WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:00.960 Get value. 2 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.439 You can't argue with at Tesco with their amazing club 3 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:06.200 card prices. Have the perfect night in with their finest 4 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:09.199 frozen pizza meal deal. Get the finest frozen pizza, chips 5 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.119 and ice cream all for six zuo. Like our delicious 6 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:15.119 spicy salami, hot honey, and do you or Margarito wood 7 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:18.320 fired pizzas served up with their crispy junkie chips and 8 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:21.280 ice cream like se sil de caramel or pistaggio for dessert. 9 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:25.120 Can't argue with that shop in store or online. Tesco. 10 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.960 Every Little helps available in most stores. Prices very in express. 11 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:33.640 Oh hey, it's that tattered Halloween wig. You know he's 12 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.159 going to come in handy someday. Alli ward back with 13 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:39.520 another episode of Alergies. Okay, this one's big. If you 14 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:42.719 have come to rely on ologies for very detailed, very 15 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:46.600 weird information about stuff that you never knew existed and 16 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:52.159 some historical gossip and strangers unbridled passions making you feel 17 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:55.399 okay about being alive. Hot diggity damn, this is an 18 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:58.280 episode that you may just cherish forever. So hop of 19 00:00:58.320 --> 00:00:58.719 the jeep. 20 00:00:59.119 --> 00:00:59.600 Heg tight. 21 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.119 This is about to be a journey. Okay, but first, 22 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:05.319 a few thanks thank you to everyone in the Patreon 23 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:07.840 club for supporting it like a dollar a month or 24 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:10.239 more that gets you in. You can summit questions to 25 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:13.920 the Ologists before we record. Bonus. If your questions didn't 26 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:17.000 get answered here in this episode, our guest this week 27 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:20.359 went back and answered them all personally, which was just 28 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:23.120 magical of him. Thank you to everyone who tells friends 29 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:25.439 about the show, and who subscribes and rates and of 30 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:27.799 course reviews the show. It matters more than you know. 31 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:29.879 It keeps us up in the charts, and I read 32 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:33.359 them all and then, like a crisp chilli pickle, I 33 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:35.840 select a fresh one to save each week, such as 34 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:39.079 this week. Natty Daddy Light says, I live and work 35 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:42.519 at a state park, what with little to no internet access, 36 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:44.840 So every week I drive thirty minutes to the nearest 37 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:47.400 town and very creepily sit outside a coffee shop in 38 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:49.760 my car, poaching the Wi Fi. The owner and I 39 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:52.319 have an understanding so I can download the latest episode 40 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:55.719 of Ologies, and says, firstly and foremostly Alli Ward has 41 00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:58.400 been my father all along. Yes that's true, and b 42 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:00.920 there's so much I don't know, but the best way 43 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:02.879 to overcome all of the not knowing is to ask 44 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:06.040 stupid questions. So Natty Daddy light my child, and to 45 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:08.960 everyone who left a review, I read it with my heart. 46 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.680 Thank you for letting me Internet Dad, you all with 47 00:02:11.719 --> 00:02:16.639 weird facts and advice. Okay, experimental archaeology. Experiment comes from 48 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:19.319 the root, meaning to try or to risk, and archaeology 49 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:23.199 comes from the root for ancient things. So experimental archaeology 50 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:27.039 is to risk ancient things, which sounds dicey, but that's 51 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:29.560 not really what it means. So you'll see. Now, this 52 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:32.719 ologist and I have been Twitter friends for a while. 53 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:35.479 He tweeted at me a few years back about wanting 54 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:38.000 to be on the show and fun fact, I almost 55 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:41.000 showed up at his house unannounced, like a year ago 56 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:43.080 and just shoved a mic in his face to surprise him. 57 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:47.039 But I figured that's probably technically illegal. And we have 58 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:50.599 had to reschedule this interview probably five times in the 59 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:53.120 last month just because of traveling to be up here 60 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:56.360 with my folks. I had my own weird er trip 61 00:02:56.759 --> 00:02:59.599 involving an infected spider bite that turned out probably just 62 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:02.479 to be an infected scratch from carrying firewood. We don't 63 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:05.199 need to talk about it. Also, my laptop screen shattered 64 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:07.840 this week, so I have rescheduled this person over and over. 65 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.159 But he was so understanding and such a joy, and 66 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:14.719 we just chatted about everything from the first tools to 67 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:18.919 bows and arrows to spear throwers aka at lattels. And 68 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:21.199 if you don't know what an at lottle is or 69 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:23.919 how to say it, that's fine. That means this is 70 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:26.039 going to f you up even better. So in the 71 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:29.560 history of ologies, I have never met anyone so passionate 72 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:31.319 about a thing. And it just goes to show you 73 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:34.120 that though this person is an undergrad his level of 74 00:03:34.199 --> 00:03:37.840 knowledge and engagement in the field makes him likely one 75 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:39.960 of the top experts in the world on this one 76 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:43.680 particular item. It's astounding. So get ready to stand and 77 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:48.280 to learn about early human axes, indigenous populations of North 78 00:03:48.319 --> 00:03:52.240 and Central and South America, tales of fieldwork, some new 79 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:56.560 archaeology heroes, tools versus weapons, what to do if you 80 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:00.159 find artifacts on a hike, and the physics of how 81 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:04.159 far you can lob ancient weaponry with member of the 82 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:08.240 board of Directors of the World at Lattle Association, which 83 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:10.240 you'll understand and know how to pronounce by the end 84 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:14.479 of this episode, experimental archaeologist Angelo Robletto. 85 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:35.720 I am very honored to even be on your radar, 86 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:39.600 and even more honored to be on this podcast. It 87 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:43.600 has been probably the number one professional goal of mine 88 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:48.040 for two year. Really, I distinctly remember I tweeted, I 89 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:50.959 wish I could just get my PhD tomorrow for the 90 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:54.800 sole purpose of being a guest on Ologies. Oh, I'm 91 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:56.800 shookth that's what I shook. 92 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:00.079 I'm so excited to have you on because it's as 93 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:01.319 soon as you told me what you were into a 94 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:03.560 I was like a wattle wattle. I had no idea, 95 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.720 and then I put you on a list like immediately, 96 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:08.920 and can you tell me a little bit, like where 97 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.920 are you studying right now? What is your research about? 98 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:17.160 Okay, so right now I am an undergraduate student. I'm 99 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:19.600 going into my senior year. I'm a double major in 100 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:23.240 anthropology and philosophy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. 101 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:28.199 Within anthropology, which is especially in American universities, a broad 102 00:05:28.279 --> 00:05:32.639 category the study of humanity. Basically, there's four subfields. One 103 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:36.360 of those subfields is archaeology. My specialization or my focus 104 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:40.079 within anthropology is archaeology, and then my focus within philosophy 105 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:43.439 is political theory, but that's completely different. I bounced around 106 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:46.319 a few labs at U and LV. What's great about 107 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:49.600 that university is that they have a designated building for 108 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:52.680 archaeology laboratories. And most people think, like, well, why does 109 00:05:52.759 --> 00:05:56.120 an archaeologist need a laboratory. They're digging in the field 110 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.879 they you know, it's not something that most people associate 111 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:03.680 with Archaeology is in lab work, but UNLV invested heavily 112 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:09.279 in I think there are I want to say twelve 113 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:16.439 or fifteen separate designated archaeology laboratories for different fields of archaeology, 114 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:20.160 different material specialties, different regional specialties. So one of those 115 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:23.800 labs is an experimental archaeology lab, and I've been working 116 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.399 with that lab since I was in high school. Actually, 117 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:30.360 my sophomore year of high school, I was talking to 118 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:32.639 my school counselor and she goes, Angela, what do you 119 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:35.240 want to do with life? And I said, well, you know, 120 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:38.800 since i've been since first or second grade, I have 121 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:41.120 written down that I've wanted to be an experimental archaeologist 122 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:41.759 when I grew up. 123 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:44.199 And how did you earn words? 124 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:48.160 Oh, it's crazy. I mean I've wanted to be an 125 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:51.199 archaeologist since kindergarten. That was the first I mean, I 126 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:56.040 fell in love started with Egyptology. You know. Shout out 127 00:06:56.079 --> 00:06:59.759 to missus Drake, who's my elementary school librarian, who noticed 128 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.639 that I I really liked a fiction book about Egypt. 129 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.120 So she said, well, there's these nonfiction books about Egypt. 130 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:07.560 And I had no clue what nonfiction was. And there 131 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:10.480 are picture books filled with, you know, pictures of daily 132 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:12.279 life in Egypt, and I just fell in love. And 133 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.519 I quickly moved on to other cultures and civilizations around 134 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:18.680 the world. But by first or second grade, I knew 135 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:22.959 that ancient tools and weapons were you know, what I 136 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:25.120 was most interested in and wanted to study the most. 137 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:27.560 But anyway, in high school, I told my counselor, and 138 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.319 I want to do experimental archaeology, and she goes, well, 139 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:33.519 did you know that one of the students here is 140 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:38.240 the daughter of the experimental archaeology professor at UNLV. No. Way, 141 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:40.600 I mean, one of the odds of this happening. You know, 142 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.439 there's way My high school had three thousand, three hundred 143 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:46.120 students and it is in the fifth largest school district 144 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:48.519 in the country, with you know, there's like sixty high 145 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:50.519 schools in Las Vegas, and I was at the one 146 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:53.160 with the daughter from the experinal archaeology professor at U 147 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:55.279 and LV, so she put me in contact with her. 148 00:07:55.319 --> 00:07:58.879 The professor's name was doctor Karen Harry, and she specializes 149 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:03.759 in experimental pottery work. However, she has a graduate students 150 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:07.240 who are doing experimental you know, leather tanning work and 151 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:10.399 architectural work and stuff like that. But she's a ceramicist 152 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:17.560 and she specializes in ancestral Puebloan sites in northern Arizona, 153 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:21.439 in the shipwoodz Plateau area part of Paraschant National Monument 154 00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:24.560 in northern Arizona, kind of the north room of the 155 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:27.759 Grand Canyon. And I emailed her and I said, I've 156 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:30.800 been obsessed with experimental archaeology and archaeology since I was little. 157 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:33.960 You know, I'll come clean test tubes for you, I'll 158 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.000 do whatever. I just want to be in the environment. 159 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:39.799 And she said, well, me and three grad students are 160 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:44.000 going off into the desert for a month this summer. 161 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:45.080 Would you like to come with us? 162 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:45.759 Oh? 163 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:50.080 And my god, of course my parents were like, I 164 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:53.879 don't know about that, but they eventually said yes. After 165 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:58.679 meeting her, and it was myself, doctor Harry, and three 166 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:03.080 of her PhD students, our master's and PhD students, And 167 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:07.679 we stayed out in a National Park Service cabin out 168 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:10.120 in the ship's plateau. And then every day we had 169 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.960 to get into a pickup truck and barrel over boulders. 170 00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:16.519 It would take us maybe and like maybe forty five 171 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:19.720 minutes to drive like three miles, because that's how slow 172 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:22.159 we were going it was. We probably could have walked faster, 173 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:23.840 we had so much equipment we didn't want to do that. 174 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:26.399 Once we would park, we then have to hike another 175 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:29.639 like hour and fifteen minutes. Now this is in June 176 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.840 in Arizona. It's one hundred and fifteen degrees. We've got, 177 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:36.720 you know, between thirty and fifty pound packs on us 178 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:37.720 with the gear and stuff like that. 179 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:39.840 Ooh, I've a little grimy and sweaty here. 180 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:43.039 But once we got to the site, it was magnificent. 181 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.360 I mean it was The site itself was just kind 182 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:47.159 of you couldn't really tell it. It was a sit 183 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:50.360 unless New York you're looking for, because this was at 184 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:54.399 a time when people they weren't living in one place 185 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:56.639 necessarily the whole time. They weren't investing a lot into 186 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:59.120 their architecture kind of the beginnings of the pueblo and 187 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:01.120 culture in that area that built those kind of big 188 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:02.480 like mesa Verne type places. 189 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:05.639 Okay, quick aside. I was not sure what mesa Verde 190 00:10:05.799 --> 00:10:08.360 type places were, but I looked it up, and in 191 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:11.440 mesa Verde National Park near the Four Corners, there's a 192 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:15.919 series of cliff dwellings like Cliff Palace, and that's in 193 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:20.799 almost a thousand year old, gorgeous complex, ancient pueblo in 194 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:25.279 structure built into this jaggy, rocky cliff side. And if 195 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:28.519 you look up pictures of Cliff Palace and don't gasp, 196 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:30.519 you should call a doctor. 197 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:34.559 So we get to this area and I'm like, oh, 198 00:10:34.639 --> 00:10:38.080 this is interesting because it's not exactly what I was picturing. 199 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:39.720 But they're like, oh yeah, here's a house here, and 200 00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:41.960 here's another pit house over here. And I'm like, sure 201 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:43.440 if you tell it, if you say so, because it 202 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:45.320 just looks like pile of rocks to me. At that time, 203 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:47.000 I didn't know what I was looking at. But the 204 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:49.919 site was situated basically at the rim of the Grand Canyon, 205 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:52.840 in a place inaccessible unless you're an archaeologist working on 206 00:10:52.840 --> 00:10:54.919 the site basically, so we are able to have our 207 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:57.559 lunch kind of just perch there in the north rim 208 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:00.759 of the Grand Canyon. It was just beautiful. And she 209 00:11:00.840 --> 00:11:03.399 says she's brought out one other like younger student out 210 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.279 to that trip and they after the first two or 211 00:11:06.279 --> 00:11:07.919 three days, they're like, you know, what archaeology is not 212 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:11.559 for me. I had the exact opposite reaction. I was completely, 213 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.960 you know, fully invested after the first day, and at 214 00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:18.080 night at camp we would do experimental archaeology stuff. We'd 215 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:20.440 throw out laddles, we'd throw slings, we made aur own 216 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:23.519 rope out of yucca, stuff like that, and it was 217 00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:26.799 just an incredible experience Noice. So that kind of led 218 00:11:26.799 --> 00:11:29.600 me into working in that experimental archaeology lab. But then 219 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:31.799 the last two years or last year and a half, 220 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:34.919 I moved over to the lab next Doore, which is 221 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.919 the paleo Ethnobotany, an ancient agriculture lab. It's run by 222 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:44.559 doctor Alan Farahani. So paleo ethnobotany just means old cultural plants, 223 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:48.360 so it's any plant remains that were used by humans 224 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:52.279 at some point, so it's mostly seeds. They study kind 225 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:56.440 of the beginnings of agriculture and the domestication of grains 226 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:01.759 in Southwest Asia, specifically in Jordan, and then also separately 227 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:03.159 in Armenia as well. 228 00:12:03.399 --> 00:12:07.000 So Angelo's lab work right now focuses on stone tools 229 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:10.519 found in the Jordan area and investigating why they were 230 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:13.080 made and used in the period that they date from, 231 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:16.519 rather than the more contemporary materials of the time like 232 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:19.200 iron and copper. So it's kind of like trying to 233 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:22.600 figure out people who love to listen to vinyl it's cool, 234 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.799 it's intriguing, or people who have a CD collection like 235 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:28.519 is that sad? Why are they doing it? Myself included 236 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:33.519 so many questions And now when you say experimental archaeology, 237 00:12:33.559 --> 00:12:37.679 what exactly does that mean? Does that mean how new 238 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:40.679 methods are created, how new tools are created? What how 239 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:41.399 do you define that? 240 00:12:42.039 --> 00:12:50.919 So experimental archaeology is the process of recreating ancient technology 241 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:53.360 and attempting to use the tools and weapons in order 242 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:58.080 to better understand how ancient peoples would have used them 243 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:00.879 and how that might have impacted their data life. That's 244 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:02.879 kind of one aspect of it, is like the actual 245 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:06.120 recreation of the tools and like, okay, well, how hard 246 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:09.039 is it to collect we using a psyche made out 247 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:12.080 of flint or whatever. The other side of experiment archaeology 248 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:18.759 is purposely recreating the tools and then breaking them while 249 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:21.360 using them in order to see what that looks like 250 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:28.399 in the archaeological record. So, to give an example, we find, 251 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:33.240 you know, arrowheads or projectile points. An experimental archaeologist will 252 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:37.200 recreate some of those weapons, fire them at let's say 253 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:40.399 a pig carcass or a blistic gelatine or something like that. 254 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.120 And notice how you know, okay, well, what happens when 255 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.360 you miss. Well, if it hits a rock, it breaks 256 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:48.279 this way. If it hits bone, it breaks this way. 257 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:50.799 If it hits wood, it breaks this way. And once 258 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:54.399 you collect enough data points, you can say, okay, well 259 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:56.840 I know for a fact that this arrowhead broke when 260 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:58.440 it hit a rock, because I was the one that 261 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:00.559 broke it by hitting it against a rock. So then 262 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:02.559 you look in the archaeological record to go, hey, well 263 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:04.919 here are these two thousand year old arrowheads. Well they 264 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:08.480 if they present similar fracture patterns as the ones that 265 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:11.039 I found by throwing it against a rock or whatever, 266 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:12.919 I know that that's how it was broken by. 267 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:16.399 So another thing, an experimental archaeologist might do is build 268 00:14:16.679 --> 00:14:20.080 old tools like a sickle and then go harvest a 269 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:22.080 bunch of wheat with it, and then look at the 270 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.600 sickle microscopically to see how the blade is worn down 271 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:29.039 by the plants or what sheen the plants left on 272 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.759 the edge. It's literally called sickle sheen to try to 273 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:38.480 match markings found microscopically on found ancient blades. So like, 274 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:42.720 imagine someone finding your kitchen knife thousands of years from 275 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:46.000 now and they're like, bleeplorp, this person loved to use 276 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:49.000 a dull butter knife to cut cold pizza. Wow, what 277 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:51.240 a queen she must have been royalty. I wish I 278 00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:53.080 could have hung with her. And then they just use 279 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:55.799 traces of my DNA to simulate a hologram of me 280 00:14:55.879 --> 00:14:59.080 and we'd party. Oh okay, now walk me through a 281 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:01.919 little bit of a time line of materials. Because you're 282 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:06.279 talking about flint. I know that you have to do 283 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:10.399 your own napping of obsidian and things like that, like 284 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:14.399 when did humans use different materials where? And how do 285 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:17.080 you even wrap your brain around that? 286 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:19.600 Oh? I still can't wrap my brain. I probably will 287 00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:22.960 go to my grave not fully understanding how ancient humans 288 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:27.519 figured this out because flintnapping is possibly the hardest thing 289 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:28.879 I've ever taught myself to do. 290 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:32.679 Napping side note is with a K like canapping, and 291 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:35.360 it means to chip away at a rock, which is 292 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:38.600 very difficult as opposed to the napping most of us 293 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:40.279 have mastered the last few months. 294 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:43.200 Yeah, I have taught myself a lot of weird skills 295 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:45.799 over the years, both related to archaology and not related 296 00:15:45.799 --> 00:15:49.240 to archaeology, and I've never had to put more effort, 297 00:15:49.559 --> 00:15:53.159 both mentally and physically into understanding flint napping. And for 298 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:55.879 years I could give you a lecture on the fracture 299 00:15:55.879 --> 00:15:59.639 mechanics and the physics and the geometry behind flintnapping. I 300 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.360 under stood it on a conceptual level, but when I 301 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.039 had rock on my hand, I was never able to 302 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:06.879 complete an arrowhead. So it kind of just took just 303 00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:10.279 a lot of practice, but generally to go over the timeline. 304 00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:13.360 So the oldest stone tools we know about date to 305 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:16.879 about three point three million years ago, which was way 306 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:22.159 before the human species even existed. Yeah, yeah, crazy crazy. 307 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:25.840 These were super rudimentary flakes and choppers. They were not 308 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:29.759 sophisticated arrowheads. They were like a rock that had one 309 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.519 or two flakes broken off of it to then be 310 00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:34.879 used to chop some wood or chop a bone or 311 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:38.480 something like that. Then there's the Homohobilis, which is the 312 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:43.159 one of the committed ancestors to Homo sapiens and literally 313 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:46.039 means the handyman. Basically, they date to about two point 314 00:16:46.039 --> 00:16:48.200 three million years ago, and they were the first ones 315 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:53.039 to kind of have cohesive stone tool technology called aldowan 316 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:55.000 tools is at least that's what we call them. They 317 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.039 were still pretty simple choppers, but they are similar to 318 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:00.639 each other to the point where or we can kind 319 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:03.840 of make it a determination that like, okay, this group 320 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:09.119 of hominids all created their stone tools in the same process, 321 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:11.680 So that shows a little bit of standardization and a 322 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:15.200 little bit more complexity to be able to repeat the 323 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:17.880 same thing over and over and over. It just they 324 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:20.400 stopped being random and it started being planned. And that's 325 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:22.160 kind of when we see a little bit of a 326 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:25.839 of a mental shift in the hominid species and the 327 00:17:25.880 --> 00:17:28.519 ability to work out problems like that, and a lot 328 00:17:28.519 --> 00:17:31.799 of a lot of experiment archaeologists, especially ones that work 329 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:33.960 with you know, stone tools that are millions of years 330 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:39.359 old kind of point to this complexity as a way 331 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:42.319 to analyze how complex the complexity of the tools as 332 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:45.079 a way to analyze how complex hominid brains were becoming. 333 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:48.440 Oh then, yeah, so it's kind of really cool because 334 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:51.440 it takes so much brain power to understand how to 335 00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:54.000 make these stone tools that it kind of shows that 336 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:56.079 they must have had better brain capacity, or at least 337 00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:59.640 better abstract thinking conceptualization to be able to repeat these 338 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:03.200 process to make similar looking tools over and over. Homo 339 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:05.519 Erectus is the first homaid species to leave Africa, and 340 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:08.599 they do that about two million years ago, and they 341 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:12.200 kind of spread all over your rate, mostly Asi actually, 342 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:15.119 but they kind of go up southwest Asia and then 343 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:18.640 and then east. They make Ashulian hand axes. 344 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.039 What is an Ashulian axe? You want to ask Google? 345 00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:25.119 It's okay, I already did that for us babes. It's 346 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:29.880 a doozy to spell. So Ashulian is trey Francais. It's 347 00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:31.960 named after a site in France where some of these 348 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.960 were found. And if you're thinking hand axe, you're probably 349 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:37.640 thinking like a cute hatchet, but a hand axe is 350 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:41.720 actually a rock that's been chipped away at one end 351 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:44.759 to come to a point and helps cut things. So 352 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:46.960 it's like a sharp rock, that's what that is. 353 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:51.079 Okay, these are really kind of standardized. So we find 354 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:54.000 a lot of these big hand axes that were all 355 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:56.000 flaked the same way, that all look the same way. 356 00:18:56.440 --> 00:18:58.480 So it's you know, at that point, it's a parent 357 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:02.119 that these hominids were teaching each other how to replicate 358 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:05.319 this tool, and it was part of the same material 359 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.279 culture where this shape of tool and this kind of 360 00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:12.960 way of making it was you know, prioritized in some 361 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:15.920 way for some reason, and it was important for everyone 362 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:17.680 in the community to make them the same way. So 363 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:20.519 we find a lot of these Australian hand axes made 364 00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:23.680 the same way. And what's also important about Australian hand 365 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:26.119 axe is that it's flaked on both sides, so it's 366 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:29.079 one of the first by face tools. So by face, 367 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:32.400 if you look at like a knife edge, it's beveled 368 00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:35.079 on both edges, so that's by face. And then if 369 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:37.759 it's just like a chisel is flat on one end 370 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:39.359 and then it's beveled on the other end like a 371 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:44.759 wood chisel, that's called a uniface. So most choppers were 372 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:47.480 kind of unifacial, they would just have like one striking edge, 373 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:51.599 but these Australian hand axes were specifically flaked on both 374 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:55.759 sides to give it a byface. By faces are sharper 375 00:19:55.799 --> 00:19:57.559 because they come out at a steeper angle to the 376 00:19:57.640 --> 00:19:59.680 edge so that they can be sharper. They can even 377 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:03.119 be a lit more durable as well, So byfaces takes 378 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:05.720 a lot more skill to make a byface and to 379 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:07.680 be able to replicate that same shape over and over 380 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:08.000 and over. 381 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:11.599 What type of stone were they making these these axes out. 382 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:15.160 Of, So the earlier Oldowan tools were kind of river 383 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:18.799 pebbles or cobbles. As you get into byfaces, you need 384 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:23.079 a stone that's going to be more predictable in its 385 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:29.640 flaking pattern. So silicate based crystalline stones like flint or 386 00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:34.079 obsidian or shirt are really good for that because they 387 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:38.240 act almost like glass. They have a uniform, homogeneous crystalline 388 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:41.039 structure that allows you to be able to predict how 389 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:43.920 the shock waves will interact with the ridges on the 390 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:46.559 rock to create tools in a better way. If you 391 00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:51.920 have a really coarsely grained rock, it's going to break 392 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:54.440 an unpredictable pattern and it's not going to lend itself 393 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:55.119 to a good tool. 394 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:58.960 Okay, how is this person so young and so knowledgeable? 395 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:01.319 And also we haven't even go into add lattels. Okay, 396 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:02.559 already I'm learning so much. 397 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:05.240 Anyway, So then around five hundred thousand years ago, which 398 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:10.960 is still before the Homo sapiens species in Africa, as 399 00:21:11.079 --> 00:21:14.279 kind of the evolutionary lines were branching to what would 400 00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:20.519 eventually become Homo sapiens, we find the earliest, potentially the 401 00:21:20.519 --> 00:21:23.480