Spooktober: Homo lepidopteris - Ep 158

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 memory, and the power of portents.

Links

• Paranormal Activity in West Virginia (Marshall University)

• Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend (West Virginia Book Company)

• Mothman myth rooted in Messenger reporter's work (Athens Messenger)

• Is the Mothman of West Virginia an Owl? (Audubon Society)

• Silver Bridge tragedy still haunts river city residents (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

• Tu-Endie-Wei State Park (WV State Parks)

• Point Pleasant, West Virginia: Making a Tourism Landscape in an Appalachian Town (Southeastern Geographer)

• West Virginian Urban Legends and Their Impact on Cultures Both Local and Abroad (Bowling Green State University)

• The Mothman and Other Strange Tales: Shaping Queer Appalachia Through Folkloric Discourse in Online Social Media Communities (University of Kentucky)

• UFOs Were Born Among America’s Cold War Fears (Foreign Policy)

• Welcome To The 'TNT Area,' Home Of The Mothman (NPR)

• Federal Facilities Restoration Program (WV Dept of Environmental Protection)

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

ArchPodNet

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

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• Tee Public Store

Affiliates

• Wildnote

• TeePublic

• Timeular

Spooktober: Feral Children - Ep 157

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 monster here?

Links

• Register for our International Archaeology Day Live Show on October 16!

• Black Doves Speak: Herodotus and the Languages of Barbarians (Center for Hellenic Studies)

• How Young Children Learn Language (Scholastic)

• Flint Dibble on Wolf’s Milk and More

• Guide to the classics: the Epic of Gilgamesh (The Conversation)

• Between gods and animals: becoming human in the Gilgamesh epic (Aeon)

• The History of Hayy ibn Yaqzan, translated by Simon Ockley

• Rewriting the Savage: The Extraordinary Fictions of the "Wild Girl of Champagne" (Eighteenth-Century Studies)

• The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster (via WorldCat)

• Why Sasquatch and Other Crypto-Beasts Haunt Our Imaginations (Anthropology of Consciousness)

• Feral Disorders and Colonial Exclusions: Animal Reared Feral Children, Discourses of Animality, and the Treatment of Animals in Colonial India (via Academia.edu)

• Wild stories: why do we find feral children so fascinating? (The Guardian)

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

ArchPodNet

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

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• APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet

• Tee Public Store

Affiliates

• Wildnote

• TeePublic

• Timeular

Disability in the Ancient World With Andrew Gurza - Ep 156

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 Tell a Story of Compassion (NY Times)

• Ancient Bones Offer Clues to How Long Ago Humans Cared for the Vulnerable (NPR Goats and Soda)

• Follow Andrew on Twitter: @AndrewGurza_

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

ArchPodNet

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

• APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet

• APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet

• APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet

• Tee Public Store

Affiliates

• Wildnote

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• Timeular

School of Rocks with Dr. Danielle Macdonald - Ep 155

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 (University of Tulsa)

• Kharaneh IV Website

• Convergent Evolution in Stone-Tool Technology (MIT Press)

• Eccentric flint (Wikipedia)

• Flint Knapping a spear head from English Flint with Will Lord (YouTube)

• Knapping a Blade Core using a Rocker Punch by Craig Ratzat!

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

ArchPodNet

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

• APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet

• APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet

• APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet

• Tee Public Store

Affiliates

• Wildnote

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• Timeular

ÖMG: Ötzi the Iceman - Ep 154

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)

• Scientists Reconstruct the Glacial Conditions During Ötzi the Iceman’s Lifetime (Columbia Climate School)

• Chalcolithic Period: The Beginnings of Copper Metallurgy (ThoughtCo)

• Ötzi, the Iceman (ThoughtCo)

• What We Can Learn From Ötzi the Iceman’s Hunting Pack (Smithsonian)

• DNA Analysis Reveals What Ötzi the Iceman Wore to His Grave (Smithsonian)

• Before He Died, Ötzi the Iceman Ate a Greasy, Fatty Meal (Smithsonian)

• Lactose Intolerant, Before Milk Was on Menu (New York Times)

• Mosses Expand the Story of Ötzi the Iceman’s Final Journey (Smithsonian)

• Frozen moss reveals fatal final journey of 5,300-year-old ice mummy (CNN)

• Scientists Have Mapped All of Ötzi the Iceman's 61 Tattoos (Discover) [cn: images of human remains]

• Who Killed the Iceman? Clues Emerge in a Very Cold Case (New York Times)

• Hear the Recreated Voice of Ötzi the Iceman (Smithsonian)

• Ötzi the Iceman: Examining New Evidence from the Famous Copper Age Mummy (Expedition)

• Ötzi, the Iceman (Archaeology) [cn: images of human remains]

• 13 Cool Facts About Ötzi the Iceman (Mental Floss)

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

ArchPodNet

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

• APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet

• APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet

• APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet

• Tee Public Store

Affiliates

• Wildnote

• TeePublic

• Timeular