The Milk of Audhumla

Today I discuss the Inka shrine of Ñawpa Iglesia.

Sources

“Arqueología de Pachar” Francisco Solís Díaz y Nancy Olazabal (1998)

“Of Blood and Soil: Tombs, Wak’as, and the Naturalization of Social Difference in the Inka 

Heartland” Steve Kosiba

In The archaeology of wak’as : explorations of the sacred in the pre-Columbian Andes / Tamara L. Bray, editor. (2015) University Press of Colorado.

Thanks to-

The residents & municipalidad of Ollantaytambo

All photos by Greg Batchelder unless otherwise noted.

I recently visited the ruins of Pumamarka near the Inka city of Ollantaytambo. In this episode I describe the ruins, relate a bit of history concerning the Inka rulers at the time, and offer a description of the Battle of Ollantaytambo, in which the Spanish conquistadors were defeated by Manco Inka and his warriors.

Ethnocynology is the study of dogs and their place in both past and present human societies. It is a sub-discipline of anthropology and encompasses theories of dog domestication, the role of dogs in various cultures and times, and the biological adaptions which have evolved throughout our shared history.

Today on The Milk of Audhumla I welcome David Ian Howe. David is a professional archaeologist and educator who has worked on excavations in Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming. In 2016 and 2017, he participated in the LaPrele Clovis Mammoth kill site excavation- a National Geographic funded project in Wyoming. He received his MA in archaeology from the University of Wyoming and his undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of Tennessee. He is the producer and host of the popular YouTube channel Howe and Why, co-host of the Life in Ruins podcast, and publishes on Instagram as Ethnocynology. He has produced a TedEd video named “A Brief History of Dogs”, consulted on the PBS Eons video “How Dogs (eventually) Became our Best Friends”, and was recently a panelist for a roundtable discussion on the role of social media in archaeological education presented by the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

Today on The Milk of Audhumla I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the events of January 6th with Dr. Brenda Wilhelm, a professor of sociology at Colorado Mesa University, located in Grand Junction, Colorado. Dr. Wilhelm holds both a Master’s and PhD in sociology from the University of Arizona. She teaches courses in Marriage and Families, Social Problems, Sex and Gender, Life Course, Racial and Ethnic Relations, Population, Social Movements and Classical Social Theory. She also serves as the Sociology Program Coordinator and Women’s and Gender Studies Advisor at CMU.

According to a recent article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Haws et al. 2020), Anatomically Modern Humans reached westernmost Eurasia, specifically Portugal, 41 t0 38,000 years ago, a whopping 5,000 years earlier than previously thought. 

I was excited to learn more about the excavation, data analysis and conclusions with one of the paper’s co-authors, Grace Ellis, in a recent conversation. Join us as we discuss modern human dispersal, spatial analysis, and even Neanderthals.

I hope you enjoy this recording of my very first special guest. 

Welcome to the Milk of Audhumla.

The early Aurignacian dispersal of modern humans into westernmost Eurasia. Jonathan A. Haws, Michael M. Benedetti, Sahra Talamo, Nuno Bicho, João Cascalheira, M. Grace Ellis, Milena M. Carvalho, Lukas Friedl, Telmo Pereira, Brandon K. Zinsious. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct 2020, 117 (41) 25414-25422; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2016062117