12: Episode 12: Pan-Mediterranean Mythos and Mummy Bees

The Past and Stuff

In this episode Ashley talks about the news of the shrinking human brain and Tracey thinks about how we should warn people tens of thousands of years in the future about our buried nuclear waste (when we get around to burying it. Tracey’s Piece of Stuff is a Cypriot seal, only an inch high but tells a tall tale of a mythology shared around the Pan-Mediterranean world from Egypt to Mesopotamia. Ashley’s piece this week is the stuff of nightmare - 3,000 year old mummified bees.
Ashley's Stuff in the News
Aylin Woodward, “Our Big Brains Have Shrunk. Scientists Might Know Why,” Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/science/human-brains-shrinking-evolution-science-980c45e.
DeSilva, Jeremy et al. “Human Brains Have Shrunk: The Questions are When and Why.” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1191274.
Tracey's Stuff in the News
“Nuclear Waste Storage,” Nuclear Princeton, Princeton University, accessed on September 20, 2023 at https://nuclearprinceton.princeton.edu/yucca-mountain
Mitch Jacoby, “As Nuclear Waste piles up scientists seek the best long term solutions,” Chemical and Engineering News 98:12, accessed on September 20, 2023 at https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/nuclear-waste-pilesscientists-seek-best/98/i12
“Where does the proposed Yucca Mountain waste come from and where is it currently stored?” United States Environmental Protection Agency accessed on September 20, 2023 at https://www.epa.gov/radiation/where-does-proposed-yucca-mountain-waste-come-and-where-it-currently-stored
Martina Igini, “The Nuclear Waste Disposal Dilemma,” earth.org, Sept 12, 2022, accessed September 20, 2023 at https://www.earth.org/nuclear-waste-disposal/
Mark Piesing, “How do we warn future generations to avoid our buried nuclear waste,” National Geographic, September 1, 2023, accessed on September 20, 2023 at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/nuclear-waste-repository-ray-cat-wipp-hitf-fabbri
Ashley's Piece of Stuff
Sarah Derouin, “These Bees Have Been Mummified in Their Cocoons for 3,000 Years,” New York Times, August 20, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/science/mummified-bees-cocoons.html.
Carlos Neto de Carvalho et al. “Eucera Bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Eucerini) Preserved in their Brood Cells from late Holocene (Middle Neoglacial) Palaeosols of Southwest Portugal.” Papers in Paleontology 9, no 4 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1518.
Oldroyd, Benjamin P. and Stephen C. Pratt. “Comb Architecture of the Eusocial Bees Arises from Simple Rules Used During Cell Building.” Advances in Insect Physiology 49 (2015): 101-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aiip.2015.06.001.
Helen Briggs, “Prehistoric Farmers were First Beekeepers,” BBC News, November 11, 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34749846.
Tracey's Piece of Stuff
“Copper Ingot, Cypriot, Late Bronze Age,” metmuseum.org, accessed September 20, 2023 at https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248493
Louise A. Hitchcock, “Knossos is Burning: Gender Bending The Minoan Genius,” Engendering Prehistoric: “Stratigraphies” in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, Proceedings of an International Conference, University of Crete, Rethymno, 2-5 June. Aegaeum 30 (2009). Accessed on academia.com on September 20, 2023 at https://www.academia.edu/3479282/_Knossos_is_Burning_Gender_Bending_the_Minoan_Genius_
“Griffon,” wikipedia.com, accessed on September 20, 2023 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffon
Unita Ahdifard, “Who was Hathor?” getty.edu, accessed September 20, 2023 at https://www.getty.edu/news/who-was-hathor-egyptian-goddess-ancient-nubia/
Ralph L. Slotten, “The Master of Animals: A Study in the Symbolism of Ultimacy in Primitive Religion,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 33 (1965): 293-302.
Joan Aruz, et al. Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014).