Episode 227

The Dirt Digs Deep. Like, Really Deep

Hellhole, and welcome to The Dirt! Spooktober continues with an exploration of portals to the underworld. We're bringing you some unexpected sounds from Siberia, a couple of incredible caves, and the science behind sacrificial bulls dropping dead in ancient Rome. Plus, the Medieval European origin of the Hellmouth! Get your spelunking gear and maybe a comforting blanket or two as we journey to the underworld together.

To learn more and dig deeper:

https://scratchpad.fandom.com/wiki/Coast_to_Coast_AM_-_Index_of_Guest_Appearances


https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190503-the-deepest-hole-we-have-ever-dug#:~:text=Drilling%20was%20stopped%20in%201992,whole%20facility%20was%20closed%20down.


https://www.wired.com/2014/01/an-artist-records-the-mysterious-rumblings-of-middle-earth/


https://mymodernmet.com/krubera-cave/


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/deepest-cave?loggedin=true&rnd=1697313803769


https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/getting-lost-cave-labyrinth-brain/582865/


https://www.thedailybeast.com/welcome-to-hell-a-history-of-portals-to-the-underworld


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/people-lived-cave-78000-years-180969051/


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04057-3


https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-the-oldest-evidence-of-indoor-human-activity-deep-inside-a-desert-cave


https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aba1219


https://www.vice.com/en/article/epvbxk/archaeologists-found-an-ancient-entrance-to-the-underworld-under-a-church-in-mexico


https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/maya-canoe-surrounded-by-animal-and-human-bones-found-in-portal-to-the-underworld-in-mexico


https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlymiller/2019/08/09/skulls-analyzed-from-the-mayan-sacred-cenote-show-that-human-sacrifices-were-sourced-from-far-and-wide-across-mexico-in-1000-ad/?sh=12d34a7ae8b7



https://www.livescience.com/61871-maya-underworld-found-longest-submerged-cave.html


https://www.science.org/content/article/roman-gate-hell-killed-its-victims-cloud-deadly-carbon-dioxide


https://www.jstor.org/stable/3046829?typeAccessWorkflow=login&seq=8


https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90891/the-last-judgement-panel-unknown/


https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_tiberius_c_vi

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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.