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- Yesterday39 min
Seeing the Writing on the Wall at Pompeii (Thanks to New Photographic Techniques), or, More Graffiti about Sex and Gladiators
New photographic techniques have shown that that walls in Pompeii were covered with graffiti, including pictures of gladiator fights, lewd poetry, and inscriptions in non-local languages like Safaitic. So sort of like New York City subways in the 1970s. Who says the past doesn’t repeat itself?
- 4 weeks ago48 min
The Archaeology of Grumpy Old Men (and Women) in the Judean Iron Age, or, Grandpa, That’s a Cooking Pot Not a...
A new study suggests that Iron Age Judean grandparents lived on the ground floor. Sure, it’s not like they were going up and down the ladder to the roof. But did they get their own suites and hey hey stop that, that’s a cooking pot!
- Apr 6, 202636 min
The Case of the Elephant Bone in Third Century BCE Spain, or, Babar Says, You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry
The discovery of an elephant bone in third century BCE Spain has us asking questions. Was the circus in town or was it a war elephant, like one of those Hannibal used to climb the Alps? But where did it come from and how did Carthaginians learn to drive them? After all, the trunk is in the front.
- Mar 23, 202642 min
Please Don’t Eat the Halafian Daisies, or Plant Based Mathematics in Prehistory?
New research suggests that the painted designs on prehistoric Halafian pottery represent mathematical reasoning. If you count all the leaves and bushes, this tracks. What kind of crazy people count the leaves and bushes? Archaeologists, that’s who.
- Mar 9, 202638 min
For Quick Energy, Mamluks Choose Sugar! or, The Archaeology of 13-16th Century CE Sugar Mills in Israel
Did Mamluks mill sugar in the Beth Shean Valley of Israel using water powered mills? Do elites own industries creating tasty and addictive foodstuffs and foist the products on the unsuspecting? Talk about a sugar rush!
- Feb 23, 202638 min
The Opium Trail from Egypt to Persia, or Putting Your Hope in Dope, Ancient Edition
The discovery of opium residues in an Egyptian alabaster jar with the Achaemenid king Xerxes’ name on it has us wondering. How stoned were they in the past? Was that why the jar ended up at Yale? Talk about a legacy admission!
- Feb 9, 202640 min
The Case of the Very Different Iron Age Shipwrecks at Dor, or, Underwater Insurance Adjusters, Assemble!
The lagoon off Tel Dor is filled with shipwrecks and wouldn’t you know it, new excavations have turned up three from the Iron Age. Our contestants talk about the finds, changing patterns of Mediterranean trade, and the problem of getting insurance. Iron Age maritime economies? Learn to swim.
- Jan 26, 202636 min
A Prehistoric Figurine of Problematic Possibilities, or Or, Mythogram for Mother Goose
The discovery of a teeny tiny figurine at the 12,000 year old site of Nahal En Gev II has us asking uncomfortable questions. Why is the woman carrying the goose on her back? Why does the goose seem pleased about this? Are women and geese separate parts of nature or sort of the same? Wait, what? It’s the Mother Goose mythogram of the millennia!
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About This Week in the Ancient Near East
The podcast that takes archaeology precisely as seriously as it deserves. Two real professors of archaeology and one guy from a fake institution discuss cutting edge archaeological discoveries at a high professional level using technical knowledge and stuff. A scholarly podcast for the discerning listener, it’s handmade, artisanal, and bespoke! Critics say, “A cheeky and irreverent take,” and “the good kind of shenanigans.” Other critics say, “damaging to archaeology,” and “deeply discreditable.”High-level discourse informed by neo-Brechtian, Deleuzian, or post-post processual theory, or just more BS from a couple of bored, middle aged hacks? You be the judge!The PanelistsJP Dessel is the Steinfeld Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He is the author of Lahav I. Pottery and Politics The Halif Terrace Site 101 and Egypt in the Fourth Millennium B.C.E. (2009).Rachel Hallote is Professor of History and coor
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