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This Week in the Ancient Near East

thisweekintheancientneareast

The podcast that takes archaeology exactly as seriously as it deserves.

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All Episodes

36:03

The Case of the Elephant Bone in Third Century BCE...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2026/04/06

The discovery of an elephant bone in third century BCE Spain has us asking questions. Was the circus in town or was it a war elephant, like one of those Hannibal used to climb the Alps? But where did it come from and how did Carthaginians learn to drive them? After all, the trunk is in the front.

42:25

Please Don’t Eat the Halafian Daisies, or Plant Based...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2026/03/23

New research suggests that the painted designs on prehistoric Halafian pottery represent mathematical reasoning. If you count all the leaves and bushes, this tracks. What kind of crazy people count the leaves and bushes? Archaeologists, that’s who.

38:13

For Quick Energy, Mamluks Choose Sugar! or, The...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2026/03/09

Did Mamluks mill sugar in the Beth Shean Valley of Israel using water powered mills? Do elites own industries creating tasty and addictive foodstuffs and foist the products on the unsuspecting? Talk about a sugar rush!

38:13

The Opium Trail from Egypt to Persia, or Putting Your...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2026/02/23

The discovery of opium residues in an Egyptian alabaster jar with the Achaemenid king Xerxes’ name on it has us wondering. How stoned were they in the past? Was that why the jar ended up at Yale? Talk about a legacy admission!

40:58

The Case of the Very Different Iron Age Shipwrecks at...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2026/02/09

The lagoon off Tel Dor is filled with shipwrecks and wouldn’t you know it, new excavations have turned up three from the Iron Age. Our contestants talk about the finds, changing patterns of Mediterranean trade, and the problem of getting insurance. Iron Age maritime economies? Learn to swim.

36:21

A Prehistoric Figurine of Problematic Possibilities,...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2026/01/26

The discovery of a teeny tiny figurine at the 12,000 year old site of Nahal En Gev II has us asking uncomfortable questions. Why is the woman carrying the goose on her back? Why does the goose seem pleased about this? Are women and geese separate parts of nature or sort of the same? Wait, what? It’s the Mother Goose mythogram of the millennia!

38:11

Dear Judah, This is Not a Bill, Except It Really Is,...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2026/01/12

In Iron Age Jerusalem, finding a tiny bit of a cuneiform tablet is a big deal, since in that town, they use the alphabet. But when the Neo-Assyrian authorities ask, hey, where’s our tax money, they can do it in any script and language they want. So you’d better read the email, otherwise -there- will be a meeting, and you won’t like it.

41:09

The Great Nubian Gold Rush (of the Second Millennium...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/12/29

How much gold was mined in antiquity anyway? A new economic analysis suggests that second millennium BCE Nubia produced hundreds of tons of the stuff, which is way more than anyone ever thought. Mining expeditions were super profitable too. So where’s the archaeological and textual evidence? Screw that, where’s all the gold now dammit?

36:02

All I Want for Chanukah is a New Hasmonean Wall in...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/12/15

The discovery in Jerusalem of a big section of the late second century BCE Hasmonean city wall from has us asking the usual questions. Actually the reverse of the usual questions: not who put it up but who took it down, the Hasmoneans themselves or that Herod guy? Which satisfying, text based historical scenario should we choose? With a seasonally appropriate and tasty lightning round!

41:36

Does Anybody at Iron Age Arad Really Know What Time...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/12/01

At the 6th century BCE Arad fortress Judean soldiers waited patiently for resupply every week. But new research shows that a week was really six days, which added up to a 360 day year. This may not have been a problem for military logistics but it certainly made sending birthday cards harder.

41:11

To Live and Die at Late Bronze Age Yavne Yam, or, I...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/11/17

A wealthy Late Bronze Age tomb at Yavne Yam on the coast of Israel has us talking about trade, class, and real estate. How did folks at a pokey little port afford all that stuff, not to mention all the opium? Is this the Southern Levant’s Boca Raton? Come for the wide-ranging discussion of social inequality, stay for shoutouts to the one and only ‘Grandpa’ Al Lewis and the classic hit by Golden Earring, Radar Love!

40:08

A Dam Grows in Iron Age Jerusalem, Or, When the...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/11/03

The discovery of a dam in Iron Age Jerusalem speaks highly about the Judean state’s ability to organize public works projects to meet evolving public needs. The fact that they put their capital in Jerusalem in the first place, where the only water is underground, also says something about their, umm, common sense. Still, if its the view you’re after, there’s no better place!

40:41

The Puzzling Case of Children’s Rattles in Early...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/10/20

A new article has us talking about toys. Did the potters at Early Bronze Age Hama make rattles for their kids out of love or to maximize investment in their future labor output? It’s an episode that cuts to the heart of the whole ‘childhood’ scam! Come for the insights into Bronze Age childrearing, stay for the word of the day. It’s fructiform!

42:50

Banking on Silver Hoards in the Bronze Age Levant, or...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/10/06

New research on Bronze Age silver hoards in the Levant has us wondering about the origins of money. What is it about those shiny and attractive metals that makes us love them so? And sure, you can bury metal in a hole in the ground, but then you have to remember where you put it. Still, banking from home has never been easier.

39:08

Does a Tiny Find Sort of Illuminate a Biblical Figure...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/09/22

An itsy bitsy seal impression with the name of a Biblical figure raises the perennial question, was Judah robust and bureaucratic, or was it tiny and only occasionally literate? How robust do little tiny statelets get anyway? More importantly, was king Josiah really the Brian Cashman of Levantine kings?

39:42

The Tales Ancient Scripts Can Tell, If We could Only...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/09/08

The recent decipherment of the South Arabian Dhofari script from the first millennium BCE reminds us that we don’t know as much about ancient peoples and languages as we think. And finding a completely new language in a Hittite text shows that they knew a lot more than us, which is sobering, since they didn’t have fancy degrees or iced pecan oat milk lattes.

42:37

The Two Faces of Hatshepsut’s Statues, or, Studies in...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/08/25

Thuthmosis III had a difficult relationship with Hatshepsut, who was, after all, both his aunt and stepmother. And Pharaoh. But does that mean he had the faces on her statues smashed? Or did he just want them turned off so his guys could fill in a big pothole? Archaeology may have the answer!

35:42

Roman Pigs in Judea, or Close Encounters of the...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/08/11

Romans sure loved their pigs. Soldiers were even buried with pig jawbones at Legio in the Jezreel Valley after military feasts (which doesn’t sound kosher). They brought pig power to the Levant, but hey, what did the Romans ever do for us?

39:54

How Phoenicians Turned Into Carthaginians But Forgot...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/07/21

We like to think of the Carthaginians as the western extension of the Phoenicians, but Punic genetics suggest that they were primarily descended from local peoples. Did that create identity crises for them? How about for their elephants?

41:14

Bronze Age Tin From Cornwall to the Carmel, or How...

This Week in the Ancient Near East ·

2025/07/07

Bronze is a metal so popular that it has an entire age named after. But to make bronze you need tin otherwise you have squishy copper tools and, well, no Bronze Age. We’ve looked high and low for the source and now it seems like it might have been Cornwall. That’s right, the area of southwest Britain famous for pirates, pasties and, um, tin mines?

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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