Best Halife Podcasts (2022)

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Take the Last Boat to Carthage and I’ll Meet You at the Tophet. Or, Who Were the Phoenicians and Why Did They Do Something As Dangerous as Sail West? 58:19

5d ago58:19

58:19

A Phoenician cemetery in Spain has us talking about, well, the Phoenicians. Who were they, where did they come from, and why do we even call them Phoenicians in the first place? Isn’t that sort of ‘othering’? And where does famed character actor Michael J. Pollard fit in?By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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A ‘Dark Age’ Shipwreck Mystery, or When Your Cargo Absolutely, Positively Has to Get There Eventually Between the Byzantine and Umayyad Period Unless the Ship Sinks 47:57

20d ago47:57

47:57

A Late Byzantine/Early Islamic shipwreck off the coast of Israel has us donning our Speedos once again. Wasn’t this tramp steamer aware of the momentous political and social changes taking place on land? Who cares when you’ve got walnuts and broken glass to deliver!By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Even More Strange and Wonderful Finds from Iron Age Jerusalem, or, You Brought Home Champagne! No, it’s Vanilla Flavored Wine. 53:13

1M ago53:13

53:13

Wine flavored with vanilla? Why would any self respecting Jerusalemite touch the stuff except to show off? Anyway, it pairs well with other weird stuff found in Iron Age Jerusalem like shark fossils, dried fish, and writing so why not?By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Har Adir, Where the Iron Age Air is Clear, or How to tell a Fortress from a Bird Watching Sanctuary 55:39

2M ago55:39

55:39

The early Iron Age site of Har Adir in the mountains of the Upper Galilee is back in the news. Was this an 11th century fortress of a local polity or a bird watching sanctuary? How can we tell the difference? What is a polity anyway? One thing’s for sure, don’t get us started about ‘Dark Ages.’By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Tattoo Who? Or, From Egypt with Ink 45:58

2M ago45:58

45:58

The discovery of tattoos on an upper class woman from ancient Egypt has us asking, are these magical, medical, or a right of passage? But what about the tattooed criminals in ancient Greece? Maybe this tattoo thing goes different ways. The main thing is that people in the past looked more like modern Brooklynites than we realized.…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Xbox of the Early Bronze Age? Or, All That’s Left is a Board of Stone. 55:05

3M ago55:05

55:05

A stone game board from Oman has us puzzled. Is this rare find a signpost in the evolution of human cognition or a flat rock with divots? What are games anyway? New ways to think or old ways to kill time? It’s all a game to you people, isn’t it?By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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A Crusader Mass Grave at Sidon, or Blunt Force Trauma Makes the Man 51:28

3M ago51:28

51:28

A mass grave of Crusaders at the Lebanese site of Sidon raises many questions about identity, mobility, and warfare in the 13th century. But it fits right in with our understanding of human cruelty, what with the beheadings and all, so at least there’s that.By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Two Synagogues at Magdala, or, was Mary in the Multipurpose Room? 1:01:44

3M ago1:01:44

1:01:44

Magdala had two synagogues, or did it? How many did they need and how often did they go to synagogue anyway? Is this just a post-Enlightenment conceit about pre-Enlightenment religiosity? But which is more important, the room with the services or the one with the bingo?By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Garbage Dump of the Gods 46:24

4M ago46:24

46:24

What happens when a temple, say, Hatshepsut’s New Kingdom temple at Deir el Bahari, throws out offerings? Are there good and bad types of garbage? Let’s face it, archaeologists will take what they can get. But isn’t “precious rubble” the name of one of Barney and Betty’s kids?By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Strange Case of the Neo-Assyrian Armor in the Chinese Tomb, or The Ballad of the One Off Wonder 55:15

4M ago55:15

55:15

Neo-Assyrian leather armor? In a Western Chinese tomb? It’s a classic, what’s up with that situation. Is it really Neo-Assyrian? How do we know? If so, how did it get there? What can we make of a sample of one? Why are we talking about Ricardo Montalban? It’s an episode so filled with questions that we’re literally bubbling over.…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Even More New Amazing Iron Age Finds from a Cult Site West of Jerusalem, or, To Gaze Upon the Knees of God 52:30

5M ago52:30

52:30

A slightly lopsided Iron Age cult site just outside Jerusalem? Little human figurines, big silos, and now the stone legs of a cult statue? What’s going on beneath the highway overpass at Motza? But why is anyone surprised about another temple in Judah? Wouldn’t surprise be an indictment of our entire educational system?…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Curse of the Mummy’s Double Chins, or, It’s Better to Look Good than to Feel Good 51:29

5M ago51:29

51:29

A new study uses DNA from Egyptian mummies to literally reconstruct their faces. Oddly enough, they look like Egyptians. Is this accurate? Is it ethical? One way or another, they’re pretty good-looking. And isn’t that the main thing? Anyway, what’s with all the mummified cats?By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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It’s the Very Nearly Live from ASOR 2021 Conference With Extra Special Guests Edition! Part 3-The Last Waltz 35:39

6M ago35:39

35:39

Yes, we’re still here at ASOR, but now we’re interrogating an entirely new crowd about the question of conferences, namely Dr. Margaret Cohen, Professor Alexandra Ratzlaff and Professor Andrea Berlin. The questions are mostly the same, but the answers from these three leading female scholars are quite different.…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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It’s the Very Nearly Live from ASOR 2021 Conference With Extra Special Guests Edition! Part 2-After Hours 42:58

6M ago42:58

42:58

What happens when a bunch of archaeologists start drinking bourbon and let their graying hair down? It’s an after hours edition with the one and only Professor James Hardin, who rather charmingly, can’t stay on script. He takes us to some surprising places, including some related to archaeological storytelling.…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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It’s the Very Nearly Live from ASOR 2021 Conference With Extra Special Guests Edition! Part 1-The Ballroom Tapes 1:01:34

6M ago1:01:34

1:01:34

A conference you say? That’s right, we’re here in Chicago at the ASOR meeting with a host of guests, luminary scholars with names like Professor Eric Cline, Dr. Matthew Adams (the one with a J.), Dr. Yorke Rowan, and Professor Morag Kersel. The topic - conferences and conference experiences. There are some important lessons here.…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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So You Need a Stone Floor For Your Hittite Temple? I Know a Guy. 47:19

7M ago47:19

47:19

Making a floor isn’t rocket science, but style and execution count for a lot. The terrazzo floor at the 15th century Hittite sanctuary at Uşaklı Höyük might be the earliest mosaic floor, or does that honor belongs to the Minoans? What is the relationship between power and taste? Why are the triangles blue and what does the god Teshub really think a…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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11,500 Year Old Cultic Site With Huge Stone Circles, Pillars, and Skulls Mystifies Easily Mystified Archaeologists, Or, Gimme That Really, Really, Really Old Time Religion 54:16

7M ago54:16

54:16

Where does religion come from? How did hunter-gatherers build early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey? What’s with the gigantic carved stone pillars and the defleshed human skulls anyway? What is religion, really? Why am I asking you? It’s an episode as profound as it is, well, mystifying.…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Middle Bronze Age Site Smashed by Exploding Comet, Film at 11, Or, Who You Crushing with that Cosmic Debris? 54:41

8M ago54:41

54:41

Was a Middle Bronze Age site near the Dead Sea pulverized by a cosmic air burst at 1650 BCE? Say what? The science is compelling, from the shocked quartz to the melted iridium. But was all this remembered, maybe in a Biblical story about a site in the Jordan Valley pulverized by fire from the sky? That’s the tricky part.…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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New Underwater Discoveries in the Nile Delta, or, Our Ship Sank, but We Brought You a Fruit Basket 52:15

8M ago52:15

52:15

A ship graveyard, a sunken ship, and a fruit basket? Our contestants take a voyage to the bottom of the sea to discuss finds from the Nile Delta and ask the important questions like, what is the connection between fruit baskets and death, and how did Iron Age maritime insurers stay in business?By thisweekintheancientneareast

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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It’s the End of Summer Archaeology Super Mega Fun Round-Up Episode! 41:35

8M ago41:35

41:35

Missing basilicas, poison rats, and Trojan Horses? Holy Jerusalem earthquake Batman! Yes, that too and more in our end of summer stranger than fiction fantastic archaeology ripped from the headlines roundup episode! Our contestants are on the clock and it’s like Hollywood Squares without Paul Lynde! Or is it?…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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That’ll Do Iron Age Pig, That’ll Do, or, Jambon in Jerusalem 35:41

9M ago35:41

35:41

First sharks and now pigs? What’s going on in Iron Age Jerusalem with all these non-kosher species? Were Judeans in the shadow of the Temple noshing on something naughty or are there other explanations? Are there ever! Our panelists' speculations are unbridled in this laughter filled episode. To learn more https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/cryptic-…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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(Almost) Biblical Writing, or How to Go From Lunchboxes to Bureaucracy in Only 300 Years. 55:02

9M ago55:02

55:02

It’s only four little letters, well maybe five, but another tiny Iron Age inscription has raised more than a few eyebrows. What’s the significance of this latest scribble? Is it the name of a biblical character, or the name of a guy who didn’t want his lunch stolen? And why are our panelists talking about being stuck in a suburban cul-de-sac? To le…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Gospel of “Who the Heck Falls for This Stuff?" 49:30

10M ago49:30

49:30

The ‘Gospel of Jesus’ Wife’ is the latest high profile example of a forged ancient text. Scholars should have known better, but hey, where’s the fun in that? When Fox Mulder meets Elaine Benes the sparks fly and scholarship takes it on the chin. Our panelists are there ringside, sagely opining. To learn more A Scholarly Screw-Up of Biblical Proport…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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And That’s How We Solved the Mystery of the Fossil Shark Teeth in Iron Age Jerusalem 50:24

10M ago50:24

50:24

A bunch of 80 million year old shark teeth in Iron Age Jerusalem have set the archaeological world ablaze. What are they doing there along with 10,000 fish bones and six and a half tons of pottery? It’s gotta be a joke, right? Do our panelists speculate wildly or do they jump the shark? To learn more Cache of 80-million-year-old shark teeth found i…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Where Did Babies Come from in the Iron Age, or, Biblical Archaeology Smokes a Cigar in the Waiting Room 56:41

11M ago56:41

56:41

Iron Age figurines in the Southern Levant depict naked women and not a lot else. The usual explanations are goddesses or magical devices related to fertility. But isn’t everything sort of related to fertility? What were mostly male Biblical Archaeologists missing? Probably quite a bit. Our panelists wax eloquent in this family friendly episode. To …

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Death on the Euphrates, or, a Kunga Line to Heaven? 55:48

11M ago55:48

55:48

Is the third millennium BCE burial mound at Tell Banat in north Syria a war memorial to the site’s defenders? What moves the living to take a random sample of human and animal bones and bury them in a mound that looms over their community? What is a kunga anyway and how does the modern sport of donkey basketball fit in? Our panelists are strangely …

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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A Resurrected Date by Any Other Name Would Still Taste As Sweet, or, Jurassic Park in the Judean Desert 48:19

12M ago48:19

48:19

Resurrection genomics sounds fancy, even a little scary, but in this case it means cultivating date trees from ancient seeds and then sequencing their genes. What do we learn about the antiquity of this ever-popular fruit? And if dates are so great, how come the tree is the symbol and not the fruit? Our panelists are torn, yet characteristically sw…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Strange Story of the Roman Era Half Lamp, or A Sconce to Light Their Way 44:57

12M ago44:57

44:57

The chance find of a strange Roman period half lamp in Jerusalem and the even chancier discovery that the other half is in Hungary has shocked the archaeological world. What is this strange light fixture and how can its separation lead to some high-class speculation about lamps, symbolism, and ancient psychology? What is light anyway, and why is it…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Solomon: Portrait of an Iron Age Onassis, or How to Have a State without Really Making a Statement 56:25

1y ago56:25

56:25

A recent study proposes that the Biblical King Solomon orchestrated maritime trade across the Iron Age Mediterranean. Is there really evidence for this? And why didn’t the kingdoms of Israel and Judah create monumental art and architecture like their neighbors? Or, for that matter, write much stuff down? Our panelists are intrigued but not confiden…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Which is the Best Bronze Age Note-Taking App, or Why Did it Take the Alphabet a Thousand Years to Catch On? 59:34

1y ago59:34

59:34

A tiny inscribed potsherd dating to the first half of the 15th century BCE from Lachish in southern Israel has six little letters. Is this the earliest alphabetic inscription in the southern Levant? Does it change the story of the alphabet? And who breaks nice pottery to write a note? Our panelists are puzzled, but not necessarily surprised. To lea…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Boozing in the Bronze Age, or, Narmer, He’s the King of Beers 51:48

1y ago51:48

51:48

The discovery of an industrial scale beer brewery at the early Egyptian site of Abydos demonstrates the role of alcohol in ancient societies. Was drinking your dinner on the ruler’s tab a way to keep workers fed, or maybe just to keep them from asking questions like ‘why are we building this stupid pyramid for this so-called king?’ To learn more Ab…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Desert Caves Yield Ancient Faves, or, A Tisket, A Tasket, a 92 Liter Basket 49:06

1y ago49:06

49:06

New excavations in caves along the west side of the Dead Sea have revealed fragments of Biblical texts along with astonishing prehistoric remains. They raise the question of how people were getting and out of these caves, hundreds of meters above the Dead Sea, and more importantly, why one of them brought along a basket the size of a minivan. Our p…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Mummy Murder Mystery, or, Hyksos Hippo Protestation Spells Egyptian Cranial Molestation 56:26

1y ago56:26

56:26

King Seqenere of the 17th Dynasty has some gruesome head wounds. Fighting the hated Hyksos might have been the cause of death for Egypt’s version of Sonny Corleone, but what about the snoring hippos? WHAT ABOUT THE HIPPOS?! To learn more Egyptian royal mummy shows pharaoh wasn’t assassinated—he was executed https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/c…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Mysterious Case of the Purple Shmattas in the Desert, or, Snood Indigo 59:50

1y ago59:50

59:50

Around 1000 BCE, purple dyed textiles were the in thing at the Negev copper mining site of Timna. But how did textiles dyed with purple made from Mediterranean snails get there and who wore them? Were they fit for a king or just glad rags for nomads? And how does Vandelay Industries figure in? Our contestants are frankly baffled. To learn more Bibl…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Underwater Olive Adventures, or, From the Mediterranean to Martinis 56:03

1+ y ago56:03

56:03

The discovery of a 6,600 year old cache of olives off the shore of Israel raises questions: Olives? Underwater? What? Who was the first person to eat an olive, and how does the Assyrian Empire (eventually) figure in? And why do our panelists keep talking about fat tailed sheep and the history of writing? To learn more Israeli teams discover ancient…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Other Kind of Throne, or, So What's the Deal with Toilets in the Iron Age? 53:58

1+ y ago53:58

53:58

Archaeologists rarely speak about toilets, mostly because there isn’t that much evidence. We’ve got plenty of pits, lots of pots, but only a few carefully carved stone seats. Which is fit for a king? To learn more Toilet Found in 3,000-Year-Old Shrine Verifies Bible Stories Against Idol Worship https://www.newsweek.com/toilet-discovered-middle-anci…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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The Bronze Age Goes Bananas, or, By Your Teeth They Shall Know Thee 1:02:20

1+ y ago1:02:20

1:02:20

What does the discovery of exotic species such as bananas, soybeans and turmeric in the second millennium BCE Southern Levant tell us about trade, tastes and smells in the past? And does the fact that the discovery comes from scraping the teeth of dead people say more about the potential of microarchaeology or about the need for flossing? Our panel…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Coroplasticus Deus Antiqui, or, What Does God Really Looking Like? 51:10

1+ y ago51:10

51:10

Does a tenth century BCE figurine from a site near Jerusalem depict the god Yahweh? How would we know? Archaeological finds don’t come labeled, or do they? And how does this relate to the end of the Enlightenment and the Existential challenge facing the Humanities? Our panelists are divided. To learn more Archaeologist claims to find 10th cent. BCE…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Cosmic Debris, or New Adventures in the Origins of Agriculture 58:55

1+ y ago58:55

58:55

Did a comet break up over earth 12,800 years ago causing glaciers to melt and prompting humans to invent agriculture? What was it like to have your village suddenly heated to 4000 degrees Fahrenheit? How would this event have been culturally encoded by anyone who wasn’t cooked and/or pulverized? Our panelists have nano-diamonds on the souls of thei…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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High Times in the Iron Age, or Wait, What Were We Talking About? 46:31

1+ y ago46:31

46:31

Cannabis and frankincense residues on an altar found in an ancient Israelite temple? Were the ancestors of Jews going one toke over the line? Why the heck did this tradition end? This changes everything, man, and our panelists are really into it. Well, maybe after a snack. To learn more Cannabis was used for religious rites at a biblical site in Is…

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This Week in the Ancient Near East

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Squeaky Clean, or The Rediscovery of Soap in the Past 45:10

1+ y ago45:10

45:10

An ancient soap factory found in a Bedouin village leads our panelists to ask the age-old question, what’s it doing there? Why is it a soap factory anyway? And just what is soap anyway? With guest star Dr. Bronner and a recursive discussion on the role of Irish Spring in the Troubles, this an episode that can’t be missed! To learn more Earliest soa…

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