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The podcast that takes archaeology exactly as seriously as it deserves.
Episodes
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
King Seqenere of the 17th Dynasty has some gruesome head wounds. Fighting the hated Hyksos might have been the cause of death for Egypt’s version of Sonny Corleone, but what about the snoring hippos? WHAT ABOUT THE HIPPOS?!
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Egyptian royal mummy shows pharaoh wasn’t assassinated—he was executed
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/ct-shows-ancient-egyptian-pharaoh-was-captured-in-battle-and-executed/
Thursday Feb 25, 2021
Thursday Feb 25, 2021
Around 1000 BCE, purple dyed textiles were the in thing at the Negev copper mining site of Timna. But how did textiles dyed with purple made from Mediterranean snails get there and who wore them? Were they fit for a king or just glad rags for nomads? And how does Vandelay Industries figure in? Our contestants are frankly baffled.
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Biblical ‘royal purple’ found at Timna offers look at King David wardrobe
Tuesday Feb 09, 2021
Tuesday Feb 09, 2021
The discovery of a 6,600 year old cache of olives off the shore of Israel raises questions: Olives? Underwater? What? Who was the first person to eat an olive, and how does the Assyrian Empire (eventually) figure in? And why do our panelists keep talking about fat tailed sheep and the history of writing?
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Israeli teams discover ancient olive-eating practices below the sea
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/oldest-evidence-for-olive-eating-found-below-the-sea-657615?fbclid=IwAR3AkN-uOTQhSKDFCTydNPJWksGiNTKhPzZikexu7uSl5T3vVAx24LofrJ8
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
Archaeologists rarely speak about toilets, mostly because there isn’t that much evidence. We’ve got plenty of pits, lots of pots, but only a few carefully carved stone seats. Which is fit for a king?
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Toilet Found in 3,000-Year-Old Shrine Verifies Bible Stories Against Idol Worship
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
What does the discovery of exotic species such as bananas, soybeans and turmeric in the second millennium BCE Southern Levant tell us about trade, tastes and smells in the past? And does the fact that the discovery comes from scraping the teeth of dead people say more about the potential of microarchaeology or about the need for flossing? Our panelists agree about flossing, but not about bananas.
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Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Does a tenth century BCE figurine from a site near Jerusalem depict the god Yahweh? How would we know? Archaeological finds don’t come labeled, or do they? And how does this relate to the end of the Enlightenment and the Existential challenge facing the Humanities? Our panelists are divided.
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Archaeologist claims to find 10th cent. BCE graven images of Yahweh
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Did a comet break up over earth 12,800 years ago causing glaciers to melt and prompting humans to invent agriculture? What was it like to have your village suddenly heated to 4000 degrees Fahrenheit? How would this event have been culturally encoded by anyone who wasn’t cooked and/or pulverized? Our panelists have nano-diamonds on the souls of their shoes and tell all.
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A Comet May Have Destroyed This Paleolithic Village 12,800 Years Ago
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Cannabis and frankincense residues on an altar found in an ancient Israelite temple? Were the ancestors of Jews going one toke over the line? Why the heck did this tradition end? This changes everything, man, and our panelists are really into it. Well, maybe after a snack.
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Cannabis was used for religious rites at a biblical site in Israel, study finds
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/world/tel-arad-shrine-israel-cannabis-study-scn/index.html
Two real professors of archaeology and one guy from a fake institution discuss cutting edge archaeological discoveries at a high professional level using technical knowledge and stuff. A scholarly podcast for the discerning listener, it’s handmade, artisanal, and bespoke!
Critics say, “A cheeky and irreverent take,” and “the good kind of shenanigans.” Other critics say, “damaging to archaeology,” and “deeply discreditable.”
High-level discourse informed by neo-Brechtian, Deleuzian, or post-post processual theory, or just more BS from a couple of bored, middle aged hacks? You be the judge!
The Panelists
JP Dessel is the Steinfeld Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He is the author of Lahav I. Pottery and Politics The Halif Terrace Site 101 and Egypt in the Fourth Millennium B.C.E. (2009).
Rachel Hallote is Professor of History at Purchase College, SUNY. She is a co-author of Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society (2012) and author of Bible, Map and Spade (2006).
Alex Joffe is Director of the Bob and Ray Institute of Archaeology at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. This is fake institution. But he is the author of several real books, most recently Operation Crusader and the Desert War in British History and Memory: ‘What Is Failure? What Is Loyalty?’ (2020).
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