00:00.00 archpodnet Welcome to episode 97 of a life in ruins podcast where you investigate the careers of those living a life in ruins I am your host Connor Johnnon and I am joined by my co-host David Howe Carlton will not be joining us on this podcast and I can't even poke fun at him for it because he has a very legit. Excuse for not being here. So for today's episode we are joined by Nicholas Carone and a recent graduate from god. For today's episode we are joined by Nicholas Carbonbo and underm togradu in anthropology at the University Of Connecticut and tick to personality. How are you doing on this. 00:40.28 Nick I'm do opt sorry. 00:43.80 archpodnet Yeah, how are you doing on this. Ah lovely lovely day. 00:48.27 Nick I'm doing great. Thank you guys for having me. 00:48.84 Whoopsi Goldberg Yeah man. Um I think I told you this when ah I messaged you but my mom grabbed her phone brought it to me when I was visiting one weekend and was like hey this kid you should do your videos like him. They're better and I was like god damn it? um. Ah, shit sorry Chris hang on me we we and I was like damn it. So yeah, they're great dude and I saw like you posted 2 videos and like the next day you had like a 0 subs and I was like whoa. 01:16.79 Nick That was insane for the record I think yours are better because they're like funny but no, no like that was that was just absolutely surreal I posted that video. Um it was the the one about the boylston street fish weir and I went to bed that night 01:21.22 Whoopsi Goldberg Oh it's all good. Okay. 01:31.95 Whoopsi Goldberg Right? Yeah, so. 01:35.23 Nick And I had 5 followers and like no views I woke up the next morning with a million and a half ah and that was just a weird day. Yeah yeah, oh no, a million and a half of views not nut followers. Yeah yeah, yeah. 01:43.41 archpodnet So wow. 01:44.90 Whoopsi Goldberg Wow wait it's a million and a half now damn oh oh okay I was like wow dude good for you? Um, yeah. 01:50.78 archpodnet Okay, get ah so your your Tiktok obviously deals with prehistory and kind of topics like that where did this love of the past. 01:54.90 Nick And. 02:09.49 archpodnet Come from where you is it. Can you trace that like back to your childhood or anything like that. 02:15.70 Nick Definitely. So um I was definitely a history kid. Um I I traced my origin story with archeology ah back to when I was about 7 years old somebody let me watch the movie Titanic probably shouldn't have at 7 ah, but um, yeah, so I watched that movie and just became like really infatuated with the Titanic. Um, this like really really got really into it. Um, and it was the yeah it was the only movie I would watch like. 02:46.28 Whoopsi Goldberg It's pretty cool. 02:50.46 Nick Ever for like a solid year I wouldn't watch like any other movie and I like Drew like in like second grade I was like drawing like was ah oh no, yeah, no not french girls. Ah now I would draw these like vivid like like. 02:55.73 Whoopsi Goldberg French girls I said. 03:07.29 Nick Like pictures of like the Titanic sinking and it would like freak out my parents. um um so I think that that was like a very formative experience like like you know the concept of like I think I was just really fascinated by the idea that there was like this ship that like used to be like really lively and. You know, inhabited and then and now it's at the bottom of the Atlantic and is just abandoned and has been left. You know a shell um and then you know, um so I got I got interested interested in history too from my grandfather. Was always into like world war two and that kind of thing. Um I moved into a a house like a new house when I was a kid as well and um, it was on top of a hill and the foundation was from. The 1920 like it was like a newer build but the foundation was from like the 1920 s and one day I was playing in the backyard and like on the hill I found this like lump of coal. Um and I was like really like fascinated by it. So like I ran inside and like asked my dad I was like. Like why is there coal in the backyard and he's like oh from when like you know the house in the 20 s like used to be heated by like a coal furnace and I was just so like fascinated by that idea. Yeah, and so I would spend hours like in the backyard like digging up coal and like putting it in like plastic. 04:28.71 Whoopsi Goldberg Blew your mind. Yeah. 04:35.50 Nick Like ziploc bags and just keeping it in my room I had this whole collection. Um, just goes it was just so fascinating to me and then you know and when I was a little later on I read the Percy Jackson series if you're familiar with that. Um, oh yeah. 04:47.50 archpodnet I I Just read those this last year like I I just I just went on a bender and and read all of them. They're they're fantastic. 04:53.58 Nick No, they're they're great books. Um, yeah, no, and so that got me into Lake Greek Mythology and which got me into ancient greece which got me into just classical antiquity in general and I've I've loved that period ever since Um, and then yeah and then so I just kind of my interest in history developed from there and. Subsequently my interest in archeology stemmed from my interest in history. 05:14.33 archpodnet It very cool but I was just gonna say the only thing I was just going to add I think the Titanic movie does a really good job of showing like the obviously the wreck and and and showing archeology. 05:14.49 Whoopsi Goldberg So um, oh you go counter. Sorry. 05:32.67 archpodnet And how it preserved and so I thought that they they really did an excellent job at that and the movie and kind of inspired folks I'm glad it inspired folks like you to you know pursue it further. Also I wasn't allowed to watch the second Vhs because there was too much death. 05:45.47 Nick Yeah, yeah. 05:46.24 Whoopsi Goldberg Right? It was 2 2 vhs's I don't remember seeing it I remember seeing it and my parents making me close my eyes at that scene or 1 scene and then like I just don't remember any of the movie other than violins I need to watch it again. 06:00.51 Nick Yeah. 06:03.60 Whoopsi Goldberg But is at the end is there like ah, do they show you the wreck or something. 06:04.90 Nick Yeah, it's actually at the beginning too is like there's like this because it starts like in the 1980 s and they go down like in the submarine and it's like and then it shows you like the wreck in the submarine. Um, but it was funny like whenever I would watch it I would just skip to the end like worth the boat was sinking and we just didn't care about the plot at all. 06:13.91 Whoopsi Goldberg Ah. 06:21.71 Whoopsi Goldberg Yeah. 06:21.89 archpodnet Ah, that's that's the part that my parents were like it was just like 2 mortality inducing or something you know people like jumping off the back and getting like speared by the propellers and you know. 06:30.14 Nick Yeah, yeah, it was It was gruesome. Yeah yeah. 06:33.20 Whoopsi Goldberg Oh I have to watch this. ah yeah ah I I really don't think I remember any of it I can have to watch that um I was going to say though so you're putting coal into ziplock bags. So I want the record to reflect that Nicholas Carbo is excited about carbon. 06:52.46 Nick Yep, exactly. 06:52.51 Whoopsi Goldberg Um, yeah I don't know if carudtlebo their car run in italian means carbon I can't remember but it does okay cool I was around italian a lot when I was a kid so's just like a little bit but um, yeah I guess you're from Boston right? or that area. 06:55.89 Nick It does I can verify that. Yeah it was yeah. 07:07.54 Nick Um, I'm actually I'm from Connecticut I'm currently living in Boston now though. Yeah. 07:11.53 Whoopsi Goldberg Connecticut. Okay, um, how do you like that I mean I grew up in the Northeast. It's what actually my tangent here was going to be that you have all that cool stuff in your backyard. It's always a little interesting to me out east there's so much archeological history. I mean post 1492 a little bit like historically um and then like out west it's not so much you know and like what was that like as a kid and like I remember going to Paul revere's house in Boston and stuff all the time and yeah. 07:39.80 Nick Yeah, so that's what's interesting to me about um, new england archeology in general is that like people could conceive of new england as being this really old part of the country like it was you know the puritans and Plymouth Colony and and whatever. But at the same time like. People don't conceive of it as having an ancient past really like and because it's really easy to miss like with all this suburban sprawl and it's like it's very like you, you feel very disconnected from like ancient like the ancient past of the place. Um, and which is why I love. 08:06.20 Whoopsi Goldberg Yeah. 08:17.60 Nick Doing New England Archeology is because it reminds people that this place has been here is just as old as everywhere else. Um, and it's just right under our feet if you know where to look. Um, yeah. 08:27.80 Whoopsi Goldberg Yeah, yeah. 08:30.68 archpodnet That's what ah we had Heather Rockwell on a couple episodes back and I will figure out which one that is. But yeah, she said she like studies like the small subset of which is the paleo indian period of new england which isn't even like a smaller niche than even just prehistory of new england. 08:44.97 Nick Oh yeah, yeah. 08:47.87 archpodnet So it's it's it's cool. So there's like a lot of do you feel like you're like on the cutting edge sometimes because folks don't do a lot of that kind of research. 08:54.70 Nick Yeah I mean so I've I've personally never worked on like any like um, any like pre-contact sites. Um, but I have like been around like you know, um, like I've like been in the lab and like they talk about it and it's like. You know and like we have all the you know bunch of stuff in the lab like full of artifacts and and whatever. Um, and it's again I feel very like immersed in in it. Um, and yeah so I mean I've I've never done any done it like really any hard research precontact yet. But. 09:32.90 Whoopsi Goldberg The ah the video you posted about like the the fishery. Um that was prehistoric or I'm sorry pre-contact was like pretty sick I did not I'd never heard of that and I was like whoa and also I was like this kid is screwed in that was a really good video but. 09:33.70 Nick I Would like to eventually. 09:47.73 Nick Thank you? Yeah no, um, so that's that's the thing I think what resonated about that video at least for me was like people don't think of like because like that's thing like Boston's an old city and like is like 1 of the oldest cities in the United States but at the same time you don't think of it as being. And ancient place. So I think it like people were just kind of like but I made that video I think the most the reason it was popular is is people were struck by the fact that like even in the middle of the city. Um there's like ancient archaeological heritage from like five thousand years ago um 10:22.40 Whoopsi Goldberg Right? right. 10:25.95 Nick Right? Ah, right beneath the center of downtown. Um, that's just and I think that's partly what I love to do with my Tiktok is highlight history in places where people don't think of it as existing. 10:36.36 Whoopsi Goldberg Right? Yeah, that's awesome man. Um I Guess yeah, you got a. 10:41.27 archpodnet So trend so transitioning. Um, you know, kind off of that so you watch Titanic. You're digging up coal in your backyard. You're you're drawing these these really intense drawings of ships and and things like that. What ultimately led you to. Continue studying that and go to undergrad and did you initially go for history and archeology when you first went. 11:07.37 Nick Yeah, so it's funny. Um I actually initially went into college for political science with the mind that I was going to go into like public policy or like work in politics and then about like during my sophomore year I just was like I had rather stab my eyeballs out. 11:17.30 Whoopsi Goldberg Cool. 11:26.50 Whoopsi Goldberg Was that around like 2016 ish twenty or 20 Yeah 20 Okay, that would definitely do it for me. Yeah. 11:26.97 Nick And do that. Ah, Twenty Twenty about yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, so yeah, so that was about actually so here's the unfortunate thing was that is about spring twenty twenty um I switched my major into anthropology and you know spring 2020 was like. Covid was just ratcheting up. Um and immediately all of my classes were moved online and I was online like purely for the next year and so my first year of like being in anthropology was totally online. 11:49.80 Whoopsi Goldberg Ah. 12:04.74 Nick And I didn't like meet any of my professors and it was just really kind of awful ah like in terms of like getting to know people in the in the field. Um, yeah. 12:05.26 Whoopsi Goldberg Ah. 12:12.87 Whoopsi Goldberg Yeah that's a pretty common thing we're hearing and it's it's interesting because I mean Carlton isn't here because he's literally doing some ph d stuff right now he went through it and he was teaching and a student in like the covid you know times. But Connor and I were like already done with school and like we didn't see it but from the guests that we've had on and like chalk like talked during the like the in in between segments. It's like ah it's a crazy thing to deal with and I'm unlike any kid that like or any student right now in in school like. I'm proud of them. It's a lot of stuff to deal with. 12:49.88 archpodnet Yeah I think I think anthropology and archeology is a really hands-on or it's taught well when it's hands-on exciting fun and it's got to be so hard to actually get that out via Zoom or whatever you're doing like I I would fall asleep. 13:05.41 Whoopsi Goldberg Um, yeah. 13:07.21 archpodnet And I love archeology. But like I would I would sleep through like an archaeology like a prehistory like lecture right now. And yeah so I commend you folks who have gone through it and continue to go through it because it like it just would not work for me I don't think yeah. 13:20.40 Nick Yeah, no I mean I was taking archeology labs like remotely trying to do lab lab stuff like it's just like they would they would send us like Pdfs like with like data on it and they like oh like make sense of this or like you know. 13:27.63 Whoopsi Goldberg How do you do like picking up skulls and stuff or. 13:38.70 Nick They they made it work somehow. But it was just really lousy. It was not fun. 13:40.15 Whoopsi Goldberg Ah, wow, Yeah, that's yeah, dang. 13:41.65 archpodnet Ah, could you imagine doing like bio Anth without being able to touch like the skulls. 13:46.28 Nick No yeah, yeah now I had ah I had a human evolution class. Um, and it was like we we had like labs and we had to do a lot with like you know measuring bones and that kind of thing and it was they they had to like figure out how to do that on. 13:58.67 Whoopsi Goldberg Ah. 14:05.18 Nick Um, like a Pdf it was yeah. 14:05.71 Whoopsi Goldberg Yeah, dang I remember sitting right next to Connor in our bio class like picking and my teacher was like passing us not to rub it in but like passing different hominid skulls and we were like you get to touch and like see em and stuff. But that's like the magic of it to me. But yeah, being able to do that on Zoom. I'm assuming and then still be into it is as cool. Um, oh yeah. 14:27.56 archpodnet So so so did they make it So how did you kind of keep your interest or was you you just were you just so interested in it that you just kind of kept pursuing it as as part of it. 14:39.24 Nick Yeah I mean I just I Just love It. You know and I just kind of I mean because at the same time like yes, having um classes online was was terrible but at the same time. It was also nice because I didn't have to like leave my room before seven a M It is kind of like I Um, but. But yeah, no like like learning wise and like education wise it was definitely a detriment but um, yeah. 15:03.18 Whoopsi Goldberg Um, yeah, um, did you get to do a field school I guess before that. Okay. 15:08.25 Nick I did on up I actually did it. Um this this summer ah 2021 um and that was awesome. Loved it. 15:14.71 Whoopsi Goldberg Okay, cool. Yeah, um I guess for the audience like what ah kind of stuff you do? yeah. 15:20.40 archpodnet To. 15:22.49 Nick Yeah, so we were working on this site in Mystic Connecticut it is actually um, pretty amazing. Um, preservation wise it is this ah it was a single component. Um, pequot. Domestic site. Um, that was hastily abandoned in sixteen thirty seven um ah during the pequot war for obvious reasons. Um, and they so what? what happened was was that we actually. Not me, but my professor and his people he was working with found the site. Um, based on from a historical document left behind by 1 of um, ah by an english soldier who had um briefly mentioned it in this document where he was talking about like. You know like we came across like after this battle they came across this ah said like several houses and burned them. Um, but and then and then going off of that like through battlefield archeology he like retraced exactly ah the the site that he was talking about. Um. Which is really really interesting. Um. 16:40.79 Whoopsi Goldberg And that's the fun thing about historical like you got like written records and stuff to like match up and I assume when those match up you're like hell yeah yeah. 16:47.94 Nick Yeah, it's it's wild. Um, and actually what's what's really crazy about it is um, the site was so like it was on the battlefield and so like all around the battlefield they found like Musket shot and aero like. These like brass arrow points that were like bent backwards like fully bent backwards from hitting something. Um, yeah, and so yeah and I was I was ah I was excavating like the shellmedens at the site and even like in like and in the float samples that I was doing in the Lab. We. 17:11.75 Whoopsi Goldberg Damn. 17:12.74 archpodnet Oh. 17:24.97 Nick Would find impacted musket shot like like bird shot to small little pellets. Um, yeah, so we know it was it was it was defended. It was not inhabited at the time it was attacked but it was defended is what we think? Um, yeah, so it's pretty It's a. It's a once-in a lifetime site. Um, it was a bit heavy working there I would say because of like the context of it. But um, no it was. It was really I'm grateful that it was my first experience in archaeology because it's just such a like. 17:49.75 Whoopsi Goldberg Right. 18:01.72 Nick And that's the thing too. It was it was completely. Um, it's never been plowed or anything so it was undisturbed. It's just like this single moment in time more like like frozen Basically um, yeah, so it's. 18:02.58 Whoopsi Goldberg Ah. 18:13.35 Whoopsi Goldberg Yeah, well, that's cool man. Um, let's end the segment on that because that's pretty cool and then the next one let's get more into what you did in undergrad. 18:24.14 archpodnet I episode 97 life and rose podcast segment one.