{"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 Opium Trail from Egypt to Persia, or Putting Your Hope in Dope, Ancient Edition","slug":"the-opium-trail-from-egypt-to-persia-or-putting-your-hope-in-dope-ancient-edition","published_at":"2026-02-23T13:00:55+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259/the-opium-trail-from-egypt-to-persia-or-putting-your-hope-in-dope-ancient-edition","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-the-ancient-near-east-3467259","url":"https://thisweekintheancientneareast.podbean.com/e/the-opium-trail-from-egypt-to-persia-or-putting-your-hope-in-dope-ancient-edition/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/25j7xzgibu8jbxcj/podcast_134_-_2_22_26_1234_PM8spkq.mp3","summary":"The discovery of opium residues in an Egyptian alabaster jar with the Achaemenid king Xerxes’ name on it has us wondering. How stoned were they in the past? Was that why the jar ended up at Yale? Talk about a legacy admission!","meta_description":"The discovery of opium residues in an Egyptian alabaster jar with the Achaemenid king Xerxes’ name on it has us wondering. How stoned were they in the pas…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2293,"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-opium-trail-from-egypt-to-persia-or-putting-your-hope-in-dope-ancient-edition/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-opium-trail-from-egypt-to-persia-or-putting-your-hope-in-dope-ancient-edition.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}