplinary team, including Paul Bennett, Chris O. Hunt, Tim Reynolds, Lucy Farr, Marine Frouin, James Holman, Ross Lane, Charles French and Graeme Barker. Together, they represent institutions including the University of Cambridge, Liverpool John Moores University, Birkbeck, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, the University of Oxford and Canterbury Christ Church University. This project has been in collaboration with the General Directorate of Antiquities in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Antiquity Prize was created in 1994 by Editor Christopher Chippindale and the Antiquity Editorial Board in recognition of the fact that research funding was becoming increasingly competitive, the time to write difficult to find, and really good writing is ‘as rare and precious as ever’. The prize was created to honour and support the author(s) of the best contribution to each volume of Antiquity.

(with acknowledgements to Laure Bonner and the Dept of Archaeology)