Episode 219 - The Dirt Rocks Out

If you don't like this episode, well, you can go kick rocks! Just... not these rocks, they're culturally significant. That's right, it's an episode about megaliths, monoliths, and other kinds of -liths that were placed on the landscape by humans. Y'all. There are so many big rocks. We spend some time thinking about cultural memory, heritage, and colonial dispossession of these monuments. We also cover the Stonhenge-ification of megalith sites, learn to tell a dolmen from an orthostat, and find some extremely cool desert kites (not the flying kind). So. Many. Big. Rocks.

To learn more:

MTV Arabia “Dabke Dude” promotional spot (via YouTube)

Monumental Colonialism: Megaliths and the Appropriation of Australia's Aboriginal Past (Journal of Material Culture)

Aspects of the Megalithic Era (Newgrange.com)

Astronomy of Nabta Playa (African Skies)

Interactive Map (Globalkites)

Desert Monoliths Reveal Stone Age Architectural Blueprints (New York Times)

The Use of Desert Kites as Hunting Mega-Traps: Functional Evidence and Potential Impacts on Socioeconomic and Ecological Spheres (Journal of World Prehistory)

The Sailing Stones of Death Valley (National Park Foundation)

Radiocarbon dates and Bayesian modeling support maritime diffusion model for megaliths in Europe (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

What Was Stonehenge For? The Answer Might Be Simpler Than You Thought. (New York Times)

5 Strange Theories About Stonehenge (LiveScience)