The Dirt Podcast

The Dirt Podcast

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The Dirt Podcast episodes

  • Hopping Over to Himyar - Ep 204

    For the first half of the first millennium CE, Himyar was based in what is today Yemen and flourished thanks to its role in inter-regional trade. We’ll discuss the political landscape of ancient southern Arabia, the conversion of the Himyarite dynasty from polytheism to Judaism, and recently published research on environmental factors that contributed to the Himyarite state’s decline and eventual conquest.

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    Links
    • Zafar/Yemen - a Brief Summary (via Heidelberg University)
    • Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (via Wikisource)
    • Zafar, Capital of Himyar, Ibb Province, Yemen: First Preliminary Report: Summer 1998 and Autumn 2000, Second Preliminary Report: 2002, Third Preliminary Report: 2003, Fourth Preliminary Report: 2004 (Archäologische Berichte aus dem Yemen)
    • Arabia and Ethiopia (Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity)
    • Zafar, Capital of Himyar, Seventh Preliminary Report, February–March 2007-2008
    • A Late Antique Christian king from Ẓafār, southern Arabia (Antiquity)
    • Non-Destructive Chemical Analysis of Old South Arabian Coins, Fourth Century BCE to Third Century CE (Archaeometry)
    • Droughts and societal change: The environmental context for the emergence of Islam in late Antique Arabia (Science)
    • Megadrought Contributed to Fall of Jewish Kingdom in Arabia, Rise of Islam, Study Suggests (Ha’aretz)
    • Speleothems (Paleoclimatology)

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          • 1 hr 12 min
        • An Under-the-Weather Special - Ep 203

          Anna is sick this week, so we've been unable to record new episodes. But rather than leave you hanging, we're releasing a lightly trimmed version of the latest episode of Old News. We've got human bone jewelry, the first Black Baptist church in colonial America, alleged art crimes, some seriously inclement weather, and more!

          Old News is one of our monthly bonus episodes that comes with the Absolute Dirtbag tier over at Patreon.com/thedirtpodcast, so head over there if you want to support the show and get access to FOUR YEARS' WORTH of bonus content.

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          Links
          • Human bones used for making pendants in the Stone Age (Phys.org)
          • French Authorities Detain Two Archaeologists, Including a Louvre Curator, as Part of an Ongoing International Art-Trafficking Dragnet (Artnet)
          • Excavation of graves begins at site of colonial Black church (NBC News, AP)
          • First Baptist Church Excavation Project (Colonial Williamsburg website)
          • 5,200-year-old stone carving chrysalis found in north China (Xinhua)
          • Rare coffee beans dating back 167 years ago found by archaeologists working on the Metro Tunnel project (9News)
          • Jawbone Discovered in Spain May Be Oldest Known Hominin Fossil (Archaeology)
          • A massive tsunami destroyed the Spanish city of Seville in the 3rd century, new study finds (El Pais)

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                • 57 min
              • The Dirt Goes Site-Seeing - Ep 202

                This week, Anna and Amber debut a new (occasional) series: Site-Seeing! There are so many archaeological sites out there, and some of them tend to overshadow others. In order to learn about and showcase some lesser-known sites, your hosts will each present a brief exploration of a site previously unknown to either of them. This time, we feature Djenné, an ancient city in what is today Mali, and Ban Chiang, in what is today Thailand.

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                Links
                • Djenne-Djenno (World History Encyclopedia)
                • Old Towns of Djenné (UNESCO)
                • Djenné, Mali (BlackPast)
                • Djenné (Encyclopedia Britannica)
                • A Tribute to Islam, Earthen but Transcendent (The New York Times)
                • Initial Encounters: Seeking traces of ancient trade connections between West Africa and the wider world (Afriques)
                • Great Mosque of Djenné (Khan Academy)
                • Storage vessel from Northeastern Thailand (Asian Art Museum)
                • The Ban Chiang Project - Background (Institute of Southeast Asian Archaeology)
                • Carabel type pot (Institute of Southeast Asian Archaeology)
                • Ban Chiang Pottery and Rice (Expedition)
                • Ban Chiang National Museum
                • The Ban Chiang Project - Metals Database (Institute of Southeast Asian Archaeology)
                • South California Museum Raids (2008) (Trafficking Culture)

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                      • 1 hr 8 min
                    • The Past Smells - Ep 201

                      We've asked this on the show before, but..what did the past smell like? In this episode, we talk about some of the ways that researchers are finding and recreating some ancient aromas. We also get speculative about smellscapes and honk the Clown Horn of Orientalism at some perfumes. Get your sniffers ready, this one's fun!

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                      Links
                      • How our sense of smell evolved (ScienceDaily)
                      • Does Archaeology Stink? Detecting Smell in the Past Using Headspace Sampling Techniques (Rose Malik)
                      • Odeuropa
                      • Ancient “smellscapes” are wafting out of artifacts and old texts (ScienceNews)
                      • Eau de Cleopatra (Near Eastern Archaeology)
                      • Copal: the Blood of Trees: Sacred Source of Maya and Aztec Incense (ThoughtCo)

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                            • 1 hr 13 min
                          • Summer Blockbuster 3: Avatar - Ep 200

                            To wrap up our inaugural Summer Blockbuster series, Amber leads us on a mission to Pandora with Avatar (2009). Rather than exploration of the culture of the indigenous Na’vi population (or maybe in addition to), we’ll examine some of the philosophical underpinnings of the franchise and discuss the book that completely changed Amber's intellectual trajectory.

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                            Links
                            • “Avatar” Advertising Invades “Bones” Episode “The Gamer in the Grease” (Wall Street Journal)
                            • Do You Speak Na'vi? Giving Voice To 'Avatar' Aliens (NPR)
                            • An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar (Unidentified Sound Object)
                            • Some highlights of Na’vi (University of Pennsylvania Language Log)
                            • Avatar: an all-purpose allegory (Foreign Policy)
                            • Avatar (Rotten Tomatoes)
                            • Avatar: A Marxist Saga on the Far Distant Planet (Communication, Capitalism, and Critique)
                            • Orientalism (via Bookshop.org)
                            • An Introduction to Edward Said, Orientalism, and Postcolonial Literary Studies (Amardeep Singh)
                            • Orientalism and power: When will we stop stereotyping people? (BBC Ideas, via YouTube)
                            • Watching Avatar through a Postcolonial and Orientalist Lens (via Academia.edu)
                            • Jairo Funez on Twitter
                            • Edward Said - Framed: The Politics of Stereotypes in News (Al Jazeera English, via YouTube)

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                                  • 1 hr 4 min
                                • Summer Blockbusters: Apocalypto - Ep 199

                                  Amber guides Anna through the jungle of the 2006 film Apocalypto...but hopefully a little less racistly than director Mel Gibson did! We’ll talk about human sacrifice, what was (and was not) going on in Maya culture in the 15th century CE, and the movie’s ending that couldn’t be more on the nose if it went “boop!”

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                                  Links
                                  • The Story of Civilization (via Wikipedia)
                                  • With help from a friend, Mel cut to the chase (The Washington Post)
                                  • Mel Gibson criticizes Iraq war at film fest (Today)
                                  • Is Apocalypto Pornography? (Archaeology)
                                  • Relativism, Revisionism, Aboriginalism, and Emic/Etic Truth: The Case Study of Apocalypto (The Ethics of Anthropology and Amerindian Research: Reporting on Environmental Degradation and Warfare)
                                  • The perduring Maya: new archaeology on early Colonial transitions (Antiquity, via ResearchGate)
                                  • Maya Resistance to Colonial Rule in Everyday Life (The Latin American Anthropological Review)

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                                        • 1 hr 11 min
                                      • Summer Blockbusters: The Dig - Ep 198

                                        Welcome to a month of Summer Blockbusters, where we talk about the archaeology in movies that aren't Indiana Jones! This week, it's the 2021 film The Dig, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan. We'll talk a bit about the film, but mostly about the real site portrayed in it--the Anglo Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo. This site was key to rewriting the understanding of post-Roman Britain, and was especially meaningful as a symbol of English national identity during WWII.

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                                        Links
                                        • Here’s the True Tale Behind Netflix’s Buzzy New Carey Mulligan Archaeology Drama, ‘The Dig (Artnet)
                                        • The True History Behind Netflix’s ‘The Dig’ and Sutton Hoo (Smithsonian)
                                        • The Dig: Who was Sutton Hoo archaeologist Basil Brown? (BBC)
                                        • The Dig (CautionSpoilers.com)
                                        • What Netflix ‘The Dig’ Gets Right And ‘Slanderously’ Wrong About The Sutton Hoo Story (Forbes)
                                        • The Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo (British Museum)
                                        • The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial, Volume 1: Excavations, Background, the Ship, Dating and Inventory (via WorldCat)
                                        • Whetstone or Sceptre? (medieval.eu)
                                        • An Introduction to Early Medieval England (C.410–1066) (English Heritage)

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                                              • 1 hr 9 min
                                            • Sea Peoples - Ep 197

                                              “The Sea Peoples” is a term that refers to a seafaring culture of unclear origin that bopped around the eastern Mediterranean and adjoining areas around 1200-900 BCE. There are ancient Egyptian murals and reliefs that depict battles against these unnamed adversaries, but no definitive labels or helpful texts. So who were the Sea Peoples? We’ll discuss some theories, and probably not reach any conclusions apart from “wow people really care a lot about this, huh?”

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                                              Links
                                              • Sea Peoples (World History Encyclopedia)
                                              • Ask a Near Eastern Professional: Who are the Sea Peoples and what role did they play in the devastation of civilizations that occurred shortly after 1200 BCE? (Ancient Near East Today)
                                              • Gaston Maspero and the Sea Peoples (SciHi)
                                              • Rapid Change of Climate Did Not Cause the Fall of the Akkadian Empire (Ancient Near East Today)
                                              • Who Were the Sea People? (ThoughtCo)
                                              • Philistine (people) (Encyclopedia Britannica)
                                              • Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines (Science Advances)

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                                                    • 1 hr 17 min
                                                  • The Dirt Gets Wrecked - Ep 196

                                                    Y'all, it has been a TOUGH WEEK. You can tell because Anna somehow manages to get the episode intro WRONG after doing it correctly nearly 200 times. But we're just gonna keep swimming! We couldn’t do a month-at-sea theme without talking about shipwrecks. And it’s not just pirate ships and the Titanic, either. We’ll discuss all kinds of underwater assemblages and the ways in which shipwreck archaeology helps us understand travel, life, commerce, connectivity, and more.

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                                                    Links
                                                    • Dokos shipwreck (Wikipedia)
                                                    • Oldest Intact Shipwreck Discovered in the Black Sea (Smithsonian Magazine)
                                                    • Ancient Shipwreck (Archaeology)
                                                    • The Oldest Intact Shipwreck “Odysseus” was an Ancient Greek Vessel (Greek Reporter)
                                                    • Stamnos - The Siren Vase (British Museum)
                                                    • How the world's deepest shipwreck was found (BBC Future)
                                                    • Made in China (National Geographic)
                                                    • The Belitung Shipwreck (SEAArch)
                                                    • Silk Roads Programme (UNESCO)
                                                    • NOAA, partners discover wreck of 207-year-old whaling ship (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
                                                    • The Science of Shipwrecks (North Carolina Sea Grant)
                                                    • Episode 86 - Check Yourself Before You Shipwreck Yourself (The Dirt)
                                                    • How scientists keep ancient shipwrecks from crumbling into dust (Popular Science)
                                                    • Giant freeze dryer to preserve famous shipwreck (The History Blog)
                                                    • Sustainable Nanotechnologies for Curative and Preventive Wood Deacidification Treatments: An Eco-Friendly and Innovative Approach (Nanomaterials)
                                                    • The Salvage (Vasa Museet)

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                                                          • 1 hr 3 min
                                                        • CLAMoring for Data with Christine Bassett - Ep 195

                                                          Ahoy! We’re still at sea, the ocean is still None of Our Business, and yet we’re learning so much about it! This week, we’ve got a special guest to guide us. Christine Bassett is currently a program coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Program Office (NOAA). Christine collects data from ancient Arctic shell middens to reconstruct climate and sea ice levels for archaeological sites in the Aleutian islands. Tune in to learn how she’s turning thousand-year-old clams into a climate thermometer!

                                                          Interested in learning about how to use X-Rays and similar technology in archaeology? Check out the linked PaleoImaging course from James Elliot!

                                                          Connect with James on Twitter: @paleoimaging

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                                                          Links
                                                          • The Unalaska Sea Ice Project
                                                          • Follow Christine on Twitter @ClamsAndClimate

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                                                                • 1 hr 9 min

                                                              About The Dirt Podcast

                                                              From the publisher's feed

                                                              Join Anna and Amber; friends, archaeologists, and big nerds, for an exploration of the lives of people in the past.