Happy Longnight! Today is the December Solstice, and to celebrate we’re reviewing a very special holiday episode of 2007 sitcom Cavemen, based on the popular Geico insurance commercials. Everyone is invited, whether we like them or not, so grab a slice of forager’s pie and a glass of Beef Fizz and settle in to listen to your favourite palaeo researchers trying to explain basic astronomy. To the cow!

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In this Episode:

Watch Cavemen S01E09 Caveman Holiday on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqtbPiIMQ2g&list=PL81C5835E560AE6BE&index=26

Listen to our review of Cavemen S01E01: https://screensofthestoneage.com/podcast/episode-78-cavemen-s01e01-her-embarrassed-of-caveman-2007/

Neanderthal diet: https://www.sapiens.org/biology/neanderthal-diet/

Weyrich et al. (2017). Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21674

Richards and Trinkaus (2009). Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903821106

Beasley et al. (2025). Neanderthals, hypercarnivores, and maggots: Insights from stable nitrogen isotopes: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt7466

Fellows Yates et al. (2021). The evolution and changing ecology of the African hominid oral microbiome: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021655118

Adler et al. (2017). Evolution of the Oral Microbiome and Dental Caries: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40496-017-0151-1

Phytoliths: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolith

Chinique de Armas et al. (2015). Starch analysis and isotopic evidence of consumption of cultigens among fisher–gatherers in Cuba: the archaeological site of Canímar Abajo, Matanzas: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2015.03.003

Solstice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice

Analemma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma

Crazy Ancient Greek planet math: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferent_and_epicycle

The Antikythera Mechanism – Pseudoarchaeology Podcast: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/pseudo/96

Beef fizz: https://vinepair.com/articles/beef-fizz-drink-history/