The Lives of Herders on the Ancient Steppes: Interview with Professor Alicia Ventresca Miller

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2021

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we think of the open grasslands of the Eurasian steppes, we usually imagine nomadic herders taking their livestock from place to place on horseback. But the steppes are a vast and varied place, and so too were the ways of life that ancient people developed to live there. Professor Alicia Ventresca Miller of the University of Michigan joins me to talk about diet, mobility, and how chemical isotopes can tell us more about the diversity of life on the ancient steppes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, from Wondery welcome to another episode of Tides of History.
0:14.8	Thanks for joining me.
0:16.0	When we think about the erasian steps and the people who live there, we tend to have specific
0:19.8	images in our heads.
0:21.4	Herders, on horseback, with a nomadic way of life that carries them hundreds of miles
0:25.4	from pasture to pasture and search of grazing for their livestock.
0:28.6	How accurate is this image?
0:31.1	The steps are a diverse place, they cover thousands and thousands of miles.
0:35.2	People have been living there for many thousands of years.
0:38.0	Nothing is static, conditions change and so do ways of life.
0:41.4	To help us better understand the steps, central Asia, and the cutting edge tools we have at
0:45.6	our disposal to investigate this fascinating place, we've got a great guest here today.
0:50.4	She's Assistant Curator of Asian Archaeology and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at
0:54.4	the University of Michigan.
0:56.2	Her work focuses on the life ways of pastoralists, ancient diet and mobility, and social complexity
1:01.4	in central and inner Asia and Siberia, especially in applying biomolecular techniques to these
1:06.6	problems.
1:07.9	She's also a co-founder of the networking group Step Sisters for Women Working in Asia.
1:12.2	Professor Alicia Ventresca Miller, thank you so much for joining me today.
1:15.2	Thank you so much for having me, I'm excited to be here.
1:17.7	Okay, so why the step?
1:19.5	What brought you to studying this part of the world and what is it that interests you about
	...

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