{"podcast":{"title":"This Week in the Ancient Near East","slug":"this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259","podcast_index_feed_id":3467259,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/thisweekintheancientneareast/feed.xml","website_url":"https://thisweekintheancientneareast.podbean.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/10480554/logo_2a3wj6.jpg","author":"thisweekintheancientneareast","episode_count":142,"summary":"The podcast that takes archaeology precisely as seriously as it deserves. Two real professors of archaeology and one guy from a fake institution discuss cutting edge archaeological discoveries at a high professional level using technical knowledge and stuff. A scholarly podcast for the discerning listener, it’s handmade, artisanal, and bespoke! Critics say, “A cheeky and irreverent take,” and “the good kind of shenanigans.” Other critics say, “damaging to archaeology,” and “deeply discreditable.” High-level discourse informed by neo-Brechtian, Deleuzian, or post-post processual theory, or just more BS from a couple of bored, middle aged hacks? You be the judge! Why not check out this index of our back episodes? You can search by topic! https://airtable.com/app4eECJAuksSYpBP/shr7BSxqWQSYLmMnE/tblXQSGflnYHvVgcE/viwtg2OTzwxogcQ7G Who are the Panelists? JP Dessel is the Steinfeld Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He is the author of Lahav I. Pottery and Politics The Halif Terrace Site 101 and Egypt in the Fourth Millennium B.C.E. (2009). Rachel Hallote is Professor of History and coordinator of the Jewish S…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T02:18:46.561182+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259"},"episode":{"title":"The Great Nubian Gold Rush (of the Second Millennium BCE?), or, Gold Bugs of the Bronze Age","slug":"the-great-nubian-gold-rush-of-the-second-millennium-bce-or-gold-bugs-of-the-bronze-age","published_at":"2025-12-29T12:58:47+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259/the-great-nubian-gold-rush-of-the-second-millennium-bce-or-gold-bugs-of-the-bronze-age","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259","url":"https://thisweekintheancientneareast.podbean.com/e/the-great-nubian-gold-rush-of-the-second-millennium-bce-or-goldbugs-of-the-bronze-age/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/em5bi58zdapdx5r5/podcast_130_-_12_28_25_209_PMbuy5u.mp3","summary":"How much gold was mined in antiquity anyway? A new economic analysis suggests that second millennium BCE Nubia produced hundreds of tons of the stuff, which is way more than anyone ever thought. Mining expeditions were super profitable too. So where’s the archaeological and textual evidence? Screw that, where’s all the gold now dammit?","meta_description":"How much gold was mined in antiquity anyway? A new economic analysis suggests that second millennium BCE Nubia produced hundreds of tons of the stuff, whi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2469,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259/episodes/the-great-nubian-gold-rush-of-the-second-millennium-bce-or-gold-bugs-of-the-bronze-age/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259/the-great-nubian-gold-rush-of-the-second-millennium-bce-or-gold-bugs-of-the-bronze-age.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}