The Dirt Podcast

This week, while Anna and Amber's actual selves will be on the West Coast, the show heads for the East Coast-- of Africa, that is! 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.

To learn more:

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)

Halloween may be over, but Anna and Amber are keeping it spooky as they discuss curses and their consequences this week. Anna shares some tactics for recovering stolen tunics at Aquae Sulis (Bath, England), and what perils awaited medieval Javanese wrongdoers. Meanwhile, Amber looks at a ritual executioner from Australia, his highly collectible shoes, his supernatural counterpart, and the very real deaths that result from his work.

To learn more about today’s subject, check out:

The Curse of King Tut: Facts & Fable (Live Science)

Getting Even in Roman Britain: The Curse Tablets from Bath (Aquae Sulis) (Folklore Thursday)

A Brief History of Bath, England (Local Histories)

Roman Inscriptions of Britain

Adams, Geoff W. “The Social and Cultural Implications of Curse Tablets [Defixiones] in Britain and on the Continent.” Studia Humanoria Tartuensia 7A, no 5. (2006):8-10.

Cousins, Eleri H. “Votive Objects and Ritual Practice at the King’s Spring at Bath.” TRAC 2013: Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, London 2013. Ed. Hannah Platts, Caroline Barron, Jason Lundock, John Pearce, and Justin Yoo. Philadelphia, PA: Oxbow, 2014. 52-64.

Cunliffe, Barry, and Peter Davenport, eds. The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath: The Site. Volume 1 of the Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath. Oxford: OUCA, 1985.

—. The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath: The Finds from the Sacred Spring. Volume 2 of the Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath. Oxford: OUCA, 1988.

Fagan, Garrett G. Bathing in Public in the Roman World. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005.

Henig, Martin. Religion in Roman Britain. London: Batsford, 1984.

Ireland, Stanley. Roman Britain: A Sourcebook. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Ogden, Daniel. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Tomlin, R.S.O. “Voices from the Sacred Spring.” Bath History. Vol. 4. Ed. Trevor Facett. Bath, United Kingdom: Millstream, 1992.

Versnel, H.S. “Prayers for justice, east and west: Recent finds and publications since 1990. ” Magical practice in the Latin West: Papers from the international from the international conference held at the University of Zaragoza, 30 Sept.-1 Oct. 2005. Ed. by R.L. Gordon and Marco Simon. Leiden: Brill, 2010.

Indigenous Australia Timeline - 1500 to 1900 (Australia Museum)

A rare and unusual West Australia Aboriginal ritual kit (Bonhams)

Late 19th-Century Australian Aboriginal Artifacts (Antiques Roadshow)

The Native Tribes of Central Australia (University of Adelaide)

Death and sorcery (Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology)

Here be Kurdaitcha: Towards an Ethnography of the Monstrous in the Margins of a Central Australian Aboriginal Town (Academia.edu)

Places and Spaces of Monstrosity (Academia.edu)

‘Dreamings’ and place – Aboriginal monsters and their meanings (The Conversation)

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of Viriginia

Jan van Den Veerdonk. (2001). Curses in Javanese royal inscriptions from the Singhasari-Majapahit period, AD 1222-1486. Bijdragen Tot De Taal, 157(1), 97-112.

This week, Anna and Amber hunker down around the campfire to talk about things that go bump in the night, and encounter some common themes from around the world. Amber fangirls over a baby-snatching Mesopotamian demon and stumbles upon a familiar monster in Native American myth, while Anna offers some DIY advice for combating medieval witches.

To learn more about these (and other!) boogeypeople, check out:

The Epic of Atraḥasis (Livius)

Heffron, Yağmur. “Revisiting ‘Noise’ (rigmu) in Atra-ḫasīs in Light of Baby Incantations.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 73, No. 1 (April 2014), pp. 83-93.

Michel, Cécile. “Une incantation paléo-assyrienne contre Lamaštum.” Orientalia, NOVA SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 1 (1997), pp. 58-64.

Potts, D.T., D.L. Martin, K. Baustian and A. Osterholtz. “Neonates, infant mortality and the pre-Islamic Arabian amuletic tradition at Tell Abraq.” Liwa, Vol. 5, No. 9 (June 2014), pp. 3-14.

Kinnier Wilson, J. V. . “Gleanings from the Iraq Medical Journals” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1968), pp. 243-247.

Typhoid Fever and Paratyphoid Fever: Symptoms and Treatment (CDC)

15 Bogeymen From Around The World (Listverse)

Brightman, Robert A. “The Windigo in the Material World.” Ethnohistory, vol. 35, no. 4, 1988, pp. 337–379. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/482140.

Nazare, Joe. “The Horror! The Horror? The Appropriation, and Reclamation, of Native American Mythology.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 11, no. 1 (41), 2000, pp. 24–51. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43308417.

Waldram, J. (2004). Revenge of the Windigo: The construction of the mind and mental health of

North American Aboriginal peoples. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Ahenakew, Cash. “The birth of the ‘Windigo’: The construction of Aboriginal health in biomedical and traditional Indigenous models of medicine.” Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices 5:1 2011.

Forbes, J. D., & Forbes, J. D. (2008). Columbus and other cannibals: The wétiko disease of exploitation, imperialism, and terrorism

. New York: Seven Stories Press.

Malleus Maleficarum (Wikipedia)

Merrifield, Ralph. “Witch Bottles and Magical Jugs.” Folklore, vol. 66, no. 1, 1955, pp. 195–207. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257932.

Merrifield, Ralph. (1987). The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. B.T. Batsford, Ltd., London.

Hoggard, Brian (2004), "The archaeology of counter-witchcraft and popular magic", in Davies, Owen; De Blécourt, William, Beyond the Witchtrials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe, Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-6660-3

Manning, M. Chris (2012), Homemade Magic: Concealed Deposits in Architectural Contexts in the Eastern United States. Master’s thesis, Anthropology Program, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

Becker, Marshall J. (1978), "An Eighteenth Century Witch Bottle in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.", Pennsylvania Archaeologist 48(1–2):1–11.

This week, Anna introduces us to Bronze Age Britain and Amber tells us about the very, very unexpected discoveries at Cladh Hallan, Scotland. For maximum spookiness, don't read ahead: it's a real rollercoaster of a story about Bronze Age life, and death, and... after-death? Get ready, everyone. This one's nightmare fuel.

To learn more (and see photos!), check out:

Must Farm

Latest archaeological finds at Must Farm provide a vivid picture of everyday life in the Bronze Age (University of Cambridge)

History made: In an astonishing Bronze Age discovery a 3000-year-old community has been unearthed (CNN)

The Prehistoric Village at Cladh Hallan (University of Sheffield)

Mummification in Bronze Age Britain (BBC)

"Frankenstein" Bog Mummies Discovered in Scotland (National Geographic)

Ancient DNA typing shows that a Bronze Age mummy is a composite of different skeletons (Journal of Archaeological Science)

Solved: the mystery of Britain’s Bronze Age mummies (The Conversation)

Mummification in Bronze Age Britain (Antiquity)

We talk to REAL LIVE FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST Dr. Jon Bethard (University of South Florida) about his career path from bassoons to bioarchaeology, the many duties of a coroner, life in Transylvanian villages, vampires (maybe), and his important work helping to identify victims of political conflicts and natural disasters all over the world.

Learn more about Dr. Bethard and his work at:

University of South Florida Faculty Profile

The Bioarchaeology of Inka Resettlement Practices: Insight from Biological Distance Analysis

Dr. Jonathan Bethard on ResearchGate

Abstract for paper, “Marginalized Motherhood: Infant Burial in 17th Century Transylvania”

This week we round out this month's coverage of indigenous Latin America with a look at the Ancestral Puebloans of the American Southwest. We couldn't fit 10,000 years of human experience and complexity into a single episode, so instead we highlight some architectural and engineering achievements, petroglyphs, and some of the mythological beings represented in them. Plus, the origins of the word "adobe" and a lengthy consideration of why the cultural appropriation of Kokopelli looms so large in our memory of the 1990s.

To learn more, check out:

Aztec Ruins National Monument--New Mexico NPS Historical Handbook No. 36, 1962 (Project Gutenberg)

The Chaco Road System - Southwestern America's Ancient Roads (ThoughtCo)

Native Languages of the Americas: Pueblo Legends and Stories (Native-Languages.org)

Hopi Petroglyph Sites (CyArk)

How Kokopelli, the Flute-Playing God, Conquered Pop Culture (Artsy)

Books:

Pueblo Gods and Myths

Kokopelli, Casanova of the Cliff Dwellers

Chaco Handbook: An Encyclopedic Guide

Chaco Canyon: Archaeologists Explore the Lives of an Ancient Society

This week Anna and Amber run through the history of the Rarámuri of Chihuahua, Mexico. It's more than just sandals and beer, folks! Plus, a rundown of some of the biomechanics of ultramarathon running, and a theory for how Homo sapiens successfully overran Europe.

If you’d like to learn more about this week’s topic, why not start with:

“The Tarahumaras,” from GEOG 571: Cultural Intelligence, Applied Geography, and Homeland Security (Penn State)

The Sacred Corn Beer of the Tarahumara (NPR)

Tarahumara Runner Lorena Ramírez Makes History at Spain’s Ultramarathon (Remezcla)

Decorated Tarahumara Runner Calls on AMLO’s Support so She Can Continue Racing (Remezcla)

The legend of the Tarahumara: Tourism, overcivilization and the white man's Indian (International Journal of the History of Sport)

Harvard Professor Explains How the Tarahumara Run So Well in Those Sandals (Remezcla)

Strike type variation among Tarahumara Indians in minimal sandals versus conventional running shoes (Journal of Sport and Health Science)

1975 advertisement for The Earth Shoe

Athletic shoes with reverse slope construction (Justia Patents)

The science of elite long distance running (The Conversation)

Early humans won at running; Neandertals won at walking (Phys.org)

Choguita Rarámuri (Tarahumara) Phonology and Morphology (UC Berkeley Dissertation via eScholarship)

It’s Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month here in the United States! This week, we attempt to help you (and ourselves) be less wrong about the most famous early Latin American cultures. Amber provides a crash course on Aztec, Inca, and Maya history and the thorny issues of contemporary indigenous cultural identity, while Anna chimes in with fun facts and Very Cool Things about each group!

To learn more, check out:

I’m Latino. I’m Hispanic. And they’re different, so I drew a comic to explain. (Terry Blas, via Vox)

Why Does Jared Diamond Make Anthropologists So Mad? (NPR)

Spanish and Nahuatl Views on Smallpox and Demographic Catastrophe in Mexico (The Journal of Interdisciplinary History)

From Náhuatl to Guaraní: 5 Apps to Help You Learn Indigenous Languages (Remezcla)

Chicueyaco: Daily Life in a Nahua Village (Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine)

Náhuatl: A fond farewell? (Unravel)

Top 5 Ancient Aztec Inventions (How Stuff Works)

Badianus Manuscript: An Aztec Herbal, 1552 (University of Virginia)

The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire (Museum of the American Indian)

The College Student Who Decoded the Data Hidden in Inca Knots (Atlas Obscura)

Domenici, Viviano; Domenici, Davide (1996). "Talking Knots of the Inka" Archaeology. 49 (6)

Jacobsen, Lyle E. "Use of Knotted String Accounting Records in Old Hawaii and Ancient China". Accounting Historians Journal

‘Home Made’ Ancient Inca Instruments Replicas Perfectly Mimic Different Animals Using Nothing But Water (Get Lost to Be Found)

Poqomchi’ conversation: importancia del idioama poqomchi' en nuestro medio (Endangered Languages Project)

Mayan Scientific Achievements (History.com)

El Caracol (Exploratorium)

Cross-Legged Woman's Tomb Reveals Ancient Maya Kept Jaguars in Cages (Live Science)

NOTE: 09/16/18: An earlier version of the show description referred to the Aztecs, the Inca, and the Maya as Mesoamerican cultures, which is incorrect. Mesoamerica does not extend into South America, and so the Inca are not a Mesoamerican society. We apologize for the mistake, and thank you to listener Laura Heath-Stout for pointing it out to us!

It wouldn't be the internet if there weren't cats, so this week is the purr-fect op-paw-tunity to talk about Felis catus. Apologies (a-paw-logies? No? Ok, we'll stop) in advance, there's an odd crackling in the final minutes, but don't let that stop you from learning all about the history of kitties, their domestication, and some of their silly antics from the past several millennia.

If you're still itching for more information, check out these sources:

Domestic Cat (National Geographic)

Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows (National Geographic)

The Natural History of the Cat (Alley Cat Allies)

Abbott, Ian; Department of Environment and Conservation (2008). "Origin and spread of the cat, Felis catus, on mainland Australia: re-examination of the current conceptual model with additional information" Conservation Science Western Australia Journal (7).

Cats Are Ruthless Killers (Business Insider)

The Crazy Story Of A Cat Named Tibbles Who Killed Off A Whole Species Of Bird (Business Insider)

Curious Cat Walks Over Medieval Manuscript (National Geographic News)

This medieval manuscript curses the cat who peed on it (Gizmodo)

This cat was reared for one reason: to be mummified (BBC)

Early Taming of the Cat in Cyprus (Science)

A Roman Era Pet Cemetery: 86 Cat Burials Discovered in Egypt (Ancient Origins)

“Witch Cottage”? No. Cat Burial? Maybe. (Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives)

The archaeology of the domestic cat (Current Archaeology)

How cats conquered the world (and a few Viking ships) (Nature)

Dogs and cats may have been involved in Maya rituals (The Economist)

They’re talking about cats from the genus Panthera, not Felis

Ancient Native Americans May Have Had Pet Bobcat (Live Science)

Bobcats also aren’t Felis, they’re Lynx

A Brief History of Cats in Asian Culture (Pearl River Mart)

Cats in the Ancient World (Ancient World Encyclopedia)

‘I can haz genomes’: cats claw their way into genetics (Nature)

What better time to discuss the domestication and use of Canis familiaris than here in the dog days of summer? Anna and Amber discuss recent research tracing how wolves evolved into the pups we know and love, the earliest dogs known in the archaeological record, the evolution of our relationship with them, and some Very Good Boys and Girls throughout history. Plus, medieval pet name suggestions, Amber chokes up about the Odyssey (typical), waggy little flop-eared foxes, and Anna’s Movie Minute takes on Alpha (2018).

The First Dogs May Have Been Domesticated In Central Asia (Popular Science)

North America’s earliest dogs came from Siberia (Science News)

Human Footprints at Chauvet Cave (Archeology)

26,000-Year-Old Child Footprints Found Alongside Paw Prints Reveal Oldest Evidence of Human-Canine Relationship (Ancient Origins)

Earliest Dogs in North America (Canadian Museum of Nature)

America’s first dogs vanished after Europeans arrived, study finds (Washington Post)

Ancient American dogs almost completely wiped out by arrival of European breeds (AAAS)

The evolutionary history of dogs in the Americas (Science)

America's Oldest Dog Discovery Helps Solve Canine DNA Riddle (National Geographic)

Prehistoric Puppy May Be Earliest Evidence of Pet-Human Bonding (National Geographic)

Dog Love Isn’t A New Thing: Even Yudhisthir Refused To Enter Heaven Without His Loyal Dog (Scoop Whoop)

Trut, L. (1999). Early Canid Domestication: The Farm-Fox Experiment. American Scientist, 87 (2) DOI: 10.1511/1999.2.160

Trut, L. (2001). Experimental Studies of Early Canid Domestication. In The Genetics of the Dog, A Ruvinsky and J. Sampson, eds.

A Loyal Companion and Much More: Dogs in Ancient China (Ancient Origins)

On the custom of burying dogs in prehistoric burials (Chinese Archaeology)

Abuwtiyuw (Wikipedia)

Burying Dogs in Ancient Cis-Baikal, Siberia: Temporal Trends and Relationships with Human Diet and Subsistence Practices (PLOS One)

In Medieval Times, Popular Dog Names Included Little Hammer, Fortuna and Bo (Smithsonian)

Medieval Pet Names (Medievalists.net)

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