Decoder Ring | How to Hunt a Mammoth, and Other Experiments in Archaeology

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Experimental archeology is, simply put, archeology that involves running experiments. Where traditional archaeologists may study, research, analyze, and theorize about how artifacts were made or used, experimental archaeologists actually try to recreate, test, and use them to see what they can learn. In doing so, they have given the field a whole new way to glean clues and get insights into the lives of our ancestors. Sam Kean is the author of a new book all about experimental archaeology called Dinner with King Tut. With help from him and a few archaeologists, we dig into a number of puzzles that experimental archaeology has helped solve—conundrums involving ancient megafauna, bizarre cookware, and deep sea voyages. In this episode, you’ll hear from archaeologists Susan Kaplan of Bowdoin College and Karen Harry of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Native Hawaiian activist and storyteller Nāʻālehu Anthony. To learn more about the story of Hokule’a and its first navigator, Mau Piailug, watch Nāʻālehu Anthony’s 2010 documentary, Papa Mau: The Wayfinder, as well as The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific. This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman. Decoder Ring is also produced by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. We had mixing help from Kevin Bendis. We’d also like to thank Metin Eren and Paul Benham. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281. Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	It's so funny because when you look at the guys, that's never a topic of conversation. Yeah. What you look like? Yeah. Did you watch the football last night? It's never about, I'll watch your skincare routine. Whereas women walk into a room and because we've been taught to be pitted against each other. Yeah. Not always, but sometimes there's, oh my God, you know, I can't. It's a bit of a barrier. Yeah, yeah. and it shouldn't be there.
0:01.1	We should be trying to change that stereotype. always, but sometimes there's, oh my God, you know, I can't. It's a bit of a barrier. Yeah, yeah, and it shouldn't be there.
0:22.2	We should be trying to change that stereotype, believing that there is space for everybody.
0:27.4	There are some things you should always check, like the hygiene rating on your local takeaway,
0:33.9	the setting on your razor, and whether the party actually is fancy dress.
0:38.8	The other thing you should check is your Experian credit report,
0:42.5	especially if you're looking to borrow money.
0:44.8	It lets you understand what lenders see
0:46.8	so you can increase your chances of getting the best deals.
0:50.5	It's dead easy to check it and completely free.
0:54.2	See it in seconds. Download the Experian app today.
1:03.5	Sam Keane is a science writer.
1:05.5	Back when he was a kid, he was really into Indiana Jones.
1:09.7	Oh, sure. It wasn't everyone?
1:11.6	With Indiana Jones, you get the adventure, you know, people going to distant exotic places.
1:20.6	They're going after, you know, gold statues and the Ark of the Covenant.
1:24.6	That belongs in a museum.
1:26.6	In every movie, Indy, played by Harrison Ford, is constantly retrieving legendary artifacts and treasures,
1:33.8	venturing into temples and catacombs to rescue fertility idols and sacred Hindu stones.
1:39.4	And the Holy Grail one, really, I loved that movie.
1:42.7	He who finds the Grail must face the final challenge.
1:46.0	What final challenge?
	...

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