Turn around, bright eyes! In anticipation of the Great North American eclipse coming up on Monday, April 8, 2024, we're scooting in front of this topic like the moon in front of the sun. We're looking at some of the earliest record-keeping of solar eclipses, some eclipse history (eclipstory!) and some mythology and cosmology around the phenomenon. Plus...a truly delightful fact about the song Total Eclipse of the Heart. Sources: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/what-folklore-tells-us-about-eclipses-180964488/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/15768 https://catalog.hathitrust ..read more

A few select tidbits from the most recent episode on our premium feed. Support The Dirt and help us continue to make episodes! Subscribe to our back catalog of bonus content (fresh helpings coming January 2024) for $5 a month after a one-week free trial at: https://the-dirt-podcast.captivate.fm/support ..read more

Anna walks Amber through a sampler platter of recent archaeological news stories. We talk about inner ears and gibbon arms, chromosomes galore, Medieval dogs, the Ishtar gate of Babylon, ancient hunter-gatherer poop, and more! We need your support!! Help us keep the show going by subscribing to our premium feed for just $5/month after a 7-day free trial! Your generous support lets us pay for the services we use to host our audio feed and our website -- plus all the outreach and special programming we do! Sign up here to get our ENTIRE back catalog of premium episodes: https://the-dirt-podcast ..read more

We probably should have done this about 200 episodes ago, but it's time to lay down the (very very) basics of the evolution of the genus Homo. First of all, how does evolution work? Who were our ancestors, where did they live and when, and how did these populations adapt and branch into different species over time? This is part one of Anna's crash course on early humans, with a second installment coming to the premium feed soon! In that second half, we'll talk specifically about tool use as a "hallmark of human-ness" and cover some surprising examples of non-human tool users. Subscribe to the ..read more

This week we venture off to Bronze Age Anatolia to pay a visit to the Land of Hatti, and snoop through the royal mailbags.     Want to support the show? SUBSCRIBE to our back catalog of bonus content for $5 a month after a one-week free trial at: https://the-dirt-podcast.captivate.fm/support Show notes: The Hittites (The Met) The Hittite Language and Its Decipherment (Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies) The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia (via Google Books) EA 041 Artifact Entry (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiati ..read more

It's another sponsored episode! Anna takes Amber through a short history of the blues, specifically as one of the many musical genres to come out of the African diaspora. We start by learning about the clave, which is both an instrument and a rhythm. Then, we wander through a little history, before Anna hauls out a guitar and tries to remember how scales work. What is a blue note? Was there really a deal with the devil at a crossroads? Is a hotdog without a bun just a hotdog? All this and more! Subscribe to our back catalog of bonus content (fresh helpings coming January 2024) for $5 a month a ..read more

It's a listener-sponsored episode! (That's right, that's still a thing that we do). Anna whisks Amber along on a tour of Neolithic sites in the Orkney Isles, an archipelago off the coast of Scotland. Around 5,000 years ago, this place was a hub for new ideas. Come with us as we visit the houses at Skara Brae, the "hidden" Neolithic village that re-emerged in 1850 (CE). We also swing by the massive Ness of Brodgar site, and finish up at a newly discovered chambered tomb, all while learning what people were up to 5,000 years ago in the far north. To learn more: Ancient Genomes Indicate Populatio ..read more

This week, Amber is in Toronto giving a paper and running the podcast library booth at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association! But don't worry, we won't leave your ears hanging. That came out weird, sorry. Anyway! Here is a release of a fun bonus episode from November 2021! Anna takes Amber on a short but eventful journey into an investigation of Egyptian hieroglyphs located in eastern Australia. How did they get there? Did Egyptians reach Australia thousands of years ago? ARE THE CHICKENS A CLUE?? Plus, a detour into mummy drugs.  For more information, check out ..read more

Spooktober 2023 reaches its climax with a special Halloween treat. Amber shares a series of spooky stories from her own childhood back in Appalachia, but not without exploring the many roles of folklore in societies-- all of 'em! Four Functions of Folklore (The Journal of American Folklore) Why ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ Frightened So Many Parents in the 1990s (Smithsonian) The Folklorist Behind Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (JSTOR Daily) Tailypo: A Ghost Story (Internet Archive) Tailypo (Storytelling for Everyone) The Best of Scary Stories for Stormy Nights (Internet Archive) The ..read more

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