Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes is an archaeologist, author and Honorary Fellow in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. Her critically acclaimed and bestselling first book KINDRED: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art is a deep dive into the 21st century science and understanding of these ancient relatives.
Fascinated by the natural world and the past since childhood, including digging for pot sherds in the family garden, Rebecca was especially drawn to the ancient world of the Palaeolithic, and the challenge of understanding Neanderthals. She received a PhD in archaeology in 2010, and held a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship at the Université de Bordeaux until 2015, and has accrued numerous academic publications.
Her first book, KINDRED (Bloomsbury Sigma 2020), was the winner of the 2021 PEN Hessell-Tiltman prize for history; is a nominee for Italy’s Premio Galileo 2022; Current Archaeology’s Book of the Year 2021; selected as one of 2021’s 100 Notable Books by The New York Times, a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, Book of the Week by The Times and Book of the Day by The Guardian, and is being translated into 19 languages.
Alongside her academic expertise and consultancy work, Rebecca has earned a reputation for exceptional public communication, with her writing featuring in The New York Times, The Times, The Guardian, Aeon and elsewhere. She is also popular speaker, appearing on a variety of national and international programmes and podcasts, and regularly speaks at literary festivals and diverse other events.
