Dirt Bags: An Archaeology Podcast

An archaeologist, a manuscript forger and seven dogs called Dash. What could possibly go wrong?This week on Dirt Bags, Nat takes over the storytelling and Louise discovers she is very badly prepared for the emotional consequences of bringing dogs on archaeological expeditions.We’re following Aurel Stein across the Silk Roads, through desert ruins in pursuit of fake ancient manuscripts and a remarkable library hidden inside a cave at Dunhuang. There are donkey disputes, missing toes and some extremely questionable ideas about whose history you’re entitled to pack up and take home.Celebrated explorer or extraordinarily determined looter? There’s plenty to dig into. Once we’ve finished talking about the dogs.Enjoyed the episode? Follow Dirt Bags and recommend us to a friend. Word of mouth makes a huge difference to our little independent podcast.Sponsored by DigVentures, where archaeology is for everyone. Find out how to join a dig or explore the past from home: https://digventures.comContent note: discussion of colonialism, racism, looting and animal deaths.SOURCES AND FURTHER READINGMain books used in this episode:• Jeannette Mirsky, Sir Aurel Stein: Archaeological Explorer (University of Chicago Press, 1977).Nat’s main source for Stein’s life, expeditions and correspondence.https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo5939923.html• Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia (John Murray, 1980).The international race for Central Asian antiquities, including Stein’s dealings at Dunhuang.Also quoted in the episode:• The British Academy, “Sir Aurel Stein, 1862–1943.”A contemporary biographical memoir reflecting the admiration Stein attracted in British scholarly circles.https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/4737/29p329.pdfFurther reading and collections:• International Dunhuang Programme, “Discovering Cave 17.”The discovery of the Library Cave by Wang Yuanlu, Stein’s negotiations and the dispersal of its contents.https://idp.bl.uk/discover/learning/dunhuang/dunhuang-articles/cave-17-the-library-cave/discovering-cave-17/• Ursula Sims-Williams, “Islam Akhun,” Encyclopaedia Iranica.The manuscript forger, his invented scripts and how Stein exposed the operation.https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/islam-akhun/• International Dunhuang Programme, Stein Collection.Explore manuscripts, paintings and other material collected during Stein’s expeditions.https://idp.bl.uk/discover/collection-categories/stein-collection/

In 1875, Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon travelled into the forests of Yucatán with 100 soldiers, a 200-pound box of photographic equipment and a plan to investigate the ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá.Their fieldwork produced an extraordinary photographic record and the excavation of a remarkable sculpture now known as a Chacmool. It all started so well, but then they started making stuff up. Their interpretation produced Queen Móo, her murdered brother-husband Prince Coh, the lost land of Mu and a theory connecting the ancient Maya with Egypt, Greece, India and Freemasonry.Louise tells Nat the story of two skilled photographers, two pioneering fieldworkers and two absolutely terrible historians.DIRT BAGS is the comedy archaeology podcast uncovering the rivalries, disasters, stolen credit and extremely questionable methods behind some of archaeology’s biggest discoveries.Sponsored by DigVentures.SOURCES AND FURTHER READINGLawrence G. Desmond and Phyllis M. Messenger, A Dream of Maya: Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon in Nineteenth-Century Yucatan, University of New Mexico Press, 1988:https://archive.org/details/dreamofmayaaugus0000desmLawrence G. Desmond, Yucatán Through Her Eyes: Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, Writer and Expeditionary Photographer, University of New Mexico Press, 2009:https://search.worldcat.org/title/276228932Sean McDaniel, “The Lure of Móo,” Archaeology Magazine, January/February 2007:https://archive.archaeology.org/0701/abstracts/plongeon.htmlAugustus and Alice Dixon Le Plongeon Papers, Getty Research Institute:https://www.getty.edu/research/collections/collection/113YAVAugustus and Alice Dixon Le Plongeon Photographs, Online Archive of California:https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8kp859t/Stephen Salisbury Jr., The Mayas, the Sources of Their History; Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, His Account of Discoveries, 1877:https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29723Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, Queen Móo’s Talisman: The Fall of the Maya Empire, 1902:https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47842

In 1908, architect Frederick Bligh Bond was appointed to excavate Glastonbury Abbey. He made a series of remarkable discoveries, including the long-lost Edgar Chapel. Then he revealed that dead monks had been telling him where to dig. In this episode of DIRT BAGS, Louise, Nat and guest host Harriet investigate Britain’s most famous psychic archaeologist, his automatic-writing sessions with John Allen Bartlett and the mysterious voices that appeared to provide measurements, plans and extremely convenient excavation advice. Along the way, we meet a medieval stonemason with strong opinions about beer, fishing and being fat-shamed by his fellow monks. Was Bond receiving messages from beyond the grave, unconsciously drawing upon his considerable archaeological knowledge, or simply making the evidence fit a very good story? DIRT BAGS is a comedy archaeology podcast sponsored by DigVentures. SOURCES AND FURTHER READINGFrederick Bligh Bond, The Gate of Remembrance (1918)Roberta Gilchrist and Cheryl Green, Glastonbury Abbey: Archaeological Investigations 1904–79, Society of Antiquaries of London, (2015)https://research.reading.ac.uk/glastonburyabbeyarchaeology/“Glastonbury Abbey,” Current Archaeology. An overview of the modern reassessment, including Bond’s unsupported reconstruction of the apsidal Edgar Chapel:https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/glastonbury-abbey.htmTim Hopkinson-Ball, The Rediscovery of Glastonbury: Frederick Bligh Bond, Architect of the New Age, Sutton Publishing, 2007.And a shout-out to Zakia Sewell, whose brilliant book helped send us down the Glastonbury rabbit hole. Zakia Sewell, Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain, Hodder Press, 2026:

Was Nabonidus, the last King of Babylon, also the world’s first archaeologist? More than 2,500 years ago, Nabonidus excavated ancient temples, searched for foundation deposits and attempted to date buildings. Unfortunately, he was also supposed to be running a huge empire.  Instead, he disappeared off to another country for ten years, became deeply devoted to the moon god and repeatedly missed an important festival in which he was supposed to be publicly slapped. In our new episode, Louise and Nat meet the man dubbed ‘the world’s first archaeologist’ and are probably about to annoy every West Asia expert on the planet with their comedy take on some very ancient texts. Dirt Bags is a comedy archaeology podcast made by DigVentures SOURCES AND FURTHER READING BEAULIEU, P.-A. (1989). Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon (556-539 BC). Yale University Press. The Nabonidus Chronicle, British Museum collection The Nabonidus Chronicle, translated by R. J. van der Spek on livius.org The Last King of Babylon. Archaeology Magazine, March/April 2022 Mirelman, Sam (2022) The Babylonian Akitu Festival and the Ritual Humiliation of the King. Ancient Near East Today, Vol 10.9 All inscription translations can be found at oracc.museum.upenn.edu 

Heinrich Schliemann is the legendary bronze age archaeologist who claimed to have discovered Troy, unearthed the treasure of King Priam and proved that Homer’s Iliad was based on real events.But before all that, he had already survived a shipwreck, joined the California Gold Rush, made a fortune supplying the Crimean War and conducted a surprisingly businesslike search for a new wife.From pigs and Russian steam baths to buried treasure and extremely questionable excavation methods, Louise and Nat dig into his extraordinary life.SOURCES AND FURTHER READINGHeinrich Schliemann, Ilios (1880) and Ithaka, der Peloponnes und Troja (1869)Emil Ludwig, Schliemann: The Story of a Gold-Seeker (1932)David A. Traill, Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit (1995)Susan Heuck Allen, Finding the Walls of Troy (1999)Christo Thanos and Wout Arentzen, eds., Schliemann and the California Gold Rush (2014