The Dirt Podcast

Ella al-Shamahi is a paleoanthropologist, National Geographic Explorer, evolutionary biologist, stand-up comic, and author of the new book The Handshake: A Gripping History. And NOW, she's a guest on The Dirt Podcast! We chat about how she came to anthropology, learn about the biological and cultural roots of the handshake, about science's Geography Problem, and what it's like to be a capital-E Ex...

People in the past looked up at the stars and planets, too. How did ancient cultures perceive the night sky? How did they explain the movement of celestial bodies? How did astronomy figure into ancient religion, calendars, city planning, and more? Was it aliens? Nope, but it was pretty much all math. Sorry. Links Decoding European Palaeolithic Art: Extremely Ancient knowledge of Precession of Deco...

This week, we talk about the first (known) human arrivals in this region, waaaay way down at the tip of South America, and the archaeological remains that tell us how they lived. We've got a cave of hands, commentary from Charles Darwin, old old feet, fish ears, and SO much more! Links Peopling time, spatial occupation and demography of Late Pleistocene–Holocene human population from Patagonia (Qu...

In 1953, archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon and her team uncovered human skulls covered with plaster and decorated with shells to resemble human faces. These Neolithic artifacts may be one of the earliest known examples of human portraits. In this sponsored episode, we’ll dig into the discovery, the site of Jericho itself, and the lives of the people who buried the skulls in the first place. Links Dame...

Listeners, once again, life has come at us like a poorly written simile, so we're releasing a previous Patreon episode. And once again, we are so deeply grateful for your patience and support. Thank you for sticking with us. As an extension of March Madagascarness, we head back to the island with our (ill-fitting) primatology hats on. Anna put together a fun script about giant extinct lemurs, tiny...

It's Amber's birthday episode! Since she loves historiography, we're taking it back to one of the earliest historians, Herodotus. How did he think about the past, and how did that influence historians who came after him? What did he get right, and what did he get wrong? What's up with that weird boat, those mummy enemas, the flying snakes, and the giant ants? Listen and find out! Links Herodotus (...

We haven’t covered much archaeology from the Amazon Basin on the show, but this week, that changes! Instead of being the primitive groups early European explorers reported on, people lived in the Amazon Basin region for thousands of years by adapting to their landscape as well as modifying their environment to suit their needs! Somehow, we suspect that you, listeners, are not shocked. Links Amazon...

This week, Anna and Amber celebrate some of the lesser-known mummies of the world. Amber shares her hometown mummies, while Anna spins the stories of a smoke-dried philosopher, a legendary Lama, and...a winery? Plus, one Egyptian mummy thrown in for good measure. Links Jeremy Bentham (Crime Museum) English Philosopher’s Dressed-Up Skeleton Goes on View in New Glass Display (Smithsonian) Jeremy Ben...

We’ve been remiss in discussing the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) anywhere in the world, so we’re fixing that by spotlighting one particular technology in what is today the US states of Michigan and Wisconsin, and some of the world’s earliest coppersmiths. Plus, a very salty discussion of the pseudoscience and *bad* historical takes behind some alternative theories for the Old Copper Complex's creator...

This week, we've got one more past Patreon episode for you! Thank you all for your patience as we get back into the swing of things. We'll be back with your regularly scheduled new episodes in May. But for now, we're all horses, all the time. Amber gives you an unbridled (har!) look at the Hittite Horse Training Texts, which are much more than just Kikkuli (remember him?). After that, we veer from...

This week, Anna and Amber are playing catch-up after attending the SAA conference, recovering from vaccine shots, and life in general. We'll be taking the rest of April off for a short break. In the meantime, please enjoy a cleaned-up version of a Dirt After Dark episode where Anna treats Amber to the story of the Roman emperor Caligula's absurd pleasure boats on a tiny, tiny lake. Links Nemi Ship...

A follow-up and expansion to episode 99, People of Size, Anna and Amber explore other categories of largeness and how they’re represented in the archaeological record. We discuss fat bodies that are coded male, the strength and bulk of sumo wrestlers, and cultural and historical shifts in the aesthetic of the male body. Links Professor Chris Forth on fatness (University of Kansas) Burn: New Resear...

Recently, Anna and Amber sat down with Rachel Watkins, a biological anthropologist and scholar-activist whose research centers on social and biological histories of Black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. Learn about the social history of biological anthropology, the exemplary case studies with which Dr. Watkins has worked, why you shouldn't discount the creepy things small children someti...

Anna and Amber bring you some bonus April foolery in the form of spooky cursed objects and haunted places. What's up with the Victorians and their creepy parlor displays? Can physics explain a haunted statue? Who asked Alexander Graham Bell about any of this? Apologies if the sound quality is different for this one, friends--Anna's laptop might've had an April Fools' curse of its own going on! Lin...

Amber and Anna discuss some of the different rituals, ceremonies, and traditions associated with coming of age in cultures around the world and throughout time. From tossing baby teeth up to the roof to tying a vine to your ankles and jumping off a wooden tower, it's all fascinating. Links Young People's Conceptions of the Transition to Adulthood (Youth & Society) Voice Changes for Boys During...

Amber and Anna examine how different ancient cultures viewed children and childhood. We’ll also discuss how the archaeological interpretation of the lives of children in the ancient past has shifted as we’ve gained more and more evidence. Links Children Are Not Small Adults: Significance of Biological and Cognitive Development in Medical Practice (Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine) Childhood...

This week, Anna and Amber journey to the island of Madagascar. Yeah, sure, there were once man-sized lemurs there, but we’re talking about the people of Madagascar, how and when they arrived on the island, their history, archaeology, and more! Plus, Anna discovers that maps are super useful. Links Malagasy? Or is it Madagascan? Our research provides the answer (The Conversation) Indian Ocean: Five...

This episode happens to fall within Anna's birthday week, so Amber has very kindly indulged Anna's childhood love of knights, castles, magic, and adventure. This week, we're exploring Arthurian legend, and some of the...unique legacies it has left behind. We firmly establish that Arthur had TWO different swords. We also confirm that no, Robin Hood was not a Knight of the Round Table. Plus, the Yel...

If you were a pre-Homo sapiens hominin, the place to see and be seen was Africa in what is today colloquially known as the Cradle of Humankind. True to form, we're late to the party, but come along with us anyway for a tour of the cave sites that revolutionized paleoanthropology. Thank you to everyone who came out to the live show! Links When Did Homo Sapiens First Appear? (Discover) Oldest Homo s...

In this super long, super exciting installment of Dirt After Dark, we pick up where we left off in our volcanoes episode and take a look at volcano-informed myth and culture in fact and fiction (and the things that fall somewhere in the middle) before jumping feet first into an exploration of the trope of volcano sacrifices. Plus, we tackle tiki culture and Amber finds a new favorite movie. ...

In this super long, super exciting installment of Dirt After Dark, we pick up where we left off in our volcanoes episode and take a look at volcano-informed myth and culture in fact and fiction (and the things that fall somewhere in the middle) before jumping feet first into an exploration of the trope of volcano sacrifices. Plus, we tackle tiki culture and Amber finds a new favorite movie. ...

This year is the 20th anniversary of the first publication of the Human Genome Project, and the 10th anniversary of the Neanderthal Genome Project. Since both of these projects began, DNA research has changed what we know about the human story more than we could ever possibly have imagined. Come learn about a tiny fraction of this knowledge with us, and listen to our brains explode. Links Protein...

Let’s lean into our fear of pyroclastic flow and talk about the traces that volcanoes can leave in the archaeological record. Turns out, it’s a lot more than buried cities. We’ll also take a look at how volcanoes manifest in the myths and legends of various cultures. Links Hawaiian Myths Tell A Story About Volcanic Activity At Kilauea (Forbes) Volcano Myths and Rituals (American Scientist) Why anc...

This week's episode is a listener-sponsored one! Ancient hunter-gatherers are often painted as egalitarian, with all members contributing to the needs of the group. But what does evidence from prehistory say about things like access to nutrition, or care for the sick or injured? Are there cases where some individuals were clearly treated differently from others? How far back can we go to find clue...

This week, Anna introduces Amber to the site of Boxgrove, in what is now Sussex, England. It's one of the oldest known hominin sites in the UK, and features the remains of our early relative, Homo heidelbergensis. Join us to learn more about the Muddle in the Middle, the world's hardest jigsaw puzzle, and the molecular clock. Links The man who died half a million years ago (Current Archaeology) We...