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Why did the Anglo-Saxons look at ancient monuments and name them Elf Burrow and Goblin Hill? And why does that make us want to visit?
In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan begin Spooky Archaeology: Myth and the Science of the Past by Jeb J. Card, a surprisingly funny book about how folklore, the occult, and archaeology have been tangled together from the start.
They dig into where Bigfoot really came from, the monks who "found" King Arthur's grave at Glastonbury, and how ley lines went from drawing lines on a map to tracking UFOs.
A must-listen for anyone curious about folklore, pseudoarchaeology, and how myths about the past get made.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Spooky Archaeology: Myth and the Science of the Past by Jeb J. Card (University of New Mexico Press). Card is an archaeologist who teaches anthropology at Miami University in Ohio, and his book traces how archaeology has contributed to legends about ghosts, psychics, curses, and the occult since the discipline began, with a much drier sense of humor than you'd expect.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
We have received two signed copies of Where the Moon Stands Still from author James W. Graham, so subscribe to the newsletter to be in the raffle!
Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/
COMING UP NEXT: On October 15, we're reading chapters 4 and 5 of Spooky Archaeology. And would you buy dowsing rods at the gift shop? Tell us in the comments.
#archaeologybooksforfun #SpookyArchaeology #Folklore
Why did a hundred people have to sneak onto a golf course to watch the moon rise over a two-thousand-year-old observatory?
In this series finale of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan close out Where the Moon Stands Still: Revealing the Cosmic Genius of Ohio's Indigenous Earthworks by James W. Graham with the long fight over who gets to access the Newark Earthworks. This is a fight that ran through a private country club's lease, an arrest, the Ohio Supreme Court, and finally UNESCO World Heritage listing.
Along the way, Bob and Ray find still more alignments, including sightlines connecting earthworks more than fifty miles apart. A must-listen for anyone interested in the Newark Earthworks, Indigenous heritage preservation, and what it takes to protect an ancient site.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Where the Moon Stands Still: Revealing the Cosmic Genius of Ohio's Indigenous Earthworks by James W. Graham, now formally released. Graham is a writer with a decades-long career in journalism, government, and public affairs, and the author of Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea.
Barbara and Tristan both recommend it without reservation, one of the few books they've covered that they'd hand to anyone, regardless of background.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
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Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/
COMING UP NEXT: October 1 marks our four-year anniversary, and we're starting Spooky Archaeology: Myth and the Science of the Past by Jeb J. Card — just in time for spooky season. We've also got some big changes coming to the show, so follow along so you don't miss it.
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#archaeologybooksforfun #WhereTheMoonStandsStill #WorldHeritage
What if a two-thousand-year-old earthwork in Ohio tracked the moon more precisely than anyone thought possible, and nobody believed it?
In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan continue Where the Moon Stands Still: Revealing the Cosmic Genius of Ohio's Indigenous Earthworks by James W. Graham, as a philosopher and an astronomer discover that the Newark Earthworks don't line up with the sun at all, they line up with the moon, across an 18.6-year cycle, to within less than a degree. Then they spend years struggling to get anyone in archaeology to take it seriously.
A must-listen for anyone interested in the Newark Earthworks, archaeoastronomy, Hopewell culture, and how scientific ideas actually win acceptance.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Where the Moon Stands Still: Revealing the Cosmic Genius of Ohio's Indigenous Earthworks by James W. Graham.
Graham is a writer with a decades-long career in journalism, government, and public affairs, and the author of Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea. He recounts Ray Hively and Robert Horn's investigation of the earthworks while refuting exploitative mythical interpretations and tracing the long history of how the U.S. has treated Indigenous people, and of tribes' efforts to regain authority over their stories, ancestors, and places.
Release date September 2nd!
RESOURCES & LINKS:
COMING UP NEXT: Part 3, our final episode on this book.
#archaeologybooksforfun #WhereTheMoonStandsStill #Archaeoastronomy
Could a two-thousand-year-old earthwork in Ohio really be built to follow the moon and what happens when two skeptics set out to prove it couldn't?
In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan begin a brand-new book, "Where the Moon Stands Still: Revealing the Cosmic Genius of Ohio's Indigenous Earthworks" by James W. Graham, following a philosopher and an astronomer who tested the massive Newark Earthworks expecting to expose archaeoastronomy as wishful thinking.
Along the way they marvel at how Indigenous builders engineered these enormous earthworks entirely by hand, unpack the Newark "Holy Stones" hoax, and sit with the harder history these places are bound up in.
A must-listen for anyone interested in the Newark Earthworks, Hopewell culture, and ancient astronomy.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
‣ The book's opening stretch (chapters 1–6): the Newark Earthworks - a half-mile-long octagon-and-circle complex of roughly 7 million cubic feet, engineered and carried into place by hand, without wheelbarrows, metal tools, or beasts of burden; and how a philosopher (Bob) and an astronomer (Ray) came to investigate it
‣ Archaeoastronomy and healthy skepticism: the "you can draw an alignment through anything if you have enough points" problem, why skepticism is how science actually works, and the shift toward more respectful, accurate language (mounds → earthworks, prehistoric → pre-contact)
‣ A what-archaeologists-actually-think moment: the Newark "Holy Stones" hoax and the "Lost Tribes of Israel" myth - a forgery tangled up in the harmful, complicated history of denying that Native peoples built these sites (with a callback to the hosts' Frauds, Myths and Mysteries series)
‣ Hard history, handled with care: the book gives real space to the Indian boarding schools, the mid-twentieth-century Native adoption programs, and the remarkable life of Zitkála-Šá (Gertrude Simmons). The hosts credit the author for not glossing over this, and connect it to why consultation laws like Section 106 exist - and why current efforts to weaken that consultation concern them
‣ Florida & regional connection: how earthworks and mounds get reused and misused, from the golf course sitting on the Newark site to a shell mound in Jupiter, Florida topped by a lighthouse keeper's house
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Where the Moon Stands Still: Revealing the Cosmic Genius of Ohio's Indigenous Earthworks" by James W. Graham.
Graham is a writer with a decades-long career in journalism, government, and public affairs, and the author of Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea. He isn't an archaeologist; instead, he recounts Ray Hively and Robert Horn's investigation of the earthworks while refuting exploitative mythical interpretations and tracing the history of how the U.S. treated Indigenous people and of tribes' long quest to regain authority over their stories, ancestors, and places.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
Our Frauds, Myths and Mysteries series (the deeper dive on the Newark hoax and "lost tribe" myths) - https://youtu.be/rRDH0z7HN-4
Where the Moon Stands Still at Ohio State University Press: https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814259917.html
The Newark Earthworks / Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks (UNESCO World Heritage) - https://www.ohiohistory.org/visit/browse-historical-sites/newark-earthworks/
Society for American Archaeology Statement on Section 106 - https://saa.org/Member/SAAMember/Media-Room/News/SAA-Issues-Statement-On-ACHP-Draft-Changes-To-Section-106-Regulations.aspx
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Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/
COMING UP NEXT: Part 2, where we read chapters 7–10.
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#archaeologybooksforfun #WhereTheMoonStandsStill #NewarkEarthworks
How did online volunteers help uncover 50 previously unrecorded Nazca lines?
In this series finale of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan close out Archaeology from Space by Sarah Parcak with its most hopeful idea: that anyone can join the search.
Through crowdsourcing projects like her own GlobalXplorer°, volunteers scanning satellite imagery helped record 14,000 new sites in Peru, including 50 Nazca lines nobody had documented before.
The finale also turns to the darker side of the field, from satellite-tracked looting in Egypt to the collectors who quietly drive the antiquities black market.
A must-listen for anyone curious about the Nazca lines, satellite archaeology, and how the public can help discover and protect the past.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past by Dr. Sarah Parcak.
Parcak is a pioneer of satellite archaeology who wrote the first textbook on the subject, a National Geographic Explorer, and a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is the 2016 TED Prize winner and founder of GlobalXplorer°, a citizen-science platform that invited anyone to help spot potential archaeological sites in satellite imagery.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
Coming up next: We're starting Where the Moon Stands Still: Revealing the Cosmic Genius of Ohio's Indigenous Earthworks by James W. Graham - an advance copy the author sent us ahead of its release.
We'll cover the first six chapters, and it keeps our accidental space streak alive: it's all about how the Hopewell earthworks align with the cycles of the moon. New episode drops on the 15th.
#ArchaeologyBooksforFun #ArchaeologyfromSpace #NazcaLines
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Will robots and drones replace archaeologists? In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan dig into "Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak and her vision of the field's high-tech future, from "dig bots" and machine learning to thermal imaging and portable chemical scanners.
They also follow her satellite hunt for a lost Egyptian capital, where space-shuttle elevation data revealed a forgotten channel of the Nile before rampant looting shut the dig down.
A must-listen for anyone curious about the future of archaeology, remote-sensing technology, and ancient Egypt.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
‣ The future of archaeology (chapter 9): camera drones and "dig bots," machine learning, thermal infrared imaging, and portable X-ray fluorescence, kicked off with a sci-fi story that ends with an archaeologist applying to dig in outer space.
‣ The satellite find (chapter 8): using space-shuttle elevation data to reveal a lost, unrecorded channel of the Nile while searching for an Egyptian Middle Kingdom capital, and how deep core sampling revealed a site 5 meters (16 feet) under the surface.
‣ A what-archaeologists-actually-think moments: why perfect 3D-printed replicas won't end looting, why "instant" robotic DNA analysis would complicate descendant and tribal consultation, and the overlooked Quftis, Egypt's expert excavators long labeled "foremen" rather than archaeologists.
‣ Florida connection: Florida fieldwork as a yardstick, meter-deep shovel testing versus Egypt's deep alluvial sediment, and teams from the recent the First Lego League robotics challenge trying to protect us from the heat, a real threat for archaeologists.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past" by Dr. Sarah Parcak. Parcak is a pioneer of satellite archaeology who wrote the first textbook on the subject, a National Geographic Explorer, and a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is the 2016 TED Prize winner and founder of GlobalXplorer°, a citizen-science platform that invites anyone to help spot potential archaeological sites in satellite imagery.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
Part 1 of our "Archaeology from Space" series: "Space Archaeology Found 18,000 Hidden Sites" - https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/VUoNwGddM4b
Part 1 of our "Four Lost Cities" series which elaborates on the ideas of chapter 8 in this episode: "Çatalhöyük" - https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/vAMp55sdM4b
Our recent interview with the "Continuing Studies Podcast": "Beyond the Interview: Using a Book Club Podcast to Bring Academic Expertise to the Public" - https://bit.ly/44wJs9D
The Vesuvius Challenge - the effort to read charred, rolled scrolls that Tristan references from recent news - https://bit.ly/4hdH6nu
Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/
#archaeologybooksforfun #ArchaeologyFromSpace #FutureOfArchaeology
What does an entire buried city look like from space? In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan dig into "Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak and the chapter where satellite imagery uncovers the buried Egyptian city of Tanis (the real city Indiana Jones races to find in Raiders of the Lost Ark) revealing its streets, suburbs, and houses from orbit. They get into how fancy techniques, moisture, and time of year expose buried mud-brick architecture, why the book's globe-trotting "Grand Tour" chapter struggles without a core idea to hold it together, and a closing chapter that sets the satellites aside for a historical-fiction portrait of one woman's life as drought and famine bring down Egypt's Old Kingdom.
A must-listen for anyone curious about satellite archaeology, remote sensing, and ancient Egypt.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
How satellite imagery mapped the entire buried city of Tanis in "Digging in the Wrong Place" (chapter 5), the chapter the hosts thought finally delivered the "space" the book promised.
The technique behind it: combining multispectral and high-resolution satellite imagery (down to 0.3 m) to detect buried mud-brick architecture, and how moisture, season, and time of day change what the satellites can actually see, plus why ground-truthing still matters.
A what-archaeologists-actually-think moment: Barbara and Tristan diagnose why the book struggles, it has a subject (satellite archaeology) but no core idea or organizing theme to guide it
Florida connection: a visiting underwater archaeologist at the University of West Florida (UWF) demonstrating how photogrammetry turns shipwreck photos into 3D models in hours, work that used to take weeks of hand-drawing
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past" by Dr. Sarah Parcak.
Parcak is a pioneer of satellite archaeology who wrote the first textbook on the subject, a National Geographic Explorer, and a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is the 2016 TED Prize winner and founder of GlobalXplorer, a community-science platform that invites anyone to help spot potential archaeological sites in satellite imagery.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
Part 1 of our Archaeology from Space series: "Space Archaeology Found 18,000 Hidden Sites" - https://youtu.be/-0QkJZfJBf4
Part 2: "Hunting Vikings with Satellites" - https://youtu.be/IF9nxTp4TVk
The real Tanis (San el-Hagar) and the treasures of Psusennes I - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanis
Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/
#archaeologybooksforfun #ArchaeologyFromSpace #AncientEgypt
Can satellites really find lost Viking settlements? In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan dig into "Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak, following her satellite search for Norse sites along the coast of North America and Newfoundland. They unpack how buried turf longhouses reveal themselves from orbit through subtle changes in vegetation, why North American archaeology is worlds apart from Egyptology, and how a dig that "fails" can still be a scientific win.
A must-listen for anyone curious about space archaeology, satellite remote sensing, and the Norse exploration of the Americas.
WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
- Hunting lost Norse (Viking) settlements in Newfoundland and along the North American coast with satellite imagery and remote sensing, and why real archaeology is about everyday life, not gold or "lost cities"
- How buried turf longhouses and their outbuildings appear from space as faint vegetation and soil marks, plus pareidolia: the trap of "seeing" structures that aren't there ("a needle in a haystack made of needles")
- A what-archaeologists-actually-think moment: why a dig with no blockbuster find still counts as science, testing the method and gathering negative data is real progress (with a clarification that the book was not suggesting Vikings were vegetarians)
- Regional connection: Barbara and Tristan weighing the book's claims about fieldwork hardship against the reality of North American and Florida field conditions
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past" by Dr. Sarah Parcak. Parcak is a pioneer of satellite archaeology who wrote the first textbook on the subject, a National Geographic Explorer, and a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is the 2016 TED Prize winner and founder of GlobalXplorer°, a citizen-science platform that invites anyone to help spot potential archaeological sites in satellite imagery.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
- Part 1 of our Archaeology from Space series: "Space Archaeology Found 18,000 Hidden Sites" - https://youtu.be/-0QkJZfJBf4
- L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site (Parks Canada) - the first known Viking site in North America: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows
- Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/
#archaeologybooksforfun #ArchaeologyFromSpace #Vikings
In this episode of Archaeology Books for Fun, archaeologists Barbara and Tristan kick off their discussion of "Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak, exploring how satellite imagery and remote sensing technology are transforming the way archaeologists find and study sites around the world. From Cold War spy satellites declassified in 1995 to a study estimating 18,000 unrecorded pre-Columbian sites in the Amazon basin, this episode is essential listening for anyone interested in spacearchaeology, remote sensing, and the future of archaeological discovery.
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WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE
- How satellite imagery is used to identify archaeological sites, and why it's only the first step before ground truthing
- The origins of space archaeology, from WWI aerial balloons to Cold War spy satellites to modern sub-meter resolution imagery
- What archaeologists actually think about the "space archaeology" label; and why Barbara's friend had a point about GPS
- How the technology connects to everyday CRM and regional archaeology work, including a Leon County GIS example
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ABOUT THE BOOK
"Archaeology from Space" by Sarah Parcak introduces readers to the field of satellite remote sensing in archaeology. Parcak is an Egyptologist and NASA-funded researcher who has been credited with identifying thousands of potential archaeological sites from space and has spoken widely about the technology's potential to revolutionize the field.
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RESOURCES & LINKS:
- Leon County GIS mapping tool: https://www.leoncountyfl.gov/gis
- Support the show: https://www.fpan.us/give/
#SpaceArchaeology #RemoteSensing #ArchaeologyBooksForFun
This is the finale of Mary Anna Evans' archaeology-themed murder mystery "Relics", and the last stretch is pure chaos with answers, motives, and a whole lot of running for your life.
In this episode, Barbara and Tristan wrap up the story with the final reveals, the fallout from the forgery scheme, and the motives behind what’s been happening in (and around) the dig. Even with all of this, we still make time to talk about real-world archaeology along the way.
Next up, we’re starting a new book: "Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes the Past" by Sarah Parcak.
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Support the show!
https://www.fpan.us/give/
#archaeologybooksforfun #murdermystery #mysterynovel
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