The Archaeology Show

Today Chris talks to the editors of a fascinating new book about animals and their representation and symbolism in ancient Mesoamerica. We talk about things like frogs that soak in water through their bellies and animals wearing clothes…and what that means! Ancient people in this area were very connected to their surroundings and observed everything with amazing clarity. Links Birds and Beasts of...

This week we have 3 news stories! First up, a 2,000 year old bog body was found in excellent condition in Ireland. Then, we take a look at the “lost” capital city of Asryria, Assur. Finally, we head back over to Ireland, where a 4,000 year old tomb has been rediscovered. Links Bellaghy bog body: Human remains are 2,000 years old The Lost Capital of Ancient Assyria Everyone Thought This 4,000-Year-...

This week we have a couple news stories, and then the story of us! First up, an Iron Age saddle in extremely god condition has been found in Xinjiang in Northwestern China. Next, cave paintings in Spain have been preserved by the unique chemical composition of the cave. And finally, in response to a listener request, we share our story both personally and professionally! Links Ancient Chinese Sadd...

This week we interview two of the editors of the new book Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World: Mythic History and Ritual Order , Dr. David Freidel and Dr. Anne Dowd. This volume examines recent research on how the Maya incorporated time into their daily lives through their architecture, writings, and more. Links The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World: Mythic History an...

This week we have 3 fascinating archaeology news stories! First a children’s cemetery has been discovered in Turkey. Then, new research shows an Egyptian mummy was actually pregnant with twins when she died in childbirth. And finally, a new study shows that a 180 ft chalk carving in an English hillside is likely Hercules. Links A cemetery belonging to 54 children was found during the excavation in...

This week we have 3 archaeology news stories from Scandinavia! First, we discuss the oldest ship burial found so far in Norway. Then, a very old sword has been uncovered in Sweden, which belonged to a very tall individual! Finally, we go back to Norway where a very rare Bronze Age gold bracelet was found by a metal detectorist. Links 1,300-Year-Old Ship Burial Unearthed in Norway Medieval weapon —...

This week we tackle one of our favorite topics - controversy! Last summer, the team working on the Rising Star Cave site in South Africa released a series of pre-prints making some incredible claims about the pre-human species, Homo Naledi. They were closely followed by the Netflix documentary, Cave of Bones which captured the attention of the public. However, other researchers are pushing back, c...

This week we have 3 interesting archaeology news stories. First up is the reanalysis of skeletal remains in a neolithic mass grave in Spain is creating a different picture of how people interacted in that region. Then, we look at how satellite images have added many more megastructure sites to bronze age Serbia and Slovenia. Finally, we discuss the perishable artifacts that have been preserved by...

It seems like every week there is an article that says archaeologists are dumbfounded, astounded, or astonished. When that’s not happening we’re rewriting history as we know it. The three articles this week all claim to rewrite history with their claims. Let’s dive in. Links A Prehistoric Pyramid May Have Just Rewritten Human History, Scientists Claim Pseudo-Archaeology Podcast Ep 129 - Gunung Pad...

Gender and sex today are fluid concepts. Is that because it’s a new idea or because it’s finally something that can come out of the shadows? On today’s episode we look at gender and sex in rock art. We challenge preconceived notions that male shamans are the only ones that created rock art. We also talk about gender representation in rock art. Transcripts For rough transcripts of this podcast head...

On this week’s news episode we start with two stories about slavery. The first comes from the discovery of a 2000 year old child’s show found in an Austrian mine. The second is from Ghana and the discovery of Britain’s first slave fort in Africa. Finally, we learn about conclusive evidence of Vikings arriving in the Americas well before Columbus. Links 2,000-Year-Old Child's Shoe Found in Austrian...

What if time travel were possible? Well, it is, sort of. Into the future, anyway. But what about time travel to the past? What rules would a time traveler likely have to follow from a historical perspective? Where would Chris and Rachel like to go and what would we like to do or see? We talk about all this on today’s episode. Where would you go? When would you go? Links From historical holidays to...

Seriously, it’s the last time we’ll talk about Greece. Well, our trip to Greece. Of course we’ll keep talking about Greece because it’s a SUPER cool place! Anyway, we talk about Athens, the Parthenon and the Acropolis, the Agora, and Kerameikos necropolis. Links History of Athens The Acropolis - UNESCO Site Athens Acropolis The Acropolis Kerameikos The Agora of Athens Rick Steves Audio Tours Conta...

Well, we had to do something for Halloween because, well, that’s what podcasts do. So, in our style, we decided to talk about Vampires from a few news articles we found in the last couple months. Where does the legend come from? What did historic cultures do to suspected vampires? We learn all about it on this episode. Links Archaeologists unearth 17th Century ‘vampire child’ burial in Poland http...

It’s another episode about Greece! We hope you love it as much as we did. On today’s show we talk about Crete and the Palace at Knossos. Knossos is where the Minoan civilization got it’s name from. Links Crete - from Britannica https://www.britannica.com/place/Crete Knossos: Palace of the Minoans https://www.livescience.com/27955-knossos-palace-of-the-minoans.html Contact Chris Webster chris@archa...

This week it’s another Greece episode featuring some of our travels. We spent a week on the island of Naxos and there is so much cool history there. We talk about the Portara, the remains of an ancient temple, the. Temple of Demeter, a Colossal Kouros, and olive presses. Links Naxos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxos Naxos History https://www.naxos.net/history/ Naxos Portara (or Temple Of Apollo)...

Chris and Rachel are on an epic trip and we talk about a few of the places we visited on today’s show. First up is Split and Dubrovnik in Croatia. Aside from being picturesque and awesome cities with wonderful people, Dubrovnik was also the filming site for Kings Landing and other locations in HBO’s Game of Thrones. In the third segment we talk about the small country of Montenegro and it’s massiv...

UNESCO meet in September to review the nominations to the World Heritage list from 2022 and 2023. They have added added a bunch of new sites, so this week we take a look at some of our favorite new ones. Also, we talk about sites that have been removed from the “in danger” list, as well as a couple that have unfortunately been added to it. Links The 27 new Unesco World Heritage Sites for 2023 reve...

We are headed to Greece for a working vacation, so we have been on the lookout for new archaeology news about Ancient Greece! Today we’ve got a story about the furthest east ancient Greek City to be found, a rare and valuable marble lion head, and some temple ruins on an uninhabited Greek island with 2,400 year old statues. Links What Became of the Ancient Greek City they Found in Afghanistan http...

his week we have 3 interesting archaeology news stories. First, we take a look at an article about Roman structure in the Swiss Alps. Then we head to Egypt where researchers are performing chemical analysis on the residue on the jars that held a mummy’s organs. And finally we look at an article about a site in in Peru where the remains of a possible religious cult leader have been uncovered. Links...

On this news episode we start with a cool discovery in England and a great law that benefits everyone. Then we go to Spain and some very ancient burial practices. Finally, we look at one researcher that things oral histories, language, and genetics point to a massively early arrival of humans to the Americas. Links Amateur archaeologists 'disbelief' after finding rare Roman treasure in field: http...

We’ve got a news episode this week and three great articles. First up is possibly the world’s oldest synagogue outside of Israel. However, not everyone believes it. Then we’ve got an article about some civil war soldiers that we know a lot more about now. Finally, what happens when you worship a god of the sea and it all goes wrong? The Greek city of Helike has an idea about that from 2,600 years...

We mention there is a YouTube video of this episode. Well, that was before we tried to edit it. There was a big error that couldn’t be overcome in the processing of the video. So, you don’t get to see Chris’ ugly face and Rachel’s face-for-video…maybe next week! Lately it seems like every archaeology news article we read references the Stone, Bronze or Iron Age as a hook in the headline. We were c...

We’re back with a news episode! This time we’ve got fast food in Pompeii, someone found the Kingdom of David, again, and an awesome female warrior. Links Pompeii had kitchen shrines, dozens of bakeries, and a 'pizza' fresco: https://www.insider.com/pompeii-kitchen-shrines-bakeries-pizza-fresco-archeology-russo-snake-find-2023-7 Archaeologist Controversially Claims He's Found The Bible's Kingdom Of...

We’re playing an episode of the ArchaeoTech podcast for you on today’s episode. However, it was one that Chris and Rachel took over to do some tech-related news stories. We talk about artificial intelligence and how it’s being used to translate ancient text and find new sites. Links Segment 1 AI identifies 3 more 'Nazca Lines' figures in Peru Accelerating the discovery of new Nasca geoglyphs using...