In this episode, step inside Deir el-Medina, the remarkably well-preserved village of the artisans who built the royal tombs of ancient Egypt. Known in antiquity as Pa Demi or “the village”, this desert settlement near Thebes (modern Luxor) was home to the skilled workers of the Set Maat, the “Place of Truth,” where pharaohs like Tutankhamun, Ramesses II, Nefertari, and Hatshepsut were laid to rest.

Through tomb art, legal documents, and everyday texts, Deir el-Medina offers one of the most intimate portraits of non-elite life in ancient Egypt.

Explore the lives of three individuals whose stories survive in astonishing detail. Meet Ramose, the wealthiest man in the village, whose decorated tombs and appeals to fertility goddesses reveal private hopes for an heir. Follow his adopted successor, Qenherkhepeshef, a prolific scribe whose tomb preserved the famous “Book of Dreams,” a guide to omens written in red and black ink. Finally, Naunakhte, whose surviving will shows that women in the New Kingdom owned property and controlled how it was inherited.

Offline Sources Cited:

• Blerk, Nicolaas J. 2021. The Contribution of Papyrus Ashmolean Museum 1945.97 (“Naunakht’s Will & Related Documents”) to Our Understanding of The Ancient Egyptian Testamentary Disposition and Succession Law. Fundamina 2021:101–142.
• Cerny, Jaroslav. 1945. The Will of Naunakhte and the Related Documents. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 31:29–53.
• Davies, Benedict. 1999. Who’s Who at Deir El-Medina: A Prosopographic Study of The Royal Workman’s Community. Egyptologische Uitgaven No. 13. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden.
• Dorn, Andreas. 2022. Tagging in the Valley of the Kings around 1200–1150 BC. Social practices and personal habits. TAG: Name Writing in Public Space. A Reader of the 2017 Conference about Tagging at Freie Universität Berlin, Edited by E. Birzin, J. Abarca and M. Hübner, Berlin 2022, 96–103.

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• Website | The Will of Naunakhte at the Ashmolean Museum
• Website | The Book of Dreams at the British Museum
• Website | More Info About the latest Deir el-Medina Excavations led by IFAO
• Website | Dig Diaries from the 2026 Workers Cemetery Excavations led by the Museo Egizio

For transcripts of this episode head over to: https://archpodnet.com/tpm/32

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NotToday we’re exploring the crazy world of marketing – caveman style! We’re reviewing a compilation of television commercials featuring prehistoric people. McDonald’s, Budweiser, Doritos—if it’s modern and convenient, you can bet a caveman has tried to sell it. Why? I’m not sure, but I’m kinda craving some cheese products for some reason. (This is Part One of a two-part episode)es

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• Font-de-Gaume
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• Zdeněk Burian Palaeoart
• The Invention of Prehistory (2023) by Stefanos Geroulanos
• Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans
• Canadian dairy farmers react to changing market trends

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In this episode of Ethnocynology, David talks about his recent trip to Mexico. Initially, David went to Oaxaca to experience the local culture and take pictures of dogs, and he also spent a lot of time touring mezcal facilities and archaeological sites.

After Oaxaca, David then took a bus to Mexico City, where he gave a talk about his upcoming book at UNAM, the largest university in Latin America.

As well, David details how incredible the Museum of Anthropology is and takes you on a tour of the museum through his words, describing what he saw and how large and grand the collections and displays are.

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In this episode, Alan welcomes back Dr George Harold Nash to the podcast to discuss his article on Serra da Capivara National Park, one of the most important archaeological regions in South America. Together, they explore the park’s extraordinary rock art, controversial early dates, and what the evidence might mean for long-standing models of migration into the Americas.

For a rough transcript head over to: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/rockart/160

• Serra da Capivara: America’s Oldest Rock Art?
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In this short episode George introduces the return of ADHD BCE for season 2!

This season explores how archaeologists infer behaviour, cognition, and difference from the archaeological record, and what that evidence can tell us about the evolution of the human nervous system.

Across the season we’ll look at:
• How material remains are used to reconstruct past lives
• How the human nervous system evolved over deep time
• How migration shaped human behaviour and adaptation
• How the shift to farming radically changed human environments and experience

Rather than diagnosing the past, ADHD BCE starts from the assumption that human variation has always existed — and that many archaeological patterns only make sense when we allow for different ways of sensing, processing, and interacting with the world.

Season 2 is about learning how to read the past more carefully — and using archaeology to better understand ourselves today.

Welcome back!

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Today we run head on into a question I have gotten throughout my career: is C14 dating fake? I’m going to go with a complex, multi-faceted answer of “NO.” The question that is much more fun: Why do people keep saying this?

Message for Simplecast: For rough transcripts of this episode head over to https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/pseudo/180

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It’s time for part two of Matilda’s chat with ex-gladiatrix Svenja Fabian all about the topic of gladiatorial training! But how exactly would gladiators have trained in the past? Could anyone have become a gladiator? And what’s the ancient Roman equivalent of a sport’s bra? Listen in to find out the answers and much more!

For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/teabreak/47

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The coming new year is a good time to look back at human history and reflect on our choices. A figure that keeps changing with the times while still harking back to his origins is Father Time in his many forms. The tool he carries also changes with the culture, and the sickle is the version that connects to the oldest myths. Dive into deep time through all the cycles of the seasons, life, and death.

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• 'Born Of The Sky' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Penumbra' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Hymn To The Dawn' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Cirrus' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Echoes' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Ride The Wind' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Castles in the Sky' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Echoes Of Home' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'I Walk With Ghosts' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'Song Of The Forge' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. http://www.scottbuckley.com.au

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