The Dirt Podcast

The Dirt Podcast

By The Dirt PodcastScienceSocial SciencesEducationNatural Sciences
Download on the App Store

The Dirt Podcast episodes

  • Science Fiction and Anthropology: Part 2! - Ep 184

    We're back! And we're continuing our exploration of science fiction in archaeology AND anthropology in science fiction. Last time, we talked to author Pat Edwards about world-building and storytelling--this time, we tell the stories. Amber gets speculative, Anna spins some yarns, and we investigate the Thousand and One Nights. Show notes coming soon!

    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

    Contact
    ArchPodNet
    • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
    • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
    • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
    • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
    • Tee Public Store

      • Affiliates
      • Wildnote
      • TeePublic
      • Timeular

        • 1 hr 5 min
      • It's A Wash - Ep 183 (ENCORE)

        (ENCORE) This week, Anna and Amber decided to clean up their act and take a look at the history of bathing and hygiene. We’re dipping our toes into Roman baths, sweating through Finnish and Russian saunas, discussing the shrewd marketing behind the “Halitosis Effect,” and more. Plus, what even IS soap, anyway?

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

        Links
        • A natural history of hygiene (Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology)
        • Evidence that disgust evolved to protect from risk of disease (Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
        • The First Soap - The first recorded evidence of soap making (Soap History)
        • Out of the Vapors: A Social and Architectural History of Bathhouse Row
        • More Than a Bath: An Examination of Japanese Bathing Culture (Claremont Colleges)
        • Self-Reflection in the Tub: Japanese Bathing Culture, Identity, and Cultural Nationalism (Asia Pacific Perspectives)
        • Dip into the history of the Japanese 'system bath' (Japan Times)
        • Networking Naked With Finland's Diplomatic Sauna Society (The Atlantic)
        • A `working' bath: Finland's answer to negotiations. SAUNA DIPLOMACY (Christian Science Monitor)
        • The Standard Guide to Global Bathing Cultures (Standard Hotels)
        • The History and Science Behind Your Terrible Breath (Smithsonian)
        • Fighting bad breath -- a battle through centuries (Los Angeles Times)
        • Who invented the toothbrush and when was it invented? (Library of Congress)

          • Contact
          • Email the Dirt Podcast

          Affiliates
          • Wildnote
          • Digital Marketing Course
          • TeePublic
          • Timeular

            • 51 min
          • View to a Kilwa - The Medieval Swahili Coast (CLASSIC) - Ep 182

            In this re-release of an EARLY classic, take a whirlwind tour of the Swahili coast and the economic and cultural exchanges over land and sea it has enjoyed for more than a thousand years, before zooming in on the very powerful, and very cool, medieval sultanate of Kilwa Kisawani.

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

            Links
            • Making History: An archaeologist unearths the history of the Swahili States (Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin)
            • East Africa: Five Million Years of History (The Public Medievalist)
            • Early African History: fire, farming, Egypt, and the Bantu (Quatr.us)
            • Collins & Pisarevsky (2004). "Amalgamating eastern Gondwana: The evolution of the Circum-Indian Orogens". Earth-Science Reviews.
            • Richard Pankhurst, An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, (Lalibela House: 1961)
            • Recipe for ambergris and eggs
            • Early Global Connections: East Africa between Asia, and Mediterranean Europe (Global Middle Ages)
            • Kilwa Kisiwani: Medieval Trade Center of Eastern Africa (Thought.Co)
            • A lost city reveals the grandeur of medieval African civilization (Gizmodo)
            • Chami FA. 2009. Kilwa and the Swahili Towns: Reflections from an archaeological perspective. In: Larsen K, editor. Knowledge, Renewal and Religion: Repositioning and changing ideological and material circumstances among the Swahili on the East African coast. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitututet.
            • Fleisher J, Wynne-Jones S, Steele C, and Welham K. 2012. Geophysical Survey at Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania. Journal of African Archaeology 10(2):207-220.
            • Pollard E. 2011. Safeguarding Swahili trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: a unique navigational complex in south-east Tanzania. World Archaeology 43(3):458-477.
            • Pollard E, Fleisher J, and Wynne-Jones S. 2012. Beyond the Stone Town: Maritime Architecture at Fourteenth–Fifteenth Century Songo Mnara, Tanzania. Journal of Maritime Archaeology 7(1):43-62
            • Wynne-Jones S. 2007. Creating urban communities at Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania, AD 800-1300. Antiquity 81:368-380.
            • Wynne-Jones S. 2013. The public life of the Swahili stonehouse, 14th–15th centuries AD. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32(4):759-773.
            • Wynne-Jones S, and Fleisher J. 2012. Coins in Context: Local Economy, Value and Practice on the East African Swahili Coast. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22(1):19-36.
            • Zhao B. 2012. Global Trade and Swahili Cosmopolitan Material Culture: Chinese-Style Ceramic Shards from Sanje ya Kati and Songo Mnara (Kilwa, Tanzania). Journal of World History 23(1):41-85.
            • Stone Towns of the Swahili Coast (Archaeology)

              • Contact
              ArchPodNet
              • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
              • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
              • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
              • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
              • Tee Public Store

                • Affiliates
                • Wildnote
                • TeePublic
                • Timeular

                  • 53 min
                • Anthropology and Science Fiction with Pat Edwards - Ep 181

                  Pat Edwards is an author, game builder, and creator of all kinds of sci-fi and fantasy content. We all sit down and puzzle through some questions about the boundaries between archaeological interpretation and fiction, the use of anthropological tropes in pop culture, and strategies for drawing from the archaeological record for fictional world-building. We had a blast with this unconventional topic, and we hope you enjoy listening!

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

                  Links
                  • Pat Edwards

                  Contact
                  ArchPodNet
                  • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
                  • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
                  • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
                  • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
                  • Tee Public Store

                    • Affiliates
                    • Wildnote
                    • TeePublic
                    • Timeular

                      • 1 hr 25 min
                    • The Sweet Stuff - Ep 180

                      We're bouncing back from some bumps in the road this week, and bring you a short and sweet episode about some of the history and archaeology of two sweet substances--maple syrup and sugarcane.

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

                      Contact
                      ArchPodNet
                      • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
                      • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
                      • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
                      • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
                      • Tee Public Store

                        • Affiliates
                        • Wildnote
                        • TeePublic
                        • Timeular

                          • 49 min
                        • Them There Hills: Mounds and the Myth of the Moundbuilders - Ep 179

                          Hello, lovely listeners--a whole bunch of life stuff has smacked us right in the face recently. Thank you so much for your patience and continued support--we really love you. This week's classic episode is all about mounds and the people that built (and absolutely did not build) them.

                          Links
                          • Cahokia: The Great Native American Metropolis (via WorldCat)
                          • Cahokia Mounds
                          • Watson Brake, a Middle Archaic Mound Complex in Northeast Louisiana (American Antiquity)
                          • 12th-Century Cahokia Was a “Melting Pot” (Archaeology)
                          • Cahokia and the Excavation of Mound 72 (Lithics Casting Lab)
                          • The Ancient Mounds of Poverty Point: A Place of Rings (via WorldCat)
                          • Moundbuilders (Newberry)
                          • Early pottery: Technology, Function, Style, and Interaction in the Lower Southeast (via WorldCat)
                          • White Settlers Buried the Truth About the Midwest’s Mysterious Mound Cities (Smithsonian)Check out Ken
                          • Feder’s take on the myth of the moundbuilders over on Archaeological Fantasies. He’s also the author of this week’s Dirt Book Club entry, Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science

                            Contact
                            ArchPodNet
                            • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
                            • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
                            • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
                            • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
                            • Tee Public Store

                              • Affiliates
                              • Wildnote
                              • TeePublic
                              • Timeular

                                • 1 hr 2 min
                              • CLASSIC: Dogtectives! - Ep 178

                                Amber's traveling for work this week, so we bring you a perfectly dry-aged episode from years past. We bring you a fascinating, poignant, and thoroughly delightful interview with Very Special Guest Lynne Engelbert, a handler with the Institute for Canine Forensics. Learn what the talented pups at the ICF do for a living and prepare to be amazed!

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

                                Start your own podcast with Zencastr and get 30% off your first three months with code DIRT. Click this message for more information.

                                Links
                                • Institute for Canine Forensics

                                Contact
                                ArchPodNet
                                • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
                                • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
                                • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
                                • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
                                • Tee Public Store

                                  • Affiliates
                                  • Wildnote
                                  • TeePublic
                                  • Timeular

                                    • 44 min
                                  • You Are What You Eat (LIVE!) - Ep 177

                                    How do we know what people ate in the past? How did they make their food? How did food fit into the social aspect of life in the past? We discuss old old recipes, spicy Sichuanese history, an herbal mystery, how food changed our faces, and more!

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

                                    Start your own podcast with Zencastr and get 30% off your first three months with code DIRT. Click this message for more information.

                                    Links
                                    • Stone Age spices (NPR)
                                    • Garlic Mustard Phytoliths (PLOS One)
                                    • Oldest Noodles Found in China (BBC)
                                    • Decoding Ancient Recipes (BBC)
                                    • Roman food blogger Apicius (Wikipedia)
                                    • History of Spice in Sichuan (University of Illinois)
                                    • Why Revolutionaries Love Spicy Food (Nautilus)
                                    • Cooking Before Ceramics (The Atlantic)
                                    • Monte Testaccio (Archaeology Magazine)
                                    • Oyster Middens (Atlas Obscura)
                                    • Oyster Midden Exhibit (University of Maine)
                                    • Silphium, an Herbal Mystery (BBC)
                                    • What is Silphium?
                                    • Early Dilmun Diet (Journal of Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy)
                                    • Facial Changes due to Diet (PLOS One)
                                    • Changes in Skull Features (PNAS)
                                    • How Forks Gave us Overbites (The Atlantic)
                                    • Lynne Olver’s Food Timeline (Eater.com)
                                    • Virginia Tech Saves the Food Timeline (Eater.com)

                                      • Contact
                                      ArchPodNet
                                      • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
                                      • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
                                      • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
                                      • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
                                      • Tee Public Store

                                        • Affiliates
                                        • Wildnote
                                        • TeePublic
                                        • Timeular

                                          • 57 min
                                        • Studying Salvage Anthropology w/ Samuel Redman - Ep 176

                                          We dive into Dr. Samuel Redman’s latest book, Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology. Amber and Anna (mostly Amber) have lots of questions about the seemingly paradoxical 19th- and 20th- century urge by American scholars to “rescue” objects and even human remains from “disappearing” Indigenous groups. It’s a fascinating window into anthropology viewed as a moral and academic obligation, and the social underpinnings of the development of the discipline in the US. And! You can enter to win your very own copy of Ghosts and Prophets! Harvard University Press generously hooked us up with three copies to give away. The promotion is running via Twitter and Instagram, so keep an eye out for those posts for the extremely low-effort rules for entering.

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

                                          Start your own podcast with Zencastr and get 30% off your first three months with code DIRT. Click this message for more information.

                                          Links
                                          • Prophets and Ghosts (via WorldCat)
                                          • Samuel J. Redman (UMass Amherst)
                                          • Wendy Red Star’s 1880 Crow Peace Delegation (Birmingham Museum of Art)
                                          • Wendy Red Star’s Children of the Large-Beaked Bird (MASS MoCA)
                                          • Blanket Stories: Transportation Object, Generous Ones, Trek (Marie Watt Studio)
                                          • Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Smithsonian Institution)

                                            • Contact
                                            ArchPodNet
                                            • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
                                            • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
                                            • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
                                            • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
                                            • Tee Public Store

                                              • Affiliates
                                              • Wildnote
                                              • TeePublic
                                              • Timeular

                                                • 1 hr 10 min
                                              • Sanxingdui and the Shu State - Ep 175

                                                This week, we explore yet another place that’s not a backwater or influenced by aliens! In 1986, two pits were excavated at the site of Sanxingdui (Three Stars Mound) in what is today China’s Sichuan province. These two pits, and six more uncovered in 2021, were full of bronze, jade, gold, and ivory objects that appear to have been “sacrificed” (burned or broken) before burial. The artifacts were made in a style never before seen in Chinese material culture. What was going on at Sanxingdui, and why was the site abruptly abandoned thousands of years ago? We can tell you right off the bat that it wasn’t aliens, but you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out more!

                                                • Interested in learning about how to use X-Rays and similar technology in archaeology? Check out the linked PaleoImaging course from James Elliot!
                                                • Start your own podcast with Zencastr and get 30% off your first three months with code DIRT. Click this message for more information.

                                                  • Links and Sources

                                                  • Seismic Shift (Archaeology)
                                                  • Large Standing Figure, Sanxingdui Museum (Art and Archaeology dot com)
                                                  • A Preliminary Report on the Standing Bronze Figure from Sacrificial Pit Number Two, Sanxingdui (Early China, via JSTOR)
                                                  • New finds at Sanxingdui Ruins show creative power in ancient China (Xinhua Net)
                                                  • Sanxingdui relics: What is the secret of the bronze heavenly tree? (CGTN)
                                                  • Mysterious Sanxingdui Ruins reveal more stunning relics (Global News)
                                                  • Mystery of Ancient Chinese Civilization's Disappearance Explained (LiveScience)
                                                  • Sanxingdui: researchers say newly found sites in China date back as far as 3,200 years (South China Morning Post)
                                                  • Historical discovery revives wild theories of an alien civilisation in ancient China, but experts say no way (South China Morning Post)

                                                    • Contact


                                                    ArchPodNet

                                                    • APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
                                                    • APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
                                                    • APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
                                                    • APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
                                                    • Tee Public Store

                                                      • Affiliates

                                                      • Wildnote
                                                      • TeePublic
                                                      • Timeular

                                                        • 54 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.