Sunken Cities Part 2: The Ancient Mysteries of Canopus - Ep 23

Written By Rachel Roden

In this episode of Ethnocynology with David Ian Howe, I sit down with my good friend and former graduate school cohort member Cassidee Thornhill, Collections Manager at the University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository.

Cassidee’s research dives into the early contact era in Wyoming, focusing on the arrival and spread of horses before and during European colonization. We discuss her fascinating thesis work on the Black’s Fork River site, where a young foal was found buried alongside three coyote skulls—an extraordinary archaeological discovery that sheds light on early human–horse relationships on the Plains.

Topics we cover include:

  • The Black’s Fork horse burial and its cultural significance

  • Early radiocarbon dates showing horses in Wyoming decades before the Pueblo Revolt

  • Evidence of early veterinary care and human–horse bonds

  • How horses transformed Native economies, sovereignty, and resistance

  • Genetic research linking early horses in the Americas to Spanish (and later British) stock

  • The broader story of how horses reshaped Indigenous life across the Plains

Cassidee also shares her perspective on whether horses or dogs have been more influential in human history—a big question we love to ask on this show.

This episode is the extended interview version you won’t find on YouTube—perfect for listeners who want the full deep dive into Cassidee’s groundbreaking work.

Transcripts

Links

Works Cited

  • Abdel-Rahman, R. 2018. Recent Underwater Excavations at Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus. Annales Du Service Des Antiquités de l’Égypte (ASAE) 92:233–258.

  • Buraselis, K., M. Stefanou, and D. J. Thompson. 2013. The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

  • Egypt Museum. Canopus & Heracleion: Sunkencities.

  • Fraser, P. M. 1972. Ptolemaic Alexandria. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

  • Goddio, F., and A. Masson-Berghoff. 2016. Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds. Thames & Hudson / British Museum, London.

  • Goddio, Franck. Projects: Sunken Civilizations: Canopus.

  • Lavan, L., and M. Mulryan (editors). 2011. The Archaeology of Late Antique Paganism. Brill, Leiden.

  • MacDonald, W. L., and J. A. Pinto. 1995. Hadrian’s Villa and Its Legacy. Yale University Press, New Haven.

  • Marriner, N., C. Morhange, and C. Flaux. 2017. Geoarchaeology of the Canopic Region: A Reconstruction of the Holocene Palaeo-Landscapes. Méditerranée 128:51–64.

  • PAThs-ERC. East Canopus: Sacri Lapides Aegypti.

  • Sidebotham, S. E. 2011. Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route. University of California Press, Berkeley.

  • Sidebotham, S. E. 2019. Ports of the Red Sea and the Nile Delta: Trade and Cultural Exchange. In The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, edited by W. Scheidel. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

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Affiliates

Rachel Roden
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