Tides of History

Latest Episodes:

Ancient South Asia Apr 29, 2021

Show notes

South Asia - encompassing Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan - is one of the cradles of human civilization, and today it's home to one in every four people in the world. But who were the early inhabitants of South Asia, where had they come from, and what led them to develop agriculture, writing, cities, and some of the ancient world's most complex and populous societies?

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder (in hard copy, e-book, or audiobook) The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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Bananas, Civilization, and Ancient Farming in New Guinea: Interview with Professor Tim Denham Apr 22, 2021

Show notes

Professor Tim Denham is one of the world's leading experts on Kuk Swamp, the most important archaeological site for understanding the origins of agriculture in New Guinea. He explains how we can use cutting-edge techniques in the study of ancient soils and tiny bits of plant to understand these fascinating past developments. We also talk about "civilization," the invention of agriculture in global context, and why it took so long to understand New Guinea as an agricultural center.

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder (in hard copy, e-book, or audiobook) The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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The Invention of Agriculture in New Guinea Apr 15, 2021

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The Highlands of New Guinea are one of the most remote places on the planet, a maze of crosscutting valleys and enormous mountains that weren't reached by outsiders until the 1930s. Yet they're also one of the world's original centers of agriculture, a place responsible for domesticating crops like taro and the omnipresent banana. Crops on which millions of people rely today trace their origin all the way back to the isolated high valleys of New Guinea many thousands of years ago.

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder (in hard copy, e-book, or audiobook) The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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Ancient Egypt in Context: Interview with Professor David Wengrow Apr 08, 2021

Show notes

Professor David Wengrow is one of the world's leading experts on Egypt before the pharaohs. He's also one of the most creative and wide-ranging archaeologists working right now, and he has fascinating insights into the primordial emergence of inequality, hierarchies, states, and all of the other things. Check out his new book, co-authored with the late David Graeber: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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Ancient Tattooing: Interview with Aaron Deter-Wolf Apr 01, 2021

Show notes

Tattoos, and other forms of body decoration, are as old as humanity itself. But what can we know about the skin of long-past people that no longer exists? I talk to Aaron Deter-Wolf, Prehistoric Archaeologist for the State of Tennessee’s Division of Archaeology and one of the world's experts on the archaeological study of tattooing, to get some answers.

Follow Aaron on Instagram @archaeologyink - it's a fascinating page.

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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North America After the Ice Age: Interview with Professor Shane Miller Mar 25, 2021

Show notes

Understanding the first migrants to the Americas more than 13,000 years ago is a big task. So is figuring out how the ancestors of indigenous peoples transformed themselves from hunters of mammoth and mastodon to farmers to the builders of complex societies. Professor Shane Miller, an archaeologist working in the American southeast (and a Tides listener!) joins me to talk about cutting-edge archaeology and how our understanding of the early Americas is changing.

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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Languages of the World in 3000 BC Mar 18, 2021

Show notes

Language is one of the foundational pieces of being human, but in the absence of writing, what can we know about it in the deep past? Historical linguistics and the comparative method shed valuable light on these long-lost languages, and uncover the roots of some of today's most widely spoken tongues.

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Understanding Prehistory Through Ethnography Mar 11, 2021

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There are still people living now who make their living by foraging, and understanding them is an essential component of grasping the breadth of human experience. Today's hunter-gatherers aren't living fossils from a bygone age, but studying them can give us deep insights into the more distant past. In this episode, I discuss ethnography, ethnoarchaeology, and how we can apply these tools to prehistory.

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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Egypt and the Rise of the Pharaohs Mar 04, 2021

Show notes

Kings are practically synonymous with ancient Egypt, and it's not just because their monuments - like the pyramids - still tower above the desert and the Nile. Egyptian society was organized around the pharaohs in many different ways, but how did they come into being? What turned Egypt into one of the world's longest-lived kingdoms?

I wrote a book, and it comes out in July! You can preorder The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World here.

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Hunter-Gatherers, Archaeology, and Prehistory: Interview with Professor Robert Kelly Feb 25, 2021

Show notes

What can we learn about the deep human past by studying present-day hunter-gatherers? I asked that question to Professor Robert Kelly of the University of Wyoming, who's both one of the world's experts on hunter-gatherers and an accomplished archaeologist. Today's hunter-gatherers aren't living fossils who provide a direct window onto the distant past, but their lifeways do offer fascinating insights into that past.

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