Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Can't Make Dragons Without Clay (Part 2) - Trowel 62

And My Trowel podcast logo

In this second episode, Tilly and Ash continue their quest with archaeologist and potter, Emma Harrison, to catalogue the Pennykettle Dragon Sanctuary’s current collection of (alive) dragon figurines! Join them as they explore layers of archaeological clay, deep buckets of glaze, and ponder the question: ‘are you made of poo?’

Links

Contact

Transcripts

  • For rough transcripts of this episode, go to: https://www.archpodnet.com/trowel/XX

  • For a transcript of this episode, tap the Zencastr icon on in the upper left corner of the Podcast image.

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Myths Part II - Plains 37

In this episode, Carlton continues with a discussion on Myths brought to his attention from a listener’s email! But this time they’re not on Vikings but of alleged early Irish/Gaelic occupations from the Southeast to the Great Basin.

Links

Contact

APN

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Appropriate Use of Technology in Archaeology - CRMArch 327

CRM Archaeology Podcast Icon

The hosts discuss the use of technology in archaeology and the importance of using it appropriately. While our discipline will never escape the shovel and trowel - would we ever want it to? - there are tremendous tools that have been added to our proverbial tool chest over the years. However, just because these tools exist does not mean they are always useful. Employment of technology should be thoughtfully included in work plans and archaeologists have a responsibility to understand technology’s role in our discipline to ensure it is used appropriately.

Transcripts

Links

Blogs and Resources:

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Stone Age Advertising (Part 1) - Screens 123

NotToday we’re exploring the crazy world of marketing – caveman style! We’re reviewing a compilation of television commercials featuring prehistoric people. McDonald’s, Budweiser, Doritos—if it’s modern and convenient, you can bet a caveman has tried to sell it. Why? I’m not sure, but I’m kinda craving some cheese products for some reason. (This is Part One of a two-part episode)es

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Tombs of the Tomb Builders Part 2: Deir el-Medina - TPM 32

In this episode, step inside Deir el-Medina, the remarkably well-preserved village of the artisans who built the royal tombs of ancient Egypt. Known in antiquity as Pa Demi or “the village”, this desert settlement near Thebes (modern Luxor) was home to the skilled workers of the Set Maat, the “Place of Truth,” where pharaohs like Tutankhamun, Ramesses II, Nefertari, and Hatshepsut were laid to rest.

Through tomb art, legal documents, and everyday texts, Deir el-Medina offers one of the most intimate portraits of non-elite life in ancient Egypt.

Explore the lives of three individuals whose stories survive in astonishing detail. Meet Ramose, the wealthiest man in the village, whose decorated tombs and appeals to fertility goddesses reveal private hopes for an heir. Follow his adopted successor, Qenherkhepeshef, a prolific scribe whose tomb preserved the famous “Book of Dreams,” a guide to omens written in red and black ink. Finally, Naunakhte, whose surviving will shows that women in the New Kingdom owned property and controlled how it was inherited.

Offline Sources Cited:

  • Blerk, Nicolaas J. 2021. The Contribution of Papyrus Ashmolean Museum 1945.97 (“Naunakht’s Will & Related Documents”) to Our Understanding of The Ancient Egyptian Testamentary Disposition and Succession Law. Fundamina 2021:101–142.

  • Cerny, Jaroslav. 1945. The Will of Naunakhte and the Related Documents. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 31:29–53.

  • Davies, Benedict. 1999. Who’s Who at Deir El-Medina: A Prosopographic Study of The Royal Workman’s Community. Egyptologische Uitgaven No. 13. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden.

  • Dorn, Andreas. 2022. Tagging in the Valley of the Kings around 1200–1150 BC. Social practices and personal habits. TAG: Name Writing in Public Space. A Reader of the 2017 Conference about Tagging at Freie Universität Berlin, Edited by E. Birzin, J. Abarca and M. Hübner, Berlin 2022, 96–103.

Links

Transcripts

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

David's Trip to Mexico - Ethno 31

In this episode of Ethnocynology, David talks about his recent trip to Mexico. Initially, David went to Oaxaca to experience the local culture and take pictures of dogs, and he also spent a lot of time touring mezcal facilities and archaeological sites.

After Oaxaca, David then took a bus to Mexico City, where he gave a talk about his upcoming book at UNAM, the largest university in Latin America.

As well, David details how incredible the Museum of Anthropology is and takes you on a tour of the museum through his words, describing what he saw and how large and grand the collections and displays are.

Links:

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

America's Oldest Rock Art? with Dr George Harold Nash - Rock Art 160

In this episode, Alan welcomes back Dr George Harold Nash to the podcast to discuss his article on Serra da Capivara National Park, one of the most important archaeological regions in South America. Together, they explore the park’s extraordinary rock art, controversial early dates, and what the evidence might mean for long-standing models of migration into the Americas.

Transcripts

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates and Sponsors

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Welcome Back - Season 2 - ADHD BCE

In this short episode George introduces the return of ADHD BCE for season 2!

This season explores how archaeologists infer behaviour, cognition, and difference from the archaeological record, and what that evidence can tell us about the evolution of the human nervous system.

Across the season we’ll look at:
• How material remains are used to reconstruct past lives
• How the human nervous system evolved over deep time
• How migration shaped human behaviour and adaptation
• How the shift to farming radically changed human environments and experience

Rather than diagnosing the past, ADHD BCE starts from the assumption that human variation has always existed — and that many archaeological patterns only make sense when we allow for different ways of sensing, processing, and interacting with the world.

Season 2 is about learning how to read the past more carefully — and using archaeology to better understand ourselves today.

Welcome back!

Music

Your Story by MusicbyAden | https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Is Carbon 14 Dating Fake? - Pseudo 180

Today we run head on into a question I have gotten throughout my career: is C14 dating fake? I’m going to go with a complex, multi-faceted answer of “NO.” The question that is much more fun: Why do people keep saying this?

Transcripts

Contact

 ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Slice of Life - DiA 07

The coming new year is a good time to look back at human history and reflect on our choices. A figure that keeps changing with the times while still harking back to his origins is Father Time in his many forms. The tool he carries also changes with the culture, and the sickle is the version that connects to the oldest myths. Dive into deep time through all the cycles of the seasons, life, and death.

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Music

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Gladiator training with Svenja Fabian (part 2) - Tea-break 47

It’s time for part two of Matilda’s chat with ex-gladiatrix Svenja Fabian all about the topic of gladiatorial training! But how exactly would gladiators have trained in the past? Could anyone have become a gladiator? And what’s the ancient Roman equivalent of a sport’s bra? Listen in to find out the answers and much more!

Transcripts

Links

Contact the Host

  • Email: matilda@thearchaeologiststeacup.com

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Nirrti and the Chaos of Pride - DiA 06

Audio Block
Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3. Learn more

Pride isn't only for us humans. In some cases, it's a trait that even plagues the gods, well, false gods in this case. In this detour, we'll head into the southwest and to the far reaches of the galaxy through a wormhole to find where hubris gets you.

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Music

All music from ⁠Scott Buckley⁠:

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Early Human Footprints, Ancient Clothing, and a 150-Year-Old Drink - TAS 323

From a 150-year-old alcohol bottle unearthed in Utah—where the “real treasure” might be what it once tasted like—to footprints in White Sands New Mexico which are more than 20,000 years old, this episode spans the surprisingly fragile side of archaeology. We also dig into a discovery being called the oldest clothing in human history, and what it can (and can’t) tell us about early humans, preservation, and the everyday technologies that rarely survive.

Links

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Mythic Breakdown of The Raven - DiA 05

Deep dive into the history and mythology woven into Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven from 1845. Follow the raven through the chamber door and into a world of myth and mystery. No one but Edgar Allan Poe could have written quite like this. Join in with the deep dive into the Styx while we discuss as many mythological and legendary pieces Poe brought into his short story.

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Music

⁠Scott Buckley⁠:

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Can't Make Dragons Without Clay (Part 1) - Trowel 61

And My Trowel podcast logo

This episode Ash and Tilly are scaling it down and looking at how to analyse tiny little clay dragons from the Pennykettle Dragon Sanctuary. The catch? They are alive! Which means that any destructive methods of analysis covered in previous episodes are no longer on the table. Luckily for our clay-ignorant duo, they are joined by archaeologist and professional potter Emma Harrison. Together, the three chat about playing around with clay, the diversity of sentient objects in fantasy fiction, and how a pair of socks can unveil Tilly’s childhood trauma.

Books mentioned:

  • Kiln people (David Brin)

  • Paladin’s Strength (T Kingfisher)

  • Swordheart (T Kingfisher)

  • Nettle and Bone (T Kingfisher)

  • The Fire Within (Chris O’Lacey)

  • The Lord of the Rings (J. R.R. Tolkien)

  • Foundryside (Robert Jackson Bennett)

  • Foul Days (Genoveva Dimova)

  • Blackthorn and Grim (Juliet Marillier)

  • Buried Deep and Other Stories - “Seven” (Naomi Novik)

Links

Contact

Transcripts

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Moundbuilder Myths and Viking Runestones in (or around) the Great Plains? - Plains 36

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Eliminate Anthropology - CRMArch 326

CRM Archaeology Podcast Icon

The hosts discuss Jose Leonardo Santos’s article on negative public attitudes toward anthropology and the claim that the discipline is struggling, including department closures and doubts about career outcomes. They argue the article mostly compiles familiar viewpoints without enough outside perspectives or practical solutions, and debate whether anthropology and higher education are truly in crisis or whether some critiques rely on weak, clickbait-style data. Much of the conversation centers on academia’s disconnect from CRM work, saying graduates often lack practical skills, critical thinking, and the ability to take feedback, leaving CRM firms to train them from scratch. They compare community college “train-to-standard” education with selective four-year programs and emphasize professional self-improvement, then invite Santos to join the podcast for a Socratic-style discussion.

Transcripts

Blogs and Resources:

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Digging Deep with Norma Gregory, African Diaspora Industrial Heritage Historian - HeVo 104

2021 Heritage Voices 500k.jpg

On this month’s episode, Jessica speaks with Dr. Norma Gregory (founder and director of Nottingham News Centre) about her efforts to document and educate the public on the industrial heritage history of the African diaspora. Dr. Gregory’s work to develop her book on Jamaicans in Nottingham led her to shift her life work to making sure that Black coal mining history got the attention that it deserved. We talk about some of her different efforts to promote this history as well as how all of us can do better public education in our own work. We also talk about her work for the Windrush museum, on Nottingham Carnival heritage, as well as her future dream vision for continuing this work.

Links

Dr Norma Gregory & Black Miners’ Heritage

Industrial Heritage & Archaeology

Windrush Scandal UK

Further Links

Transcript

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Ancient Egyptian Rock Art, a Funeral Pyre in Africa, and an Animal Skull Collection - TAS 322

This week we deep dive three interesting archaeology news stories. First up, a rock art panel from Ancient Egypt depicts the conquest of the nomadic groups that lived in the Sinai peninsula. Then, we head over to Africa, where a burial that is the oldest example of intentional cremation with an intact funeral pyre has been found. Finally, Neanderthals collected animal skulls and placed then in a cave 43,000 years ago, and, as usual, archaeologists are baffled!

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Tombs of the Tomb Builders Part 1: The Lost City of the Pyramid Builders - TPM 31

In the first part of this two-episode series on the tombs of the tomb builders, host Stephanie Rice journeys beyond the iconic monuments of the Giza Plateau to explore the long-overlooked settlement of the pyramid workers.

Often overshadowed by the Great Pyramids themselves, the massive wall known as Heit el-Ghurab, aka the “Wall of the Crow”, once concealed the remains of a thriving community. Ongoing excavations have revealed barracks, bakeries, administrative buildings, and, most importantly, carefully constructed cemeteries that challenge long-standing myths about enslaved labor or alien technologies.

This episode examines the archaeological evidence for a socially stratified yet respected workforce: laborers buried in modest but well-built tombs, artisans interred higher on the hillside, and even small mastabas and pyramids constructed for workers. Through burial architecture, grave goods, and settlement remains, we uncover a story not of disposable bodies, but of skilled Egyptians who brought their regional traditions with them in life and in death.

Offline Sources Cited:

  • David, A. Rosalie (editor). 1996. The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh’s Workforce. Routledge, London New York.

  • Forshaw, Roger. Trauma Care, Surgery and Remedies in Ancient Egypt: A Reassessment.

  • Lehner, Mark. 2015. Labor and the Pyramids: The Heit El-Ghurab “Workers Town” at Giza. In , pp. 397–522.

  • Lehner, Mark. 2023. Combinatorial Evolution and Heterogeneous Cohabitation at the Giant Pyramids. Journal of Urban Archaeology 8:21–46.

  • Steinkeller, Piotr, and Michael Hudson. 2015. Labor in the Ancient World: A Colloquium Held at Hirschbach (Saxony), April 2005. International Scholars Conference on Ancient Near Eastern Economies No. volume 5. ISLET, Dresden.

Transcripts

Links

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More

Looking for an episode? Type the title or episode number into the search