Archaeology

Archaeology

episodes

Interviews with archaeologists about their new books.

Whitney Nell Stewart, "This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations" (UNC Press, 2023)

March 15, 2024

This Is Our Home

Whitney Nell Stewart
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

The cultural memory of plantations in the Old South has long been clouded by myth. A recent reckoning with the centrality of slavery to the US nationa…

Mpho Ngoepe and Sindiso Bhebhe, "Indigenous Archives in Postcolonial Contexts: Recalling the Pasts" (Routledge, 2024)

March 2, 2024

Indigenous Archives in Postcolonial Contexts

Mpho Ngoepe and Sindiso Bhebhe
Hosted by Jen Hoyer

Mpho Ngoepe and Sindiso Bhebhe's Indigenous Archives in Postcolonial Contexts: Recalling the Pasts (Routledge, 2024) revisits the definition of a reco…

What Can We Learn From A Pottery Shard? Uncovering the Ancient Past Through Biblical Archeology with Professor Aren Maeir

January 17, 2024

What Can We Learn From A Pottery Shard?

Aren Maeir
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Some people are good at what they do, some are enthusiastic about their work. This guest brings both to bear in his exploration of the ancient past.…

Seth Bernard, "Building Mid-Republican Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy" (Oxford UP, 2018)

January 7, 2024

Building Mid-Republican Rome

Seth Bernard
Hosted by Ryan Tripp

Building Mid-Republican Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy (Oxford University Press, 2018), offers a holistic treatment of the developme…

Martyn Whittock, "American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America" (Pegasus Books, 2023)

January 5, 2024

American Vikings

Martyn Whittock
Hosted by Crawford Gribben

A vivid and illuminating new history--separate fact from fiction, myth from legend--exploring the early Vikings settlements in North America. Vikings…

Douglas Hunter, "Beardmore: The Viking Hoax That Rewrote History" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2018)

December 30, 2023

Beardmore

Douglas Hunter
Hosted by Ryan Tripp

In 1936, long before the discovery of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, the Royal Ontario Museum made a sensational acquisition: the conten…

Yaron Eliav, "A Jew in the Roman Bathhouse: Cultural Interaction in the Ancient Mediterranean" (Princeton UP, 2023)

December 17, 2023

A Jew in the Roman Bathhouse

Yaron Eliav
Hosted by Nathan Moore

Public bathhouses embodied the Roman way of life, from food and fashion to sculpture and sports. The most popular institution of the ancient Mediterra…

Megan Nutzman, "Contested Cures: Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)

November 5, 2023

Contested Cures

Megan Nutzman
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the ancient Mediterranean world, individuals routinely looked for divine aid to cure physical afflictions. Contested Cures: Identity and Ritual Hea…

Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale, "Why Men?: A Human History of Violence and Inequality" (Hurst, 2023)

November 3, 2023

Why Men?

Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

How did humans, a species that evolved to be cooperative and egalitarian, develop societies of enforced inequality? Why did our ancestors create patri…

Christopher P. Barton, "The Archaeology of Race and Class at Timbuctoo: A Black Community in New Jersey" (UP of Florida, 2023)

October 25, 2023

The Archaeology of Race and Class at Timbuctoo

Christopher P. Barton
Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Listen:

The Archaeology of Race and Class at Timbuctoo: A Black Community in New Jersey (UP of Florida, 2023) is the first book to examine the historic Black …

Trenton W. Holliday, "Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe" (Columbia UP, 2023)

October 23, 2023

Cro-Magnon

Trenton W. Holliday
Listen:

During the Last Ice Age, Europe was a cold, dry place teeming with mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, bison, cave bears, cave hyenas, and cave l…

Jonathan Downs, "Discovery at Rosetta: Revealing Ancient Egypt" (American University in Cairo Press, 2020)

October 15, 2023

Discovery at Rosetta

Jonathan Downs
Hosted by Madhumanti Datta

In 1798, young French general Napoleon Bonaparte entered Egypt with a veteran army and a specialist group of savants—scientists, engineers, and artist…

Marnie Feneley, "Reconstructing God: Style, Hydraulics, Political Power and Angkor's West Mebon Visnu" (National U of Singapore Press, 2023)

August 1, 2023

Reconstructing God

Marnie Feneley
Hosted by Patrick Jory
Listen:

In December 1936, a villager was led by a dream to the ruins of the West Mebon shrine in Angkor where he uncovered remains of a bronze sculpture. This…

Archaeology and Nomadism in the Russian Empire: An interview with Ismael Biyashev

July 29, 2023

Archaeology and Nomadism in the Russian Empire

Ismael Biyashev
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

In the second half of the 19th century, both professional and amateur archaeologists, surveyors, and explorers of the “periphery” of the Russian Empi…

Yonatan Adler, "The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal" (Yale UP, 2022)

July 29, 2023

The Origins of Judaism

Yonatan Adler
Hosted by Rob Heaton

In The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal (Yale University Press, 2022), Yonatan Adler pursues the societal adoption of reco…

Nayanjot Lahiri, "Searching for Ashoka: Questing for a Buddhist King from India to Thailand" (SUNY Press, 2023)

June 29, 2023

Searching for Ashoka

Nayanjot Lahiri
Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Listen:

Blending travelogue, history, and archaeology, Searching for Ashoka: Questing for a Buddhist King from India to Thailand (SUNY Press, 2023) unravels t…

Graham Harman and Christopher Witmore, "Objects Untimely: Object-Oriented Philosophy and Archaeology" (Polity Press, 2023)

June 10, 2023

Objects Untimely

Graham Harman and Christopher Witmore
Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Listen:

Objects generate time; time does not generate or change objects. That is the central thesis of this book by the philosopher Graham Harman and the arch…

Timothy R. Pauketat, "Gods of Thunder: How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America" (Oxford UP, 2023)

April 27, 2023

Gods of Thunder

Timothy R. Pauketat
Hosted by Sarah Newman

Timothy R. Pauketat’s Gods of Thunder: How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America (Oxford UP, 2023) is a sweeping accou…

Claudia Brittenham, "Unseen Art: Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica" (U Texas Press, 2023)

March 24, 2023

Unseen Art

Claudia Brittenham
Hosted by Sarah Newman

In Unseen Art: Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica (U Texas Press, 2023), Claudia Brittenham unravels one of the most puzzling phenomena…

John Soderberg, "Animals and Sacred Bodies in Early Medieval Ireland: Religion and Urbanism at Clonmacnoise" (Lexington Books, 2021)

March 24, 2023

Animals and Sacred Bodies in Early Medieval Ireland

John Soderberg

Clonmacnoise was among the busiest, most economically complex, and intensely sacred places in early medieval Ireland. In Animals and Sacred Bodies in …