S1 Ep11: Episode 11: A Totem Pole Theft with a Hint of Vanilla

In this week’s Stuff in the News Tracey talks about a potential future apocalypse if we don’t work out how to label our nuclear waste for 100,000 years and Ashley talks about an apocalypse past, and a cataclysm 930,00 years ago that brought humanity down to just 1,300 people. Tracey’s Piece of Stuff is a ‘living person’ totem pole stolen from indigenous people British Columbia in 1929 and bought by the Scots, and Ashley’s is ancient evidence for Vanilla in a place where vanilla really should not be.

Tracey's Stuff in the News

Mark Piesing, “How do we Warn Future Generations to Avoid our Nuclear Waste?” National Geographic, September 1, 2023. Accessed September 3, 2023 at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/nuclear-waste-repository-ray-cat-wipp-hitf-fabbri

“Nuclear Waste Storage,” Nuclear Princeton, accessed September 3, 2023 at https://nuclearprinceton.princeton.edu/yucca-mountain

“Radioactive Waste Management,” World Nuclear Association accessed September 3, 2023 at https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-wastes/radioactive-waste-management.aspx


Ashley's Stuff in the News

Carl Zimmer, Humanity’s Ancestors Nearly Died Out, Genetic Study Suggests, New York Times, August 31, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/science/human-survival-bottleneck.html.

Wangjie Hu et al. “Genomic Inference of a Severe Human Bottleneck during the Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition.” Science 381, nos. 979-984 (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7487.


Tracey's Piece of Stuff

Daniel Sanderson, “National Museum to “Rematriate” Stolen Totem to Canadian Tribe,” Telegraph, August 28, 2023, accessed August 28, 2023 at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/28/scotland-national-museum-totem-pole-nisgaa-barbeau/

“Totem Pole,” Indigenous Foundations, accessed August 28, 2023 at http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/totem_poles

“Potlatch,” Wikipedia accessed August 28, 2023 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch

Amy Parent, “Building Solidarity: Moving Towards the Repatriation of the House of Ni’isjoohl Totem Pole,” in Scotland’s Transnational Heritage, edited by Emma Bond and Michael Harris (Edinburgh, 2023).



Ashley's Piece of Stuff

Bruce Bower, “A Bronze Age Tomb in Israel Reveals the Earliest Known Use of Vanilla,” Science News, November 19, 2018, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bronze-age-tomb-israel-reveals-earliest-known-use-vanilla#:~:text=Jugs%20that%20date%20to%20about,ago%2C%20a%20new%20study%20finds.

Jason Daley, “Did These Ancient Juglets—Found in a Bronze Age Burial in Israel—Contain Vanilla?” Smithsonian Magazine, November 21, 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/was-vanilla-was-first-used-2500-years-earlier-and-half-world-where-we-thought-180970862/.

Amanda Borschel-Dan, “Residue Found in 3,600-year-old Holy Land Tomb Rewrites the History of Vanilla,” Times of Israel, November 20, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/residue-found-in-3600-year-old-holy-land-tomb-rewrites-the-history-of-vanilla/.

Archaeological Institute of America, “Possible Vanilla Chemicals Detected in Bronze Age Tomb in Israel,” Archaeology Magazine, November 19, 2018, https://www.archaeology.org/news/7153-181119-israel-megiddo-vanilla.

Linares, Vanessa et al. “First Evidence for Vanillin in the Old World: Its Use as Mortuary Offering in Middle Bronze Canaan.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 25 (2019): 77-84.
Cameron, Ken. Vanilla Orchids: Natural History and Cultivation. Portland: Timber Press, 2011.

Picture credits Tracey Cooper and music credits Ashley Bozian