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Sandee Oster on Muck Rack

Sandee Oster

Verified
Johannesburg
As seen in: Medium, MSN, MSN UK, Live Science, Phys.org, Yahoo, 24/7 Wall Street, HubPages, South African Journal of Science, Science X and
Covers:  Archaeology, human evolution, ancient history, zooarchaeology, rock art, African prehistory, heritage conservation, palaeoclimates, and the ancient world.
Doesn't Cover: Physics, technology, economics, politics, and current affairs.
I am an archaeologist writing about the enigmas of bygone eras and brand new archaeological discoveries each week at: archaeologyteahouse.com/

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Sandee Oster’s Biography

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I am a science writer, journalist, and editor specialising in archaeology, human evolution, and the ancient world. My work has appeared in Phys.org, Live Science, and OBJET.art, where I translate peer-reviewed research into accurate, engaging stories for global general audiences.

I hold an MSc in Archaeology from the University of the Witwatersrand and am currently a PhD candidate there. Alongside my journalism, I publish peer-reviewed research in leading archaeology journals which informs the …

Sandee Oster’s Journalist Portfolio

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Mystery of Flores Island: What Caused the Hobbits to Disappear?

Mystery of Flores Island: What Caused the Hobbits to Disappear?

Recent study analyzes stalagmite oxygen isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios to reveal a centuries-long drought coincide…

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Exploring the Royal Kurgans of the Northern Black Sea

Exploring the Royal Kurgans of the Northern Black Sea

The Northern Black Sea region is home to one of Eurasian archaeology’s most intriguing and significant cultur…

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What Is the Pazyryk Culture?

What Is the Pazyryk Culture?

The Pazyryk culture is known for its elaborate animal-style art, ornate horse gear, and intricately preserved…

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The Early Scythian Art Discovered at Tunnug 1 Burial Mound

The Early Scythian Art Discovered at Tunnug 1 Burial Mound

For centuries, the art of the Great Steppes has slowly emerged from beneath the earth. Over the past two or t…

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Raknehaugen: New Evidence Reveals Scandinavia's Biggest Mound Was Never A Burial

Raknehaugen: New Evidence Reveals Scandinavia's Biggest Mound Was Never A Burial

Norway's largest burial mound contains no body. New research suggests a 6th-century landslide may have prompt…

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Meet Jirahgorgon: The New Permian Predator Species Discovered in South Africa

Meet Jirahgorgon: The New Permian Predator Species Discovered in South Africa

New Middle Permian Gorgonopsian from South Africa Reveals the Early Origins of Large-Bodied Apex Predators

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Articles

'Lost' Iron Age cemetery reanalyzed more than 70 years after its finds went missing

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By Sandee Oster Verified, Sadie Harley, Robert Egan Verified
| Phys.org Verified
Burial at Highsted in 1955 with the skull partially destroyed by machinery. Credit: Maidstone Museums (photo 240/01/1) in Legge et al. 2026 In 1955, workers in a chalk quarry in Highsted, near Sittingbourne, were working when a human skull came tumbling down the bank at the edge of a pit. It would be the first of some 26 burials, all belonging to an ancient cemetery. Rescue excavations began to salvage the remains before the quarry destroyed them.
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Letters reveal forgotten role of Baghdad antiquities dealers in early 20th-century Kish excavations

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By Sandee Oster Verified, Sadie Harley, Robert Egan Verified
| Phys.org Verified
Kish ruins around 1932. Credit: G. Eric and Edith Matson, Collection via Wikimedia Commons Between 1880 and 1912, no official excavations took place at Kish. Yet museums from London and Paris to New York were somehow acquiring brand-new tablets from the legendary old city. As it turns out, local Iraqis had been excavating the site years before the "official" excavations at Kish resumed.
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New saber-toothed predator from Argentina suggests its lineage survived longer than believed

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By Sandee Oster Verified
| MSN Verified
In 2014, members of a local museum found fragments of an ancient fossil dating to the end of the Pliocene or early Pleistocene epoch in a seaside cliff on the Argentine pampas. They belonged to a large predator, but the only group they fit, saber-toothed marsupial relatives, had supposedly gone extinct earlier, leaving the identity of the fossil a mystery.
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Interview

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Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yes, I have, my grandfather had a typewriter and I would use it to write letters.

How is social media changing news?

In my specific field, the sensational is covered, even if it isn't properly fact-checked, distorting reality.

What does it mean to be a journalist?

It means more than just reporting the news or the sensational, I want to report on everything including the pieces that fly under the radar