S1 Ep14: Episode 14: African Halloween - A Spider Staff and a Significant Skull

In this episode Ashley’s traditionally disturbing Stuff in the News concerns the billion-dollar international trade in monkey skulls and other bits of dead animals you can buy on ebay. Tracey’s traditionally earnest Stuff in the News focuses on a paradigm changing archaeological find from Africa - a nearly half-a-million-year-old, pre-homo sapien, wooden structure that has been unearthed in Zambia. Sticking with African artifacts, Ashley’s Piece of Stuff this week is a linguist’s staff of office from Ghana that prominently features a large spider -  the trickster Anansi. Tracey, meanwhile, continues her story of the Piltdown Man Hoax by interweaving the story of the discovery of a real skull from Africa, that of the Taung Child. While this was one of the most significant archaeological and scientific discoveries of the twentieth century, and could potentially  have challenged a lot of scientific racism, it was dismissed for decades because of the Piltdown Hoax.


Ashley’s Stuff in the News:

“Nearly 400 Monkey Skulls Seized at Paris Airport, Destined for US,” Al Jazeera, September 22, 2023, https://www.a
ljazeera.com/news/2023/9/22/french-customs-seize-nearly-400-monkey-skulls-destined-for-the-us. 


Tracey’s Stuff in the News:

L. Barham, et al, “Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago,” Nature, September 20, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06557-9

Margaret Davis, “World’s Oldest Wooden Structures Dating Back Up To 476,000 Years found in Zambia, Discovery Could Rewrite Human History,” Science Times, September 20, 2023. https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/46096/20230920/worlds-oldest-wooden-structures-dating-back-up-476-000-years.htm

Katie Hunt, “Extraordinary structure has no real parallel in the archaeological record, scientists say,” CNN, September 21, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/20/africa/oldest-wooden-structure-zambia-scn/index.html

Ian Sample, “Oldest wooden structure discovered on the border of Zambia and Tanzania,” The Guardian, September 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/20/oldest-wooden-structure-discovered-on-border-of-zambia-and-tanzania

Victoria Allen, “Wood you believe it? World’s Oldest Wooden Structure is discovered in Zambia, dating back 476,000 years,” Daily Mail, September 20, 2023.  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12540687/Wood-believe-Worlds-oldest-wooden-structure-discovered-Zambia-dating-476-000-years.html


Ashley’s Piece of Stuff:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Staff of Office: Figures, Spider Web and Spider Motif (ȯkyeame).” https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314925. 
Molefi Kete Asante. “Ananse.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Last modified September 19, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ananse. 
“Akan.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Last modified September 14, 2023. .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}