The Tel

In this interview, international filmmaker and explorer Trevor Wallace tells me about the Menorca Shipwreck Project, an ongoing excavation of a series of shipwrecks in the Balearic Islands of Spain.

In this conversation, we focus on one research topic: the Dene Transition, a pivotal moment of change more than a thousand years ago, when people speaking Na-Dene languages, such as the modern Navajo and Comanche migrated out of Alaska, the Yukon, and British Columbia, eventually settling as far south as the border of Mexico. 

Yale classicist Kirk Freudenburg discusses the epic poems of the ancient world. From the Iliad to the Aeneid. 

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Gino Caspari, an Explorers Club fellow and expert in the archaeology of the ancient Eurasian Steppe. Gino uses satellite imagery, LiDAR, and other forms of remote sensing paired with ambitious field surveys to discover new ancient sites. Check him out on Instagram @ginocaspari

Art historian Dr. Wei-Cheng Lin and I discuss the arrival of Buddhism in ancient and early medieval China. We track the emergence of a major sacred site called Mount Wutai, discuss the symbolism of the mountains in Chinese history, and much more. 

Dr. Morag Kersel and I discuss the ethics of archaeology, including the challenges posed by looting, the illegal antiquities trade, and the curation crisis. We focus on these issues in Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, through the lens of Dr. Kersel's archaeological and ethnographic research. 

In this episode, Dr. Bauer tells me about his work studying a remote outpost of the Wari Empire, an enigmatic civilization that preceded the Inca in Andean prehistory. We discuss imperial expansion, social hierarchy, burials, and more.

In this episode, David Paradis joins me to discuss the legacies of early medieval feuding and honor cultures. We examine how those forces shaped England, and Europe more broadly, across the middle ages. 

In this episode, Dr. Adrian Chase takes us on a deep dive into the process of mapping and understanding ancient Maya cities, how the Maya shaped the natural world around them, and how studying ancient urbanism can enrich our understanding of modern cities.

A fascinating conversation on one of the lesser-known regions in the ancient Mediterranean. Dr. Kearns talks about her fieldwork studying archaic Cyprus. We talk about the rural landscapes of the Iron Age world, and why it's important to look beyond palaces and temples to the countryside, where most of the ancients lived their lives.