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MINISODE 2: It's Just Archaeology

We're doing something different this week while Amber is on a whirlwind tour of life admin stuff. In response to some of the conflict over Graham Hancock's Ancient Apocalypse show on Netflix, Anna has been writing about the double-edged sword of creating archaeology content online. Social media can be a useful tool, but it can also be...well, not great. So, we figured, why not cover two types of content in one!

The plan is to make a short series of minisodes out of the process of writing an article about archaeology for the public. We can talk to fellow content makers, editors, and others who contribute to the creative process. Let us know if you'd like to hear more of this kind of thing at thedirtpodcast@gmail.com!

For extra context on archaeologists' response to Ancient Apocalypse:

Anna's columns for SAPIENS: https://www.sapiens.org/?s=&column%5B%5D=field-trips

The Familiar Strange on pseudoscience: https://thefamiliarstrange.com/2022/11/21/victorian-pseudoscience/

Open letter from the Society of American Archaeology to Netflix: http://saa.org/quick-nav/saa-media-room/saa-news/2022/12/01/saa-sends-letter-to-netflix-concerning-ancient-apocalypse-series

Ella al-Shamahi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ella_AlShamahi/status/1599474951823577088

Dangers of pseudoscience: https://www.dw.com/en/netflix-ancient-apocalypse-series-marks-dangerous-trend-experts-say/a-64033733

John Hoopes' comments on Hancock: https://news.ku.edu/2022/10/25/professor-can-comment-netflixs-ancient-apocalypse-how-pseudoarchaeology-can-reinforce

Atlantis is a fictional city: https://www.thoughtco.com/platos-atlantis-from-the-timaeus-119667

Bill Farley on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLFtC_OSpX4

Flint Dibble's article on Ancient Apocalypse for SAPIENS: https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/ancient-apocalypse-pseudoscience/

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The Dirt Podcast
Archaeology, Anthropology, and our shared human past.

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The Dirt Podcast

As science communicators in anthropology and archaeology, we hosts of The Dirt acknowledge that we hold a position of considerable privilege and opportunity, and commit ourselves to continuous learning, unlearning and reflection. We recognize that our disciplines, as well as our own lives, are rooted in and propped up by settler colonialism, white supremacy, and dispossession.

We now reside on the stolen ancestral territory of the Shawnee and Haudenosaunee and on the lands of the Muscogee and Cherokee Nations, but over its lifetime, The Dirt has also been produced on the unceded traditional territory of the Piscataway Conoy and Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians, as well as that of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Patwin and Miwok peoples and all those dispossessed by Cession 296. We offer our show as a platform for Indigenous scholarship, history, and cultural expression, through citation and conversation, and we welcome the opportunity to host and compensate Indigenous scholars of archaeology and anthropology as interview guests.

Likewise, we encourage all listeners who reside in settler-colonial states to learn about on whose land they reside, their place in the ongoing process of colonization, and how to contribute materially to reparations and Indigenous sovereignty.