Episode 16: 10,000 BC (2008)

There’s no other way to say it: this is the worst movie we’ve reviewed so far. If you’ve seen it, you probably know what we’re talking about, and if not, buckle in for a rant. 10,000 BC is the boring story of a caveman with no personality who needs to rescue a cavewoman with no personality from anachronistic slave traders building the pyramids with the help of domesticated mammoths. If that sounds stupid, it gets even worse: in this episode, we talk ancient aliens, hyperdiffusionism, and the racism underlying archaeological conspiracy theories.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• B.C., A.D., B.C.E., C.E., or B.P.?!?

• Phorusrhacids (Terror birds) don’t belong in this movie

• The last mammoths survived until 4000 years ago on Wrangel Island

• Atlantis never existed

• Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly

• Chariots of the Gods(?) by Erich von Daniken

• Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

• Pseudoarchaeology and racism
  

Episode 15: Rare Exports - A Christmas Tale (2010)

We have a special holiday episode today! Rare Exports is the crazy story of an illicit archaeological excavation which unearths the frozen remains of Santa Claus, who then goes on a murderous rampage in search of naughty children. To be honest, it’s not really about archaeology at all, but the Venn diagram of stone age movies and Christmas movies basically only overlaps at this one and a Flintstones Christmas special, and I think we made the right choice.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Joulupukki, the Finnish Santa Claus tradition

• Other scary Christmas traditions

• Philippa Langley helped to discover the remains of King Richard III in a Leicester car park

• Hunting mammoth ivory in Siberia

• Dinosaur 13 (2014), documentary about the ownership of Sue the Tyrannosaurus

• The Hobby Lobby antiquities smuggling controversy

• The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy by Paige Williams

Episode 14: Alpha (2018)

On today’s episode we are reviewing Alpha (2018), the story of a lost Solutrean boy who befriends and domesticates a wolf, with TWO special guests! Dr. April Nowell studies the origins of art and language and the archaeology of childhood. Dr. Grant Zazula is the palaeontologist for the Government of Yukon, and he was the palaeontology consultant on Alpha! He takes us behind the scenes as we dissect the real-life inspirations behind the language, artifacts, landscapes, and of course ice-age mammals in this beautiful movie.

Check out April’s new book, Growing Up in the Ice Age

April is giving a talk on Thursday January 13, 2022 at 9:00 PT / 17:00 GMT as part of the University of Liverpool Evolutionary Anthropology Webinar Series

Check out Grant’s work with the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Christine Schreyer on the construction of fictional languages in film

• CBC under fire for documentary promoting the Solutrean Hypothesis

• Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World, edited by Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell

• Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump in Alberta

• Winnipeg professor teachers how to survive falling through the ice

• Mammoth bone houses

• Painted pebbles from Mas d’Azil, France

• Borneo hand stencil cave paintings

• The domestication of dogs

• “Alpha wolves” don’t exist

• Check out Ross’s book: The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain’s Lost mammals

Episode 13: Missing Link (2019)

In this episode we discover that we’d all secretly rather be squatchin’! Missing Link is the story of a Victorian naturalist who “discovers” Bigfoot when he receives a letter from the mythological ape-man himself asking for his help. We’re so excited to talk sasquatches that I’m a little worried this episode will mark our gradual transition to full-time cryptozoology podcast. Ross has even published a scientific paper on yeti DNA! (Before you get too excited, it turns out it was a bear).

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Edwards & Barnett (2015). Himalayan ‘yeti’ DNA: Polar bear or DNA degradation? A comment on ‘Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti’ by Sykes et al.(2014). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1800), 20141712. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1712

• Sykes et al. (2014). Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1789), 20140161. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0161

• Melba Ketchum’s Sasquatch Genome Project

• Thomas Henry Huxley was the most quotable Victorian-era naturalist

• The surprisingly recent discovery of the gorilla (by Europeans)

• Scientific names for mythological species

• Josh on naming the new human species, Homo bodoensis, in The Conversation

• Ross on Sabre-toothed cat DNA in The Daily Mail

• Kim on the evolution of the human spine

Episode 12: Year One (2009)

We’re out of our element in this one. Year One is the story of two cavemen who bumble their way through the Book of Genesis. None of us are biblical archaeologists, but we try our best! It’s ostensibly a comedy, but you wouldn’t know from watching it.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Lilith, Adam’s first wife

• Bacula

• The Icelandic Phallological Museum

• The Necromancer pants aren’t real; they’re a replica

• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

• Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock

• Ancient Greek Helmets

• Bunch et al. (2021) A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. Sci Rep 11, 18632. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3  

• Mark Boslough’s criticism of Bunch et al. on Twitter

• Roman brothel infanticide

Episode 11: The Descent (2005)

Happy Halloween! In this episode of Screams of the Bone Age, we’re joined by special guest Marta Borovčanin to discuss The Descent (2005), a horror movie about a group of explorers who get trapped in a cave and stalked by prehistoric monsters. We talk about our scariest experiences working in caves, and speculate on the possibility of human monsters evolving in caves (Spoiler alert: it probably wouldn’t happen!).

Hear more from Marta on the (Re)Akcionizam podcast (in Serbian)

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Tašmajdan Cave, Belgrade

• Archaeology at Mala Balanica Cave, Serbia

• The Hike to Šuplja Dupka Cave, Serbia

• Exploring Šuplja Dupka Cave, Serbia

• Why do cave animals evolve blindness?

• Upper Palaeolithic Cave Paintings

• Survey of cave art in the Central Balkans

• Human echolocation

• Phosphorescent glow worms

Episode 10: The Neanderthal Man (1953)

We’re getting into the spooky season with a scary movie! The Neanderthal Man is a classic ‘50s monster movie about a mad scientist who creates a serum to turn back evolution, and transforms himself into a primitive beast. Actually, it’s not very scary to modern day viewers. It’s not remotely scientifically accurate either. Also, the acting is pretty bad. Still, we had a lot of fun watching it!

In this episode:

• Watch The Neanderthal Man on YouTube

•  A discussion of the phylogeny of big cats

• Don’t call them sabre-toothed tigers! They’re called sabre-toothed cats!

• How do phylogenetic trees work?

• The Human Advantage: A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable By Suzana Herculano-Houzel

• Beverly Garland was replaced by a different actress mid-scene

• Carbon Dating

• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Episode 9: Planet of the Apes (1968)

It’s a madhouse! A MADHOUSE! In this episode we review Planet of the Apes, the 1968 sci-fi classic in which an astronaut finds himself stranded on a backwards planet where apes rule over humans. For such a silly concept, this movie has some thoughtful things to say about human nature that are sadly as relevant today was they were half a century ago. Oh, and spoiler alert: you’re not going to believe the twist ending!

In this episode:

• We spend probably too long trying to figure out how time works. Pro-tip: you can skip that part by travelling close to the speed of light.

• Charlton Heston was a better actor in Wayne’s World 2

• Jane Goodall’s chimpanzees’ names

• Tim Burton’s 2001 remake wasn’t great

Episode 8: Futurama

We watched it; we can’t unwatch it! In this episode we review four episodes of Futurama, an animated series about a pizza delivery boy who accidentally gets cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the year 3000. What does the future have to do with the stone age? There’s only one way to find out! So grab a can of Slurm and a bowl of Bachelor Chow and settle in for this Anthology of Interest!

In this episode:

• Greyfriar’s Bobby

• Repatriation of the Kabwe skull

•  Comedian James Acaster on the absurdity of the British Empire

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

• The Piltdown Hoax

• How to pronounce “Neanderthal”

• Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe by Dale Guthrie

Episode 7: The Flintstones (1994)

It had to be done eventually, so we’ve done it! In this episode we meet the Flintstones, a modern stone-age family from the town of Bedrock. Does this movie get the facts right? No, of course it doesn’t. But does it matter? It has dinosaurs!

In this episode:

• ♪ Simpsons! ♪ Meet the Simps- I mean, Flintstones!

• SAA public perceptions of archaeology study (Archaeologists don’t dig up dinosaurs!)

• How old is the Grand Canyon?

• “Peking Man” – Homo erectus from Zhoukoudian Cave, China

• The Bone Wars

• Brontosaurus is back!

• Mary Anning

• Do we live longer today than people in the past?

• Cranium D3444 from Dmanisi, Georgia, is missing almost all of its teeth.

• The Vasquez Rocks

Episode 6: The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)

Today we’re joined by Prof. Mirjana Roksandic to discuss The Clan of the Cave Bear, a story about a modern human adopted by a clan of Neanderthals. Author Jean Auel did a commendable amount of research for her book series, but scientific paradigms change fast in palaeoanthropology. How does the movie hold up 35 years later? Let’s find out!

(Note: this episode contains a brief discussion of scenes depicting sexual violence)

In this episode:

• The genetics of skin and hair colour

• Cave Bear cults

• The Shanidar 1 Neanderthal burial, Iraq

• Feminism in the Clan of the Cave Bear

• Human hybridization: Neanderthal mother, Denisovan Father

Episode 5: Ice Age (2002)

In this episode we're joined by Dr. Advait Jukar to discuss the 2002 classic Ice Age, the story of three unlikely Pleistocene mammals who team up to rescue a non-adult Homo sapiens, and in the process discover the value of family. If you like Cenozoic mammalian taxonomy, then you're going to love this episode! Find Advait on Twitter @amjukar and at https://advaitjukar.weebly.com/

In this episode:

We geek out over the scientific names of prehistoric mammals, including:

• Wooly Mammoth - Mammuthus primigenius

• Sabre-toothed cat - Smilodon

• Scimitar cat – Homotherium

• Ground Sloth – Megalonyx (Bonus – where are sloths’ nipples?)

• Long-nosed llama – Macraucheniidae

• Glyptodont (giant armadillo relative) – Dædicurus

• Ancient proboscidean – Moeritherium (It’s not a tapir!)

• Not actually a rhinoceros - Megacerops

• Not actually Bigfoot - Gigantopithecus

• Dodos don’t get enough credit

• Scrat was real all along! Pseudotherium argentinus

We also discuss:

• Burrows dug by giant ground sloths

• GABI – Great American Biotic Interchange

• People – what a bunch of bastards!

Episode 4: Iceman (2017)

Deja Vu! We’re reviewing Iceman again, but it turns out it’s a totally different movie. This one tells the story of the final days of Ötzi, a neolithic mummy found frozen in the Ötztal Alps in 1991. Compared to the fictional stories we’ve reviewed previously, this one has a lot of real-life archaeological data to work with. Do the filmmakers get the facts right? And more importantly, does the true(ish) story translate into an entertaining movie? Listen and find out! (Spoiler alert: Ötzi dies in the end!)

In this episode:

• All the dialog is spoken in the Rhaetic language, with no subtitles

• Ötzi’s remains are kept at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy

• Brad Pitt has an Ötzi Tattoo

• On the misidentification and unreliable context of the new “human teeth” from Fuyan Cave (China)

• We were wrong! Animal-human nursing is a thing!

• Archaeological baby bottles

• MacGuffins

Episode 3: Iceman (1984)

In our third episode, we're reviewing the movie Iceman from 1984. Haven't heard of it? Neither had we, but it's about a Neanderthal who was frozen in ice and thawed out in the 20th Century, just like Encino Man. Unlike Encino Man, however, they don't take him to high school - they debate the ethics of murdering him for science purposes! Does this movie hold up? Well, it's a window into the ‘80s for sure.

In this episode:

• Ross watches the wrong movie.

• Mammoth mastodonus is not a real taxon

• Mammoth mummies

• Eating frozen mammoth meat

• The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voigt

• The myth of the “Noble Savage”

• Fire-hardened wooden spears from Schöningen, Germany

Episode 2: Encino Man (1992)

In our second episode we're reviewing Encino Man (aka California Man), the story of two unpopular teenagers from Encino, California, who dig up a frozen caveman and, naturally, take him to high school. Is this the best caveman movie of all time? Spoiler alert: yes it is.

In this episode:

• We fawn over Brendan Fraser and Pauly Shore. Sean Astin is in the movie too.

• Mousterian bowls

• Why don’t we call them “Cro-Magnon anymore?”

• Did Neanderthals use chemical methods to start fires?

• Discussions about the La Brea Tar Pits.

• It’s just called a “pull-down chart”

• Human taxonomy and species concepts are confusing.

Episode 1: William (2019)

We’ve started a podcast! Screens of the Stone Age: the podcast where scientists review movies about prehistoric people. Join me and my co-hosts, Dr. Kimberly Plomp and Dr. Ross Barnett, as we discuss everything from Iceman to Encino Man, from Year One to One Million Years B.C.!

To kick things off, we're reviewing William (2019), a story about a teenaged Neanderthal clone being raised by his ethically-dubious scientist parents in the 21st Century Pacific Northwest. Spoilers ahead!

In this episode:

• The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg

• Dolly the Sheep

• Scientist seeks 'adventurous woman' to have Neanderthal baby

• High-pitched Neanderthal voice

• 3-D Printing Gives Voice to a 3,000-Year-Old Mummy

• Green et al. (2010) A Draft sequence of the Neanderthal Genome