The Tel

Archaeologist, creator, and comedian David Ian Howe tells me about the history of dogs in human society, and how dogs can show us what it means to be human.

Dr. Alessandro Sebastiani is an expert in the archaeology of Italy and the Roman Mediterranean, with particular focus on Tuscany. His work spans the Etruscan, Roman, Medieval, and even Modern periods, and he currently directs excavations at multiple sites, including the Etruscan site of Podere Cannicci. This episode explores the archaeology of Etruria, with special attention to the process of Roma...

Dr. Steven Mithen joins me to discuss his many books, including The Language Puzzle, The Singing Neanderthal, After the Ice, and The Prehistory of the Mind. The discussion ranges from the origins of civilization, to the key features of human behavioral modernity, to the role of language in the making of the human mind.

Tristan Hughes is the host of the podcast The Ancients, a presenter and producer for History Hit, and author of The Perdiccas Years, 323-320 BC: Alexander's Successors at War. We discuss his book, which covers the tumultuous events of the first War of the Diadochi. 

Dr. Johnston is an expert in the archaeology of ancient Ireland, and is particularly known for her work excavating Dun Ailinne, one of the most important ceremonial centers of the Irish Iron Age, a period still shrouded in mystery. We discuss her excavations at Dun Aillinne, and some of the big questions about this time period as a whole. 

Today, I’m speaking with Dr. McKenna Litynski. McKenna is an expert in the archaeology of late Pleistocene and early holocene North America, and just recently earned her PhD studying paleolithic sewing technologies, including the analysis of the oldest bone needles ever found in the Western Hemisphere. We talk about the significance of needles, sewing, and clothing manufacture to ancient hunter-ga...

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.

A discussion on squeezing every possible bit of data from ancient bones. Learn how archaeologists analyze bone artifacts using cutting-edge paleoproteomics, spatial and statistical analyses, experimental archaeology, and more!

How did civilization emerge on the Peruvian coast? Who were the Manchay? How did Amazonian civilization influence the coast, and what role did Shamanism play in Andean prehistory?

Dr. Jackson Crawford joins me to discuss ethics and beliefs in the viking world, through the lens of Hávamál, a collection of Old Norse poetry written from the perspective of Odin. The conversation meanders through topics including violence, relations between the sexes, magic and runes, honor, and reputation. 

In this episode, I speak with Evelynn Combs and Gerad Smith about the history of metalworking - particularly copper - in ancient Alaska. We talk about their experiments trying to reconstruct Dene methods of copper working, and I learn some of the meanings behind this traditional craft. 

In this episode, Dr. Gerad Smith tells me about the archaeology of the indigenous Dene people of the Alaskan interior. He works heavily with Dene elders, informants, and professionals from a variety of organizations.  He also incorporates linguistics, mythology, and ethnography into his studies to better understand the things he digs up.

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Justin Cramb, an expert in the archaeology of prehistoric Polynesia. 

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Robert Kelly, an expert in prehistoric archaeology and the study of ancient hunter-gatherers. The topic of the day is his book, The Fifth Beginning: What Six Million Years of Human History Can Tell Us About Our Future.

In this episode Dr. Todd Surovell lays out the case for the Overkill Hypothesis: the claim that ice age hunters triggered a wave of megafaunal extinctions as they entered the New World. 

In this episode I speak with Dr. Catherine Steidl. Dr. Steidl is a Scholar in residence at the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Having earned her PhD from Brown University’s institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World in 2018, she is an expert in the archaeology of the ancient mediterranean. In particular, her work has been focused on...