The Dirt Podcast

You know that cold that made Amber's voice all froggy? Turns out it was COVID. And the flu. But she's on the mend! And to give her time to fully recuperate, we're releasing a portion of the most recent episode of Old News, one of our premium content shows! This batch of news stories includes some Neanderthal food, some African archaeology, some Horse Guy stuff, and more!

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For more on those news stories:

Young Sudanese archaeologists dig up history as ‘west knows best’ era ends (The Guardian)

Ancient Stone Tools Once Thought to be Made by Humans Were Actually Crafted by Monkeys, Say Archaeologists | Artnet News

Prehistoric population once lived in Siberia, but mysteriously vanished, genetic study finds (Live Science) (CW: human remains)

Researchers in Vietnam Discovered That Two Deer Antlers Languishing in Museum Storage Are Actually 2,000-Year-Old Musical Instruments.

The world's first horse riders found near the Black Sea (Phys.org)

Dried Lake Reveals New Statue on Easter Island | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

Archaeologists in Portugal Have Discovered the Remains of a Favorite Neanderthal Feast: Roasted Crab (Artnet)

Anna and Amber sit down to chat about the Denisovans, the human ancestors we didn't know we had until recently. Learn about what evidence we have for Denisovans, the traits for which we can thank them, and some of the mysteries that remain. Come for big reveals about what's in human DNA, stay for ample use of phrases like "bouts of interbreeding."

To learn more, check out:

Meet the Denisovans (Discover)

First Confirmed Denisovan Skull Piece Found (Sapiens)

The first known fossil of a Denisovan skull has been found in a Siberian cave (ScienceNews)

Denisovans, A Mysterious Kind Of Ancient Humans, Are Traced To Tibet (NPR)

Found: First Tibetan Evidence of Neanderthal Cousins, the Denisovans (LiveScience)

Why Am I Denisovan? (National Geographic)

We may have bred with Denisovans much more recently than we thought (New Scientist)

A world map of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry in modern humans (ScienceDaily)

DNA Shows The Denisovans Have At Least 3 Distinct Branches (Tech Times)

Mum’s a Neanderthal, Dad’s a Denisovan: First discovery of an ancient-human hybrid (Nature)

Denisovans and Neanderthals Interbred in a Giant Cave (Jstor Daily)

Bone suggests ‘Red Deer Cave people’ a mysterious species of human (The Conversation)

This week, Amber is recovering from a nasty cold that has left her normally dulcet tones extremely froggy. So we've made lemons out of that germy lemonade (ew, sorry). It's an episode about the archaeology, prehistory, and history of the common cold! Learn how to tell if a skeleton had the sniffles, figure out if there are ghosts in your colon, uncover the great Vitamin C scam, and more!

CONTENT WARNING: A case study from ancient Nimrud includes brief mention of a post-mortem treatment for burial that some listeners may find upsetting!

For more on this episode's topics:

Humans are 8% virus – how the ancient viral DNA in your genome plays a role in human disease and development (The Conversation)

Prehistoric viruses smuggled genes into our DNA (Chemical & Engineering News)

Cold Virus Found To Manipulate Genes (ScienceDaily)

Sequences capture the code of the common cold (University of Wisconsin)

Common cold virus may predate modern humans, ancient DNA hints (Live Science)

Paleomedicine and the Evolutionary Context of Medicinal Plant Use (Nature Public Health Emergency Collection)

Cowabunga! Horn reveals herbal mixtures used by medieval healers in South Africa (RFI)

Africa's Medical History Revealed (Origins)

Infectious Diseases in the Archaeological Record (Ember Archaeology)

Disease concepts and classifications in ancient Mesopotamian medicine (Systems of Classification in Premodern Medical Cultures)

The Life and Health of Assyrian Queens (Ancient Near East Today)

Cold Sore Virus Detected in Ancient Human Remains (Archaeology)

Common cold: The centuries-old battle against the sniffles (BBC News)

Medical Practitioners: Ancient Legacy (Prof. Sean Taylor, MSU Moorhead)

Ancient Egyptian Medicine: A Systematic Review (Philosophy, Social and Human Disciplines)

Glossary of Medical Terms Used in the 18th and 19th Centuries (Craig Thornber)

Ethnobotany of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia, Asteraceae) and Other Echinacea Species (Economic Botany)

How Linus Pauling duped America into believing vitamin C cures colds (Vox)

Archaeobotanical evidence of the use of medicinal cannabis in a secular context unearthed from south China (ScienceDirect)

We're doing something different this week while Amber is on a whirlwind tour of life admin stuff. In response to some of the conflict over Graham Hancock's Ancient Apocalypse show on Netflix, Anna has been writing about the double-edged sword of creating archaeology content online. Social media can be a useful tool, but it can also be...well, not great. So, we figured, why not cover two types of content in one!

The plan is to make a short series of minisodes out of the process of writing an article about archaeology for the public. We can talk to fellow content makers, editors, and others who contribute to the creative process. Let us know if you'd like to hear more of this kind of thing at [email protected]!

For extra context on archaeologists' response to Ancient Apocalypse:

Anna's columns for SAPIENS: https://www.sapiens.org/?s=&column%5B%5D=field-trips

The Familiar Strange on pseudoscience: https://thefamiliarstrange.com/2022/11/21/victorian-pseudoscience/

Open letter from the Society of American Archaeology to Netflix: http://saa.org/quick-nav/saa-media-room/saa-news/2022/12/01/saa-sends-letter-to-netflix-concerning-ancient-apocalypse-series

Ella al-Shamahi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ella_AlShamahi/status/1599474951823577088

Dangers of pseudoscience: https://www.dw.com/en/netflix-ancient-apocalypse-series-marks-dangerous-trend-experts-say/a-64033733

John Hoopes' comments on Hancock: https://news.ku.edu/2022/10/25/professor-can-comment-netflixs-ancient-apocalypse-how-pseudoarchaeology-can-reinforce

Atlantis is a fictional city: https://www.thoughtco.com/platos-atlantis-from-the-timaeus-119667

Bill Farley on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLFtC_OSpX4

Flint Dibble's article on Ancient Apocalypse for SAPIENS: https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/ancient-apocalypse-pseudoscience/

This week, Anna has some big questions about the Pleiades, a group of bright, beautiful stars also known as the Seven Sisters. The myth of seven sisters that were turned into stars is remarkably consistent across multiple cultures. Also, it's always seven sisters, even though you can really only make out six with the naked eye. So what's going on? IS IT ALIENS?? No, of course not. It's much more interesting than that. Tune in to learn just how long humans have been telling each other stories under the stars.

Resources for this episode:

The Founding of the Seven Sisters (Vassar Encyclopedia)

Pleiades (Wikipedia)

How Many Pleiades Can YOU See? (Sky & Telescope)

Marra Wonga: Archaeological and contemporary First Nations interpretations of one of central Queensland’s largest rock art sites (Australian Archaeology)

Why are there Seven Sisters? (Advancing Cultural Astronomy)

The world's oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about 'seven sisters' stars may reach back 100,000 years (The Conversation)

Story Of The "Seven Sisters" Unfolds Across Enormous Ancient Australian Rock Art Site (IFLScience)

We've discussed Neanderthals quite a bit on The Dirt (it's a whole section of Anna's contract). But while we've talked about their diet, their bodies, and their genes, we haven't spent much time thinking about their daily life, their living spaces, and the idea of "home." How did Neanderthals organize their domestic spaces? How do you make a cave cozy? How did people keep track of familiar places tens of thousands of years ago? What's cooking at Chez Neanderthal? Tune in to learn more!

Show notes:

Organization of residential space, site function variability, and seasonality of activities among MIS 5 Iberian Neandertals (Scientific Reports)

Neanderthals in the Levant: Behavioural Organization and the Beginnings of Human Modernity (Google Books)

Why this spot on the Jersey coast was like a magnet for Neanderthals (The Conversation)

Sleeping Activity Area within the Site Structure of Archaic Human Groups Evidence from Abric Romani Level N Combustion Activity Areas (Current Anthropology)

Variability of limestone knapping methods in Middle Palaeolithic levels M and Ob of Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain) (Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences)

Neanderthal Homes Were at The Cutting edge of Modern Living (University of Southampton)

Palaeolithic wooden artefacts from the Abric Romani (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain) (ScienceDirect)

The Paleolithic Age Cooked Up Creative Chefs (Sapiens)

Vegetation and climate record from Abric Romaní (Capellades, northeast Iberia) during the Upper Pleistocene (MIS 5d−3) (ScienceDirect)

Abundant molds of wooden remains were found in the Abric Romaní site evidences from 60,000 years old Neanderthal communities (IPHES News)

Neandertal Behavior at the Middle Palaeolithic Site of Abric Romaní, Capellades, Spain (Journal of Field Archaeology)

Neanderthals: an ecologically selective species? Experimental methods to research fire use in the Abric Romani rockshelter (UK Research and Innovation)

Science: Good housekeeping, Neanderthal style (New Scientist)

The complexity of Neanderthal technology (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

Neanderthals may have enjoyed hot baths at home in their caves (Cnet)

Archaeologists "Exceptional Find" Reveals Secrets Of Human Origins (Madrid Metropolitan)

Join us for a tasting session along the timewine (TM) of human history! Is the human capacity to digest alcohol an evolutionary advantage? Are drunk apes chill apes? When did the first deliberate grape fermentation occur? How did a Greek wine cauldron end up in a Celtic burial in France? What's up with wine terms? Sip on all this and more in this week's episode. Many thanks to Rosie for sponsoring this one!

If you would like to sponsor an episode on a topic of your choosing for a minimum donation of $25, head to paypal.me/thedirtpodcast. Be sure to include a message telling us the topic in the transaction! All proceeds from sponsored episodes go to The Dirt's outreach efforts and the Pass the Mic conference travel grant!

This week's show notes:

Five Turning Points in the Evolution of Wine (Sapiens)

The Origins and History of Winemaking (ThoughtCo)

History of Alcohol: A Timeline (ThoughtCo)

The Origins and Ancient History of Wine (Penn Museum)

This 8000-year-old jar holds traces of what may be Eurasia's oldest wine (Science)

Oldest Evidence of Winemaking Discovered at 8,000-Year-Old Village (National Geographic)

A Greek Treasure in France (New York Times)

Vix Grave (Wikipedia)

Wine and Rome (Encyclopaedia Romana)

A Taste for Wine (Popular Archaeology)

To Your Health, Caesar! Wine and the Gauls (Pointe-à-Callière Museum)

Anthropomorphizing Wine in Our Current Climate (Anthropology News)

Here’s Why You Should Visit Spain’s Basque Country (Wine Traveler)

'Social Wine': Ethnic Identity and Wine Consumption in the Basque Diaspora in Barcelona (Spain) (Food, Drink and Identity in Europe)

This Basque Winery Is Reinventing Vermouth With a Regional Grape (and Sustainable Methods) (Saveur)

America Has a Drinking Problem (The Atlantic)

Why Do Humans Have a Taste For Alcohol? (Discover)

Expert Wine Tasting as a Social Practice: An Enactive Ethnography (Sociologica)

Uncovering the language of wine experts (Natural Language Engineering)

The semiotics of wine. Analysis of wine-related cultural consensus in two Spanish wine-producing regions (International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science)

Where Wine Flavors Come From: The Science of Wine Aromas (Wine Folly)

Find Out if You’re a Wine Supertaster (Wine Folly)

Crusoe Treasure Underwater Winery

Underwater wine ageing: Why are wineries doing it? (Decanter)

Stone Age Wine (Ancient Wine)

Nouvelle Fouille De La Tombe Princière De Vix : Premiers Résultats (INRAP)

Anna and Amber chat with Dr. Tracie Canada a socio-cultural anthropologist whose ethnographic research uses sport to theorize race, kinship and care, gender, and the performing body. We talk about the lived experiences of Black athletes, the role of sports in human society, the many health implications of a contact sport, and more.

Find Tracie's work here:

https://www.traciecanada.com/

Hello, and welcome to the new and improving Dirt Podcast! If you’re a longtime listener, welcome back and thank you so much for sticking with us. If you’re new to The Dirt, welcome! On normal episodes, we explore stories from archaeology and anthropology in a way that is hopefully accessible and entertaining for anyone, regardless of educational background. If you’re fascinated by the lives of people in the past, then this is a show for you! 

That said, this particular episode is a much more casual, unscripted one than we usually put out. We wanted to provide an update on our move from the Archaeology Podcast Network, our reasons for moving, and our upcoming plans for the show and beyond. So for anyone who’s less interested in a hang with your host pals, here’s the TC;DL (too chatty; didn’t listen).

We’re moving our entire catalog of episodes from Soundcloud and APN to Captivate. This shouldn’t mean anything different for you, the listener–episodes should still go to the same RSS feed, so they’ll show up in your podcast player as usual.

Anna is going to finish that process ASAP. It involves converting over 150 files from WAV to MP3, woof. The episodes will then all be on Captivate, and available for your listening pleasure. After that, it’s just a matter of making sure all the show notes are correct.

You won’t hear ads, since we’re no longer on the APN feed, but you’ll hear the “whoosh” effect where the ads used to be.

We’re going to gradually phase out our Patreon account, where we get most of our financial support, and switch over to Ghost. This is an open-source subscription platform that does not take a cut of patron money, unlike Patreon. This way, all of your support goes directly to us. We’ll also be changing some of the tiers so that more of the bonus content is available to those at some of the lower subscription tiers. 

We had a great time at the AAA conference in November, and had some substantial success with a podcast library booth!

We’ve got some big plans for the future of The Dirt, but the quality of our research and our episodes won’t change (except for the better)

Lastly, a few life updates, tangents, goofs, etc.

So if that summary does it for you, we’ll see you back here soon with new content! If you want to listen in for the whole meandering conversation, just keep listening. Thank you again, friends–we’re excited for a fresh start! 

This week, Anna and Amber have a Thing*: it’s an episode all about the Viking Age! Sail with us through an exploration of life during the Viking Age. We talk about the ships they sailed, the food they ate, and the helmets they DIDN'T wear. Plus, some very experimental archaeology, and Amber learns how the salami is made...and nothing will ever be the same.

*Thing: An Old Norse word for an assembly of people convened for decision-making. Pronounced “ting.”

To learn more, check out:

How Vikings navigated the world (ScienceNordic)

Did Vikings really wear horned helmets? (History.com)

Viking food (National Museum of Denmark)

Fondén, R. , Leporanta, K. and Svensson, U. (2007). Nordic/Scandinavian Fermented Milk Products. In Fermented Milks, A. Tamime (Ed.). doi:10.1002/9780470995501.ch7

Holck, Per (August 2006). "The Oseberg Ship Burial, Norway: New Thoughts On the Skeletons From the Grave Mound". European Journal of Archaeology. 9 (2–3): 185–210

Daily Life in the Viking Age (Norse Mythology for Smart People)

Something rotten in Scandinavia : The world's earliest evidence of fermentation (Journal of Archaeological Science)

World’s Earliest Evidence Of Food Fermentation Discovered In Southern Sweden (Message to Eagle)

*Remember “thing” from our Mythconceptions episode?