The Tel

Fire is one of the most powerful forces humans have learned to live with—and one of the most difficult to understand archaeologically. In this episode, I sit down with archaeologist Christopher Roos to talk about his research on anthropogenic fire regimes, and human-environment relationships in the American Southwest. We discuss what archaeological evidence can tell us about how people have used, managed, and shaped wildfires over long periods of time. We also step back from the Southwest to consider fire from a global perspective: how different societies have interacted with fire, how those relationships have changed environments, and what archaeology can contribute to our understanding of fire management in a rapidly changing world.

Archaeologist, creator, and comedian David Ian Howe tells me about the history of dogs in human society, and how dogs can show us what it means to be human.

Dr. Alessandro Sebastiani is an expert in the archaeology of Italy and the Roman Mediterranean, with particular focus on Tuscany. His work spans the Etruscan, Roman, Medieval, and even Modern periods, and he currently directs excavations at multiple sites, including the Etruscan site of Podere Cannicci. This episode explores the archaeology of Etruria, with special attention to the process of Romanization during the late Republic and early Empire.    

Dr. Steven Mithen joins me to discuss his many books, including The Language Puzzle, The Singing Neanderthal, After the Ice, and The Prehistory of the Mind. The discussion ranges from the origins of civilization, to the key features of human behavioral modernity, to the role of language in the making of the human mind.

Tristan Hughes is the host of the podcast The Ancients, a presenter and producer for History Hit, and author of The Perdiccas Years, 323-320 BC: Alexander's Successors at War. We discuss his book, which covers the tumultuous events of the first War of the Diadochi. 

Dr. Johnston is an expert in the archaeology of ancient Ireland, and is particularly known for her work excavating Dun Ailinne, one of the most important ceremonial centers of the Irish Iron Age, a period still shrouded in mystery. We discuss her excavations at Dun Aillinne, and some of the big questions about this time period as a whole. 

Today, I’m speaking with Dr. McKenna Litynski. McKenna is an expert in the archaeology of late Pleistocene and early holocene North America, and just recently earned her PhD studying paleolithic sewing technologies, including the analysis of the oldest bone needles ever found in the Western Hemisphere. We talk about the significance of needles, sewing, and clothing manufacture to ancient hunter-gatherers, and the role these technologies played in human history.

In this interview, international filmmaker and explorer Trevor Wallace tells me about the Menorca Shipwreck Project, an ongoing excavation of a series of shipwrecks in the Balearic Islands of Spain.

In this conversation, we focus on one research topic: the Dene Transition, a pivotal moment of change more than a thousand years ago, when people speaking Na-Dene languages, such as the modern Navajo and Comanche migrated out of Alaska, the Yukon, and British Columbia, eventually settling as far south as the border of Mexico. 

Yale classicist Kirk Freudenburg discusses the epic poems of the ancient world. From the Iliad to the Aeneid.