The Dirt Podcast

The Dirt Podcast

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The Dirt Podcast episodes

  • Even Tinier Plants with Dr. Kristen Wroth - Ep 90

    We've talked tiny plants, but this week we're going EVEN SMALLER. Anna and Amber chat with Dr. Kristen Wroth, who studies plant micro-remains like phytoliths to learn about ancient human behavior. We talk about favorite plants, field stories, and more!

    Links


    • Phytoliths: What They Are and What They Tell Us (Environmentalscience.org)


    • Phytoliths: A Comprehensive Guide for Archaeologists and Paleoecologists (via WorldCat)


    • Dr. Kristen Wroth on ResearchGate


    • Dr. Kristen Wroth on Academia.edu


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    56 min
  • Archaeo Mad Libs With The Dirt - BONUS

    We took paragraphs from two very out-of-date archaeology papers and took out lots of key words. Then, listeners sent in their own word lists, with which we filled in those paragraphs! The results were very silly, and we had a lot of fun!

    Stay tuned for upcoming live events, and come hang out with us on our stream!

    Links

    • twitch.tv/thedirtpodcast

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      33 min
    • The Dirt Stays Home - Ep 89

      Like most of you, we've been staying at home for the past several weeks, so we thought--what better way to distract our listeners from THEIR households than a look at OTHER people's households! Anna and Amber talk about how archaeologists' concept of "house" and "home" and "living space" has shifted over the years, and take a look at some ancient examples of home life.

      Links

      • The Archaeology of Household: An Introduction (via ResearchGate)
      • Processual Archaeology (ThoughtCo)
      • Post-Processual Archaeology (ThoughtCo)
      • Archaeological houses, households, housework and the home (via ResearchGate)
      • Syllabus - ARCH 2320 Household Archaeology in the Ancient Near East and Beyond
      • Household Studies in Complex Societies (Oriental Institute Seminars)
      • A Child's House: Social Memory, Identity, and the Construction of Childhood in Early Postclassic Mexican Households (American Anthropologist)
      • Gender, Social Networks, and Labor Disputes: Household Archaeology at the Industrial Mine Camp (DU Digital Commons)
      • Colorado Coal Field War Project (University of Denver)

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          1 hr 10 min
        • Art Crimes - Ep 88

          Cue the tense cinematic score. We’re talking about art crimes, both solved and unsolved! Heists, forgeries, and criminal masterminds abound, as we discuss the “value” of art, and why the black market for art and antiquities continues to thrive.

          Links

          • 8 of the Most Notorious Art Forgeries in History (Mental Floss)
          • Museum's Collection Of Purported Dead Sea Scroll Fragments Are Fakes, Experts Say (NPR)
          • All of the Museum of the Bible’s Dead Sea Scrolls Are Fake, Report Finds (Smithsonian)
          • The Ten Most Notorious Art Forgers Of All Time (Sleek)
          • Family of forgers fooled art world with array of finely crafted fakes (The Independent)
          • Fälschermuseum
          • Diary of the Hitler Diary Hoax (New Yorker)
          • Schtonk! (Wikipedia)
          • The Global Fight Against Black Market Antiquities Intensifies (The Medialine)
          • Networks can stop the black-market antiquities trade (ShareAmerica.gov)
          • Are amazon and ebay the new black market? Archaeologists warn against ancient artifacts sold online (Newsweek)
          • Illegal trade in antiquities: a scourge that has gone on for millennia too long (The Conversation)
          • The Archaeologist as Titan (New York Times)

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              52 min
            • Here There Be Dragons: Etiologies - Ep 87

              This week, Anna and Amber talk about those pesky Big Questions: How are we here? Why are we here? Where do dragons come from? Turns out, people have been coming up with explanations, myths, and stories for questions like this since prehistory. 

              Links

              • Here There Be Dragons: Etiologies
              • Creation Stories from around the World: Encapsulations of some traditional stories explaining the origin of the Earth, its life, and its peoples
              • The Origin of Dragons (Anthropos)
              • Dragons: A Brief History of the Mythical, Fire-Breathing Beasts (LiveScience)
              • Cyclops Myth Spurred by 'One-Eyed' Fossils? (National Geographic)
              • 10 Mythological Perspectives On Menstruation (Listverse)
              • Religion and Women (via Google Books)
              • Menstruation (Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961)
              • Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars (via Google Books)
              • Ancient mantis-man petroglyph discovered in Iran (Phys.org)
              • Iconography of the Indus Unicorn: Origins and Legacy (Harappa.com)
              • Now we know the reason for the narwhal's tusk (Mother Nature Network)
              • The Travels of Marco Polo (Wikisource)

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                  • 1 hr 8 min
                • Check Yourself Before You Shipwreck Yourself - Ep 86

                  Anna and Amber venture beneath the waves this week to bring you an episode about shipwrecks and underwater archaeology! We visit a few of the most famous ships in Davy Jones' Locker, Amber learns that underwater archaeology means more than "just pick it up from the bottom," and Anna dusts off that pirate accent.

                  Links

                  • The popular “pirate accent” is based on Robert Newton’s performance in the movie Treasure Island (The Vintage News)
                  • Underwater Archaeology (NOAA)
                  • More Than Just Archaeology Underwater (Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology)
                  • Uluburun Late Bronze Age Shipwreck Excavation (Institute of Nautical Archaeology)
                  • Queen Anne’s Revenge Project
                  • Archaeology of Titanic (Archaeology)
                  • RMS Titanic (Archaeology)
                  • Surveying the Titanic (Real Archaeology)
                  • Antikythera Shipwreck (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
                  • Ancient Skeleton Discovered on Antikythera Shipwreck (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
                  • Antikythera Shipwreck Yields New Cache of Treasures, Hints More May Be Buried at Site (Smithsonian)
                  • The Mary Rose: The Excavation and Raising of Henry VIII's Flagship
                  • Hatch, the Mary Rose dog
                  • Conservation of Cultural Materials from Underwater Sites (Archives and Museum Informatics)
                  • Conservation for Underwater Archaeology (tDAR)

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                      • 1 hr 4 min
                    • Green Sahara: The African Humid Period - Ep 85

                      The grass is always greener on the other side (of the Holocene). What is today a vast and inhospitable home to many people and creatures was, between ten and five thousand years ago, a lush environment replete with lakes, forests, and grasses. We examine the first clues that suggested a Green Sahara to researchers, explore the technologies and societies that lived there, and contemplate what the Sahara’s past might suggest about its future.

                      Links

                      • Megalakes in the Sahara? A Review (Quaternary Research)
                      • Saharan Dust Blows Across the Atlantic (NOAA)
                      • The emergence of pottery in Africa during the tenth millennium cal BC : new evidence from Ounjougou (Mali) (Antiquity)
                      • Ounjougou
                      • Technological and Cultural Change Among the Last Hunter-Gatherers of the Maghreb: The Capsian (10,000–6000 B.P.) (Journal of World Prehistory)
                      • Capsian (Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology)
                      • The 8,000-year-old dugout canoe from Dufuna (NE Nigeria)
                      • Africa’s oldest boat set for exhibit in Nigeria (Africa Times)
                      • First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium BC (Nature)
                      • History of the Domestication of Cows and Yaks (ThoughtCo)
                      • Chad Genetic Diversity Reveals an African History Marked by Multiple Holocene Eurasian Migrations (American Journal of Human Genetics)
                      • End of the African Humid Period (NOAA)
                      • End of the African Humid Period (Nature)
                      • Climate Change in North Africa: The Past is Not the Future (Climatic Change)

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                          • 1 hr 5 min
                        • Book Club Bonanza - Ep 84

                          Settle into your comfiest chair for Book Club with Anna and Amber this week. We talk about our favorite books, movies, and TV shows with archaeological or anthropological themes! We've also got some tips for listeners on how to get your literary fix while you're sheltering in place.

                          Links

                          • 8 Home Library Apps to Keep Your Book Collection Organized (Book Riot)
                          • Thanks to Bookshop, There Is No Reason to Buy Books on Amazon Anymore (InsideHook)
                          • An Update From Emily Powell (Powell’s Books)
                          • National Emergency Library (Archive.gov)
                          • Crocodile on the Sandbank
                          • Lest Darkness Fall
                          • Motel of the Mysteries
                          • Compass
                          • The Last Neanderthal
                          • The English Patient
                          • Anil’s Ghost
                          • The Golden Goblet

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                              • 1 hr 10 min
                            • A Giant April Fool's Episode

                              This year's April Fool's Day episode is on the biggest thing that never was: giants! Dive normal-sized-headfirst into conspiracy theories and hoaxes surrounding giants in the archaeological record, and meet some giants that didn't exist in Saudi Arabia, India, the Caucasus, and Appalachia.

                              Links

                              • Did the Smithsonian Destroy Thousands of Giant Human Skeletons? (Snopes)
                              • "Skeleton of Giant" Is Internet Photo Hoax (National Geographic)
                              • “Flashpoints & Giants” (Coast to Coast AM)
                              • Steve Quayle (RationalWiki)
                              • Giants and Bonus Potatoes (Knowledge Fight)
                              • Was 19th Century apewoman a yeti? 6ft 6in Russian serf who could outrun a horse was 'not human', according to DNA tests (Daily Mail)
                              • Scholars debunk myth of prehistoric giants in West Virginia (West Virginia Explorer)
                              • Giant Amerindians: Fact or Fantasy? (Southeastern Archaeology)

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                                  • 38 min
                                • Tiny Plants: Paleoethnobotany with Special Guest Dr. Madelynn von Baeyer - Ep 83

                                  Anna and Amber chat with Dr. Madelynn von Baeyer about archaeological plants. How do you find 'em? What can they tell us? What's the best archaeological plant? And what does any of this have to do with MUMMIES?!?

                                  Links

                                  • Madelynn von Baeyer Bio
                                  • Early Lives: The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age at Çadır Höyük (Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies)
                                  • Three Ancient Egyptian Coffins at Harvard University (Sketchfab)
                                  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

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                                      • 1 hr 16 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.