In this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we discuss the latest news from the world of archaeology including the future of space archaeology as well as the discovery of the famed Shackelton ship The Endurance.

We are then joined by Austin J. Bell for an in-depth discussion on the famous and mysterious Key Marco Cat. Bell is the curator of collections for the Marco Island Historical Society and a consulting scholar at the Penn Museum. Austin discusses the details of this enigmatic artifact in his newest book The Nine Lives of Florida's Famous Key Marco Cat, available at the University Press of Florida.

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast

• Our Sponsor: The Smokey Mountian Relic Room
• The Nine Lives of Florida's Famous Key Marco Cat: University of Florida Press
• Marco Island Historical Society

In this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we lead off the discussion with news from around the world of archaeology, highlighting a 9,000-year-old shrine in Jordan and a new article from the Mammoth Trumpet Journal discussing perishable technologies with former SAAJ guests J.M. Advasio and Tom Dillehay. We then feature an in-depth interview with David Kilby of Texas State University and the Ancient Southwest Texas Project to discuss the Bonfire Shelter bison jump. David Kilby has a long history of archaeological work at famous sites such as Blackwater Draw, Murray Springs, Mockingbird Gap, Folsom, and the Rio Rancho Folsom site. Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online: Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• Our Sponsors: The Smokey Mountain Relic Room
• David Kilby | Texas State University

On this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we lead off the discussion with a memorial to the late Tennessee archaeologist David Dean. Remembering David's life and work with us is a friend of the program, Chase Pipes of the Smoky Mountain Relic Room, along with fellow Tennessee archaeologists Jay Franklin and Zoen McLachlan.

Then for the remainder of the program, the team is joined by Bretton Giles and Shawn Lambert, who are the co-editors of a new anthology entitled New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery. Bretton T. Giles is an assistant research professor in sociology, anthropology, and social work at Kansas State University. Shawn P. Lambert is an assistant professor of anthropology and senior research associate with the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University.

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter Instagram Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• Our Sponsors: The Smoky Mountain Relic Room
• THE BOOK: New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery

Approximately 3600 years ago, new evidence may indicate that a cosmic airburst leveled the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age site in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea.

On this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we are joined by returning guests Malcolm Lecompte, Christopher R. Moore, and for his first appearance, Timothy Witwer for an in-depth discussion about their paper, "A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea."

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter Instagram Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• Our Sponsors: The Smoky Mountain Relic Room
• THE PAPER: A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea.
• MORE FROM MOORE: A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city and everyone in it – possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom

In this episode of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we continue our series on the enigmatic site of Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia, Turkey, as we are joined by Martin Sweatman, Ph.D., author of the book Prehistory Decoded and a number of research publications related to Göbekli Tepe.

Sweatman's academic background is in statistical mechanics, the physical theory that links the properties of particles to the properties of matter. He heads a research group is mainly interested in theoretical aspects of classical statistical mechanics, as well as the design of new kinds of advanced material or engineering process. Typically, this involves developing or using Monte Carlo molecular simulation or classical density functional theory methods.

However, Sweatman's study of the rock carvings at Göbekli Tepe have brought statistics into the study of this ancient site, which expands the possibilities as far as their meaning to the ancient hands who carved them.

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter Instagram Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• Our Sponsors: The Smoky Mountain Relic Room
• Martin Sweatman, Ph.D. Website
• Prehistory Decoded (Paperback) - Martin Sweatman
• Episode Art: "Vulture Stone, Gobekli Tepe, Sanliurfa, South-east Anatolia, Turkey (CC 2.0/Wikimedia Commons)

Göbekli Tepe is arguably one of the most captivating archaeological sites in anywhere in the world, not just for its age, but for its artisanship. The location is perhaps best known not just for its age, but for the iconic pillar structures that are a mainstay of the site. In this special edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we look at this enigmatic ancient site, and what its discovery has meant for Archaeology in the 21st century.

Joining us to discuss her work at the site is Sarah Kielt Costello, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of the Humanities Program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from the State University of New York, Binghamton and her M.A. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. Her research areas include Mesopotamian and Cypriot prehistory and museum and heritage studies. She is a co-editor of several volumes, and her work is also published in the journals Cambridge Archaeological Journal and Antiquity.

Dr. Costello has excavated in Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, and Greece and in 2013 participated as a Fulbright Fellow in the Summer Session at the American School of Classical Studies. In 2021, she was awarded a University Faculty Fellowship in recognition of exemplary teaching, research, and service to UHCL. We discuss her work at Göbekli Tepe on this edition of the podcast, and what can be derived about the ways of life in the ancient world from the study of this site's captivating art and monumental structures.

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter Instagram Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• Our Sponsors: The Smoky Mountain Relic Room
• Sarah K. Costello at the University of Houston Clear Lake
• Object Biographies: Collaborative Approaches to Ancient Mediterranean Art (Menil Collection, 2021)
• Seals and Sealings in the Ancient World (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
• Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World
• Episode Art: "Göbeklitepe Şanlıurfa" by Beytullah else (CC 4.0/Wikimedia Commons)

On this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, the team focuses on one of the earliest and greatest mysteries in early American History: the famous Lost Colony of Roanoke. Joining us to discuss this historical mystery is Phillip Evans of The First Colony Foundation, a North Carolina 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that, according to its website, is "dedicated to conducting archaeological and historical research, combined with public education and interpretation, relating to the story of America's beginnings with the attempts by Sir Walter Raleigh to establish English colonies at Roanoke Island in the 1580s under his charter from Queen Elizabeth I." We discuss the Foundation's efforts to utilize archaeology in resolving the mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter Instagram Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• The First Colony Foundation Online
• Our Sponsors: The Smoky Mountain Relic Room

On this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we discuss the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia, its mysterious collapse, and cultural significance in pre-Columbian North America. Joining us to discuss the riddle of Cahokia and its decline is Tim Pauketat, the Illinois State Archaeologist and a professor of Anthropology and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Pauketat is the Director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, one of the largest archaeological research units in the United States. He was trained in global archaeology at the University of Michigan but has chosen to focus on the peoples and history of eastern North America and the Plains. Director Pauketat has published extensively on his research at the ancient city of Cahokia and other medieval-era sites along the Mississippi, having written or edited 16 books, including The Archaeology of Ancient North America, Medieval Mississippians, and Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City. We discuss the ancient earthworks of the site, and what archaeology tells us about the mysterious rise and fall of this ancient American city.

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter Instagram Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• Timothy Pauketat at the University of Illinois
• Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi
• Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians (Case Studies in Early Societies)
• Our Sponsors: The Smoky Mountain Relic Room

"Cahokia" image in this episode's art by Michael Hampshire, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.

On this special edition of the podcast, we go in search of answers to one of American Archaeology's most enduring mysteries: the enigmatic Clovis people and their unique technology. Who were the hunters that designed the fluted projectile point, regarded by some as "America's first invention," and what happened to them and their technology at the end of the last ice age? Did they truly vanish, or does the rise and sudden disappearance of what archaeologists call Clovis represent something far more complex?

Our investigation of the Clovis enigma takes us back to the first decade of the 20th century with the discoveries at Folsom, New Mexico, followed by those at Blackwater Draw, which effectively put Clovis on the map. We then examine archaeological perspectives on the Clovis people, including who they were, how and when they arrived in the Americas, and what makes their highly specialized technology so significant. Finally, we also explore the lingering shadow of "pre-Clovis" sites that predate the appearance of these distinctive fluted lithic points.

Our exploration of the Clovis enigma leaves us with more questions than answers, and stands testament to why archaeologists remain fascinated with this enigmatic cultural manifestation, their technology, and their lasting imprint on the world of the Ancient Americas.

Follow the Seven Ages Research Associates online:

Twitter Instagram Facebook

Below are links to stories covered on this edition of the podcast:

• Carolina Bays and Ice Age Carolinas - NASA Earth Observatory
• Randy Daniel's Book: Time, Typology, and Point Traditions in North Carolina Archaeology: Formative Cultures Reconsidered (Archaeology of the American South: New Directions and Perspectives)
• Our Sponsors: The Smoky Mountain Relic Room