The Dirt Podcast

Anna and Amber sit down to chat about the Denisovans, the human ancestors we didn't know we had until recently. Learn about what evidence we have for Denisovans, the traits for which we can thank them, and some of the mysteries that remain. Come for big reveals about what's in human DNA, stay for ample use of phrases like "bouts of interbreeding." To learn more, check out: Meet the Denisovans [http://discovermagazine.com/2016/dec/meet-the-denisovans] (Discover) First Confirmed Denisovan Skull Piece Found [https://www.sapiens.org/evolution/denisovan-skull-found/] (Sapiens) The first known fossil of a Denisovan skull has been found in a Siberian cave [https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-fossil-denisovan-skull-cave-siberia] (ScienceNews) Denisovans, A Mysterious Kind Of Ancient Humans, Are Traced To Tibet [https://www.npr.org/2019/05/01/718729011/denisovans-a-mysterious-form-of-ancient-humans-are-traced-to-tibet] (NPR) Found: First Tibetan Evidence of Neanderthal Cousins, the Denisovans [https://www.livescience.com/65402-denisovans-tibetan-plateau.html] (LiveScience) Why Am I Denisovan? [https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/denisovan/] (National Geographic) We may have bred with Denisovans much more recently than we thought [https://www.newscientist.com/article/2198349-we-may-have-bred-with-denisovans-much-more-recently-than-we-thought/] (New Scientist) A world map of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry in modern humans [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160328133514.htm] (ScienceDaily) DNA Shows The Denisovans Have At Least 3 Distinct Branches [https://www.techtimes.com/articles/241303/20190412/dna-shows-the-denisovans-have-at-least-3-distinct-branches.htm] (Tech Times) Mum’s a Neanderthal, Dad’s a Denisovan: First discovery of an ancient-human hybrid [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06004-0] (Nature) Denisovans and Neanderthals Interbred in a Giant Cave [https://daily.jstor.org/denisovans-and-neanderthals-interbred-in-a-giant-cave/] (Jstor Daily) Bone suggests ‘Red Deer Cave people’ a mysterious species of human [https://theconversation.com/bone-suggests-red-deer-cave-people-a-mysterious-species-of-human-52437] (The Conversation)

This week, Amber is recovering from a nasty cold that has left her normally dulcet tones extremely froggy. So we've made lemons out of that germy lemonade (ew, sorry). It's an episode about the archaeology, prehistory, and history of the common cold! Learn how to tell if a skeleton had the sniffles, figure out if there are ghosts in your colon, uncover the great Vitamin C scam, and more! CONTENT WARNING: A case study from ancient Nimrud includes brief mention of a post-mortem treatment for burial that some listeners may find upsetting! For more on this episode's topics: Humans are 8% virus – how the ancient viral DNA in your genome plays a role in human disease and development [https://theconversation.com/humans-are-8-virus-how-the-ancient-viral-dna-in-your-genome-plays-a-role-in-human-disease-and-development-192322] (The Conversation) Prehistoric viruses smuggled genes into our DNA [https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/biochemistry/Prehistoric-viruses-smuggled-genes-DNA/100/i15] (Chemical & Engineering News) Cold Virus Found To Manipulate Genes [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081024084206.htm] (ScienceDaily) Sequences capture the code of the common cold [https://news.wisc.edu/sequences-capture-the-code-of-the-common-cold/] (University of Wisconsin) Common cold virus may predate modern humans, ancient DNA hints [https://www.livescience.com/ancient-viruses-dna-found-in-teeth.html] (Live Science) Paleomedicine and the Evolutionary Context of Medicinal Plant Use [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7546135/] (Nature Public Health Emergency Collection) Cowabunga! Horn reveals herbal mixtures used by medieval healers in South Africa [https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20230218-cowabunga-horn-reveals-herbal-mixtures-used-by-medieval-healers-in-south-africa] (RFI) Africa's Medical History Revealed [https://origins.osu.edu/review/africas-medical-history-revealed?language_content_entity=en] (Origins) Infectious Diseases in the Archaeological Record [https://emberarchaeology.ca/infectious-diseases-in-the-archaeological-record/] (Ember Archaeology) Disease concepts and classifications in ancient Mesopotamian medicine [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9780203703045-9/disease-concepts-classifications-ancient-mesopotamian-medicine-ulrike-steinert] (Systems of Classification in Premodern Medical Cultures) The Life and Health of Assyrian Queens [https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2015/06/the-life-and-health-of-assyrian-queens/] (Ancient Near East Today) Cold Sore Virus Detected in Ancient Human Remains [https://www.archaeology.org/news/10790-220826-cold-sore-virus] (Archaeology) Common cold: The centuries-old battle against the sniffles [https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15095924] (BBC News) Medical Practitioners: Ancient Legacy [http://web.mnstate.edu/taylorse/course_i_teach/history-374-plagues-and/medical-practitioners-ancie.html] (Prof. Sean Taylor, MSU Moorhead) Ancient Egyptian Medicine: A Systematic Review [https://philarchive.org/archive/ADUAEM] (Philosophy, Social and Human Disciplines) Glossary of Medical Terms Used in the 18th and 19th Centuries [https://www.thornber.net/medicine/html/medgloss.html] (Craig Thornber) Ethnobotany of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia, Asteraceae) and Other Echinacea Species [https://kindscher.ku.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Kindscher-1989-Ethnobotany-of-Purple-Conflower.pdf] (Economic Botany) How Linus Pauling duped America into believing vitamin C cures colds [https://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7547741/vitamin-c-myth-pauling] (Vox) Archaeobotanical evidence of the use of medicinal cannabis in a secular context unearthed from south China [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037887412100341X] (ScienceDirect)

We're doing something different this week while Amber is on a whirlwind tour of life admin stuff. In response to some of the conflict over Graham Hancock's Ancient Apocalypse show on Netflix, Anna has been writing about the double-edged sword of creating archaeology content online. Social media can be a useful tool, but it can also be...well, not great. So, we figured, why not cover two types of content in one! The plan is to make a short series of minisodes out of the process of writing an article about archaeology for the public. We can talk to fellow content makers, editors, and others who contribute to the creative process. Let us know if you'd like to hear more of this kind of thing at thedirtpodcast@gmail.com! For extra context on archaeologists' response to Ancient Apocalypse: Anna's columns for SAPIENS: https://www.sapiens.org/?s=&column%5B%5D=field-trips The Familiar Strange on pseudoscience: https://thefamiliarstrange.com/2022/11/21/victorian-pseudoscience/ Open letter from the Society of American Archaeology to Netflix: http://saa.org/quick-nav/saa-media-room/saa-news/2022/12/01/saa-sends-letter-to-netflix-concerning-ancient-apocalypse-series Ella al-Shamahi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ella_AlShamahi/status/1599474951823577088 Dangers of pseudoscience: https://www.dw.com/en/netflix-ancient-apocalypse-series-marks-dangerous-trend-experts-say/a-64033733 John Hoopes' comments on Hancock: https://news.ku.edu/2022/10/25/professor-can-comment-netflixs-ancient-apocalypse-how-pseudoarchaeology-can-reinforce Atlantis is a fictional city: https://www.thoughtco.com/platos-atlantis-from-the-timaeus-119667 Bill Farley on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLFtC_OSpX4 Flint Dibble's article on Ancient Apocalypse for SAPIENS: https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/ancient-apocalypse-pseudoscience/

This week, Anna has some big questions about the Pleiades, a group of bright, beautiful stars also known as the Seven Sisters. The myth of seven sisters that were turned into stars is remarkably consistent across multiple cultures. Also, it's always seven sisters, even though you can really only make out six with the naked eye. So what's going on? IS IT ALIENS?? No, of course not. It's much more interesting than that. Tune in to learn just how long humans have been telling each other stories under the stars. Resources for this episode: The Founding of the Seven Sisters [https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/notable-events/the-seven-sisters/#:~:text=Nicknamed%20The%20Seven%20Sisters%2C%20the,in%20order%20to%20combat%20%E2%80%9Cthe%E2%80%A6] (Vassar Encyclopedia) Pleiades [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(Greek_mythology)] (Wikipedia) How Many Pleiades Can YOU See? [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/many-pleiades-can-see10222014/] (Sky & Telescope) Marra Wonga: Archaeological and contemporary First Nations interpretations of one of central Queensland’s largest rock art sites [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03122417.2022.2084666] (Australian Archaeology) Why are there Seven Sisters? [https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.09170.pdf%E2%80%8B] (Advancing Cultural Astronomy) The world's oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about 'seven sisters' stars may reach back 100,000 years [https://theconversation.com/amp/the-worlds-oldest-story-astronomers-say-global-myths-about-seven-sisters-stars-may-reach-back-100-000-years-151568] (The Conversation) Story Of The "Seven Sisters" Unfolds Across Enormous Ancient Australian Rock Art Site [https://www.iflscience.com/story-of-the-seven-sisters-unfolds-across-enormous-rock-art-site-65473] (IFLScience)

We've discussed Neanderthals quite a bit on The Dirt (it's a whole section of Anna's contract). But while we've talked about their diet, their bodies, and their genes, we haven't spent much time thinking about their daily life, their living spaces, and the idea of "home." How did Neanderthals organize their domestic spaces? How do you make a cave cozy? How did people keep track of familiar places tens of thousands of years ago? What's cooking at Chez Neanderthal? Tune in to learn more! Show notes: Organization of residential space, site function variability, and seasonality of activities among MIS 5 Iberian Neandertals [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-24430-z] (Scientific Reports) Neanderthals in the Levant: Behavioural Organization and the Beginnings of Human Modernity [https://books.google.com/books?id=FTUdCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false] (Google Books) Why this spot on the Jersey coast was like a magnet for Neanderthals [https://theconversation.com/why-this-spot-on-the-jersey-coast-was-like-a-magnet-for-neanderthals-70369] (The Conversation) Sleeping Activity Area within the Site Structure of Archaic Human Groups Evidence from Abric Romani Level N Combustion Activity Areas [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/210271399_Sleeping_Activity_Area_within_the_Site_Structure_of_Archaic_Human_Groups_Evidence_from_Abric_Romani_Level_N_Combustion_Activity_Areas] (Current Anthropology) Variability of limestone knapping methods in Middle Palaeolithic levels M and Ob of Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-021-01443-9] (Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences) Neanderthal Homes Were at The Cutting edge of Modern Living [https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology/news/2018/09/20-neanderthal-homes-at-cutting-edge-of-modern-living.page] (University of Southampton) Palaeolithic wooden artefacts from the Abric Romani (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030544039290040A] (ScienceDirect) The Paleolithic Age Cooked Up Creative Chefs [https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/paleolithic-creative-chefs/] (Sapiens) Vegetation and climate record from Abric Romaní (Capellades, northeast Iberia) during the Upper Pleistocene (MIS 5d−3) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379119303051] (ScienceDirect) Abundant molds of wooden remains were found in the Abric Romaní site evidences from 60,000 years old Neanderthal communities [https://iphesnews.wordpress.com/2019/08/26/abundant-molds-of-wooden-remains-were-found-in-the-abric-romani-site-evidences-from-60000-years-old-neanderthal-communities/] (IPHES News) Neandertal Behavior at the Middle Palaeolithic Site of Abric Romaní, Capellades, Spain [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3181461] (Journal of Field Archaeology) Neanderthals: an ecologically selective species? Experimental methods to research fire use in the Abric Romani rockshelter [https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2465722] (UK Research and Innovation) Science: Good housekeeping, Neanderthal style [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13718562-800-science-good-housekeeping-neanderthal-style/] (New Scientist) The complexity of Neanderthal technology [https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1800461115] (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) Neanderthals may have enjoyed hot baths at home in their caves [https://www.cnet.com/science/neanderthals-may-have-enjoyed-hot-baths-at-home-in-their-caves/] (Cnet) Archaeologists "Exceptional Find" Reveals Secrets Of Human Origins [https://www.madridmetropolitan.com/archaeologists-exceptional-find-reveals-secrets-of-human-origins/] (Madrid Metropolitan)