Peopling the Past
Subscribed: 86Played: 1,190
Subscribe
© Chelsea Gardner, Melissa Funke
Description
Join hosts Dr. Chelsea Gardner and Dr. Melissa Funke for a journey through under-explored aspects of archaeology, history, and everyday life in the ancient Mediterranean. Every week we feature an expert whose cutting-edge research sheds light on the real people who lived in ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, and beyond. Follow us on Twitter @peoplingthepast with the #peoplingpodcast, on Instagram and Facebook @peoplingthepast, and on our website peoplingthepast.com.
50 Episodes
Reverse
Join us for the final episode of season 4, featuring Dr. Yannis Hamilakis, who talks to Chelsea and Melissa about his vision for a decolonial future for ancient archaeology. Listen in as Yannis tells us about how archaeology is a living, breathing practice that must recognize its relationship to the present and discusses his work with his students at Brown University as well as in the field in Greece.
In times of ongoing war, how can antiquities be protected from damage and looting? On today's episode, Dr. Isber Sabrine, the co-founder of Heritage for Peace, joins us to talk about his work preserving cultural heritage in the midst of armed conflict. Listen in as Isber discusses the importance of local communities in remembering their own pasts and the organizations working to give voice to those impacted by conflict.
How can archaeologists connect to the communities that share the cultural heritage they work on? Dr. Zena Kamash joins Chelsea and Melissa this week to discuss her work with Iraqi communities in the UK and in Iraq itself as she uses craftwork to bring the public together with cultural heritage and to foster wellbeing. Listen in as Zena tells us how she builds community through cautious intention and how outreach can be most effective on a personal scale.
How should we confront modern inequities in ancient Mediterranean studies? Is it possible to reenvision the place of Greece and Rome in the ancient world overall? In this week's episode, Dr. Mathura Umachandran joins Chelsea and Melissa to reimagine Classics through the lens of Critical Ancient World Studies (CAWS). Join us as we discuss the work of the CAWS collective in expanding our understanding of ancient studies and Mathura shares their vision of a future that embraces the complex truth of the place of "Classics" in the ancient and modern worlds.
What happens to people and antiquities when giant dams are built and lands are flooded? In this week's episode, Dr. William Carruthers joins Chelsea and Melissa to talk about the construction of dams on the Nile and their impact on Nubian communities as well as ancient sites along the river. Listen in as Dr. Carruthers explores what it means to move entire temple complexes and whole towns while preserving the tourist's view from the Nile.
Who counts as an archaeologist? Contrary to images from popular culture, excavation teams are a diverse group working to produce knowledge of the past. In this week's episode, Dr. Allison Mickel speaks with Chelsea and Melissa about the knowledge and labour that local communities contribute to archaeological digs in Jordan and Turkey. Listen in as Dr. Mickel talks about what expertise really means, how visiting archaeologists interact with the communities they work in, and how labour issues shape archaeological practices.
What makes Classics classic? How did members of elite British society use ancient Greek and Roman culture to shape their own identities on the Grand Tour? In this episode, Hardeep Dhindsa joins Chelsea and Melissa to discuss the relationship between classical culture and imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. Listen in to find out more about early archaeology, the scandalous red wall paintings of Pompeii, and how ancient culture was used to shape selective ideas of whiteness.
How did objects from around the globe and across millenia end up in major museums, far from their places of origin? What role has empire played in shaping modern museums? For this episode, Chelsea and Melissa Speak with Dan Hicks about how culture has been used to define and reinforce racial inequities through the collection and display of objects and human remains in cultural museums. Listen in as Dan explores the history of the cultural museum and how they might re-think their relationship to the spoils of empire.
The story of natural history museums and their relationship to ancient objects, but also people, is entangled with colonialism and capitalism. How should modern curators begin unravelling such a tangled web? In this episode, Dr. Lisa Saladino Haney joins Chelsea and Melissa to discuss her curatorial work with the Egyptian collection at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Listen in as Dr. Haney talks about connecting collections and source communities, respectful treatment of human remains in museum collections, and the patience required to address these issues with the care they require.
What happens when Egyptomania overshadows contemporary Egyptian people? This week Heba Abd el-Gawad joins Chelsea and Melissa to discuss the relationship between modern Egyptian communities and Egyptian antiquities in museums around the world. Listen in as we learn about the work of the Egypt's Dispersed Heritage: Views from Egypt project, how Egyptian voices are being amplified in conversations about decolonizing museums, and the ongoing challenges of that work.
Forged provenance, forensic investigations, and placing ancient papyri in dish soap! In this episode, scholar Dr. Roberta Mazza shares tales from the black market papyrus trade, taking us from Egypt to Oxford to Waco, Texas. Listen in as we learn how wealthy collectors have influenced the antiquities trade and forced us to rethink our approach to ancient texts and their contexts. And yes, we do talk about THAT Sappho fragment!
1For the first episode of our season on cultural heritage and legacies of colonialism, we look at the role of messaging apps and social media in the black market antiquities trade. Katie Paul joins Chelsea and Melissa to discuss the 'digital underworld' that supports looting and trafficking and her work with ATHAR (Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research). Listen in as Katie tells us how digital networking has transformed the way cultural properties move around the world.
Peopling the Past Podcast is BACK for a fourth season on a very exciting topic: Cultural Heritage and Legacies of Colonialism. Join your hosts Dr. Chelsea Gardner and Dr. Melissa Funke with special guest Dr. Christine Johnston for an introduction to SEASON FOUR of the Peopling the Past podcast! This season is slightly different from our previous three seasons, because we're shifting our focus for these episodes to the theme from ancient people to modern issues with cultural heritage and legacies of colonialism. So, listeners, you can expect to hear from world-class scholars about ongoing inequities and issues facing the fields of archaeology, museum studies, and Mediterranean history today. Topics include everything from museum collections, descendent communities, identity, looting, forgery, water and resource management, the field of "Classics", the antiquities trade and social media, local labour, knowledge production, and how modern people from across the globe engage with the ancient world. Follow us on our website, https://peoplingthepast.com, on Twitter, Instagram, and BlueSky @peoplingthepast and on our Facebook page Peopling the Past. Tag us with #peoplingpodcast. It's going to be a great year, so make sure to subscribe now!
For the final episode of our season on women in the ancient Mediterranean, we feature the most famous woman in antiquity: Cleopatra! Dr. Shelley Haley joins Chelsea and Melissa to untangle the image of Cleopatra as a seductive manipulator and to challenge assumptions, misconceptions, and preconceived notions about her persona and reign. Listen in as Dr. Haley talks about Cleopatra as an African ruler and unpacks the sensationalized narratives about this talented and canny Egyptian pharoah. Come for the Plutarch, stay for the Beyonce!
Travel, displacement, religious pilgrimage - these are just some of the motivations for ancient migration, but how and why did people move from one place to another in antiquity? This week, Chelsea and Melissa are joined by Dr. Marie-Adeline Le Guennec, a historian of Roman mobility and migration. Listen in as Dr. Le Guennec talks about the ways in which women moved around the Roman Empire, the few sources that document this movement, and how modern scholars examine issues of mobility in the Roman world. We guarantee: this episode will really move you!
In today's episode, Dr. Anna Bonnell Freidin joins Melissa and Chelsea to talk about risk, pregnancy, and childbirth in the ancient Roman empire. Listen in as we discuss the definitions of risk in various contexts, how women's lives were affected by risks associated with pregnancy, childbearing, and delivery, and how the concept of communities of care might link us to people who lived long ago. This episode discusses infant and maternal death, so might not be appropriate for our youngest listeners.
Ah, youth! We are all familiar with that mysterious and formative period of life between childhood and adulthood, but how did the ancient Romans describe this time of transition? In this episode, social historian Dr. Lauren Caldwell joins Chelsea and Melissa to talk about aspects of Roman "girlhood" and the difficult transition to "womanhood". Listen in, as we dive into ancient Latin medical and legal texts to learn how the ancient Romans grappled with puberty and the various changes that took place in the female body that differentiated girls (puellae) from the women (feminae) they would become.
We're celebrating Black History and African Heritage month with a very special episode on the women of ancient Nubia! Join Chelsea and Melissa as they welcome Dr. Jacke Phillips, an expert in Nubian history and archaeology, to the show. In this episode, we discuss women in ancient Nubia, from rulers and royals to the lives of everyday women. Listen in as Dr. Phillips introduces a variety of evidence, including graves, tattoos, statues, and historical sources. You'll also learn the origin of the name "Candace"! Don't miss this very special episode on a fascinating region of the ancient world.
What better way to understand the real lives of everyday folk in the ancient Mediterranean than to look at the bones of the people themselves? On this episode, Chelsea and Melissa welcome Dr. Efthymia Nikita, a bioarchaeologist who studies the surviving skeletal remains of ancient humans. Dr. Nikita shares her research and explains how bones can provide crucial information for understanding how people in the past lived, not just how they died. Join us as Dr. Nikita explores the way in which skeletal remains of ancient women can shed light on their mobility, sickness, diet, societal roles, and more!
Countless faces of real people survive in ancient portraiture, but how often do we know their names, or anything about their lives? In this episode, Dr. Judith Swaddling joins Melissa and Chelsea to talk about Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, an Etruscan woman who lived over 2000 years ago in Italy. Seianti is an incredible person to get to know, since we have a full-sized portrait of her lying atop her sarcophagus, as well as the physical remains of her skeleton. Listen in as Dr. Swaddling reveals the layers of Seianti's past and discusses the limits to how much we can actually know about any one person from the ancient Mediterranean world.
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States
I am so glad that "Peopling the Past" is back for another marvelous season. Dr. Chelsea Gardner and Dr. Melissa Funke, you were sorely missed. The focus this season on "Women in the Ancient World" is long overdue! I can hardly wait for all the new episodes! Thank you!
One obvious way to get the right kind of brushes would be to import the brushes or to import the pelts or even the live animals. They made pottery in Egypt, in Italy, from Ionia.
Useful data point for the study dwellings are the units of floor space. 1 square meter is approximately 3.25 feet on each side or 10.56 square feet. So a fair estimate of 60 square meters is a bit over 600 square feet (10 * 60).
In Boston and NYC neighborhood religious groups associated with Catholic churches hold festivals, some lasting 3 days and others only one day are held in the summer months. Usually a statue of a saint is paraded through the neighborhood. Participants pin money to garlands of ribbons attached to the statue. The money raised benefits various charities. While ostensibly a relgious affair, this is also very much a commercial enterprise featuring local restaurants, wine bars, street vendors, and the like. There is also music and large crowds of people out to enjoy themselves and share in the local customs. These processions usually harken back to the hometowns of early Italian immigrants to the US where similar festivals were held.
Highly recommend this fascinating podcast!
FASCINATING!!! SO INTERESTING!! FIVE STARS! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐