What does it mean to be a "free woman" in the ancient Mediterranean world? Listen in as our guest, Dr. Stephanie Budin, joins Chelsea and Melissa to discuss women who lived outside of the traditional confines of the patriarchy and who were not under the direct control of a man. Dr. Budin, a historian and expert in ancient religion and sexuality, tells us about "harimatu" in ancient Mesopotamia and refutes the idea that these free women were prostitutes. This episode has it all: sex, gender-bending legal documents, and the dismantling of patriarchal assumptions about women's freedom and the origins of prostitution.

In today's episode, our featured guest Dr. Tara Mulder tells us all about the oldest profession in the world: midwifery! Listen in on a discussion between Dr. Mulder and hosts Dr. Chelsea Gardner and Dr. Melissa Funke that covers the sights, sounds, smells, and experiences of childbirth in ancient Rome, from the perspective of professional midwives. We look at a gravestone of a known midwife and talk about training and approaches to the birthing process. Dr. Mulder brings a unique perspective to the conversation, as she herself the daughter of a professional midwife! Don't miss it, this is an episode that definitely delivers!

Welcome to the first ever LIVE episode of Peopling the Past! Join our featured expert, Dr. Natalie Swain, and hosts Drs. Chelsea Gardner and Melissa Funke, for the premiere of our season on Women in the Ancient Mediterranean. Dr. Swain is an expert on the reception of Classics in modern comics and during this episode we discuss how ancient women, both real and mythological, figure into comics of the 20th and 21st centuries.  You will hear about well-known favourites like Wonder Woman, but you'll also have a chance to learn about newer comics, like Lore Olympus, Nubia, and Three. Together, we chat about how some awesome new re-tellings of ancient stories by more diverse authors are changing the landscape of traditional comics. 

A special thanks to our audience, the students at the University of Winnipeg, for listening in and taking part in the live Q&A you'll hear at the end of the episode! It's a truly WONDERful time!

Peopling the Past Podcast is BACK for a third season on a very exciting topic: Women in the Ancient Mediterranean!

Join your hosts Dr. Chelsea Gardner and Dr. Melissa Funke for an introduction to SEASON THREE of the Peopling the Past podcast!

This season, listeners will hear about real women from all over the ancient Mediterranean world, from Britain to Nubia, Italy to Cyprus, Greece to Mesopotamia, and more! Let us take you on a journey into the lives of all kinds of women, from the most famous (yes, we've got Cleopatra and Boudicca!) to those whose names are lost forever to history. We've got something for everyone: inscriptions, medical texts, osteoarchaeology (bones); Macedonians, Etruscans, the Iceni; pleasure (sex), pain (childbirth), and comics!

Follow us on our website, https://peoplingthepast.com, on Twitter and Instagram @peoplingthepast and on our Facebook page Peopling the Past. Tag us with #peoplingpodcast. It's going to be a great summer, so make sure to subscribe now!

What does it mean to be free? In our Season 2 finale episode, archaeologist and historian Dr. Katharine Huemoeller joins the podcast to tell us all about her research on the female, forced, and reproductive aspects of ancient Roman slavery and how manumission and marriage can become intertwined. Join us as we dive into the story of woman named Acte and a cursed grave monument from Rome whose inscriptions reveal some dark secrets about the reality of living as an enslaved - and freed - person in antiquity.

You might call ceramics the "plastics" of the ancient world...ubiquitous, indestructible, and incredibly useful! But how do we identify the spaces where ancient potters once made these everyday objects? Dr. Elizabeth Murphy joins the podcast to tell us all about the discovery and excavation of ancient tableware workshops at the site of Sagalassos in modern Turkey. Listen in as artisanal techniques are brought to life and the everyday lives of ancient potters are revealed through archaeological exploration.

It's all about Mary this week on the podcast! We are joined by archaeologist and PtP webmaster Dr. Sabrina Higgins, who takes us through catacombs, churches, and monasteries in Egypt, Syria, and Rome to trace the emergence of the cult of the Virgin Mary in the Mediterranean. Dr. Higgins discusses how Mariologists uncover signs of early worship of the mother of Jesus Christ, and emphasizes the role of artistic depictions of the saint and other material culture in tracing the diffusion of Marian veneration.

The sights, smells, and sounds of an ancient Roman bakery might surprise you...in this episode, historian and archaeologist Dr. Jared Benton joins the show to tell us all about the economics of ancient Roman bread-baking, from the household level to industrial-scale production. Come break bread with us as we talk about capitalism, social classes, Ostia, Djemila, and...donkeys! 

Money makes the ancient Mediterranean world go round...but what happens when there's not enough metal to make official coinage? In this episode, archaeologist Dr. Irene Soto Marín shares her research on quasi-official (not counterfeit!) coinage in Roman Egypt during the 4th century CE, a period of instability and uncertainty. Join us as we learn how the Roman army created a cheap and effective monetary system to meet the needs of the local populations and how they literally "broke the mold" in doing so!

Today's episode is simply magical! Join us as we welcome Dr. Britta Ager - an expert in ancient Mediterranean magic, spells, and curses - to the show and hear about her experimental work re-creating some sweet and smelly spells based on surviving recipes from the Egyptian Greek Magical Papyri. Listen in to learn about evidence for how and why people practiced magic in antiquity, from getting the gods on your good side to taking care of your animals, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure!