The Dirt Podcast

This week, we bring you another episode from behind the Patreon paywall. Sure, the title is a stretch, but it's hard coming up with a topical joke about portraiture! This month we dive into some early examples of representing individuals in ancient art from several times and places. Amber inexplicably takes umbrage with the entirety of Byzantine art, and both hosts question what is a face and what...

There are a lot of misconceptions in archaeology that are often perpetuated simply because people don’t think about how the information they take for granted came to be. How do archaeologists know what people were doing in the past? Actually, how do we know anything at all? How do we know what didn’t happen? Tune in and find out! Links Archaeologists Dig For Clues (via WorldCat Is there a Solutrea...

This week, Amber is finishing grad school applications and Anna had some vaccine booster side effects, so we bring you an excerpt from an episode of Dirt After Dark! Amber brings Anna (kicking and screaming) along on an exploration of some space weirdos who interpreted various bits and pieces of archaeology and ethnography to show that there's another mystery planet out there, and it's out to get...

We’re shaking things up this year, and instead of doing a ThanksViking episode, we’re peeking into the world of Maya and Aztec art and writing. The Maya wrote using a system of around 800 glyphs--the Aztecs used as many as 2,000. We won’t get to ALL of these, but we’ll talk about how these writing systems developed, how they were used, and the role they played in the lives of the Aztec and Maya pe...

Come along for an exploration of anti-languages and the qualities that make them successful in building community and maintaining safety among the people that develop them. From occupational jargon to survival as a marginalized group to being hip with the kids, we tour a few of these languages, and subject everyone to a 16th century dialogue with translation. Links O latín dos canteiros en Cabana...

Anna takes Amber on a short but eventful journey into an investigation of Egyptian hieroglyphs located in eastern Australia. How did they get there? Did Egyptians reach Australia thousands of years ago? ARE THE CHICKENS A CLUE?? Plus, a detour into mummy drugs.  For more information, check out: Bulgandry Aboriginal Art Site - This Place ( Indigenous.gov.au ) Hair Raising Cases in Hair Testing...

Anna and Amber are joined by wonderful Special Guest, Kyle Jordan! Kyle is a disabled Egyptologist interested in themes of religion, magic and identity in the Egyptian world, with a specific focus on the appearance and interpretation of disability in Ancient Egypt and Egyptology as a discipline. We had a wonderful-- and long-- conversation with Kyle about how Egyptians viewed the embodiment of dis...

Thanks to everyone who came out to our virtual live show! This is the edited audio of that event. We talk about the role of ritual in daily life, how our big round human brains have evolved the ability to think about abstract meaning and ritual significance, and the theory underpinning all of this. We also take a trip to two incredible archaeological sites to think about how the people living ther...

We explore the evolutionary roots of fear, and the science of how it works. Why do some people love thrills and chills, while others don't? Why does fear make us stinky? And how can we think about something as personal and ephemeral as fear in the archaeological record? Links Why We Physically Feel Fear (University of West Alabama) The biology of fear- and anxiety-related behaviors (Dialogues in C...

This week, we lift our spirits (oooOOOooo) with a round-up of monsters. We explore their origins and effects on us, with examples ranging from memories of very real things in the past to a hypothesis that doesn't quite have legs (unlike griffins). Links Why we'll always be obsessed with – and afraid of – monsters (The Conversation) Why the scariest monsters look almost human (Wellcome Collection)...

This week, we're taking a turn for the cryptid and spooking local with the legend of West Virginia native son, the Mothman. For a little over a year leading up to December 1967, sightings of a winged humanoid with glowing eyes were reported in and around Point Pleasant, WV. Since then, Mothman has evolved from evil omen to legend to meme. In this episode, we’ll explore the legend, collective memor...

SPOOKTOBER HAS BEGUN! This week, we discuss the trope in myth, legend, horror, and adjacent genres of feral children. We won't be directly discussing actual cases of trauma, neglect, or child abuse, but rather the place of the bestial feral child in the mythology of different ancient cultures all the way up to a more recent timeline. Why do these stories interest us, spook us, and who's the real m...

This week, Anna and Amber are joined by Andrew Gurza, disabled content creator and fellow podcaster, to talk about disability and care in the ancient world. We talk with Andrew about the need for disabled voices in archaeology, his path to podcasting, and some archaeological case studies that show that humans have always taken care of one another. Links Andrew Gurza's website Ancient Bones That Te...

Dr. Danielle Macdonald specializes in the prehistory of Western Asia and the stone tools that people made and used in their everyday lives. That’s right, three years in, we’re finally doing an episode on lithics! We’ll also talk about Danielle’s path to anthropology and her ongoing work at the site of Kharaneh IV in what's today Jordan. Links Follow Danielle on Twitter! Danielle Macdonald (Univers...

It’s the episode title that’s been making us giggle for months! We’re FINALLY examining the famous Chalcolithic ice-mummy just in time for the 30th anniversary of hikers stumbling upon his body. We’ll explore the archaeological methods and evidence that tell us about who Ötzi was, what his life was like, and how he died. Umlauts will, no doubt, abound. Links Chalcolithic Europe (Wikipedia) Scienti...

Remember that time we did a whole series on the human family tree and then finished talking about evolution forever because we were all done? HA! OF COURSE WE AREN'T DONE! There have been some amazing new discoveries in the human fossil record since that series dropped, so we're here to update you on what our family shrubbery looks like now. We journey to Siberia, the Philippines, China, and other...

This week, Amber tells Anna the story of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, who, mid-kinging, tootled off to the Arabian desert for a decade to worship the moon god, Sin. But is that the whole story? Of course not. Tune in to learn what Nabonidus was maybe really doing out there. Links Cuneiform inscription from last king of Babylon discovered in Saudi Arabia (LiveScience) Mesopotamia (World History Ency...

This week, Anna and Amber take a tour of some of the libraries of the ancient world. We visit Mesopotamia for the origins of writing and the heartland of administrative paperwork, hit up Africa for the oral traditions of the Griots, browse the stacks of oracle bones in China, and...yes, talk about the Library of Alexandria. Links The Origins of Writing (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History) Writing (...

It's our 150th episode! Wow! This week we're starting our Back To School series with a short primer on stratigraphy. How do archaeologists divide a site into time periods? How did people first figure out that layers of sediment accumulate over time through different processes? How many dirt/soil/sediment puns is Anna capable of making in roughly forty minutes? We’ll find out. Links Stratigraphy: E...

This week, we’ve got an episode that started off as a funny title and became a topic. There are many possible reasons for abandoning a site, and there are plenty of examples from the archaeological record. We’ll look into evidence for climate change, conflict, natural disaster, and other reasons for abandonment (not all at once; that sounds like a really bad place to live). Plus, Anna and Amber do...

This week, Anna and Amber sit down with archaeologist, podcaster, and member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Carlton Shield Chief Gover. We talk about his path to archaeology, an Indigenous perspective on archaeology as history and heritage, how to prank your site supervisor, and more! Contact Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com ArchPodNet APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN...

In this installment of Field Season, Amber and Anna take a trip to the semi-mythical world of cinematic archaeology. Who inspired the character of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr.? Did the Indiana Jones franchise leave a lasting impression on archaeology? Plus--we've got a whole roundup of fellas that likely influenced the American public's perception of what an explorer should look like. Lin...

Anna and Amber are joined this week by Allyson Blanck, a Classical archaeologist and advocate for accessibility and inclusivity in the field. Learn about best practices for accommodating archaeologists with disabilities in the field, the changes that are already underway in the discipline, and how much farther we need to go. Plus, some excellent dog content and a discussion of ancient cranial surg...

How do we capture a sense of the experience of living in a landscape of the past? What did the past smell like? What did it feel like? How can we understand ancient people's mindsets, perceptions, intentions, and emotions? Will Anna end up deeply confused? Tune in to find out! Links A History of Archaeological Thought (via WorldCat) Maurice Merleau-Ponty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) How C...

On this sponsored episode, Anna and Amber talk about the Nazca culture of coastal Peru. There's SO much more to talk about than the famous Nazca Lines. There's gorgeous ceramics, ingenious irrigation, trophy heads, cactus tripping, and much more! Links The Puquios of Nasca (Latin American Antiquity) Cahuachi: New Evidence for an Early Nasca Ceremonial Role (Current Anthropology, via ResearchGate)...