Decoder Ring | How to Hunt a Mammoth, and Other Experiments in Archaeology
Slow Burn13 Elo 2025

Decoder Ring | How to Hunt a Mammoth, and Other Experiments in Archaeology

Experimental archeology is, simply put, archeology that involves running experiments. Where traditional archaeologists may study, research, analyze, and theorize about how artifacts were made or used, experimental archaeologists actually try to recreate, test, and use them to see what they can learn. In doing so, they have given the field a whole new way to glean clues and get insights into the lives of our ancestors.

Sam Kean is the author of a new book all about experimental archaeology called Dinner with King Tut. With help from him and a few archaeologists, we dig into a number of puzzles that experimental archaeology has helped solve—conundrums involving ancient megafauna, bizarre cookware, and deep sea voyages.

In this episode, you’ll hear from archaeologists Susan Kaplan of Bowdoin College and Karen Harry of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Native Hawaiian activist and storyteller Nāʻālehu Anthony.

To learn more about the story of Hokule’a and its first navigator, Mau Piailug, watch Nāʻālehu Anthony’s 2010 documentary, Papa Mau: The Wayfinder, as well as The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific.

This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman. Decoder Ring is also produced by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. We had mixing help from Kevin Bendis.

We’d also like to thank Metin Eren and Paul Benham.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.

Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jaksot(219)

Decoder Ring | How to Make Dollars Make Sense

Decoder Ring | How to Make Dollars Make Sense

Money is everywhere. Money influences just about everything. We think about money all the time. But how much do we really know about it? In this episode of Decoder Ring, we explore the obscure histori...

22 Huhti 34min

Decoder Ring | Who Was Lonelygirl15?

Decoder Ring | Who Was Lonelygirl15?

In the summer of 2006, a teenage girl began posting video diaries to a then-new site called YouTube under the handle lonelygirl15. Within weeks she was a phenomenon—even though no one knew the truth o...

8 Huhti 58min

Decoder Ring | The Johnlock Conspiracy (Encore)

Decoder Ring | The Johnlock Conspiracy (Encore)

For over a century, fans of Sherlock Holmes have been analyzing, debating, and creating new texts with Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters. But when a fan theory emerged about the BBC TV show Sherlock tha...

25 Maalis 53min

Decoder Ring | Was "Eyes Wide Shut" a Warning?

Decoder Ring | Was "Eyes Wide Shut" a Warning?

When Eyes Wide Shut opened in the summer of 1999, it was widely considered a disappointment. This final film from legendary director Stanley Kubrick had been sold as an erotic thriller, and potentiall...

11 Maalis 47min

Decoder Ring | A Prune by Any Other Name

Decoder Ring | A Prune by Any Other Name

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It’s best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic mission to amend this sales-fla...

25 Helmi 44min

Decoder Ring | Making Coal Cute Again

Decoder Ring | Making Coal Cute Again

Three weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared an unusual tweet: a cartoon image of himself with his arm draped around a giant, anthropomorphized lump of coal. This piece of coal h...

11 Helmi 45min

Decoder Ring | Is Culture Stuck?

Decoder Ring | Is Culture Stuck?

It’s a weird time for culture. There is more of it than ever before, it’s more accessible than ever before, but so little of it feels original. New movies are based on old stories, new songs are recyc...

28 Tammi 37min

Decoder Rings Back | Why the Mona Lisa?

Decoder Rings Back | Why the Mona Lisa?

We are really lucky to get lots of listener suggestions for the show, more good questions than we can possibly answer in a mailbag episode once or twice a year. So we’re starting a new segment we call...

14 Tammi 25min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
politiikan-puskaradio
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
tervo-halme
rss-podme-livebox
aihe
rss-ulkopoditiikkaa
the-ulkopolitist
viisupodi
rss-pinnalla
otetaan-yhdet
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
radio-antro
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset
rss-asiastudio
rss-uusi-juttu-mediastartupin-tarina
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
rss-kaikki-uusiksi