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This isn’t your average foodie episode. No hot takes on air fryers. No long-winded stories about a sourdough starter named Cassandra. Just a deep dive into the oldest kitchens on the continent...lined with stone, clay, and memory. From 48-hour agave roasts to hand-ground cornmeal tortillas cooked next to a creek, this episode blends archaeology, experimental cooking, and storytelling into one long, delicious simmer. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to eat history, or burn your fingers trying, this one’s for you.

Further Reading & Listener Resources:

Adair, M. J. (1988). Prehistoric Diet in the Central Plains. University
of Kansas.

Black, Stephen L. (n.d.). "Earth Ovens." Texas Beyond History.
https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/earthovens

Doolittle, W. E. (2000). Cultivated Landscapes of Native North America.
Oxford University Press.

Peacock, S. L., & Turner, N. J. (2000). “Just Like a Garden.” In
Biodiversity and Native America, pp. 133–179. University of Oklahoma
Press.

Wells, M. (2023). Earth Ovens and Desert Lifeways. A readable, engaging
deep dive into the archaeological and cultural significance of earth
oven cooking traditions in the U.S. Southwest.

Texas Beyond History – Earth Ovens:
https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/earthovens

Moerman, D. E. (1998). Native American Ethnobotany. An indispensable
resource for understanding the breadth of Indigenous plant use across
the continent.


Zedeño, M. N. (2000). “On What People Make of Places.” In The
Archaeology of Landscapes, pp. 97–111. Blackwell Publishers.

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Archaeological dating… sounds straightforward, right? Think again. In this episode of Stratified we dig into the wild, weird, & sometimes downright disastrous world of archaeological dating mistakes. From misplaced spark plugs (yes, really) to "out-of-place" artifacts, radiocarbon mix-ups, and full-blown site scandals, we explore what happens when time refuses to behave...or when archaeologists get a little too eager for the oldest date.

This isn’t about romantic disasters. It’s about the archaeological ones.
Because in archaeology, gettingit wrong is half the story.

Stratified Podcast Episode 3: Dating Disasters: Not the Romantic Kind
Episode Bibliography

The Coso Artifact
- Feder, Kenneth L. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Shinichi Fujimura / Japanese Paleolithic Hoax
- Hudson, Mark. “The Ruins of the Past: Shinichi Fujimura and the Japanese Palaeolithic Hoax.” Antiquity, vol. 75, no. 290, 2001, pp. 976–983.
- "Shinichi Fujimura." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinichi_Fujimura

Radiocarbon Dating Challenges
- Higham, Tom. Time's Anvil: England, Archaeology and the Imagination. Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Reimer, Paula J. et al. “The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP).” Radiocarbon, vol. 62, no. 4, 2020, pp. 725–757.
- Prikryl, Daniel J. “Burned Rock Middens in Central Texas: Archaeological Features and Radiocarbon Dating Problems.” Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, vol. 61, 1990.

Anzick Site / Clovis Dating
- Rasmussen, M. et al. “The genome of a Late Pleistocene human from a Clovis burial site in western Montana.” Nature, vol. 506, 2014, pp. 225–229.

Kennewick Man
- Chatters, James C. Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans. Simon & Schuster, 2001.
- Rasmussen, M. et al. “The ancestry and affiliations of Kennewick Man.” Nature, vol. 523, 2015, pp. 455–458.

White Sands Footprints
- Bennett, M. R. et al. “Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum.” Science, vol. 373, no. 6562, 2021, pp. 1528–1531.

Buttermilk Creek (Debra L. Friedkin Site)
- Waters, Michael R. et al. “Pre-Clovis projectile points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas—implications for the Late Pleistocene peopling of the Americas.” Science Advances, vol. 7, no. 36, 2021.

Santorini Eruption Dating Debate
- Friedrich, Walter L. Santorini: Volcano, Natural History, Mythology. Aarhus University Press, 2000.
- Manning, Sturt W. et al. “Fluctuating radiocarbon offsets observed in the southern Levant and implications for archaeological chronology debates.” Science Advances, vol. 4, no. 5, 2018.

Cahokia & North American Tree-Ring Dating
- Munoz, Samuel E. et al. “Cahokia’s emergence and decline coincided with shifts of flood frequency on the Mississippi River.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 112, no. 20, 2015, pp. 6319–6324.

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What do maps, fences, flood control, and barbed wire have in common? They all tell stories about land... and about who was erased from it.In this episode of Stratified, we dig into the many ways land gets taken: through colonial language, survey systems, national parks, water policy, and literal bulldozers.

🔗 Sources & Further Reading📄 “Bringing Good Fire Back to the Land” – Reasons to Be Cheerfu📄 “Fires, Fascism, and the Loss of Indigenous Knowledge” – Medium, The New Climate📄 “Federal Report Finds Tribal Burial, Cultural Sites Blasted for Border Wall” – Truthout📄 Lipan Apache Preservation: Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes – Big Bend Conservation Alliance📄 Texas Historical Commission: Lost Cemeteries Project📄 Water & Tribal Rights (Background) – Indian Law Resource Center📄 Public Land Survey System (PLSS) Overview – BLM📄 “Yellowstone National Park: Land of the Crow and Shoshone” – NPS Cultural Anthropology Program