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Archaeology
Archaeology April 27, 2023

Gods of Thunder

How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America

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 account of what happened when Indigenous peoples of Medieval North and …

Archaeology

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Interviews with archaeologists about their new books.

Archaeology March 24, 2023

Unseen Art

Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica

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 in Mesoamerican art history: why many of …
Irish Studies March 24, 2023

Animals and Sacred Bodies in Early Medieval Ireland

Religion and Urbanism at Clonmacnoise

John Soderberg

Hosted by Danica Ramsey-Brimberg
Clonmacnoise was among the busiest, most economically complex, and intensely sacred places in early medieval Ireland. In Animals and Sacred Bodies in Early Medieval Ireland: Religion and Urbanism at Clonmacnoise (Lexington …
Military History March 10, 2023

Conflict Archaeology, Historical Memory, and the Experience of War

Beyond the Battlefield

Mark Axel Tveskov and Ashley Ann Bissonnette

Hosted by Philip Blood
Mark Axel Tveskov and Ashley Ann Bissonnette's Conflict Archaeology, Historical Memory, and the Experience of War: Beyond the Battlefield (UP of Florida, 2023) presents approaches to the archaeology of war …
Environmental Studies March 5, 2023

Flooded Pasts

UNESCO, Nubia, and the Recolonization of Archaeology

William Carruthers

Hosted by Mohamed Gamal-Eldin
Flooded Pasts: UNESCO, Nubia, and the Recolonization of Archaeology (Cornell UP, 2022) examines a world famous yet critically underexamined event—UNESCO's International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia (1960–80)—to show …
Ancient History February 25, 2023

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings

A New History of the Ancient Near East

Amanda Podany

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East (Oxford University Press, 2022), a sweeping history of the ancient Near East, Dr. Amanda Podany takes readers …
Almost Good Catholics February 23, 2023

Digging for Answers

The Archaeology of Jerusalem and the Politics of Archaeology

Katharina Galor

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Katharina Galor, an archaeology professor at the at the Program in Judaic Studies at Brown University who has done a lot of excavation in Israel, is the author of The …
International Horizons February 20, 2023

Why Should Cultural Heritage Be Protected?

Preserving Our Common History with Former UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova

Irina Bokova

Hosted by International Horizons
Where people are killed and abused in warfare and violent conflict, artifacts of cultural heritage are often destroyed and mistreated as well. Indeed, in the World War II-era efforts to …
Chinese Studies February 15, 2023

The King's Harvest

A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire

Brian Lander

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The King's Harvest: A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire (Yale UP, 2021) is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of China's early political systems up to …
Jewish Studies February 1, 2023

The Origins of Judaism

An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal

Yonatan Adler

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Throughout much of history, the Jewish way of life has been characterized by strict adherence to the practices and prohibitions legislated by the Torah: dietary laws, ritual purity, circumcision, Sabbath …
Almost Good Catholics January 31, 2023

Walking the Via Dolorosa

An Archaeologist Follows Jesus from His Trial to His Crucifixion

Ilka Knüppel

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Archaeologist Ilka Knüppel discusses her master's thesis—The Search for Jesus's Final Steps: How Archaeological and Literary Evidence Reroutes the Via Dolorosa—and how she came to write it. To use both …
Peoples & Things January 26, 2023

The Archaeology of Innovation

A Discussion with Catherine Frieman

Catherine Frieman

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Catherine Frieman, an associate professor of European Archaeology at the School of Archaeology, talks about her recent book, An Archaeology of Innovation: Approaching Social and Technological Change in Human Society …
Nomads, Past and Present January 4, 2023

Rock Art in the Nomadic Landscape of the Black Desert

An interview with Nathalie Brusgaard

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
The "Black Desert" in the northern Arabian Peninsula is home to thousands of pieces of rock art - both written inscriptions and figural images - left there by the region's …
Nomads, Past and Present January 2, 2023

Iraqi Bedouin and Intangible Cultural Heritage

An interview with Salah Hatem and Jaafar Jotheri

Salah Hatem and Jaafar Jotheri

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
A conversation with Dr. Salah Hatem and Dr. Jaafar Jotheri, professors of archaeology at al-Qadisiyah University, about their research project documenting the intangible cultural heritage of the Bedouin in southern …
History of Science December 15, 2022

Bone Rooms

From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums

Samuel J. Redman

Hosted by Victor Monnin
In Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums (Harvard University Press, 2022 for paperback edition), Samuel J. Redman, Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, uncovers …
Irish Studies December 13, 2022

The Road to Kells

Prehistoric Archaeology of the M3, Navan to Kells and N52, Kells Bypass Road Project

Fintan Walsh

Hosted by Danica Ramsey-Brimberg
In this latest publication in the TII Heritage series, the long prehistory of Kells and its hinterland is shown to be written on the landscape in foundation trenches and boundary …
Scholarly Communication December 11, 2022

The Remaking of Archival Values

Victoria Hoyle

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
The Remaking of Archival Values by Victoria Hoyle (Routledge, October 2022) posits that archival theory and practice are fields in flux, and that recent critical archival discourse that addresses neoliberalism …
Ancient History November 17, 2022

The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia

A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions

Ahmad Al-Jallad

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions (Brill, 2022) by Ahmad al-Jallad presents evidence for religious identity and ritual practices among …
SSEAC Stories November 15, 2022

Belitung

The Afterlives of a Shipwreck

Natali Pearson

Hosted by Michele Ford
In 1998, the Belitung, a ninth-century western Indian Ocean–style vessel, was discovered in Indonesian waters. Onboard was a full cargo load, likely intended for the Middle Eastern market, of over …
General History November 14, 2022

Shipwreck Hauntography

Underwater Ruins and the Uncanny

Sara Rich

Hosted by Jana Byars
Drawing on a broad theoretical range from speculative realism to feminist psychoanalysis and anti-colonialism, this book represents a radical departure from traditional scholarship on maritime archaeology. Shipwreck Hauntography: Underwater Ruins …