Peruvian Mummies, Ancient Environments and the Sahara

The Naked Scientists Podcast

Dr Chris Smith

Science Radio, Engineering, Naked Scientists, Natural Sciences, Technology, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Science

4.6 • 957 Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2006

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Explaining how science can help us dig up the past is Lawrence Owens, who uses teeth and bones to uncover the life and sometimes gruesome death of mummies in Peru and Bolivia, and Harriet Allen describes how the pollen record and layers of lake sedimentation can reveal what the environment was like 10 000 years ago. Also on the show, Nick Brooks talks about how climate change in the Sahara may have given rise to complex human societies, and taking us back even further in human evolution is Clive Finlayson, who discusses how a new fossil discovery shows that Neanderthals were alive and kicking... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Transcript

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0:00.0	Stripping down science, the naked scientists.
0:05.0	Hello and welcome to the naked scientists.
0:09.0	Broadcasting from BBC across the eastern counties.
0:12.0	I'm Dr. Kat and here we have to talk today.
0:14.0	And also in the studio we are looking at archaeology, ancient history.
0:20.0	How do we find out about ancient cultures, ancient environments, what sort of ways can we study them?
0:25.8	And we have some highly expert guests here.
0:27.8	We have Lawrence Owens from Birkbeck College in London.
0:30.6	Hello.
0:31.6	And we also have Harriet Allen from the Department of Geography. Hello. Here in London. Hello. And we also have Harriet Allen from the Department of Geography here in Cambridge.
0:36.0	And we're also going to be joined later by Nick Brooks from the University of East Anglia.
0:40.1	So stay tuned and if you've got any questions about ancient
0:43.8	cultures, ancient environments, what was the earth like?
0:46.8	Is it really changing?
0:48.3	What were ancient peoples like?
0:50.1	Get phoning in now.
0:51.2	849, 25, 2000. You can text us 076 20, 1960 and you can almost email us at
1:00.1	Chris at Naked Scientist.com. So what else we got Dave?
1:03.4	Well if you're feeling like doing an experiment me and Derek went into
1:07.1	Hunsbury last week and we made a force field all you need for this is just an
1:11.2	empty drinks can and some polystyrene and the prize if you
1:14.6	tell us what actually happens will be a copy of Dr. Chris's new book
	...

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