Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Monte Verde Discussion Panel with Drs. Shane Miller, Spencer Pelton, Jesse Tune, and Carlton Gover - Ethno 34

In this episode of Ethnocynology, David hosts a panel of guests, including Drs. Shane Miller, Spencer Pelton, Jesse Tune, and Carlton Gover, to discuss the recent Monte Verde paper by Surovell et al.

They discuss the recent paper, the synopsis, and address the many professionally published comments and critiques of the paper, as well as the conversation of the paper on the YouTube video of the previous episode.

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Interpreting the Past with Professor Duncan Garrow - ADHD 202

In this episode, George is joined by archaeologist Professor Duncan Garrow to explore how archaeologists turn fragments of evidence into meaningful stories about the past.

From soil layers to artefacts and landscapes, they discuss how we piece together human lives from what remains—and the creativity, curiosity, and pattern recognition that make this possible.

The conversation also touches on how different ways of thinking, including neurodivergent traits, can be a real strength in archaeology.

And at the heart of it all is uncertainty.

Even with careful methods and decades of research, some questions remain unanswered—like how the first Neolithic farmers managed to get cows across the sea to Britain.

It’s a light moment, but it captures something essential:
Archaeology isn’t just about answers…
It’s about embracing the mystery of the past.

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Skull Wars is a Great Book - Pseudo 181

I have decided to stop using David Hurst Thomas’ 2000 book Skull Wars in my classes because it is a bit old at this point. But it’s still great, and gives an excellent overview of relations between archaeologists and the Native community, including many Pseudoarchaeological beliefs from the 19th and early 20th centuries!

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Archaeotextiles with Ronja Lau (part 1) - Tea-break 49

It’s time to venture into the mines! But make sure you are well dressed… This episode, Matilda chats with textile archaeologist Ronja Lau all about her work looking at Iron Age clothing from the Duerrnberg salt mines. Tune in to hear all about the history of textile archaeology, the importance of salt in preserving clothes, and why you should support archaeological research!

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BREAKING NEWS - Monte Verde is no longer a pre-Clovis site, with Dr. Todd Surovell - Ethno 33

For decades, Monte Verde in southern Chile has been one of the most famous archaeological sites in the Americas. The site was widely accepted as 14,500 years old, making it one of the strongest pieces of evidence for human presence in the Americas before Clovis.

But what if that interpretation was wrong?

In this special episode, I sit down with Dr. Todd Surovell, professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming, to discuss new research that re-examines Monte Verde using modern geoarchaeological methods. The results suggest that the famous site may actually be much younger than previously believed, dating to the Holocene rather than the Ice Age.

If true, this would mean that Monte Verde is not evidence for pre-Clovis humans in South America, and it could force archaeologists to reconsider one of the most influential discoveries in American archaeology.

We discuss:

  • The history of the Monte Verde discovery

  • Why it reshaped textbooks in the 1990s

  • How new geological and dating analyses challenge the original interpretation

  • What this means for Clovis-first vs. pre-Clovis models

  • Why independent verification and skepticism are essential in science

  • This episode explores how science evolves—and how even the most famous discoveries can be re-examined.

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Treasures, Seated Skeletons, and Egyptian Receipts - TAS 325

This week on The Archaeology Show, we tour three very different windows into the ancient world: a 5,000-year-old tomb packed with remarkable treasures, a surprising discovery of upright-buried skeletons beneath a French school, and tens of thousands of Egyptian notes and receipts that capture everyday life in vivid detail. We unpack what these finds reveal about status and burial ritual, how archaeologists interpret unusual body positions, and what “boring” paperwork can tell us about work, money, and people behind the monuments. Three discoveries, one big question: what survives—and what it can still say.

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The Daub Towers (Part 1) - Trowel 63

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It’s time to get out our plastering trowels out, because this episode Ash and Tilly are (re)joined by experimental archaeologist and archaeo-construction expert Caroline Nicolay. Together, the three tackle the quest of reconstructing a Fallohide (hunter-gatherer hobbit) seasonal home for the Anduin Fallohide Fellowship of Museums and Antiquity. But all is not as simple as it seems… Listen in to hear why burnt clay is so important, what a vampire did tohis historic castle, and how you too can become a mud mason.

Books mentioned:

Den of Wolves (Juliet Marillier)
The Bards of the Bone Plain (Patricia A. McKillip)
The Viscount of Adrilanka (Steven Brust)
Your Coffin or Mine (Jacklyn Hyde)
Legends and Lattes (Travis Baldree)
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea (Rebecca Thorne)
Carpe Jugulum (Terry Pratchett)

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Fort Berthold Indian Reservation Visit - Plains 38

On this week’s episode, Carlton recounts his recent trip to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is the home of the Three Affiliated Tribes: Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara. While recounting his recent trip, Carlton dives back into Middle Missouri Archaeology.

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Turn That Frown Upside Down - The Positives in the Current State of Archaeology - CRMArch 328

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The hosts consider the positives in the current state of CRM and academic archaeology. As anthropologists we are especially conscious of how society impacts our discipline and at times can trend towards the negative and get mired in the fear of what lays ahead. In this episode, we discuss how any challenge can be used for opportunity and how change and progress is best effectuated through a positive attitude.

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Ancient Egyptian Goddesses of Necropolises - TPM 33

In celebration of Women's History Month, this episode is about four lesser-known goddesses of the ancient Egyptian afterlife whose primary roles were to protect, nourish, and occasionally punish those within the city of the dead. While famous deities often dominate pop culture, these four goddesses offer a unique window into how the Egyptians viewed the natural world and the social roles of mortal women.

Discover the stories and archaeological footprints of Imentet who was the personification of the West; Khefethernebes and Meretseger who were both from the Theban Necropolis; and Hapetnebes from the Abydan Necropolis.

From the royal tombs to the graffiti of tomb builders, this episode traces how the divine feminine provided a sense of security for both the physical body and the soul on its journey through the Duat.

Offline Sources Cited:

El Menyawy, Habiba. 2021. The Goddess Xft-Hr Nb.s. Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality 0(0):1–33.

Iwaszczuk, Jadwiga. 2017. Sacred Landscape of Thebes during the Reign of Hatshepsut. Royal Construction Projects. Topography of the West Bank, Vol. 1. Institut des Cultures Méditerranéennes et Orientales de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences (IKŚiO PAN), Warsaw.

Jacquet-Gordon, Helen K. 1967. The Illusory Year 36 of Osorkon I. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 53:63–68.

Nagy, Z. 2017. A Study of Scribal Practice in the Late Ramesside Letters: Characteristics of Scribal Mechanisms Deployed in Hieratic to Determine Negative Aorists, 'Not yet' Forms, Second Tenses, Terminatives and Stative Formations PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

Rummel, Ute, et al. 2020. Landscape, Tombs, and Sanctuaries: In Ritual Landscape and Performance, edited by Christina Geisen, 13:pp. 89–120. Proceedings of the International Conference on Ritual Landscape and Performance, Yale University, September 23-24, 2016 No. Yale Egyptology.

Töpfer, Susanne, Paolo Del Vesco, and Federico Poole (editors). 2022. Deir El-Medina through the Kaleidoscope: Proceedings of the International Workshop, Turin 8th-10th October 2018. Formazione e Ricerca No. Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, Modena.

Zago, Silvia. 2022. The Otherworld (with)in This World: Imhet as a (Super)Natural Conduit between Dimensions in Egyptian Sources. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 81(2):283–304.

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Blackened Teeth, Jaw Surgery, and Ancient Knitting - TAS 324

This week we are back with some News stories! First, we discuss evidence from an Iron Age cemetery in northern Vietnam showing intentional, permanent tooth blackening dating back 2,000 years. Then, we cover a 2,500-year-old Pazyryk culture burial in southern Siberia where CT scans of a mummified woman’s skull suggest a severe jaw injury was stabilized with surgical sutures. And finally, we summarize Bronze Age textile finds from Anatolia dated roughly 1915–1745 BCE and later, including the earliest regional evidence of nalbinding (single-needle “knitting”) and an indigo-dyed hemp fragment identified as the oldest known blue-dyed textile in Bronze Age Anatolia.

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Stone Age Advertising (Part 2) - Screens 124

We’re back with more caveman TV commercials! From deodorant to veganism to car insurance, it seems like prehistoric people have been exploited to sell everything. All this commercialism seems to be getting to us and this episode kinda devolves into an anti-capitalist rant. So go plant a garden, buy local, and eat the rich! (This is Part Two of a two-part episode)

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The Anthropology of Tattooing with Aaron Deter-Wolf - Ethno 32

In this episode, David sits down in Nashville with archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf, a leading researcher in the archaeology of tattooing and co-editor of Ancient Ink: The Archaeology of Tattooing.

They explore how tattoos function as deep cultural expressions across human societies, from Ötzi the Iceman’s 5,000-year-old tattoos to newly documented tattooed mummies in Peru. The conversation dives into experimental archaeology, ancient tattoo tools made from bone and stone, and what tattoos can reveal about identity, belief, and social structure in the past.

Together they discuss how tattoo traditions changed under empires, how archaeologists identify tattooing in the archaeological record, and why body modification may be one of humanity’s oldest cultural universals.

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Decolinization and Understanding Cultural Perspective - Rock Art 161

In episode 161, Chris Webster and Dr. Alan Garfinkel discuss decolonization in archaeology and rock art studies, arguing that researchers must take Indigenous perspectives seriously as Native communities gain more political and intellectual influence. They emphasize that Indigenåous cosmologies often frame rock art meaning through interconnected energy, reciprocity, and life-death cycles rather than “gods” and rigid categories, and they highlight the value of shared vocabulary, cultural humility, and collaboration in interpretation.

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What Is a Human? The Evolution of the Nervous System - ADHD 201

Welcome to Season 2 – Episode 1!

In the first episode of Season 2, we explore one of the most fundamental questions in archaeology and human history:

What is a human?

Every person who has ever lived has experienced the world through a nervous system — a biological inheritance that long predates modern humans themselves. In this episode, we look at how the human nervous system evolved over millions of years, from early mammals through to Homo sapiens, and how the development of the brain — particularly the prefrontal cortex — helped shape the way humans think, feel, and interact with the world.

We also consider an intriguing idea: if human nervous systems have always existed on a spectrum, then variation in perception, attention, and sensitivity may have been part of our species for as long as humans have existed.

This episode sets the stage for a season exploring how archaeologists interpret the traces of the past, and what those traces can tell us about the experiences of the people who lived before us.

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  • For rough transcripts head over to https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/adhdbce/201

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Archaeology of clothing - Ep 48

As the seasons change, it’s time to swap out your wardrobes for those clothes that have been stuffed at the back of the shelf or in a box in the attic. And to celebrate this activity, Matilda dives this episode into the archaeology of clothing! But what actually is clothing? What is the oldest evidence we have for the creation of clothing? And what is the link between a bog, an artic tundra, and a desert? Tune in to find out!

As the seasons change, it’s time to swap out your wardrobes for those clothes that have been stuffed at the back of the shelf or in a box in the attic. And to celebrate this activity, Matilda dives this episode into the archaeology of clothing! But what actually is clothing? What is the oldest evidence we have for the creation of clothing? And what is the link between a bog, an artic tundra, and a desert? Tune in to find out!

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  • For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/teabreak/48

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  • Email: matilda@thearchaeologiststeacup.com

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Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

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

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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?’

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  • 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.

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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.

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Appropriate Use of Technology in Archaeology - CRMArch 327

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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.

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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

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