Archaeological period, last part of the Stone Age
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We're recapping Joanna's points-powered mother-daughter road trip through Ireland and Northern Ireland! We break down how she snagged an Aer Lingus Business Class mistake fare for just 87,000 Amex points for two, used Hyatt, Hilton, Capital One points, and travel credits for lodging, and put Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits to work on the rental car. Then we hit the road for castles, the Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Neolithic sites, horseback riding, and an unforgettable sheepdog experience—plus why the unplanned, crowd-free stops became some of the trip's biggest highlights.02:10 Mistake fare and booking process10:59 Arrival lounge and Dublin airport17:35 Wilder Townhouse and Dublin22:16 Weather, crowds, and Dublin impressions23:10 Driving through the Irish countryside27:45 Tollymore Forest29:00 Airbnb and Fetch savings33:12 Northern Ireland day trip and scenic stopsMentioned in this Episode:Passport EpisodeBusiness Class Flight DealsChasingmemories.coDromara AirbnbRakuten- Mary Ellen (Get 5000 AMEX or Bilt POINTS)Rakuten- Joanna (Get 5000 AMEX or Bilt POINTS)Glenshane Country FarmIslandmagee Riding CenterIreland & Northern Ireland Blog PostFind Us On Online:Sign Up for the Y! Wonder Travel NewsletterMary Ellen | JoFacebook GroupAffiliate Links:Comfrt.com 15% OFFBEST deal on CardpointersOur Favorite Credit CardsWe may receive a small commission when you choose to use any of our links to purchase your products or apply for your cards
Humanity’s story from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC (from the end of the ice age to the beginning of civilizations) follows this pattern: primitive hunter-gatherers slowly progressed to farmers, then to village-builders, then to city-dwellers and kings. With enough food surplus to free up everyone from having to farm, religion, medicine, and art developed. But a revolution in archaeological science has completely rewritten the human past. Tools like ancient DNA sequencing, isotope analysis, LiDAR scanning, ground-penetrating radar, and high-precision radiocarbon dating are completely rewriting what we know about the ancient past. For example, the Natufians of the Levant, living between roughly 14,500 and 11,500 years ago, built permanent stone villages, stored food, buried their dead with elaborate grave goods, and developed complex social hierarchies — all before farming a single crop. We’re going to look at other recent discoveries that have changed what we know about the Ice Age and Neolithic periods, and we’re joined by is Patrick Wyman, author of Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World. We cover the Copper Age megacity beneath modern Spain that was abandoned so completely it wasn’t rediscovered until the 1990s. We talk about Ukraine’s Trypillia culture, which built cities of tens of thousands of people, with no kings, no temples, and no walls. We look at the Neolithic mass graves of central Europe that shattered the myth of the peaceful early farmer, a single Polish burial site where DNA, isotopes, and radiocarbon dating together revealed a family massacre tied to the very moment steppe migrants were pushing into the region. All of this leads to mysteries of the ancient world that still haven’t been answered. Why were the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge only built once? Why does half the world speak languages descended from a single prehistoric tongue that left no writing and no monuments? Why does collapse keep winning, and what does that tell us about our own moment?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What's a Younger Dryas? What's a Glacial Maximum? Who was living in civilzations before Egypt and Sumeria? Turns out we have some names, places and archeology. So, Professor Emeritus John Hoopes breaks it down for us. Mezolythic, Neolithic, Holocene. among others are all terms we'll define and we'll fit some of those puzzle pieces between transforming to agriculturally based settlements from mobile hunters and gatherers.
A sweeping history of humanity's most fundamental creation―the home―and its effects on the land, cities, and people themselves. Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself. From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements―like door-knockers and corridors―have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots. Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity. HOST BIO: Alex Hallbom is an urban planner and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
A sweeping history of humanity's most fundamental creation―the home―and its effects on the land, cities, and people themselves. Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself. From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements―like door-knockers and corridors―have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots. Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity. HOST BIO: Alex Hallbom is an urban planner and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
A sweeping history of humanity's most fundamental creation―the home―and its effects on the land, cities, and people themselves. Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself. From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements―like door-knockers and corridors―have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots. Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity. HOST BIO: Alex Hallbom is an urban planner and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs
A sweeping history of humanity's most fundamental creation―the home―and its effects on the land, cities, and people themselves. Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself. From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements―like door-knockers and corridors―have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots. Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity. HOST BIO: Alex Hallbom is an urban planner and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies
A sweeping history of humanity's most fundamental creation―the home―and its effects on the land, cities, and people themselves. Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself. From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements―like door-knockers and corridors―have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots. Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity. HOST BIO: Alex Hallbom is an urban planner and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/archaeology
A sweeping history of humanity's most fundamental creation―the home―and its effects on the land, cities, and people themselves. Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself. From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements―like door-knockers and corridors―have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots. Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity. HOST BIO: Alex Hallbom is an urban planner and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/architecture
A sweeping history of humanity's most fundamental creation―the home―and its effects on the land, cities, and people themselves. Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself. From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026) takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements―like door-knockers and corridors―have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots. Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity. HOST BIO: Alex Hallbom is an urban planner and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode: Neolithic tombs uncovered in Galway, with Dr Michelle Comber & Dr Noel McCarthy, University of Galway; ‘James Joyce: A Political Life', with Bridget Hourican; and Aspasia: the woman who allegedly taught Socrates, with Professor Armand D'Angour of Oxford University.
August 6, 2026 - Welcome back, sisters, to another WLRN music hour. This month, as promised, the focus will be on Lammas, the holy day of my female-centered earth-based spiritual tradition on The Wheel of the Year whose Old European roots stretch back into Neolithic times. Here around my home on HERground in the South Eastern mountains of the US, crepe myrtles have reached their long anticipated peak beauty, fields of sunflowers pull me into a swerve as I pass, basil and thyme has gone to flower and the agastache has gone to seed for the goldfinches. I can't forget to mention the urgent caution of the season around nests of hornets and ground bees ever abundant at this time on The Wheel. And always, watching for the bears who mark the time with their growing cubs and small clans ambling purposefully towards the wild cherry trees or dangling hornet nests to gorge. The light of the days is lessening, though it's subtle. Lammas is a subtle holy day, but while subtle, her energy is profoundly beautiful to dance with. I will read some again from Dr. Kim Duckett's important book The Wheel of the Year as an Earth-based Spiritual Psychology for Women as well as from some other sources of inspiration of this season of Lammas to include Judy Grahn and Anya Robyak. I hope you enjoy both the information and the creative playlist I've crafted this month of music to include a variety of musicians from around the world. Since I live in the Northern Femisphere, I am experiencing the late summer energy while my sisters on the flip side are in late winter energy of a very different earthscape. Interestingly enough, both the holy day of Lammas and the holy day of Imbolc (which is directly across The Wheel, six months for us) are both times of fragility and leaning into one's community/tribe. These two themes will run through my play list along with themes of celebration, gratitude and remembering our phenomenal spiritual fortitude as women, born under Patriarchy. Thanks again for tuning back in! We'll begin with music by Ayla Nereo called Wheel of Time.
Dia Duit agus fáilte mo charas Hello and welcome Beautiful Temple Dwellers
In this episode, host Stephanie Rice kicks off a series on landscape archaeology, beginning with the study of what could be seen from ancient tombs and where those tombs were visible from within the surrounding region. Journey across three distinct ancient landscapes: The Neolithic passage tombs of Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth at Brú na Bóinne in Ireland; Norse burial cairns of late Iron Age Norway and Iceland; and the Ojoka Kofun (おじょかこふん/王女丘古墳) from the Yamato Period in Japan. Through these sacred sites, discover how ancient people viewed and interacted with their funerary landscape. Offline sources used: Davis, Stephen, et al. 2010. Boyne Valley Landscapes Project. Phase III Final Report. Dowling, Ger. "Exploring the hidden depths of Tara's hinterland: geophysical survey and landscape investigations in the Meath–north Dublin region, eastern Ireland." Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. Vol. 81. Cambridge University Press, 2015. Gjerland, Berit, and Christian Keller. 2009. Graves and Churches of the Norse in the North Atlantic: A Pilot Study. Journal of the North Atlantic:161–177. Shima City Board of Education, 2016, "Shima City Buried Cultural Properties Survey Report 4: Excavation Report of Ojoka Tumulus (Shijima Tumulus Group No. 11)," Shima City Board of Education von Hackwitz, Kim, and Karl-Johan Lindholm. 2015. Landscapes of Mortuary Practices. ANCIENT DEATH WAYS:143. Wheatley, David. 2022. Cumulative Viewshed Analysis: A GIS-Based Method for Investigating Intervisibility, and Its Archaeological Application. In Archaeology and Geographic Information Systems, pp. 171–185. CRC Press. Links See photos related to episode topics on Instagram Loving the macabre lore? Treat your host to a coffee! Video | Japan's Kofun Period in 3 Minutes Transcripts For transcripts of this episode head over to: https://archpodnet.com/tpm/36 ArchPodNet APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet APN Shop Affiliates Motion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Professor Lucy Blue speaks to Professor Corine Yazbeck about the rescue excavation of Tabarja Wata Slam located on the coast north of Beirut. It's one of Lebanon's most significant archaeological sites, preserving evidence of human occupation stretching back 10,000 years to the Pre-pottery Neolithic, making it one of the earliest known farming and fishing communities on the eastern Mediterranean coast. Excavations have uncovered Neolithic houses, fishing equipment, masses of stone tools, figurines and burial areas with carefully arranged human remains. Animal remains, including pig and goat, suggest the site may have been a centre for the early domestication. The maritime activity of the site is revealed through the archaeological remains, including fish bones, weights for fish nets and stone anchors, highlighting the site's close relationship with the sea and its importance for understanding the origins of coastal communities.
Two listeners. Two encounters with something already waiting in the low ground.Tamsin walks a Neolithic hollow way in Dorset when the path drops deeper than the land should allow, and she sees it. A perfect black circle on the track. No depth. Clean edges. A pull that feels less like curiosity than invitation. She throws a branch and the half that crosses the line ceases to exist. The next morning: circle gone, branch whole.Then Joaquín looks down from a mesa rim he's known his whole life and sees darkness pooled in the dry arroyo. It moves with intent. Stops directly beneath him. Then starts climbing the wall toward the rim with the patience of something that's done it a thousand times.Producer Dom unpacks the darker theories: window areas worn thin by five thousand years of feet, lures that feel like your own idea, land that doesn't host the phenomenon but is it, and the fixation that never forgets where you stood.What happens when something cleans up so completely that you're the only evidence left?A Create PodcastThanks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Archaeologists in Galway have recently found a Neolithic tomb from over 6000 years ago which has raised new questions about how our ancestors livedDr. Michelle Comber, co-lead of the Maree Landscape Use project joined Jonathan Healy to discuss on the show
Archaeologists in Galway have recently found a Neolithic tomb from over 6000 years ago which has raised new questions about how our ancestors livedDr. Michelle Comber, co-lead of the Maree Landscape Use project joined Jonathan Healy to discuss on the show
Charles Haynes is a rising young British contemporary sculptor, born in 2003, whose practice elegantly fuses the organic fluidity and fleeting beauty of the natural world with the exacting precision and reflective brilliance of mirrored stainless steel. Drawing profound inspiration from clouds, trees, landscapes, and ephemeral moments in nature, he translates these transient elements into sculptural forms that invite deep contemplation and active viewer participation. At the core of his work lies a distinctive creative tension the contrast between nature's unpredictability and the flawless, mirror-polished surfaces he achieves allowing each piece to dynamically evolve with its surroundings, capturing light, movement, and environment while reflecting the viewer back into the sculpture itself, making them an integral part of the experience and fostering a personal connection to the natural world he celebrates.Haynes begins every sculpture as a hand-modelled original, then refines it through a rigorous, iterative process that seamlessly blends traditional sculpting techniques with advanced digital design and illustration. This meticulous workflow typically spanning four to five months includes resin printing, lost-wax casting, expert fabrication, and extensive hand-finishing, often in close collaboration with a specialist foundry in Beijing to ensure exceptional craftsmanship. All of his works are thoughtfully designed for scalability, from intimate limited-edition tabletop pieces to monumental installations suitable for private homes, luxury hotels, residential developments, and public spaces.His early explorations around 2024 were primarily in patinated bronze, laying a strong foundation with pieces such as Cupola (patinated bronze on a slate base), which reimagines landscape forms through gentle curves and intersecting lines, alongside Verus and Murmuration. These bronze works established his affinity for natural motifs before he transitioned more fully into stainless steel, where the emphasis shifted toward reflection, interaction, and technical sophistication.In his most recent output from 2025–2026, Haynes has produced a compelling series of mirrored stainless steel sculptures that demonstrate his growing maturity and ambition. Dancing Figures (2025) stands out as a dynamic cast stainless steel work featuring four rhythmic, interacting figures with smooth, flowing lines and highly reflective surfaces that capture light and surroundings with vibrant energy; inspired by his earliest sketches and refined through numerous iterations, it was released in a limited edition (including Edition 1 of 9), highlighting its collectible value and lively sense of movement.106 Nature's Treasure (2026), prominently showcased on his official website, continues this exploration of natural themes in polished mirrored stainless steel. Perhaps his most resonant recent achievement is Sky Trees (2026), a polished mirrored stainless steel sculpture in a limited edition of nine (67 cm high, with scalable options for larger commissions). This piece poetically explores the relationship between the sculptural canopy of trees and the infinite expanse of the sky; deeply inspired by his home landscape specifically Willie Howe Barrow, a Neolithic mound topped with trees it beautifully bridges ancient landforms with contemporary sculptural expression. Its creation involved hands-on prototyping with everyday materials, scaled modelling, 3D scanning, and detailed digital optimisation, resulting in a technically demanding yet visually captivating highly polished mirrored finish that invites viewers to see themselves reflected within it and connect more profoundly with nature.
Fluent Fiction - Hungarian: Unity in the Museum: A Story of Team Building Triumph Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/hu/episode/2026-07-11-07-38-19-hu Story Transcript:Hu: A királydinnye árnyékában, a budapesti Természettudományi Múzeumban, egy meleg nyári nap reggelén gyülekeztek Bálint, Eszter és Katalin.En: In the shadow of the királydinnye, at the budapesti Természettudományi Múzeumban, on a warm summer morning, Bálint, Eszter, and Katalin gathered.Hu: A múzeum hatalmas termei ragyogtak a napfényben, és a padlón elterülő hatalmas dinoszaurusz csontvázak között Eszter összehívta csapatát.En: The museum's enormous halls shone in the sunlight, and among the vast dinosaur skeletons sprawled out on the floor, Eszter convened her team.Hu: „Ma fontos nap lesz!En: "Today will be an important day!"Hu: ” jelentette ki Eszter, miközben próbált lelkesedést kelteni.En: declared Eszter, trying to stir enthusiasm.Hu: Új feladatot kaptak: csapatépítő gyakorlatot tartani, hogy javítsák a munkahelyi kommunikációt.En: They received a new task: to hold a team-building exercise to improve workplace communication.Hu: Mindannyian különböző célokkal érkeztek, de közös pontot kellett találniuk.En: They all arrived with different goals, but they needed to find common ground.Hu: Bálint, a múzeum őshonos lelkű kurátora, kissé távolságtartóan figyelte az eseményeket.En: Bálint, the curator with a native soul in the museum, watched the events somewhat distantly.Hu: Szerette volna lenyűgözni kollégáit a tudásával, de a szavakkal barátian bántak vele.En: He wanted to impress his colleagues with his knowledge, but words were friendly to him.Hu: Káprázatos világába mélyedt, amikor elhaladtak a neolitikusi leletek mellett.En: He was immersed in his dazzling world as they passed by the Neolithic artifacts.Hu: Eszter, a csapat energikus vezetője, igyekezett rendszerezni a tevékenységeket.En: Eszter, the energetic leader of the team, tried to organize the activities.Hu: A promotálásra való esély vonzotta, és ezért szeretett volna mindenkit a legjobban teljesíttetni.En: The prospect of a promotion attracted her, and she wanted everyone to perform their best.Hu: Gyorsan felismerte, hogy minden csapattag erősítése szükséges.En: She quickly realized the need to strengthen each team member.Hu: Katalin, a csapat friss tagja, kissé izgult.En: Katalin, the team's new member, was a bit nervous.Hu: Szeretett volna jeleskedni, de nem tudta, hogyan illeszkedjen be.En: She wanted to excel, but didn't know how to fit in.Hu: A tágas terem falain régi diorámák meséltek el távoli korszakokról.En: The walls of the spacious hall told stories of distant eras through old dioramas.Hu: Eszter osztotta ki a feladatokat.En: Eszter assigned the tasks.Hu: "Kérlek, Bálint, tarts egy rövid tárlatvezetést.En: "Please, Bálint, give a brief tour."Hu: "Bálint tétovázott, de érezte, hogy most van itt az ideje.En: Bálint hesitated but felt that now was the time.Hu: Lassan előrelépett, és a természettudomány elbűvölő történetét kezdte el mesélni.En: He slowly stepped forward and began to tell the fascinating story of natural history.Hu: „Ez itt egy különleges lelet, egy addig ismeretlen őskori állat maradványai.En: "This is a special find, the remains of a previously unknown prehistoric animal."Hu: ” Bálint lelkesedése egyre nőtt, ahogy látta, hogyan ragyog Eszter és Katalin szeme a történeteire.En: Bálint's enthusiasm grew as he saw how Eszter and Katalin's eyes lit up at his stories.Hu: Katalin megkérdezett egy részletet.En: Katalin asked for a detail.Hu: „Miből gondolják, hogy ez az állat így nézett ki?En: "Why do they think this animal looked like this?"Hu: ” Bálint azonnal válaszolt, és így folytatta a magyarázatot.En: Bálint immediately responded and continued with the explanation.Hu: A története egyre inkább lenyűgözte a résztvevőket.En: His story increasingly captivated the participants.Hu: A hangulat megváltozott.En: The mood changed.Hu: Eszter jól érezte, hogy a csapat egyre egységesebbé válik.En: Eszter felt that the team was becoming more unified.Hu: Azt látta, hogy Bálint erőfeszítései mennyit jelentettek a csapatnak.En: She saw how much Bálint's efforts meant to the team.Hu: Végül a gyakorlat sikerként könyvelődött el.En: In the end, the exercise was recorded as a success.Hu: Bálint boldogan konstatálta, hogy a többiek értékelik azokat a történeteket, amiket annyira szeretett.En: Bálint happily acknowledged that the others appreciated the stories he loved so much.Hu: A nap végén, amikor elhagyták a múzeumot, mindhárman elégedettek voltak.En: At the end of the day, as they left the museum, all three were satisfied.Hu: Bálint magabiztosabb lett, Eszter felismerte a csapat fortélyait, és Katalin megtalálta a helyét a közösségben.En: Bálint became more confident, Eszter recognized the nuances of the team, and Katalin found her place in the community.Hu: A királydinnye árnyékában most már közös történeteket hordozva indultak el a naplemente felé.En: In the shadow of the királydinnye, they now set off towards the sunset carrying shared stories. Vocabulary Words:shadow: árnyékskeletal: csontvázconvene: összehíventhusiasm: lelkesedéscurator: kurátordistantly: távolságtartóandazzling: káprázatosNeolithic: neolitikusenergetic: energikuspromotion: promotálásspacious: tágasassign: kioszthesitate: tétovázikcaptivate: lenyűgözconfidence: magabiztosságacknowledge: konstatálrecognize: felismernuance: fortélyintegrate: illeszkedikartifact: leletorganize: rendszerezniunify: egységesebbé válikexercise: gyakorlatattract: vonzzaprospect: esélyengage: résztvevőkappreciate: értékelcommunity: közösségfascinating: elbűvölőremains: maradvány
In this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas sits down with Professor Paul Robichaud — Professor of English at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut — to discuss his remarkable new book, Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany, published by Reaktion Books on July 6th. Paul is not an archaeologist but a literary scholar, and his book takes a completely different approach to prehistoric monuments: rather than asking who built them or how, he asks what stories people have told about them across the centuries — and what those stories reveal about us. From the earliest Greek account of a possible spherical temple on a northern island (possibly Callanish), through Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century account of Merlin flying Stonehenge from Ireland, through the antiquarian fantasies of Inigo Jones (who decided Stonehenge was Roman and helpfully corrected its geometry to fit) and William Stukeley (who invented the Druid connection that has never entirely gone away), through the Romantics — Wordsworth's visions of human sacrifice, Blake's prophetic paintings, Turner's atmospheric canvases — to the 1970s counterculture, folk horror films, and our own climate-anxious present, the book traces how five millennia of imagining these ancient places tells us as much about the people doing the imagining as it does about the stones themselves. Jonathan and Paul also share their personal favorite prehistoric sites, including Avebury, Wayland Smithy, and — Jonathan's top pick — Castlerigg in Cumbria. Links Stories of the Stones by Paul Robichaud (Reaktion Books, July 6) Stores of Stones - Amazon Stonehenge — English Heritage Avebury — National Trust Wayland's Smithy, Oxfordshire — English Heritage Castlerigg Stone Circle, Cumbria — National Trust Callanish Standing Stones, Isle of Lewis Stanton Drew Stone Circles, Somerset Newgrange, Ireland The Ridgeway National Trail Albertus Magnus College Friends of Anglotopia Club Takeaways The word "prehistoric" didn't exist until the mid-19th century. For most of human history, people encountering these monuments had no framework for understanding them as ancient — they were simply there, part of the landscape, and the stories told about them reflected whatever worldview the storyteller brought: giants, biblical patriarchs, Roman engineers, druid priests, or earth energies. Stonehenge is unique among stone circles not because of its age or size but because of its distinctive architecture — upright stones with lintels resting on mortise-and-tenon joints, clearly intentional and clearly extraordinary. Its location on a relatively populated southern English plain also meant it was seen by far more people across the centuries than monuments in Wales or the Outer Hebrides. The Stonehenge we see today is not how it looked for most of recorded history. Many of the stones that appear upright were raised during restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the contemporary visitor's experience of a cleaned-up, presented monument is itself a kind of modern imagination of what people thought it should look like. Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century account — in which Merlin magically flies the stones from Ireland to Salisbury Plain as a memorial to fallen British nobles — dominated the medieval imagination for centuries because there simply were no rival stories. With no archaeological framework and no competing account, his version was accepted as genuine British history. Inigo Jones concluded that Stonehenge must be a Roman temple, and helpfully corrected its irregular geometry in his drawings to make it look properly classical. William Stukeley correctly identified the Druids as the likely builders — and then spent decades constructing increasingly elaborate Druidical fantasies connecting ancient Britain to biblical monotheism. Both men are cautionary examples of how we make evidence fit our assumptions. The Druid/Stonehenge association is almost entirely modern — an 18th-century invention that has almost no basis in archaeological evidence. The Iron Age Celts we associate with Druids arrived in Britain centuries after Stonehenge was built. But the association was cemented through repeated reproduction in engravings and illustrations — like a cultural meme — and has proved impossible to dislodge. The Romantics found in prehistoric monuments the perfect embodiment of the Sublime — Edmund Burke's idea of awe and terror in the presence of something vast and unknowable. Wordsworth had what he described as visions of ancient Britons and human sacrifice after being stranded near Stonehenge in a carriage accident; Blake incorporated megaliths into his prophetic paintings; Turner painted Stonehenge in dramatic atmospheric light. These Romantic responses shaped how visitors expected to feel at these sites for generations afterward. Paul's most unexpectedly moving site visit was to Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire — a Neolithic chambered tomb accessible via the ancient Ridgeway path. He had it entirely to himself in the rain, found a fresh offering of flowers left by a previous visitor, and experienced the kind of quiet communion with place that Stonehenge, with its crowds and visitor management, rarely allows. Jonathan's personal favorite prehistoric site is Castlerigg in Cumbria — a stone circle set on a hill and surrounded by mountains, relatively unknown and often visitable in near-solitude. Paul's is Avebury, which he recommends over Stonehenge for anyone wanting to actually walk among the stones rather than view them from a distance. Our contemporary fascination with prehistoric monuments is increasingly shaped by environmental anxiety — a need to reconnect with the landscape and with deep human time at a moment of climate crisis and technological acceleration. The stories we now tell about standing stones are as revealing of our own moment as Geoffrey of Monmouth's were of the 12th century. Soundbites "I had one book that had a picture of a druid kind of surfing on a large stone coming into Stonehenge — like he's landing. The idea was that they must have levitated the stones using Earth energies. The 70s was a time when there was a lot of interest in what we call New Age thinking. All that was kind of in the air when I was a kid." — Paul on his childhood introduction to prehistoric Britain. "I'm more interested in what these stories are doing and what they reveal about the people who are telling them. We can get some insight into what these places have meant to people who have visited them and lived alongside them for centuries and even millennia. The stories are interesting in their own right." — Paul on what a literary scholar sees that an archaeologist might not. "Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed to get his information from a mysterious book in Welsh that no one else had ever heard of and has never been identified or located. He was clearly a fabulator. But his account dominated the Middle Ages and kept getting retold all through the Renaissance because there were no rival stories." — Paul on Geoffrey of Monmouth's enduring influence. "Inigo Jones with his very careful architectural drawings, correcting the shape of Stonehenge to make it fit his vision, is a kind of exaggerated form of what we're all tempted to do — which is make things fit our assumptions about the world." — Paul on antiquarian projection. "The controversy around Druids in the 1700s was not whether they conducted their rites at Stonehenge — that was assumed — but whether the Druids were noble philosophers who had a secret wisdom, or bloodthirsty priests using human sacrifice to terrify the population into submission. Stukeley and his friend Borlase fell out over this." — Paul on the 18th-century Druid debate. "You've got a stone circle, you've got a druid there, and they're just always together. It becomes like a meme. And then they're taken up by the Romantics. So it really gets cemented in the popular imagination." — Paul on how the Druid/Stonehenge association became inescapable. "The Romantics find this admiration for the rugged beauty of these sites. Edmund Burke's idea of the sublime — that we experience awe in wild places that provoke a frisson of fear — becomes a kind of defining experience that travelers have at Stonehenge. These sites are viewed through the same lens as Niagara Falls." — Paul on the Romantic discovery of the prehistoric sublime. "I walked from the visitor center and I was glad I did. You see the barrows and the wooded land and then finally, a little bit in the distance, Stonehenge itself. And it really is impressive. You get at least a little bit of that experience of what it must have been like to suddenly see it in front of you in the landscape." — Paul's practical advice for visiting Stonehenge. "I drove up to Wayland's Smithy and I had the place to myself. It was raining, just one of those English drizzles. You walk down this pathway and then all of a sudden this really magnificent tomb is in front of you with standing stones around it. Someone had left an offering of flowers there. It was really beautiful." — Paul on his most unexpectedly moving prehistoric site visit. "As we're living in this increasingly dire moment of climate change, there's a sense of urgency in thinking about our relationship to the landscape. And we live in a time of unprecedented technological change — we spend so much of our time staring at screens. I think this interest in the deep past is something more and more people are developing as a way of connecting to our cultural and human origins." — Paul on why prehistoric monuments still matter today. Chapters 00:26 Introduction — Jonathan introduces Paul Robichaud and Stories of the Stones 02:15 Origin Story — Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of, Usborne books, and a trip to Callanish in 1998 03:42 A Literary Scholar Looks at Standing Stones — What Paul's approach reveals that archaeology alone can't 05:28 Why Britain, Ireland and Brittany? — The megalithic density of northwestern Europe and the span from 4500 BC to 3000 BC 07:42 A Catalog of Monument Types — Burial mounds, menhirs, stone circles, dolmens, earthworks, and what distinguishes them 08:57 The Word "Prehistoric" Didn't Exist Until the 19th Century — How the lack of a framework shaped every story told before it 11:13 Why Stonehenge Above All Others — The lintels, the mortise-and-tenon joints, the location, and the architecture of uniqueness 13:49 Stonehenge Is Not What It Looked Like — Restoration, re-erected stones, and why we see a cleaned-up version 16:33 Avebury vs. Stonehenge — Why Avebury often offers a more powerful experience, and the tip to walk rather than take the bus 18:06 Diodorus Siculus and the Spherical Temple — The earliest possible written reference to a British megalithic monument 20:51 Geoffrey of Monmouth and Merlin — The 12th-century account that dominated the medieval imagination for centuries 23:54 The Welsh Tradition — Arthurian connections, early saints, St. Samson, and the distinct Welsh relationship with prehistoric places 26:04 Old English Anxiety — Giants, barrow demons, Beowulf's dragon, and the fear that ran through early medieval English culture 28:26 The Antiquarians — Inigo Jones decides Stonehenge is Roman and corrects its geometry to fit 31:05 William Stukeley — The genuine archaeological pioneer who invented the Druid connection that has never gone away 36:05 Why Modern Druids at Stonehenge Are Performing a Modern Tradition — And why that doesn't make it meaningless 38:15 The Romantic Imagination — Burke's Sublime, Wordsworth's visions, Blake's prophecies, Turner's light 41:01 Wordsworth's Carriage Accident and the Wicker Man — How personal experience and literary reading combine at these sites 43:38 The Modern Era — Counterculture, New Age, Doctor Who, folk horror, and our climate-anxious present 46:33 Practical Tips for Visiting — Stonehenge, Avebury, Stanton Drew and its pub, Callanish, and what to prioritize 48:33 Personal Favorites — Wayland's Smithy (Paul) and Castlerigg in Cumbria (Jonathan) 51:00 Wrap-Up — Stories of the Stones out July 6 from Reaktion Books Video Version
How old is war? Does it stretch deep into human origins, or did warfare become common only as growing populations settled down? In Part II of this conversation with Douglas P. Fry, we return to the long-running debate about the origins of war. Fry revisits his argument that aggression is ancient, but war is not. I put that claim to the test, raising some of the strongest objections from archaeology and the study of modern hunter-gatherers. We discuss Jebel Sahaba, nomadic and settled foragers, food storage, marine resources, population growth, and the archaeological sequences through which warfare seems to emerge in different parts of the world.Is war an ancient adaptation—or a more recent cultural development? And is the answer relevant to our modern quest for a more peaceful world?Enjoy!FACT-CHECKINGNo errors have been detected in this conversation. If you notice one, please get in touch via Substack or the form below.LINKSFry's 2026 book: Advanced Introduction to Conflict ResolutionSupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansArticles & newsletter: OnHumans.Substack.comGet in touch: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8Music credit: Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay.NAMES MENTIONEDDouglas P. Fry | Luke Glowacki | Richard Wrangham | Brian Ferguson | Christopher Boehm | Richard B. Lee | Donald E. BrownETHNIC GROUPS AND HISTORICAL REGIONSNorthwestern Alaska | Valley of Oaxaca | Jebel Sahaba | Monte Albán | Zapotec Empire | Calusa people | Batek people | Orang Asli | Juǀ'hoansi, !Kung | Mbuti KEY WORDSOrigins of war | prehistory of war | history of warfare | causes of war | why humans go to war | anthropology of war | anthropology of peace | peace studies | conflict studies | war studies | peace and conflict studies | evolutionary anthropology | human evolution | human nature and war | hunter-gatherer warfare | hunter-gatherers | nomadic hunter-gatherers | mobile foragers | complex hunter-gatherers | prehistoric violence | interpersonal violence | coalitionary aggression | coalitionary killing | lethal aggression | human aggression | conflict resolution | restraint of aggression | archaeological evidence of war | archaeology of warfare | archaeological record | Pleistocene | Holocene | Neolithic warfare | origins of social complexity | sedentism | permanent settlements | food storage | population growth | population density | resource competition | resource intensification | marine resources | aquatic resources | Neolithic revolution | human universals | evolutionary psychology | chimpanzee warfare
Subscribe now for all episodes and no ads. Historian Patrick Wyman returns to the show to talk about the deep history of human societies and how they can inform the current moment. The group discusses new ways of studying prehistory, the origins of agriculture, climate adaptation, the Clovis people, the long Neolithic, early farming societies, states and security, the Bronze Age collapse, and more. Listen to Patrick's Past Lives podcast. And grab a copy of his new book Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World. Don't forget the AP livestream, this Wednesday at 8pm ET on our YouTube channel. Join our Discord! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Historian Patrick Wyman returns to the show to talk about the deep history of human societies and how they can inform the current moment. They explore new ways of studying prehistory, the origins of agriculture, climate adaptation, the Clovis people, the long Neolithic, early farming societies, states and security, the Bronze Age collapse, and more.Listen to Patrick's Past Lives podcast. And grab a copy of his new book Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World.Don't forget the AP livestream, this Wednesday at 8pm ET on our YouTube channel.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
A Hole in the Head is a 1998 documentary film produced and executive produced by filmmaker and author Cevin Soling. Directed by Eli Kabillio, the 54-minute film examines the controversial practice of trepanation—the process of boring a hole into the human skull. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]Core Premise and HistoryThe documentary explores both the historical roots and the modern subculture surrounding voluntary trepanation. [1]Ancient Origins: The film highlights how the procedure is one of the oldest known surgical practices, utilized by ancient Egyptians, Incas, and Neolithic civilizations. [1, 2, 3]The Modern Goal: It focuses heavily on individuals in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands who choose to perform or undergo the procedure on themselves. [1, 2]The Underlying Theory: Advocates in the film believe that removing a small piece of bone restores the "brain pulsations" lost when the skull fully hardens in adulthood. They argue this increases brain blood volume and oxygenation, leading to a permanent "high" or a permanently expanded state of consciousness. [1]Featured SubjectsThe documentary includes interviews and historical footage of prominent figures within the modern trepanation movement: [Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.
My recent chat with Jordan E. Petersen on the excellent Gods, Ghosts and UFOs Podcast. Follow them on substack: https://ggupodcast.substack.com/ What's Jo's Favorite Fairy Sighting? "This week, Jordan finally gets to ask the host of the singular Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast the most annoying question he can come up with, and she does not disappoint. Jo Hickey-Hall has been collecting these stories for years. And the one she leads with is hers: a stick being made of literal sticks, running down a beach in Jersey with a gait so strange it made everyone watching laugh. Years later, a man in northeast England describes seeing almost exactly the same thing. We talk about why these things, these beings, whatever they are, resist being accurately described or depicted. They're so vivid in the moment, but as soon as you start to try to put words on them, they seem to slip away. But we're doing our best. You can come judge for yourself. Highlights: Jo Hickey-Hall, folklorist, social historian, host of The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast (also find her at scarlettofthefae.com and preorder her book here) Nerd Critic Jo's favorite fairy sighting The shadow-cutters A stick being made of sticks The Brazilian Ent (a tree trunk that walked, then tried to become a man, and didn't quite get it right) The disconnect between perception and description “I can see it in my head, but it just doesn't seem to translate into words or drawings” Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy Mysterium tremendum and mysterium fascinans Why one guy runs away and the other is filled with awe Conditioning, inheritance, and the holding place we make for the uncanny Orbs in the context of UFOs, fae, and consciousness Conscious plasma :) Different witnesses, different filters/stations/signals How to learn to see auras (try it at a conference with a white screen behind the speaker) The Genius Loci Two strangers see the same being in the same place, twenty years apart “Your daemon is really driving you” How to actually meet the fae Picking up litter is an offering Thresholds: doorways, dawn and dusk, the line where the beach meets the sea, the transitions in your own life Theosophy and the elemental beings — Blavatsky, Steiner, Paracelsus The London flat haunted by goblins (near a crossroads, near water) Are the fae hitching lifts on trains and trucks? Fairies as emergent phenomena of place (this is what humans are, actually) Part two maybe? (with Mal (and Tom???)) And in the epilogue…on Gods, Ghosts and UFOs A disembodied head in a kitchen window Why you can't tear down a house to make a haunting go away How UFOs are seen so often over a Neolithic burial chamber that locals don't bother to look up anymore ⭐️ JOIN THE MODERN FAIRY SIGHTINGS COMMUNITY ⭐️ https://www.patreon.com/c/themodernfairysightingspodcast/membership If you're looking for exclusive bonus material, monthly zoom chats with like-minded folks, access to the Discord chat channels, quiet meditation gatherings and meeting other members, join us at: https://www.patreon.com/c/themodernfairysightingspodcast/membership S U P P O R T If you'd prefer to support the Modern Fairy Sightings with a one off donation, you can ‘buy me a coffee' and I'd be very grateful
Historian, author and Britain Palestine Project patron William Dalrymple opens the Recognition is the Beginning conference with a sweeping exploration of Palestinian history, identity and Britain's historic role in the region.Drawing on archaeology, genetics, historical records and personal testimony, Dalrymple challenges narratives that deny Palestinian continuity and traces the story of Palestine from the Bronze Age to the present day. Beginning with the story of the village of Isdud (modern-day Ashdod), he examines how communities endured for millennia before being displaced during the Nakba of 1948.The keynote explores:The historical continuity of Palestinian communities over more than 3,000 years.Archaeological and genetic evidence linking modern Palestinians to ancient Levantine populations.The shared ancestral heritage of Palestinians and many Israeli Jews.The origins and enduring history of the name “Palestine” from the Bronze Age to today.Palestine's role as a centre of trade, culture, religion and scholarship throughout antiquity and the medieval world.The impact of the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate on Palestinian self-determination.Britain's historic and contemporary responsibilities regarding Palestine.Why recognition of Palestine is only a starting point and must be accompanied by meaningful action.Dalrymple argues that understanding the depth of Palestinian history is essential to understanding the present crisis and to building a future based on justice, accountability and equal rights. He concludes by reflecting on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the importance of transforming recognition into practical support for Palestinian self-determination.This keynote was recorded at the Britain Palestine Project annual conference, Recognition is the Beginning, held at the Greenwood Theatre, London, on 2 June 2026.William Dalrymple is an award-winning historian, broadcaster and bestselling author whose books include The Anarchy, The Last Mughal, White Mughals and From the Holy Mountain. He is co-host of the hugely popular Empire podcast and a patron of the Britain Palestine Project. His current research focuses on the history of Palestine from the Neolithic period to the Nakba.
If you enjoy this episode, we're sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects. In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we've got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge. So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below. Thank you and enjoy the episode!Links For The Occult Rejectshttps://linktr.ee/theoccultrejectsOccult Research Institutehttps://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/Substackhttps://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-pageCash Apphttps://cash.app/$theoccultrejectsVenmo@TheOccultRejectsBuy Me A Coffeebuymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejectsPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejectsBIBLIOGRAPHYLoaded Ground and Temple GrammarBradley, Richard. An Archaeology of Natural Places. Key use: Natural features as ritual centers: springs, caves, mountains, watery places, unusual stones, and the way landscape itself becomes an active participant in sacred behavior.Bradley, Richard. The Significance of Monuments: On the Shaping of Human Experience in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe. Key use: Monumentality, repeated movement, ritual landscapes, and how built earth/stone structures anchor memory and collective story.Scarre, Chris, ed. Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe: Perception and Society During the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Key use: Landscape archaeology, perception, monument placement, sacred routes, and social memory.Tilley, Christopher. A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments. Key use: Embodied movement through sacred landscapes. Good for explaining why approach, walking, turning, climbing, entering, and returning matter as much as the site itself.Ruggles, Clive. Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth. Key use: Archaeoastronomy, horizon alignment, sky events, and methodological caution against sloppy “everything is a star map” claims.Ruggles, Clive. Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland. Key use: Prehistoric monuments, solar/lunar alignments, and sky-ground relationships.Watson, Aaron, and David Keating. “Architecture and Sound: An Acoustic Analysis of Megalithic Monuments in Prehistoric Britain.” Antiquity 73, no. 280 (1999): 325–336. Key use: Archaeoacoustics, megalithic sound environments, echo, resonance, and how ancient monuments may have shaped movement and perception through sound as well as sight.Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Key use: Sacred space, center, axis mundi, threshold, and the difference between ordinary space and holy space.Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. Key use: Ritual as place-making. Useful for the idea that sacred places are not merely found; they are produced through repeated action, interpretation, and return.Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Key use: Lived place, memory, orientation, and the difference between abstract space and meaningful place.van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Key use: Separation, threshold, and incorporation. Useful for crossings, caves, temples, initiation, and the movement from ordinary to sacred space.Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Key use: Liminality, betweenness, communitas, and why thresholds create psychological and social transformation.Vitruvius. Ten Books on Architecture / De Architectura. Key use: Classical architecture, proportion, order, temple siting, and the ancient architectural concern with harmony, geometry, and orientation.Scully, Vincent. The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods: Greek Sacred Architecture. Key use: Greek temples in relation to landscape, sightlines, deity, terrain, and sacred placement.Ward-Perkins, J. B. Roman Imperial Architecture. Key use: Roman monumental space, basilicas, civic authority, imperial architecture, and the built environment Christianity later inherits.Wycherley, R. E. How the Greeks Built Cities. Key use: Greek civic and sacred urban planning, temple placement, public space, and the relationship between architecture and city order.Onians, John. Bearers of Meaning: The Classical Orders in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Key use: Classical orders as carriers of meaning, authority, proportion, and inherited architectural language.Assmann, Jan. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt. Key use: Egyptian sacred space, temple theology, divine presence, ritual service, and cosmic order.Shafer, Byron E., ed. Temples of Ancient Egypt. Key use: Egyptian temple structure, processional access, restricted interiors, ritual activity, light/dark progression, and the temple as cosmic environment.Levenson, Jon D. Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. Key use: Temple, mountain, divine presence, sacred center, covenant, and the biblical imagination of holy place.Levine, Lee I., ed. Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Key use: Jerusalem, sacred center, Temple memory, pilgrimage, and the later religious mapping of holiness.The Bible, especially Exodus, Leviticus, 1 Kings, Ezekiel, Psalms, the Gospels, Hebrews, and Revelation. Key use: Tabernacle, Temple, altar, priesthood, sacrifice, holiness, veil, divine presence, living water, pilgrimage, heavenly city, and sacred orientation.Misstear, Bruce. “The Hydrogeology of Sacred Wells: Insights from Ireland.” Hydrogeology Journal, 2024. Key use: Sacred wells as real groundwater systems, including hydrogeological settings, water chemistry, cultural meaning, and anthropogenic impacts. This supports the line that holy wells are both sacred sites and physical water systems.Bord, Janet, and Colin Bord. Sacred Waters: Holy Wells and Water Lore in Britain and Ireland. Key use: Holy wells, healing traditions, local water lore, offerings, vows, and repeated devotional return.Rattue, James. The Living Stream: Holy Wells in Historical Context. Key use: Historical context for holy wells, Christianization, local devotion, and the persistence of sacred water sites.Ray, Celeste. The Origins of Ireland's Holy Wells. Key use: Irish holy wells, sacred water, pilgrimage, healing, local tradition, and the complex relation between Christian practice and older water sites.National Churches Trust. “Medieval Bridge Chapels.” Key use: Bridge chapels as medieval crossing sites, often chantry chapels connected to prayers for founders, benefactors, travelers, and pilgrims.Green, Edward. “Bridge Chapels.” Building Conservation. Key use: Bridge chapels as Christian worship sites built on or near bridges for travelers, safe arrival, and the sacralization of movement.Research report. The Bridge Chapels of Medieval Britain. Key use: Bridge construction and maintenance as pious and charitable work, chapels and crosses at bridges, safe passage, tolls, repairs, and the link between devotion and infrastructure.Walsham, Alexandra. The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity, and Memory in Early Modern Britain and Ireland. Key use: How sacred geography, wells, crosses, shrines, roads, memory, and local religious landscapes were reclassified and contested during the Reformation.Ren, L., et al. “GIS-Based Viewshed Analysis on the Visibility of Historic Towns.” ISPRS Archives, 2021. Key use: Viewshed analysis, line-of-sight, historic structures, and the use of GIS to study visibility in built heritage environments. Useful for keeping claims about towers, spires, and landmark dominance grounded in method.Vaz de Freitas, I. “Historical Landscape: A Methodological Proposal to Characterise the Landscape of Monasteries in Early Medieval Portugal.” Religions 15, no. 10 (2024): 1158. Key use: Early medieval monastic landscapes, GIS method, religious siting, and environmental variables. Useful for sacred visibility, water proximity, slope, altitude, and landscape choice.Kilde, Jeanne Halgren. Sacred Power, Sacred Space: An Introduction to Christian Architecture and Worship. Key use: Broad Christian architecture source for power, worship, sacred space, and the way buildings shape religious experience.Kieckhefer, Richard. Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley. Key use: Church architecture as theology in built form. Useful as a bridge from ancient sacred grammar into later Christian architectural expression.Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A
Nick the Rat Radio Episode 541 Scientists just confirmed it: a entire civilization built 35,000 stone monuments across Europe, dragged quartz boulders 60 miles to place them on fault lines with surgical precision — and then disappeared without a war, without a fire, without a single written word. No genetic trace in anyone alive today. A University of Copenhagen study dropped this year and barely anyone's talking about it. Nick the Rat is. Tonight we get into the piezoelectric grid theory, the Kyoto University solar flare research, and why a Neolithic infrastructure project might have cooked its own builders from the inside out. Plus mammoth bones that turned out to be a whale, a caller from inside a correctional facility, and Jane Hanoi reports from the Dark Sewer Network on Antarctic mole cities and alien dairy farmers who don't know what they're doing. #AncientCivilization #LostCivilization #Megaliths #Stonehenge #Carnac #AncientDNA #Conspiracy #NickTheRat #PiezoElectric #SolarStorm #UnexplainedHistory #AlternativeHistory #ConspiracyPodcast #UndergroundMedia #DarkSewerNetwork #sewerchat A paranoid rat discusses conspiracies, secret agendas, and things they don't want you to know — while playing hand-picked underground music. Call in live: 1-917-719-5923 Originally aired: 05/27/20 All music is Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). All artists are credited during the episode. For more info: www.nicktherat.com
Faced with this prehistoric setting, the Academic Adventurers head into the unknown. Johanna Howes - Meredith, Kate O'Sullivan - Potentia, Ross Balch - Harold, Ben Keirnan - DM/NPCs
Part 4 of my review of David Wengrove and David Graeber's The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. As we come to the close of this book we begin to go deeper into the Neolithic and explore urban forms and political systems, asking the question if anything has an origin and if not, how can we tell the story of early humanity?
“Every single person that we meet was both the endpoint of thousands of years that brought them there, and the midpoint of some other process, and was the beginning of something else entirely. Think of yourselves as the middle and the beginning, not just the end.” — Patrick Wyman History, we are often told, is a simple story of progress — from caves and villages to cities; from forests and farms to factories; from chieftains and kings to democracies. But, for Patrick Wyman, host of the enormously popular Tides of History and Fall of Rome podcasts, that's far too linear a narrative. In his new book, Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World, Wyman argues that rather than a teleological inevitability, civilization is a chaotic ten thousand year story of improvisation, experiment, failure, and unintended consequence. It is never ending. We are always in the middle of it. Dramatic advances in archaeological technology triggered Wyman's argument in Lost Worlds. Ancient DNA, isotope analysis, LiDAR, cutting-edge excavation are all opening up what Wyman calls “a golden age for popular historians.” We can now trace the lives of individuals in ways that were inconceivable just a generation ago. Wyman's star is Ötzi the Iceman — a man murdered 5,300 years ago in the Alps, whose gut contents, DNA, last meal, and likely killers we now know. Rather than a symbol of prehistoric life, Ötzi the Iceman reveals why history keeps happening. Five Takeaways • The Prelapsarian Fallacy: Hunter-Gatherers Weren't Paradise: The romantic idea — popular in the last decade as people read Graeber and Wengrow or Yuval Noah Harari — is that hunter-gatherers had it better. Farming made us smaller, sicker, more crowded, more unequal. Wyman's counter: yes, on some metrics early farmers were less healthy than foragers. But farming also supported enormously larger populations. It expanded the possibilities of human life in ways that foraging never could. Looking back at the past and calling it paradise says more about the critique of the present than about the actual realities of past lives. • Civilization Was Not Inevitable: We have a story about how we got from foragers to cities: people settled, started farming, produced surplus, developed specialisation, built states. But Wyman's new archaeology shows that this story is wrong at every step. Farming didn't always replace foraging. Villages didn't automatically spark agriculture. Cities didn't necessitate rigid hierarchies. For every society that moved from one stage to the next, there are others that moved in different directions, collapsed, hybridised, or simply chose something else. The line of progress is a retrospective fiction. • Ötzi the Iceman: A Man With a Story: Wyman's most vivid example of what the new archaeology makes possible: Ötzi, a man murdered 5,300 years ago in the Alps, whose mummified body was found in 1991. From isotope analysis of his teeth, we know where he grew up. From his gut contents, we know what he ate in his last meal — venison and ibex. From his DNA, we know his ancestry. From the arrow in his back, we know how he died. We don't know his name, but we know enough to recognise him as fully human. That is what the new tools give us: not symbols of a lost world, but individual people with individual stories. • The Fall of Rome Was Not a Tragedy: Wyman spent fifteen years of his life thinking about the fall of the Roman Empire and hosting a podcast about it. Writing this book changed how he sees it. He used to view it as a tragedy — something lost. Now he views it as a natural part of the rhythms that pulse through human societies over long periods of time. The remarkable thing about Rome is not that it fell. All empires fall. All societies eventually reach the limits of their technologies, their environments, their ways of organising life. The remarkable thing is that it lasted as long as it did. Six hundred years. That's the story. • Think of Yourself as the Middle, Not the End: Wyman's message for the AI apocalypticists — and for everyone else who believes they're living at the final chapter of human history. Every person at every point in the past believed the same thing. The Neolithic farmers Wyman studies. The Bronze Age city-dwellers. The Romans. Every one of them was both an endpoint and a beginning. The AI revolution may transform the world. But it will not end it. Stop thinking in terms of next quarter. Start thinking of yourself as part of something much, much bigger — that will extend long after your name has been forgotten. About the Guest Patrick Wyman is the host of the Tides of History, Fall of Rome, and Past Lives podcasts, and the author of Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World (Harper, May 5, 2026) and The Verge: Renaissance, Reformation, and Forty Years That Shook the World. He has a PhD in History from USC and lives in Phoenix, Arizona. References: • Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World by Patrick Wyman (Harper, May 5, 2026). • Tides of History podcast by Patrick Wyman — currently covering the Iron Age. • Fall of Rome podcast by Patrick Wyman. • Episode 2891: John Steele Gordon on information technology and American unity — the companion piece on how technology changes history at the deep level. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters: (00:31) - Introduction: from the Ice Age to the Bronze Age...
Neolithic peoples made the transition from being nomadic hunter-gatherers to crop-growing farmers, and their diets are the subject of numerous studies.Archaeological evidence informs us about the farming and foraging activities of these ancient peoples, but it's unusual to get a first hand taste of how it might have been to forage on the shore and land! On the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the arts organisation, Haar, facilitated an opportunity to sit down to an interpretation of a Stone Age feast - albeit with considerable artistic and culinary licence! The event was centered around the 5000-year-old Calanais standing stone circle. Nancy Nicolson joined the foragers to find out about the farming and feasting habits of our ancestors, and met one of the crofters whose sheep today graze the machair, the strip of flower and herb-rich land that borders the sea and which it is believed contributed to the flavours and nutrition of the food Neolithic people ate.Produced and presented by Nancy Nicolson.
The first ever outbreak of 'plague' - Yersinia Pestis, the most feared disease in human history - was long thought to be the Plague of Justinian in 541 AD. But new studies of ancient DNA have revealed traces of Yesinia Pestis dating back more than 5,000 years. In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Laura Spinney to explore the origins of prehistoric plague. How did this pestilence emerge to blight the Neolithic world? Where did it come from? And could it have triggered a Stone Age collapse which signalled the dawn of the Bronze Age in Europe? Discover how this deadly pathogen reshaped entire Stone Age societies, long before the advent of written history. MOREDid Plague Destroy the Roman Empire?Listen on AppleListen on Spotify The Birth of Indo-EuropeanListen on AppleListen on SpotifyPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. Audio for Uploader: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Send us Fan MailFind Michele at bookclues.comThe world you take for granted is younger than you think and it was never guaranteed. We sit down with Patrick Wyman, creator of Tides of History and Past Lives and author of Lost Worlds; How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World to trace the volatile 10,000-year span after the last Ice Age when farming, herding, villages, social hierarchies, and writing begin to reshape human life. Along the way, we confront a simple driver behind almost everything: the hunt for calories and the constant fear of starvation that organized societies for millennia.Patrick explains why the Neolithic period isn't a clean “before and after” moment, but a messy overlap of experiments, migration, and collapse. Ancient DNA technology, isotope analysis, and paleoenvironmental research now let historians see population replacement, unexpected ancestry, and the ways demography responds to perceived scarcity. We talk about the Anzick child in Montana and what one 13,000-year-old burial reveals about the deep roots of Indigenous history across North America.Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with a history-loving friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.Find Patrick at instagram.com/wyman_patrick/
Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Gerie, a pet chicken in Maine, is recognized as the world's oldest living pet chicken at 15 years and 100 days, with owner Frank saying she became flock leader and now enjoys an indoor life and human company ahead of turning 16 in July. In Georgia, 12-year-old Macy is praised for running into her burning home to alert her two older brothers and help them escape as firefighters contained the blaze and the cause remains under investigation. In England, archaeologists surveying for a wind power project unexpectedly uncovered a Roman villa and bathhouse, an Iron Age farming estate, a bronze handle nicknamed “Norfolk Na,” plus Neolithic, Bronze Age, and medieval finds. In the UK, recycled urine from major events is processed into fertilizer to grow 4,500 trees. In New Zealand, 101-year-old Neville becomes the world's oldest competitive croquet player.John also hosts Daily Comedy NewsUnlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! For Apple users, hit the banner which says Uninterrupted Listening on your Apple podcasts app. Subscribe now for exclusive shows like 'Palace Intrigue,' and get bonus content from Deep Crown (our exclusive Palace Insider!) Or get 'Daily Comedy News,' and '5 Good News Stories' with no commercials! Plans start at $4.99 per month, or save 20% with a yearly plan at $49.99. Join today and help support the show!Get more info from Caloroga Shark Media and if you have any comments, suggestions, or just want to get in touch our email is info@caloroga.com
What the Stone Did Not ForgetThe lineage of the sacred feminine from Neolithic Europe all the way to the Stardust Lineage.There is an image of a woman small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. She is less than four and a half inches tall, carved from Neolithic limestone over 28,000 years ago near the Danube River in what is now called Austria. She is all curved. A sacred feminine body with a round belly, full breasts, wide hips, a body in its fullness and generative power, honored in the most permanent material available.She has no face. She does not need one. She is not a portrait of an individual woman. She is every woman. And she is a statement about what the female body means, what it carries, what it represents, and the cosmology of the people who made her. She is, of course, the Venus of Willendorf.She was once tinted with red ochre, the same iron-rich pigment as human blood, and women's blood. Even in the act of carving, there was an awareness of the connection between body, earth, and cosmos. The stone itself was not incidental. The stone holds what time cannot otherwise keep. The stone holds the story and remembers.Across a vast arc of prehistoric Europe and Asia, from France to Siberia, archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of similar figurines spanning thousands of years of human creative life. Each one encoded the same understanding. The female body is sacred. It doesn't represent the sacred. It is the sacred and created from the sacred. She is the source. She is the organizing principle of human life.Honoring the feminine because of matriarchy was not something radical, was not feminism. It was not simply embedded into the fabric of early human cultures. It was actually what the fabric was woven from — not just embedded, woven from. It is the very fibers of the tapestry.And this story lasts for thousands and thousands and thousands of years before the eventual widespread emergence of organized warfare, before the legal and theological structures that would later declare the female body a problem to be managed and named, before the invention of land ownership.The stone did not forget, even as later cultures obscured, suppressed, and reinterpreted and renamed what these figurines meant. The stone holds the story. The clay holds the imprint.Marija Gimbutas and the Language of the Sacred BodyMuch of what we know about these ancient cultures comes from the work of Marija Gimbutas, the Lithuanian-American archaeologist, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, and one of the most important and most contested scholars in the 20th century. She spent decades excavating what she called Old Europe, the Neolithic cultures of prehistoric Europe that flourished before the arrival of the patriarchal peoples from the Pontic-Caspian steppes beginning around 4000 BCE. In the regions of what is now known as Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania, the Cucuteni-Trypillia era, she documented cultures that developed sophisticated symbolic systems over thousands of years, deeply rooted in agricultural art and the cyclical understandings of life.In thousands of figurines, burial sites, ceremonial objects, and symbolic markings, she identified a coherent visual language — circles, spirals, triangles, and the female form encoding an entire civilization's understanding of life, death, the regeneration cycle, and the sacred. This is not primitive decoration. These are not fertility charms made for male desire. These are acts of reverence and collaboration, a co-creative relationship, symbols encoded into stone and clay, telling a story about who we were and perhaps who we could be.And she found no weapons there until later.Her interpretation, by the way, has been challenged and debated by subsequent scholars. Her naming, her description of the archaeomythology of the ancient mothers — to this day, archaeologists are trying to disprove her theories and relabel her findings.And yet the figurines — it's even hard to call them that. The mother. She just exists. The symbols recur across vast distances and thousands of years with a consistency that really demands no explanation. We honored her and her body. Whatever the precise nature of the social structures that produced them, the female body represented in these artifacts is the power. She is the primary symbol through which a civilization found its meaning.That understanding did not disappear when the cultures that held it were disrupted. It went underground, literally, and it survived in objects and then modern day practices that the dominant culture wasn't successful in stamping out.So much they took from us. So much we remembered. The stone remembers, and the stardust bones remember.Lenore Thomas Straus — Choosing the MotherThis is how it leads into our Stardust Lineage.In 1937, sculptor Lenore Thomas Straus received a commission through the Public Works Administration — sometimes called the Works Progress Administration — in Greenbelt, Maryland. This is one of the New Deal communities being built during the Depression, supported by the Roosevelts' vision for an American public life. Lenore worked on multiple projects connected to this era of public art, and photographs document her alongside Eleanor Roosevelt in a hard hat.Lenore also made a note that these communities were being built for white people, but by Black people. That is part of the story. The untold story.For the Greenbelt commission, Lenore was given latitude to choose her subject. It was going to go in the town square. She chose a mother and child — not a warrior, not a statesman for the area, not an allegory of progress or industry. A mother kneeling, with her child holding a cup with both hands. It is carved across three four-foot limestone blocks from Indiana, twelve feet of stone placed in public space, and functional — a water fountain. Just like a woman, she wanted to make sure it made sense. Utility and reverence made inseparable, the act of offering water given permanent form in stone. The sculpture was commissioned in 1937 and completed in 1939.This is, of course, a conscious choice. With the full range of American civic iconography available to her, with the imprimatur of federal commission behind her, Lenore Thomas Straus chose to place the sacred feminine body in a public square — a mother and a child.She also carved in a separate commission the Preamble to the Constitution in stone, also in Maryland.She knew what she was doing. She was doing what the Neolithic carvers had done across thousands of years — inscribing the female body and the values of a society that honors life in the most permanent material available.She wrote of her relationship to carving stone as an artist: Quietly, I bow to the stone.To our community, this summarizes the root system of Intentional Creativity. The sentence holds an entire philosophy. The sculptor does not dominate the material. She listens to it. She honors what it carries. She brings her full devotion to bear before she raises a hand to shape it.Greenbelt, Maryland is where Lenore Thomas Straus is from — Prince George's County, Maryland.Lenore Thomas Straus became the teacher of a young artist named Sue Hoya Sellers. She recognized Sue when Sue was seventeen years old. Sue had ridden seven miles on dirt roads to find her, a portfolio strapped to her bicycle, clothes starched and ironed, two years of preparation. Lenore called her a young artist, and Sue was one.Among the things Lenore passed to Sue was an understanding that the sacred feminine image belonged in the hands of women — that carving was not decoration, that it was transmission, and honestly, a form of decolonizing the female body.Sue carried this forward in her own large-scale work, including a monumental pregnant woman carved in wood commissioned for Alice Walker that stands at Stardust Ranch in Sonoma — the sacred feminine body again in the most permanent material available, given to the woman who had sat at the table with Sue, given to the writer who told me that to be happy is one of the most revolutionary acts.And Sue passed this assignment to me when I was twenty-four. Sue co-mothered me, and this was among the most sacred things she passed forward.A Cold Day and a Palm-Sized PrayerI remember the day.It was cloudy and cold on the mountain. Sue and I, months before, had gone out to dig the very clay from the earth — red clay. She wanted me to understand the whole cycle of making. Finally, the clay was made. It was placed in my hands, and she said: make it fit the palm of your hand. For prayer. Put your intention into it.I brought the clay into my hands and began to shape it. I didn't know what it would become, but I knew that I was called to make the Sacred Mother. It was the first thing I ever made out of clay.Amazingly, years after Sue's death, Lenore's daughter Nora sent me a small figurine carved in stone — one of Sue's earliest works — a goddess figurine, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It was only then, holding that piece, understanding what Sue had been handed and what she handed to me, that I received the full weight of the assignment — not as an instruction, as a lineage, as a specific, unbroken transmission of an understanding that Lenore had carried from her own teachers, and they from theirs, all the way back to the women who pressed their hands into cave walls and shaped limestone into figurines small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.It makes me think of my recent visit to Malta — how the Sleeping Lady of Malta is so tiny she can almost fit in the palm of your hand. But there were also sculptures so huge they were claimed to be made by giantesses. Lenore and Sue did the same thing — made the tiny and the large.Lenore was a Norwegian woman. She decided to carve an enormous sculpture, a mother and child. She went on to carve the Preamble to the Constitution in stone. She taught Sue and Sue taught me — from hand to hand and really from heart to heart.And when I think of this teaching and share it with my students today, I feel the throughline of the sacred feminine image always emerging and becoming and arriving in and through our hands. Back at the beginning, right at the time I made that sculpture, I knew I wanted to change the way that women were treated and the way that the face of the feminine was regarded in my lifetime.Thousands of paintings are part of it. The carrying on of a Stardust Lineage — from Neolithic limestones to these stardust bones.Us. We.Footnotes(1) The Venus of Willendorf is housed in the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. On the red ochre tinting and its connection to blood symbolism in prehistoric ritual contexts, see: Jill Cook, Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind (British Museum Press, 2013); Marija Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (HarperCollins, 1989).(2) On the geographic distribution of similar prehistoric female figurines: Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (1989), Introduction; Cook, Ice Age Art (2013).(3) Marija Gimbutas, The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe (HarperCollins, 1991). On the Kurgan hypothesis and the cultural transition beginning around 4000 BCE.(4) On the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture: Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (1989). See also: John Chapman, Fragmentation in Archaeology (Routledge, 2000) for a more recent treatment.(5) Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (1989). On the visual symbolic language of prehistoric European artifacts.(6) For scholarly critique of Gimbutas's methodology, see: Lynn Meskell, “Goddesses, Gimbutas and ‘New Age' Archaeology,” Antiquity 69 (1995): 74–86. For a balanced recent assessment, see: Douglass Bailey, Prehistoric Figurines: Corporeality and Representation in the Neolithic (Routledge, 2005).(7) Lenore Thomas Straus, Mother and Child, Indiana limestone water fountain, commissioned 1937, completed 1939, Greenbelt Homes Inc., Greenbelt, Maryland. Commissioned through the Public Works Administration / Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. Photographic documentation of Straus with Eleanor Roosevelt held in the Stardust Lineage archive. For archival verification, consult Greenbelt Museum records.(8) Lenore Thomas Straus, Preamble to the Constitution, stone, Greenbelt, Maryland. Documented by personal visit. For archival citation, consult Greenbelt Museum records and WPA Federal Art Project documentation.(9) Lenore Thomas Straus, Stone Dust. Exact page number to be confirmed before publication. Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe
Join Global Treasures to learn about the Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni, a Neolithic underground burial complex. Abigail covers the history and travel tips for visiting this one of a kind UNESCO world heritage site, added to the list in 1980. Tours: https://trip.tpk.mx/dlADpZT8 Homestay Options: https://vrbo.tpk.mx/luZMQeJw Hotels: https://trip.tpk.mx/MaAiCiaF Travel Charger: https://amzn.to/4tvXP9v ESim: https://drimsim.tpk.mx/7T27eEcf Barvita (Code ABIGAILVACCA gets you 15% off your first order): https://barvita.co/?ref=ABIGAILVACCA Follow Global Treasures on Social Media and check out my blog: Blog: Globaltreasurestravel.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?tid=100093258132336 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@globaltreasurespodcast *I may receive compensation if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you
What's the sound of hardcore in 2026? Is there just one? Hell nah, what are you thinking. We explore the patchwork of punk hc this year with tracks from HAYWIRE, BAD BEAT, ANGEL DU$T, COLLATERAL, BETON ARME, POISON RUIN, SPEED, SCARAB, C4, DRAIN, FATAL REALM, FENTANYL, HOME FRONT, NEOLITHIC, and COMBUST. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
News items read by Laura Kennedy include: Isotopic analysis illuminates 10,000-year European gender gap in meat consumption (details) (details) Ancient humans ran stone factory for 100,000 years (details) (details) Ancient DNA reveals population collapse in northern France near the end of the Neolithic (details) (details) Ancient Maya architecture reveals shift in style of governance (details) (details)
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. Transcripts For rough transcripts head over to https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/adhdbce/202 Contact George Lomas (@adhd_bce_podcast) • Instagram profile Saša Harper | ADHD Coach (@sasaharper) • Instagram profile ArchPodNet APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet APN Shop Music Your Story by MusicbyAden | https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Affiliates Motion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Niuheliang: The Ancient Discovery That Pushed China's Civilization Back 1,000 YearsToday, we'll talk about Niuheliang, an ancient remote landscape north of the Great Wall that's rediscovery transformed our understanding of China's earliest civilization by challenging the long-held belief that it had emerged only from the great river valleys.For a long time, the story of Chinese civilization seemed settled. According to conventional wisdom, its origins lay firmly in the great river valleys of central China, especially along the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. It was there, scholars believed, that agriculture first flourished, settlements grew into cities, writing emerged, and early states took shape. Regions beyond these river basins, particularly the lands north of the Great Wall, were usually treated as marginal zones, places influenced by the center rather than sources of innovation themselves.That narrative began to change slowly and unevenly during the twentieth century, and one of the most powerful challenges to it emerged from an unexpected place: a remote, wind-swept landscape in western Liaoning Province in northeast China, known today as Niuheliang.The first attempts to understand the ancient past of this region were marked by ambition and frustration. In the early 1930s, 26-year-old Liang Siyong, a young Chinese archaeologist trained in the United States, returned home determined to apply modern archaeological methods to China's prehistoric past. At the time, archaeology in China was still in its infancy. Scholars were beginning to move away from relying solely on ancient texts and were turning instead to the material evidence buried underground. This shift reflected a broader intellectual belief that history had to be reconstructed from tangible remains rather than inherited narratives.Liang Siyong set his sights on northeastern China, an area that had attracted the attention of foreign researchers who reported traces of Neolithic cultures scattered across hills and riverbanks. These early clues suggested that the region might hold answers to questions about China's earliest societies. Yet conditions on the ground were unforgiving. Disease outbreaks blocked travel routes, extreme cold froze the soil solid, and bandit activity made long journeys dangerous. Even when excavation was possible, it was often cut short by weather or logistics.Political events soon brought all such efforts to an abrupt end. In 1931, the Japanese invasion of northeastern China plunged the region into war and occupation. Archaeological research ceased almost overnight. For years afterward, the ancient cultures of the northeast remained largely inaccessible, their secrets buried once more beneath earth, snow, and silence.In the decades that followed, only scattered individuals continued to pay attention to this neglected region. A few local educators and amateur researchers conducted small surveys in their spare time, recording pottery fragments and stone tools, and occasionally publishing brief reports. Some even speculated that major discoveries might one day emerge from places like Niuheliang. But their voices were easily drowned out by the turmoil of war and the predominance of established academic assumptions. The idea that a highly developed prehistoric culture might have flourished north of the Great Wall remained, at best, a fringe possibility.After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, archaeology entered a new phase. Systematic excavations expanded, and major sites from the central plains reinforced the belief that Chinese civilization had a single core. Although prehistoric cultures in the north were increasingly recognized and given names, they were still often described as regional or peripheral, developing under the influence of more advanced societies farther south. Jade objects found in private collections and museums hinted at a so
The old chapter closed. The new one hasn't opened. And the intelligent, productive part of you is getting restless — because it knows how to act and plan and figure things out. It does not know how to wait.In this eighth and final episode of The Soul's Eight Thresholds of Transformation, Nina Hirlaender OFS arrives at Yule — the Winter Solstice, the longest night, and the turning point where darkness reaches its maximum and the light begins, quietly, to return. Through the Neolithic darkness of West Kennet Long Barrow, a personal story of being forced into stillness during the 2020 pandemic, and the steady theology of Julian of Norwich, Nina explores why this threshold catches high-functioning seekers off guard — and what it means to practice trust when nothing visible confirms progress. This episode completes the full revolution of the Celtic Wheel of the Year and offers a grounded, practical way to inhabit the seasons of your life when clarity hasn't arrived yet and the only honest posture is presence.What You'll Learn:The difference between genuine trust and passive stagnation.What John of the Cross discovered about hope as a loosening of the grip — and how white-knuckling a specific outcome blocks what's actually trying to reach youWhy Julian of Norwich's "All shall be well" is a radical theological claim forged in plague and grief, and how to let it hold you in your own long winterHow a five-thousand-year-old burial chamber engineered for the midwinter sunrise teaches your body what your mind keeps refusing to learnYour Next Steps:The Celtic Shamanism in England pilgrimage (May 23 – June 2, 2026) is now SOLD OUT. To join the waitlist, reply to Nina directly: nina@dancingspirittours.comExplore all Dancing Spirit Tours pilgrimages: https://dancingspirittours.comListen to the full 8-episode series from Episode 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/holy-rebels-podcast/id1654779565?i=1000747635070Support the showRate, Review & FollowIf Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play.Not sure what to write? Try one sentence:“Holy Rebels helps me ________.”And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed.Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.comConnect: Instagram | Facebook
There's a version of you that's already over. You can feel it in the quiet dread of playing a role that stopped fitting somewhere along the way. What you haven't done yet is give it a proper ending.In this sixth episode of The Soul's Eight Thresholds of Transformation, Nina Hirlaender OFS takes you inside West Kennet Long Barrow — a 5,000-year-old Neolithic chamber in the English countryside — to explore the Autumn Equinox, the Celtic threshold of release. Through the story of Helen, a professor who spent two years carrying a devastating institutional betrayal entirely alone, Nina traces what becomes possible when you finally set down an identity that's already run its course. Drawing on Thomas Merton's theology of the true self and false self, somatic body wisdom, and the rhythms of autumn itself, this episode offers a grounded path from exhausted performance to genuine, recovered selfhood.What You'll Learn:The somatic signals your body sends when an identity has expired — and why the tiredness you feel isn't physical What Thomas Merton's theology of the true self reveals about which roles actually belong to you and which are performances you've been maintaining out of fearHow mature, conscious release differs from clinging to what's expired or letting go in a panic — and what it feels like when grief and freedom arrive togetherA 5-minute practice for releasing the false self and returning to the true self that remains underneathYour Next Steps:ONE SPOT LEFT! Register for the final Celtic Shamanism in England pilgrimage (May 23 – June 2, 2026): https://dancingspirittours.com/journeys/england/Support the showRate, Review & Follow If Holy Rebels has helped you practise your spirituality in real life, would you take 30 seconds to leave a quick rating and review? Your review helps new listeners decide to press play. Not sure what to write? Try one sentence:“Holy Rebels helps me ________.” And hit Follow so new episodes show up automatically in your feed. Show Notes: holyrebelspodcast.comConnect: Instagram | Facebook
In the depths of ancient Jericho, beneath layers of earth dating back 10,000 years, archaeologists uncovered something extraordinary: human skulls cast in plaster, their faces carefully reconstructed and their eyes set with shells. Who were these haunting figures meant to represent?In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by archaeologist Raven Todd DaSilva to explore the mysterious plastered skulls of Jericho. Dating to the Neolithic period, these striking objects reveal complex beliefs about memory, identity and the dead in some of the world's earliest farming communities. How were they made? What did they mean? And why did this unusual practice spread across the Levant? Join us to dive into one of prehistory's most compelling archaeological discoveries.MOREJericho:Listen on AppleListen on Spotify Origins of the Inuit:Listen on AppleListen on Spotify Watch this episode on our YouTube channel: @TheAncientsPodcastPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here:https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult
This episode offers a critical examination of the question of “the most ancient forms of magic” by interrogating the category of magic itself as a historically contingent and analytically unstable concept. Rather than assuming magic as a universal or transhistorical phenomenon, the discussion situates ritual practices within their specific social, cosmological, and epistemic contexts, beginning with evidence for symbolic and ritual behaviour in deep prehistory and moving through animistic and shamanic worldviews, Neolithic monumental ritual landscapes, and the first literate traditions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, South Asia, and early China.Engaging with archaeological data, comparative anthropology, and the history of religions, the episode explores how practices often labelled as magical functioned as socially embedded techniques for negotiating uncertainty, misfortune, and relational disruption in worlds understood to be animate and morally responsive. Particular attention is given to the role of materiality, speech, and ritual expertise, as well as to the gradual processes of textualisation and institutionalisation that reshape ritual efficacy in early complex societies. Rather than identifying a single origin or essence of magic, the episode argues for understanding ancient magic as a set of historically situated practices through which humans acted effectively within precarious and relational cosmologies.CONNECT & SUPPORT
News items read by Laura Kennedy include: Researchers unearth oldest handheld tools made of wood (details) Zapotec tomb in Oaxaca features symbolic owl carving (details) Ancient Taş Tepeler pillars found in Adiyaman point to an expansive Neolithic culture (details) Advanced stone technology found in China poses new questions about early East Asians (details)(details)
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk during the Winter Practice Period at Upaya, Sensei Wendy Johnson explores Dōgen's Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions for the Cook) through the metaphor of standing stones like those erected in England and the British Isles by Neolithic ancestors—ancient, grounded monuments embodying power and presence. She traces the text's origins to Tang Dynasty monastics who created… Source
Part 2 of this installment of Unearthed! features animals, swords, art, shoes, shipwrecks, and the miscellany category of potpourri. Research: Abrams, G., Auguste, P., Pirson, S. et al. Earliest evidence of Neanderthal multifunctional bone tool production from cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains. Sci Rep 15, 24010 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-08588-w Addley, Esther. “English warship sunk in 1703 storm gives up its secrets three centuries on.” The Guardian. 7/31/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/31/british-warship-hms-northumberland-1703-storm-archaeology Alberge, Dalya. “New research may rewrite origins of the Book of Kells, says academic.” The Guardian. 9/26/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/26/new-research-may-rewrite-origins-of-the-book-of-kells-says-academic Alex, Bridget et al. “Regional disparities in US media coverage of archaeology research.” Science Advances. Vol. 11, No. 27. July 2025. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt5435 American Historical Association. “Historians Defend the Smithsonian.” Updated 8/15/2015. https://www.historians.org/news/historians-defend-the-smithsonian/#statement Anderson, Sonja. “Underwater Archaeologists Capture Photos of Japanese Warship That Hasn’t Been Seen Since It Sank During World War II.” Smithsonian. 7/23/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/underwater-archaeologists-capture-photos-of-japanese-warship-that-hasnt-been-seen-since-it-sank-during-world-war-ii-180987026/ “Ancient DNA provides a new means to explore ancient diets.” Via PhysOrg. 7/1/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-ancient-dna-explore-diets.html Archaeology Magazine. “Roman Workshop Specialized in Manufacturing Nails.” 9/11/2025. https://archaeology.org/news/2025/09/11/roman-workshop-specialized-in-manufacturing-nails-for-army-boots/ Arnold, Paul. “DNA analysis reveals insights into Ötzi the Iceman's mountain neighbors.” Phys.org. 7/22/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-dna-analysis-reveals-insights-tzi.html Arnold, Paul. “Prehistoric 'Swiss army knife' made from cave lion bone discovered in Neanderthal cave.” Phys.org. 7/9/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-prehistoric-swiss-army-knife-cave.html Associated Press. “Divers recover artifacts from the Titanic’s sister ship Britannic for the first time.” 9/16/2025. https://apnews.com/article/britannic-titanic-shipwreck-recovery-9a525f9831bc0d67c1c9604cc7155765 Breen, Kerry. “Woman's remains exhumed in Oregon's oldest unidentified person case.” CBS News. 9/24/2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oak-grove-jane-doe-remains-exhumed-oregon-unidentified-person-homicide/ Croze, M., Paladin, A., Zingale, S. et al. Genomic diversity and structure of prehistoric alpine individuals from the Tyrolean Iceman’s territory. Nat Commun 16, 6431 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61601-8 Davis, Nicola. “Even Neanderthals had distinct preferences when it came to making dinner, study suggests.” The Guardian. 7/17/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/17/even-neanderthals-had-distinct-preferences-when-it-came-to-making-dinner-study-suggests Durham University. “Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production.” EurekAlert. 9/17/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1098278 “Archaeologists discover four at-risk shipwrecks on colonial waterfront at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site.” 8/4/2025. https://news.ecu.edu/2025/08/04/archaeologists-discover-four-at-risk-shipwrecks-on-colonial-waterfront-at-brunswick-town-fort-anderson-state-historic-site/ Fratsyvir, Anna. “Polish president-elect urges Ukraine to allow full exhumations of Volyn massacre victims, despite resumed work.” 7/12/2025. https://kyivindependent.com/polands-president-elect-urges-zelensky-to-allow-full-exhumations-in-volyn-as-work-already-resumes/ Fry, Devin and Jordan Gartner. “Coroner’s office identifies man 55 years later after exhuming his body from cemetery.” 7/19/2025. https://www.kltv.com/2025/07/19/coroners-office-identifies-man-55-years-later-after-exhuming-his-body-cemetery/ Guagnin, Maria et al. “12,000-year-old rock art marked ancient water sources in Arabia's desert.” Phys.org. 10/1/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-year-art-ancient-sources-arabia.html History Blog. “Medieval leather goods found in Oslo.” 7/15/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73641 Jana Matuszak, Jana. “Of Captive Storm Gods and Cunning Foxes: New Insights into Early Sumerian Mythology, with an Editoin of Ni 12501.” Iraq. Vol. 86. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq/article/of-captive-storm-gods-and-cunning-foxes-new-insights-into-early-sumerian-mythology-with-an-edition-of-ni-12501/391CFC6A9361C23A0E7AF159F565A911 Kuta, Sarah. “Cut Marks on Animal Bones Suggest Neanderthal Groups Had Their Own Unique Culinary Traditions.” Smithsonian. 7/17/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cut-marks-on-animal-bones-suggest-neanderthal-groups-had-their-own-unique-culinary-traditions-180987002/ Kuta, Sarah. “Seventy Years Later, They Finally Know What It Is.” Smithsonian. 8/1/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-found-sticky-goo-inside-a-2500-year-old-jar-70-years-later-they-finally-know-what-it-is-180987088/ Kuta, Sarah. “Underwater Archaeologists Were Looking for a Lost Shipwreck in Wisconsin. They Stumbled Upon a Different Vessel Instead.” Smithsonian. 7/16/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/underwater-archaeologists-were-looking-for-a-lost-shipwreck-in-wisconsin-they-stumbled-upon-a-different-vessel-instead-180986990/ Linköping University. “Ancient crop discovered in the Canary Islands thanks to archaeological DNA.” Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-ancient-crop-canary-islands-archaeological.html Lucchesi, Madison. “More layoffs at GBH as ‘Defunded’ sign goes viral.” Boston.com. 7/24/2025. https://www.boston.com/news/media/2025/07/24/gbh-layoffs-defunded-sign/ Luscombe, Richard. “‘It’s incredibly exciting’: ancient canoe unearthed after Hurricane Ian stormed through Florida.” The Guardian. 9/28/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/28/florida-ancient-canoes Margalida, Antoni et al. “The Bearded Vulture as an accumulator of historical remains: Insights for future ecological and biocultural studies.” Ecology. Volume 106, Issue 9. 9/11/2025. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.70191 Metcalfe, Tom. “300-year-old pirate-plundered shipwreck that once held 'eyewatering treasure' discovered off Madagascar.” Live Science. 7/3/2025. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/300-year-old-pirate-plundered-shipwreck-that-once-held-eyewatering-treasure-discovered-off-madagascar Mondal, Sanjukta. “Ancient Romans likely used extinct sea creature fossils as amulets.” Phys.org. 7/28/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-ancient-romans-extinct-sea-creature.html Morris, Steven. “Iron age settlement found in Gloucestershire after detectorist unearths Roman swords.” The Guardian. 7/4/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/04/roman-swords-gloucestershire-villa-iron-age-settlement-discovery Mullett, Russell et al. “Precious finger traces from First Nations ancestors revealed in a glittering mountain cave in Australia.” Phys.org. 7/28/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-precious-finger-nations-ancestors-revealed.html Ocean Exploration Trust. “Expedition reveals 13 shipwrecks from WWII battles off Guadalcanal.” Phys.org. 8/4/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-reveals-shipwrecks-wwii-guadalcanal.html Oster, Sandee. “Study translates fragmentary ancient Sumerian myth around 4,400 years old.” Phys.org. 7/22/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-fragmentary-ancient-sumerian-myth-years.html Paul, Andrew. “130-year-old butter bacteria discovered in Danish basement.” Popular Science. 9/15/2025. https://www.popsci.com/science/old-butter-basement-discovery/ Penn, Tim. “Big Roman shoes discovered near Hadrian's Wall—but they don't necessarily mean big Roman feet.” Phys.org. 7/20/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-big-roman-hadrian-wall-dont.html#google_vignette Pogrebin, Robin and Graham Bowley. “Smithsonian Responds to Trump’s Demand for a Review of Its Exhibits.” New York Times. 9/3/2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/arts/design/smithsonian-bunch-trump.html Preston, Elizabeth. “Scientists found a 650-year-old shoe in a vulture nest. That’s just the start of it.’ National Geographic. 10/1/2025. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/vulture-nest-was-hiding-a-650-year-old-shoe Reilly, Adam. “GBH lays off 13 staff at American Experience, pauses production of new documentaries.” GBH. 7/22/2025. https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-07-22/gbh-lays-off-13-staff-at-american-experience-pauses-production-of-new-documentaries Richmond, Todd. “Searchers discover ‘ghost ship’ that sank in Lake Michigan almost 140 years ago.” Associated Press. 9/15/2025. https://apnews.com/article/lake-michigan-schooner-shipwreck-door-county-ccff930d8cd87f3597483938f8fb4fd6 Savat, Sarah. “Discovery expands understanding of Neolithic agricultural practices, diets in East Asia.” EurekAlert. 9/24/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1099662 Seb Falk, James Wade, The Lost Song of Wade: Peterhouse 255 Revisited, The Review of English Studies, Volume 76, Issue 326, October 2025, Pages 339–365, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgaf038 Smith, Kiona N. “Oldest wooden tools in East Asia may have come from any of three species.” Ars Technica. 7/7/2025. https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/07/did-denisovans-or-homo-erectus-make-the-oldest-wooden-tools-in-east-asia/ The Catholic Herald. “Plans in train to exhume holy remains of martyr St Thomas More.” 7/14/2025. https://thecatholicherald.com/article/plans-in-train-to-exhume-holy-remains-of-martyr-st-thomas-more The History Blog. “1600-year-old iron scale, weights found in Turkey.” 7/10/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73597 The History Blog. “2,500-year-old honey identified in ancient offering.” 7/31/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73776 The History Blog. “Kushan vessel inscribed with woman’s name found in Tajikistan.” 7/8/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73582 The History Blog. “Medieval sword fished out of Vistula in Warsaw.” 7/7/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73574 The History Blog. “Unique 3D mural 3,000-4,000 years old found in Peru.” 7/30/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73769 The White House. “Letter to the Smithsonian: Internal Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions and Materials.” 8/12/2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/08/letter-to-the-smithsonian-internal-review-of-smithsonian-exhibitions-and-materials/ Thorsberg, Christian. “A Tiny Typo May Explain a Centuries-Old Mystery About Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ and ‘Troilus and Criseyde’.” Smithsonian. 7/16/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-tiny-typo-may-explain-a-centuries-old-mystery-about-chaucers-canterbury-tales-and-troilus-and-criseyde-180986991/ University of Cambridge. “Scholars just solved a 130-year literary mystery—and it all hinged on one word.” 7/16/2025. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250716000855.htm Vindolanda Trust. “Magna Shoes.” 7/2/2025. https://www.vindolanda.com/news/magna-shoes Whiddington, Richard. “$2 Thrift Store Plate Turns Out to Be Rare Chinese Porcelain Worth Thousands.” Artnet. 8/21/2025. https://news.artnet.com/market/chinese-porcelain-uk-thrift-store-auction-2680013 Whiddington, Richard. “Famed Antikythera Shipwreck Yields More Astonishing Discoveries.” Artnet News. 7/16/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/antikythera-shipwreck-more-discoveries-2668217 Whiddington, Richard. “Scholars Crack 130-Year-Old Mystery Behind a Lost Medieval Epic.” 7/17/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/song-of-wade-mystery-chaucer-2668558 Whiddington, Richard. “Sunken Clues Reveal Identity of Mysterious Scottish Shipwreck.” Artnet. 7/25/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/scotland-shipwreck-sanday-2671342 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Part one of this quarter's installment of Unearthed! features things related to books and letters, and edibles and potables, and as we usually do, we are starting this installment of Unearthed with updates. Research: Abrams, G., Auguste, P., Pirson, S. et al. Earliest evidence of Neanderthal multifunctional bone tool production from cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains. Sci Rep 15, 24010 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-08588-w Addley, Esther. “English warship sunk in 1703 storm gives up its secrets three centuries on.” The Guardian. 7/31/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/31/british-warship-hms-northumberland-1703-storm-archaeology Alberge, Dalya. “New research may rewrite origins of the Book of Kells, says academic.” The Guardian. 9/26/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/26/new-research-may-rewrite-origins-of-the-book-of-kells-says-academic Alex, Bridget et al. “Regional disparities in US media coverage of archaeology research.” Science Advances. Vol. 11, No. 27. July 2025. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt5435 American Historical Association. “Historians Defend the Smithsonian.” Updated 8/15/2015. https://www.historians.org/news/historians-defend-the-smithsonian/#statement Anderson, Sonja. “Underwater Archaeologists Capture Photos of Japanese Warship That Hasn’t Been Seen Since It Sank During World War II.” Smithsonian. 7/23/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/underwater-archaeologists-capture-photos-of-japanese-warship-that-hasnt-been-seen-since-it-sank-during-world-war-ii-180987026/ “Ancient DNA provides a new means to explore ancient diets.” Via PhysOrg. 7/1/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-ancient-dna-explore-diets.html Archaeology Magazine. “Roman Workshop Specialized in Manufacturing Nails.” 9/11/2025. https://archaeology.org/news/2025/09/11/roman-workshop-specialized-in-manufacturing-nails-for-army-boots/ Arnold, Paul. “DNA analysis reveals insights into Ötzi the Iceman's mountain neighbors.” Phys.org. 7/22/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-dna-analysis-reveals-insights-tzi.html Arnold, Paul. “Prehistoric 'Swiss army knife' made from cave lion bone discovered in Neanderthal cave.” Phys.org. 7/9/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-prehistoric-swiss-army-knife-cave.html Associated Press. “Divers recover artifacts from the Titanic’s sister ship Britannic for the first time.” 9/16/2025. https://apnews.com/article/britannic-titanic-shipwreck-recovery-9a525f9831bc0d67c1c9604cc7155765 Breen, Kerry. “Woman's remains exhumed in Oregon's oldest unidentified person case.” CBS News. 9/24/2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oak-grove-jane-doe-remains-exhumed-oregon-unidentified-person-homicide/ Croze, M., Paladin, A., Zingale, S. et al. Genomic diversity and structure of prehistoric alpine individuals from the Tyrolean Iceman’s territory. 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