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It's very exciting! - Ep 25
280 Plays5 months ago
Can you believe that Tea-break Time Travel has now been running for two whole years? For this very special 25th episode, Matilda does a bit of time travelling of her own, looking back at what’s happened in the podcast so far, and also sharing the future of the series.
Transcripts
- For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/teabreak/25
Links
- BBC article on the possibility of time travel
- “The Time Ship” translation online version
- The Archaeology Show time travel episode
- And My Trowel time travel episode
- Archaeo Book Club
Contact the Host
- Email: [email protected]
- https://www.thearchaeologiststeacup.com
- insta: @the_archaeologists_teacup
- fb: /TheArchaeologistsTeacup
- twitter: @ArchaeoTeacup
ArchPodNet
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- Tee Public Store: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/archaeology-podcast-network?ref_id=5724
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Milestone
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. um You're listening to Tea Break Time Travel, where every month we look at a different archaeological object and take you on a journey into their past.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 25 of Tea Break Time Travel. I'm your host, Matilda Ziebrecht, and today I am savouring a chai latte. Decided to go fancy, and well, it's actually it's not really that fancy because it's just with the powdered stuff that you put in the bottom of the cup and then you swill it around. Funny story, I used to make proper chai lattes with like the loose tea and adding in the sweetener and making the paste and then adding the thing. And it was a lovely little little ritual. But yeah, somehow it just meant that I very rarely drank them because it took a long time. And at some point I decided to give it and try a powder. And the one I found was really, really good. So now I have my chai latte powder. But anyway, and joining me today is
00:01:00
Speaker
Nobody. Nobody. There's nobody here. It's just me. Yes. So, as I said, this is episode 25. 25th episode, I thought that was something quite exciting, quite interesting. And even though, actually, if I thought about it, I should probably have featured Seagrid, who is the guest on my last episode about Silva, in this month's episode instead, because of course, 25, Silva, no, anniversary, ha, ha, ha. But yes, I did not plan that far ahead. However, I did know that I wanted to do something slightly special for the 25th episode also because this coming Friday, 28th of June, it will be the two year anniversary of the publication of the first episode of Tea Break Time Travel. So yeah, I wanted to do something.
00:01:43
Speaker
a little bit special this episode. So you're just going to be listening to me. Sorry about that, but don't worry. We're going to be back on schedule next month. But just for this month, I thought I'd try something a little bit different.
Exploration of Time Travel in Mythology and Literature
00:01:54
Speaker
So what are we going to be doing today? Well, we're going to be having a bit of fun and doing a bit of a deeper dive into the history of time travel itself. After all, that is the theme of the podcast. We are also, of course, going to be doing our own time travelling. We're going to be looking back at previous guests and the previous episodes and reminiscing on what has been. But we're also going to be looking forward and talking a little bit about the future of the podcast and what's coming up and what's new. So hopefully it'll be an interesting podcast. We'll see how it goes. So in terms of time travel,
00:02:28
Speaker
We've talked about this quite a bit on the podcast, the different kinds of time travel, the different sort of ideas and theories of time travel. But when was actually the earliest reference to time travel? Or when when is the first history of time travel? How old is time travel? Which in itself is an interesting question to ask. But anyway, So, actually the first references to time travel are very old. They are often mentioned in sort of mythology and ancient legends, but it's it's tricky to know whether you could really call it time travel. Because, yes, you're travelling through time, but generally it's associated with this idea that you travel somewhere, probably some magical land or distant realm or something like that. Sometimes it's heaven as well.
00:03:13
Speaker
And then you return back home to find that even though in your mind you'd only been gone for a very short amount of time, actually when you get back home it turns out you've been gone for 300 years or something like that. So you have, for example, a lot of Irish fairy tales which talk about this, visiting the land of the fae and then coming back and finding that all of your family are dead and gone. You have, for example, the Hindu tale Vishnu Purana about the man who goes off and seeks a different location of some sort and then comes back and finds that he has, even though he's been and only been gone a few days, everyone else has gone for several hundred years. And you have the good old Islamic story of the seven sleepers. there's There's a lot. There's a lot of that kind of thing happening in mythology, but that I would argue is not necessarily time travel because you're not actively doing it. It's always a surprise when you get back home, right? And you find that suddenly everyone is a lot older or dead.
00:04:07
Speaker
So when is the actual first reference to time travel in terms of kind of traveling back in time, actively traveling back in time? So actually the earliest references kind of blur the line though between whether it's sort of active traveling, like a reality inverted commas. or whether it's sort of you traveling in your dreams. So it's kind of in a dream sort of state. So for example, you have several novels from China, which depict travels back in time in this state. So you have to go through different gateways, you have to travel to different realms, but quite often they're in a sort of a trance or a dream-like situation. These dates to the kind of mid 17th century. So they're sort of the oldest ones we have of that. And then you have things like the classic Charles Dickens of Christmas Carol, which dates to 1843. But again,
00:04:53
Speaker
Are they actually traveling in time in this, or is it sort of a ah virtual travel, shall we say? They're not actually physically going back in time in these cases. So let us think again. What about using a machine? Because that's a sort of classic, right? You travel back in time, you use a time machine. What are the first references to traveling back in time using a machine? Funnily enough, also in the 1800s, in 1881, There was a short story published by Edward Page Mitchell called The Clock That Went Backward. And this was, as you can imagine, about a clock that somehow managed to enable the people who interacted with it to travel backwards in time. There's been a bit of discussion over this. I was reading about this all today, and there's a bit of discussion over whether this is really classed as a time machine.
00:05:44
Speaker
I mean, I would say it is because you have also things like in Harry Potter, the time turners, you have the, what is it? There's there's another, shoot, I forgot what it's called, but there's another fictional depiction of sort of traveling in time, but it's not necessarily getting into a machine. It's sort of manipulating in some way or pressing a button and then yeah traveling in time that way. And I would argue that's still a machine. It's still a mechanism. But if we're talking if we're being panickety and we're talking about actual machines, then the earliest reference to a time-traveling machine was published in 1887 by Enrique Gaspar y Rimbao in a Spanish novel entitled El Anacronopote.
00:06:21
Speaker
andoronoppathte andocleno but I mean, goodness, I've travelled back in time just trying to say that word because it took me so long. that's ah My apologies to any Spanish people listening in for the butchering of that word. And actually, for those who are interested, this was actually then translated in 2012 into English which was then called The Time Ship A Chrononautical Journey. um And even more exciting, in 2014 this translation was made publicly available online and I have put the link to that in the show notes so definitely go and check that out if you're interested. So this was the sort of earliest reference to an actual time machine, a physical machine that you get into and you travel back in time.
Time Travel in Fiction and Archaeology
00:07:01
Speaker
But then, of course, you have the classic. And most of you, when you heard me talking about time travel and fiction, probably immediately thought of that master of science fiction, H.G. Wells. And funnily enough, most people would immediately think of The Time Machine, which was published in 1895, which is the novella by H.G. Wells. But actually, the first reference to traveling back in time with a machine is in an earlier story, a short story by H.G. Wells published in 1888 called The Chronic Argonauts. So yeah, there you have it. You have kind of early references thousands of years ago, sort of from, or even further potentially from mythology about time passing. You have kind of early 17th century depictions of actively trying to go somewhere else in time. And then from the mid 19th century, you then have these ideas of using machinery. So I mean, It's been around for a surprisingly long time. ha so It's sort of ah quite an established concept by now and it's it's quite talked about in a lot of different fictional settings as well. and There's also so much really interesting discussion over the the physics and the philosophy of actually how realistic and how probable it would be
00:08:13
Speaker
that time travel actually could exist. I mean, you have all of those ah really, you know, the fun sort of philosophical discussions of what if you go back and you shoot your grandfather, will you be born? And yeah, like there's all sorts of different kinds of time travel. So there's time travel, you can affect the events that take place in the future. There's time travel where there's an alternate universe kind of thing or the multi-universe theory. If you want to like learn more about this, learn more about the different theories, learn more about kind of how we would go about interacting with it, especially from an archaeological perspective, you can look at episode 241 of The Archaeology Show, where they talk all about time travel and where they would travel back to in time if they wanted to, or episode 8 of am My Trial, where we talk about, okay, if we think about the archaeological practicalities of time travel, what does that actually mean for archaeology? so
00:09:04
Speaker
definitely go and check out those episodes if you're interested in finding out more about all of that and the conundrums etc. Funnily enough, I've actually just finished, today, this morning, reading Timeline by Michael Crichton, which is our dune read for the archaeo book club, which if anyone here is not a member of yet and wants to join a community of lovers of archaeology and books, you would be very, very welcome. Again, I'll put the link in the show notes. And yeah, so Timeline I actually really enjoyed. And of course, as you could probably imagine, it features time travel. And it was interesting to sort of read about that fit that his theory sort of the the way that it's depicted in there. um I must say one of my favorite series is also the Chronicles of St. Mary's, which is about kind of real, real time travel, practical time travel.
00:09:51
Speaker
So it's basically historians going back in time and documenting things. But as you can imagine, stuff goes wrong, shenanigans ensue, et cetera, et cetera. But anyway, so so yes, I also quite enjoy a good a good fictional depiction and representation of time travel. And there's so much variation and there's so many different things that you can sort of think about when you think about time travel. i mean this Yeah, it's one of those kind of infinite impossibility situations, really. And yeah, one of the first questions that I always ask my guests, which you will know if you listen to the podcast regularly, is if you could travel back in time?
Origins and Development of the Podcast
00:10:26
Speaker
Where would you go to? Or when would you go to, I suppose? And why? Which I wonder if you can remember what everyone said. Let's have a very quick break. And we'll recap afterwards.
00:10:40
Speaker
Welcome back, welcome back. So, yes, I can't believe that it's already been been two years of recording this podcast. The idea sort of came about, for those of you who are unaware, I have various different platforms on social media and a website and an attempt at a YouTube channel, which is sort of failing dismally at the moment, and a blog where under the pseudonym, the archaeologist Teacup, where I sort of aim to try and make archaeological information more accessible and kind of attainable for the general public, but also try to create a sort of a community of people, ah professionals, enthusiasts related to the so topic of archaeology and most specifically topic of kind of objects in archaeology, because that is my specialty. And that's why I chose Teacup because, you know, it's international, it's friendly, it's cozy, it's inviting and it's warm.
00:11:35
Speaker
So that's also why this is called tea break time travel in case anyone's wondering because it's just a nice fun thing. Share a tea break with someone, chat about things and do a bit of time traveling while you're at it. And as part of this platform, I started to do these little one minute reels called tea day reels. They were on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Haha. So tea days get it. I know. I'm hilarious. I'm hilarious. Stop laughing. You have to listen to the rest of the podcast. And I started doing these T-day reels where I would do a one-minute reel because that was at the time the limit of reels on Instagram. And I would basically introduce an object or a material or an object type and talk about it for a minute and sort of try to
00:12:18
Speaker
to introduce the kind of the main facts and the the main information about the object, but also try to include some kind of further thoughts or kind of wider interpretations to basically make people think a little bit about the objects and and try to reimagine them and rethink about what they thought they knew about them. And these turned out to be quite popular, and I really enjoyed making them. And I thought, wouldn't it be fantastic if we could extend these out a little bit and you know share something in a different way? And so that's why I decided to approach the Archaeology Podcast Network and ask if they would be interested in having such a series. And luckily they were, and they had some openings at that time. And yeah, so I was lucky enough to get a spot, and that's how it started.
00:13:02
Speaker
So, yeah, I know it's been two years and 25 episodes, which is crazy. So, let's have a little quick look back, a travel back in time, as you would, and remember what has happened apart from all those things. So, first of all, what have we had on? Who have we featured? Well, we started with the fantastic Sarah Lord of Podittistri. And we looked at the Venus of Dolnivestanice, which is one of the most famous Venus figurines, but also, yeah, I don't know, it's probably not one of those that people necessarily think about first because the Venus of Villendorf is so interesting. And that was such a fascinating insight into the crafting perspective of of those objects and the kind of more philosophical side of those objects, which I thought was really interesting.
00:13:47
Speaker
So then for episode two, we had not a focus on a particular object, like in episode one, but a focus on an object type and the kind of history and development of that object. And we looked at candles with Ashley Airy, who is the amazing founder and creator behind Ashwood candles. And funnily enough, this was the start of a long and beautiful friendship. Ash and I now co-host a podcast on the Archaeology Podcast Network called And My Trowel. If you haven't listened to it already, please do go and check it out because I'm very proud of it. It's very interesting. We're looking at the kind of intersection between archaeological analysis and fantasy fiction.
00:14:24
Speaker
So also quite pertinent for this particular episode, but anyway. And that was also really interesting. It was so good to do a real kind of deep dive into one particular object, look at all the different contexts surrounding it, look at all the different ideas. So that was really interesting. And I did a similar thing then for episode three, where I looked at the archaeologist's trowel with Dr. Zechariah Jinx Frederick. And that was really fascinating. So Zach is a professional archaeologist, but he's also a professional blacksmith who creates a lot of custom trials, beautiful, beautiful pieces. If anyone wants to look at them, please do go back and look at the links from from that episode and get in contact. anv on you
00:15:04
Speaker
is the name of his business and they're such beautiful trials. I have one. It's amazing. And that was also really fun to talk about. And that's what I love about this podcast is I get to talk about things that I'm interested in, but I don't really know that much about. And this is why I wanted to have guests on the podcast and not just do a series, which was just me talking. Because sure, I could research things and I could look it up, but A, that would take a lot of time. and B, I still would only have a shallow understanding. Whereas what's really fascinating when you're chatting with guests who are experts in this topic is that they can give you insights that you didn't even know you wanted, that you didn't even know existed. So that's always really fascinating.
00:15:43
Speaker
And then episode four, next up came looking at the Pictish Beastie, which is one of my favourite symbols from the Pictish Standing Stones, with Hamish Findy-Lamley, who is the founder and central creator behind Pictavia leather. And he also, since the episode. I mean, he already was tattooing, doing some tattoo artistry ah before that episode, but since then he's actually become even more um involved with with sort of tattooing. So it's really fascinating now to look back at that episode with that in mind. So he's a professional leather worker. He's also an expert on all things Pictish. He does a lot of archaeological research to back up the sort of
00:16:24
Speaker
inspiration and interpretation behind his leather pieces and his tattoo designs. So it was really interesting to chat to him about that and listen to his kind of interpretation and his thoughts on this strange symbol from the Hearthstone. And then next we had Arrowheads with David Ian Howe, who was a host on one of the previous series that featured on the Archaeology Podcast Network, A Life in Ruins, which is extremely popular and you've probably heard of it. And he was kind enough to come and feature on my podcast, which was great. And he, even though he's sort of most well-known for working with dogs, he did his research and his thesis on arrowheads and similar technologies, so atlatls, spear throwing, et cetera.
00:17:08
Speaker
And so it was really fun to chat to him about that side of his research. And of course, we mentioned dogs as well. But again, it was it was also great to hear his perspective as a researcher, but also he, of course, does a lot of outreach. He has a lot of science communication. So it was really great to see that side as well and kind of get his insights from that perspective. And then we continued in the weapons theme by looking at swords with Valerio Jetile, who is one of my colleagues from Leiden University and now actually has followed me to Germany. So definitely stalking me. Sorry, Valerio, if you're listening. And he is
00:17:44
Speaker
ah definitely an expert, I would say, on swords and Bronze Age weaponry and kind of the rituals, for want of a better word, surrounding the deposition of swords and and kind of Bronze Age weapons. So it was really fascinating to chat with him as well. He's an experimental archaeologist and a microware analyst, so similar background to myself, but just in a very different material. So again, something that I'm really interested in and I have a vague and shallow understanding of, but it's so cool to hear all of the different insights and the different research avenues that are being undertaken by different people. On which note, the next episode was with Christopher Wakefield, who is working at what was working, I don't know if he still is actually, at Must Farm, which if you know anything about British archaeology, you will know Must Farm is one of the best preserved sites in the world, I think, from the prehistoric time period.
00:18:35
Speaker
And it has the most fantastic collection of wooden artifacts. So I don't know why I necessarily focused on wooden wheels for this episode. I don't know whether this was something that we agreed on together or whether I just said to Chris, Chris, we're talking about wooden wheels now, which kudos to all
Insights and Experiences from Hosting
00:18:51
Speaker
of my guests. They all They all, even if it's not their absolute specialty, even if it's sort of only somewhat related to what they're doing, they all chip in and they give it their all and they do the research and I'm very, very grateful to all of them. So for example, this one, Chris had done some great background research on wheels and the history of wheels, even though that was nothing to do with what he actually researched.
00:19:10
Speaker
he was looking at sort of the wooden things and the the overall site. So we looked at wooden wheels for Christopher Wakefield. And actually that was a really fun episode because we also then did a special episode for our archaeology podcast members, bonus material, which looked at Must Farm, the site itself and all of that kind of thing, which you may have seen that it's now all been published and it's all publicly available. So that's also very exciting. Definitely go check that out. So we then looked at Flint Blades with Pierre Herber, which this was quite a different one, actually, because even though we had had some archaeologists and and researchers on before, this one was a very much an academic focused episode, which was also really interesting to get that sort of overview and that kind of really deep insight into the research process as well as the archaeology itself. So I really enjoyed that personally. Hopefully other people did as well.
00:19:58
Speaker
And then the next episode was very exciting because I had guessed Dr. Colleen Darnell, otherwise known as the vintage Egyptologist on social media, so very well known, and she came on to talk to me about ancient Egyptian stelae, which I probably have still pronounced wrong. Stelae, stelae. I remember pronouncing it completely incorrectly several times throughout the episode. So, let's just continue the trend and continue to pronounce it incorrectly. And again, this is one of those things, I know nothing about ancient Egypt. I know that everyone always assumes they hear you're an archaeologist and they say, oh wow, what's your favorite pharaoh? I have no idea. I have no idea who the pharaohs were. I have no idea what the time periods were, what the different eras were, or whatever it is they're called in ancient Egyptian things.
00:20:43
Speaker
So, it's so exciting to have an expert in a topic that I have known nothing about, but it's remotely related to archaeology, like Egyptology. So, that was a really exciting episode for me, and I was basically just asking questions like a guinea child throughout the whole thing. And then the next episode, which I think is the perfect example of a guest who has that expertise, has that knowledge, has that experience, and nevertheless is still willing to go the extra mile and focus in a lot of detail on something that they perhaps were not expecting to focus on. It was looking at the folkton drums.
00:21:20
Speaker
with Emma Jones, otherwise known as Prehistoric Jewelry. And she was absolutely fantastic and we had such a laugh in this episode. And it was especially exciting because she actually is archaeology focused, but she's mainly focused on the sort of portrayal of archaeology, so photography, videography, etc. So that was also really interesting to get her perspective from that side of things. And then in the next episode, we had her her other half, ah Dr. James Dilly, also known as Ancient k Craft UK, who came on to talk about axes. And I mean, this again was one of those episodes where I basically just sat back and asked questions and listened in awe as James just kind of ra rattled off facts and experience and information that I didn't even know was out there. So again, I learned i definitely learned something
00:22:06
Speaker
in all of these episodes, but in some of them in particular, it's you're just in awe of how much people know about things and how specialised you can be. And that, I think, is a perfect example for the next episode, which looked at Karnazes with Samuel Merthich, who has found himself the niche of just specialising in this quite specific Pictish or or Iron Age material, well, not material, object type in musical instrument. And yeah, it was really interesting to to talk about that aspect as well. And then you also have someone who has a very wide range of experience in the next episode, which was Graham Taylor, so the other half of potted history, talking about bell beakers. But again, such a wide range of experience, and yet he's also able to talk about something so specific and one particular topic in a great range of detail.
00:22:58
Speaker
And I'm really hoping to redo this episode. So we've had bell beakers now from the perspective of someone who is an expert, experienced master craftsman. But I also really want to look at bell beakers from the perspective of someone who has studied them in archeologically in terms of sort of academic research and see the kind of difference between the theories and the practical and how that works. So I'm curious to see whether that happens. And then, yes, we continued with a very specific object type in the next episode, looking at talks with Dr. Tess Mackling. And again, talks are one of those objects that I've always been really interested in, but I don't really know that much about. So it was fun to to kind of find out more from her. And then the next one was a little bit... Questionable, I suppose. I actually chatted with Femke Reizma beforehand and said, do you think you could come on my podcast and we could do an episode about fire? And she is very much of the opinion that fire is an object and is a tool. So she said, yes, absolutely. And I'm so glad she did because it turned into a really amazing episode. I mean, all of these have just turned out to be so much more than I could ever have expected they would be. So that was very exciting. And then next was one which was particularly close to my heart because we were looking at sewing needles.
00:24:11
Speaker
with Ronya Lau, who I have known for many, many years in many different respects. And it was so fun to be able to chat to her about her kind of experience as a textile archaeologist, and kind of not just the the needles and the objects, but also the world of textile archaeology is also something that I haven't really had too much to do with, even though the needles I've been involved with, but it's been a very different kind of sewing, so that was also really fascinating. And then my the one that I was looking forward to the most to recording was about, of course, my beloved Scottish Carved Stone balls. And then I was lucky enough to have the esteemed Professor Andrew Mirian Jones come to talk to me, who has done a lot of research on this topic,
00:24:56
Speaker
I ah think to be honest, I might have to expand this one out. Maybe I can persuade Andrew to come and do an extra episode with me, or maybe I can find someone else who also does research on them and see if I can do sort of an extended series, because there's just so much to say about these objects and so many questions, none of which can be answered really. So that was really fascinating. And then after having done a couple of sort of more vague object types, material types, we went specific again and looked at the Beotapestry with Dr. Alexandra Macon, which, again, something that i I knew about in the back of my mind mainly as a kind of background to the opening credits of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. But I didn't really know that much about it. And I do always do a little bit of background research when I'm preparing for the episodes because, of course, I don't want to be completely ignorant.
00:25:46
Speaker
But still, I sort of do a very shallow, like I say, a shallow research into these objects. So again, it was really fascinating to chat with Alexandra, who's a textile archaeologist and who is currently replicating different panels of the Beotapestry. So if you want to check that out, go and have a look at that episode and I link her YouTube channel where she does a really detailed overview of all the different panels and the processes and everything like that. Really interesting. And then, I mean, I keep saying this for every episode I know, oh, very exciting, but it really is. I can't explain how it feels when you get a guest and you you have this idea for an episode and you think, oh I'll approach them, maybe they'll say no, but what have I got to lose? And then they say yes, and you can have them on and you can talk about this amazing topic and object with someone who really knows what they're talking about. And so the next episode, I was very excited to have Teya Nakamura or TK,
00:26:38
Speaker
who is the host of For the Love of History podcast, and she came on to talk about Netsuke with me, which was really cool because these are objects that I have found really sweet and lovely, and I've wanted to know more about them for ages. And it was so nice to then have someone who is so immersed in Japanese history to be able to give me kind of more information and provide that overview. So that was really fantastic. And then the next couple of episodes, were, I keep saying, very exciting, but they were. I mean, gosh, honestly, i I'm looking back at what who I've had on and what we've talked about and I'm just amazed and I'm so happy that I was able to chat to these amazing guests because we had in January of this year, we had tattooing tools.
00:27:23
Speaker
with Daniel Rydae, known as previously totemic tattoo, now I believe known as ancestral crafts, where he has relocated to France, which is great because that means he's closer to me, which hopefully means I can finally get a tattoo from him at some point. And we talked about tattooing tools based on, of course, his extreme like very wide ranging expertise of traditional tattooing methods. And then in in February, We had a sort of follow-up, as as it were, episode looking at the tattoos themselves, so ancient prehistoric tattoos, with Arendita Wolfe. The two of them had worked together on a project which, funnily enough, was funded in part by EXARC, the Society for Experimental Archaeology and Open Air Museums, of which I am now the director. but
00:28:08
Speaker
when they did the project, I was not the director. And so it was really fun to chat to them more about that project and hear about things. And actually we then had a special episode just for our members, bonus material, where we talked, the three of us talked about their research, which was really fascinating to get that insight. And if you follow them on social media, you'll see that there's so much coming out of their research at the moment and so many more sort of insights and interesting things. So ah yes, very exciting. And then I had to celebrate the anniversary of the release of the 1999 classic, The Mummy. I talked about mummies with Jessica Fondom, who is a art conservator and Egyptologist. Well, actually, no, she's she kept saying to me, she's not an Egyptologist, but she's an Egyptology enthusiast and a forensic archaeologist, forensic osteoarchaeologist.
00:28:57
Speaker
And we talked about mummies and that was also really fun, a really fun episode. And then of course, the latest episode, which was from last month, it was about silver jewellery with Sigret van Rode, soon to be Doctor, if all goes well with her defence on Thursday, this coming Thursday. Good luck Sigret, if you're listening, you're probably not, you shouldn't be listening, you should be preparing. but Not that you need to, because you know exactly what you're talking about, as was demonstrated very successfully through our last podcast recording. so That was great fun, and I really look forward. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to watch the defence, but they are publicly available to watch online. so and I think she'll be sharing the link on her social. Do go and follow her if you're interested in in finding out more about her research, because it will be a really interesting event.
00:29:40
Speaker
So there's that that little that little overview. I think we're going to have another break quickly, and we'll be back in a little bit to continue.
00:29:50
Speaker
So I'm going to be honest with you, I had only planned like five minutes for that last section. So I was only intending to make a short episode this month, but it turns out it's going to be as long as all the rest of the episodes, it seems. It's just incredible how much has been packed into the last two years. I mean, gosh, I'm so, I'm so proud of of this series and I really hope that people who listen to it enjoy it because it gives me such joy to make it and it gives me so much pleasure to be able to learn about all these incredible objects. And there's been such a variety of objects that we've looked at, I mean, you can just see from that list, but also of guests. So for the objects, I mean, some, you know, you have those particular objects that are very well known, you have other kind of materials or object types that are less well known, but then you also have things which are apparently very familiar, I mean, an axe, a wooden wheel, but you can discuss them for an hour with some somewhat, and probably longer. And they can be discussed in so many different lights and in different ways, and you can get so many new interpretations. So I love the the variety of that that can be sort of demonstrated. And I'm looking forward to talking about new objects. There's some very exciting ones planned for the next couple of months. I'm trying to plan a little further ahead this time and see if I can get some good guests on again. So I'm looking forward to that. And yeah, the guests.
00:31:06
Speaker
as you've probably noticed. So I try to have a range of archaeologists and archaeological researchers, but also we're looking at objects, we're looking at materials, and when you're looking at objects in the past, it is essential to have that understanding of the material itself. And that's why I wanted to have on not just sort of archaeologists and researchers, but also professional craftspeople, because both of those perspectives are absolutely essential when you're looking at objects from the past. And I mean, in quite a lot of my guests, I was very lucky, actually, in that I had both, the best of both worlds, because a lot of them are ex-archaeologists who have kind of pursued their hobby and successfully, or are kind of craftspeople who have a very strong interest in history and archaeology, and that's kind of had a big effect on on inspired where they took their direction, which direction they took with their with their craft.
00:31:57
Speaker
So, I've been very lucky in that respect and I really hope to continue with that. If, by the way, you are listening in and you are thinking, that it would be really cool if we could do an episode on XYZ and you are a particular person or if you know someone who is particularly experienced in that material or that object type or has done research on it or makes it or anything like that, please do get in touch. I'm always happy to receive recommendations or suggestions or any kind of feedback actually on guests and future episodes, and indeed feedback on past episodes as well.
00:32:30
Speaker
So the first question that I usually ask our guests is, how did you get to where you are today? And again, everyone has had such a different answer, and there's been such a variety of discussions that have come out of this, which is kind of what I was hoping would happen, and I'm really glad that it did, because it shows that there's no one path to get to where you want to go. So for example, looking at archaeological materials, looking at archaeological objects, getting specialised in some way in archaeology or objects or craft or anything like that, there's There's no correct formula, or there's no kind of one way to do it. and I really hope that some people who are listening to the podcast not only learn something interesting about the object, but also learn a little bit about the field of archaeology and kind of the paths that are taken to get there.
00:33:17
Speaker
Hopefully, as well, there might be some people listening who are inspired and think, well, actually, I didn't think that I had followed the traditional path to get into archaeology, but maybe there is a way for me to get into it and to pursue this dream of mine to become an archaeologist, because I know that a lot of people have that dream, but to to pursue this this passion of mine. And i I try to as well in the in the third section, usually I try to to delve more into the guest's personal experience in that respect to sort of get suggestions or advice for those people listening who might want to follow a ah similar path.
Future Directions and Listener Engagement
00:33:49
Speaker
So that was also my kind of intention with this podcast was to show not only not only the range of interesting objects and and try to expand people's view on those objects of the past, but I also really wanted to try and
00:34:04
Speaker
highlight the variation within archaeology and try and shed a bit of light on on what it takes to be an archaeologist and what it takes to actually study objects and and get into that way. Because also a lot of people just think that archaeology is digging, but it's not. There's so much more and there's so many more things that can be done as well, and not just within the field of archaeology as well. You don't have to be an archaeologist to be involved in archaeology, as it's been very successfully demonstrated with a lot of our guests. So ah yeah, I hope that people enjoyed that part as well. So that's sort of why I always ask that first question and why I i look at the the third segment as well. And my second question, of course, is related to time travel. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
00:34:46
Speaker
And not only does everyone have a completely different answer, I don't think we've had two of the same answers, which is fascinating to me. But also what I love is that pretty much everyone wanted to go back and just see everyday activities of some kind. They wanted to see how things worked. They wanted to see how people made things. They wanted to see how people interacted. They wanted to see, even if they wanted to see like a real historical figure, it was to see how they really were, how they interacted with people, how they were perceived. So they don't just want to go back and see something spectacular or be entertained. And this is particularly pertinent to the
00:35:22
Speaker
book that I mentioned. I've recently finished Timeline by Michael Crichton because there's a whole segment in it where they're talking about how people in the modern day just want to be entertained. They don't want to be, they they can't sort of enjoy things anymore. They just want that entertainment. And I think, yes, on the one hand, sure, but also I think we just want to understand. We want to understand the context of things and we want to understand why things are the way they are. And I think that that is just perfectly represented by this segment because Yeah, you you see people who just you want to find out the answers, but the answers are not just a one-off word or they're not a simple description. It's a process that you have to go back and sort of experience for yourself. So I personally found that extremely interesting and I always love hearing what people want to do. And what's also really interesting is not everyone wants to go back to the period that they're specialised in. Most people do, but there were a couple of a couple of yeah people that just went in a very different direction, which was also really, really interesting.
00:36:23
Speaker
So that leads me into the final topic of this special episode. So indeed, in this series, we, of course, travel back in time, as the name suggests. So it's an adventure. It's a quest. It's an expedition. And it's all very exciting, as I have said multiple times. But as anyone who has been remotely involved in an archaeological research project will know for every practical adventure in your research, there is probably five times as much theory and literature that you have to pull out through in order to understand the context of whatever it is that you might actually experience on your expedition. So to help out with this kind of preparation in terms of our time travel, I am going to try anyway to add in an extra episode every month, which will be shorter, hopefully, ah she says optimistically.
00:37:17
Speaker
And it will focus on different archaeological theories and methods that are, in my opinion, essential knowledge for any properly seasoned time traveller. So it'll at least at the start, it'll be just me. Maybe if I have the time to schedule things with guests, then I'll try and get some guests on as well. But at least to start, it'll just be me, which is why it'll be shorter as well, because I know that there's only so long you can listen to this voice. I'm very, very happy to take requests for any topics. My idea was, so I mentioned at the start that this podcast was sort of inspired by my reels, my T-Day reels that I was doing over on Instagram. And those were on particular objects. At some point, I also started complimenting those reels with what I called Theory Thursday, where I did the same thing. It was a one minute reel, but instead of talking about a particular object, I talked about a particular kind of archaeological theory or archaeological method.
00:38:11
Speaker
post-processual archaeology or radiocarbon dating and all that kind of thing. And a lot of those videos have actually continued to be very popular with people who say, oh, you know thank you, i I've been struggling with this topic. And I thought, oh, okay, well, actually, so this is a one-minute video. I can't go very in very much detail, and I can't really capture the nuance of of these theories or these methods. um I have to be kind of very blunt and very simplistic. But wouldn't it be great then if I could expand those out a little bit, not too much, but just a little bit more, and give a little bit more detail and a little bit more context, and a little bit more kind of, hopefully, and just provide a little bit more understanding about these theories and these methods.
00:38:55
Speaker
So that's why I will call it sort of the time travel training, tea break time travel training sessions, where yeah, we're going to look a little bit into the background of kind of the archaeological research or the archaeological interpretations that are done on the objects and the materials that we look at in the main episodes of the tea break time travel. So there'll be a little bit of a probationary period to see whether it actually works, to see whether people are actually interested in it, to see whether it's something that, yeah, is actually interesting to listen to because if no one's listening, then I don't really want to spend time making it. There's no point me just talking to myself.
00:39:36
Speaker
Also, I need to just see whether it works time-wise for me because I am very busy and, yeah, need to see that I have enough time. And just to specify, of course, the current format of the monthly episodes with guests won't change. This is a one-off. This special episode is a one-off. All of the other months, I am fully intending to continue with the current format of having a guest on, focusing on a particular object, material, object type, etc. So yes, so that's the plan for the future, which I'm yeah really looking forward to. I really hope that it'll be good and I really hope that you enjoy it. So yeah, I hope also that you enjoyed today, despite the slight variation in format. Full disclosure, this was um recorded very last minute because I completely forgot that it was due this week. I thought that it was due next week.
00:40:23
Speaker
So thank you so much. I just want to give a shout out to our wonderful editor, Rachel, who edits all of the episodes over on the APN, I think, or nearly all, basically all. She may as well be editing all um because she does a fantastic job. And yeah, she she edited this very close to the deadline. So thank you so much, Rachel. I very much appreciate it. And I do just want to say, indeed, so all of the hosts for all of the shows on the APN, we're all volunteers. We all do this in our free time because I mean, let's be honest, probably half of us enjoy the sound of our own voices, but I hope, at least from my perspective, it's mainly because we want to share our enthusiasm and our passion for this topic. I find it difficult sometimes, you know, working working from home, i working in a little bubble. I do also work in a in a company, but it's it's a different kind of job, right? You sort of don't you don't
00:41:15
Speaker
have those discussions really in between kind of your your work hours. So I wanted to have something where I can still be doing research and I can still be interacting with the broader community and I can still be learning because I love learning. And that's one one of the nice things is that I get to learn as well. But I also want to help other people learn and I want to help other people find out about this wonderful world of the past. so yeah Even the the editors and the producers don't don't actually get paid on the APM. They just manage to cover the costs of everything. so Any support that you can give us would be absolutely fantastic. If you want to support us financially, then you can become a member. There's a monthly subscription. Check out the APM website for more information. You get all kinds of lovely benefits, including ad-free episodes,
00:42:02
Speaker
You also get bonus material. I've mentioned a couple of episodes that I've created in this episode already. And for example, on this Sunday with Ash, I just recorded the a live recording of Am My Trial, which will be available for members as a special bonus episode. So there's a couple of extra sort of behind the scenes bonus material that you can get access to. So do check out the APM website linked in the show notes here. And you can also, though, support us in non-financial ways by just sharing the podcast with friends and family on social media. And of course, by downloading, subscribing, following, wherever you get your podcasts. Honestly, every little helps. It might not seem like much, but it really makes a big difference. And it's so nice to be able to do this. And it would be really nice to be able to continue.
00:42:49
Speaker
So your support means that we can we can continue to create these sort of fun and informative podcasts and ensure that you have something exciting and educational to listen to. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Back to regularly scheduled programming next month, but in the meantime, safe travels and enjoy. I hope that you enjoyed our journey today. If you did, make sure to like, follow, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and I'll see you next month for another episode of Tea Break Time Travel.
00:43:19
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his ah RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archapodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.