This fortnight we’re joined by Dr. Ted Banning to discuss the Neolithic Revolution as part of our season on complexity. And the Neolithic Revolution is nothing, nothing if not complex. Ted helps us decipher the various PPNs and shares insights into how to think about intensification, domestications, and sociopolitical complexity. He also chats with us about what biographies of Canadian numismatists can teach us about nineteenth and early twentieth century society. Finally, we talk with Ted about his new book, Archaeological Reasoning: A Guide to Understanding the Past, which seeks to bridge the gap between introductory and upper-level archaeology classes.

Show Notes (a selection of Dr. Banning's Neolithic publications)

Archaeological Reasoning: A Guide to Understanding the Past: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/archaeological-reasoning-9798765157497/

Banning, E. B., & Byrd, B. F. (1984). The Architecture of PPNB ʿAin Ghazal, Jordan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 255(255), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/1357072

BANNING, E. B., SIGGERS, J., & RAHIMI, D. (1994). THE LATE NEOLITHIC OF THE SOUTHERN LEVANT : HIATUS, SETTLEMENT SHIFT OR OBSERVER BIAS ? THE PERSPECTIVE FROM WADI ZIQLAB. Paléorient, 20(2), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.3406/paleo.1994.969

BYRD, B. F., & BANNING, E. B. (1988). SOUTHERN LEVANTINE PIER HOUSES : INTERSITE ARCHITECTURAL PATTERNING DURING THE PRE-POTTERY NEOLITHIC B. Paléorient, 14(1), 65–72.

Coupland, Gary Graham, and E. B. Banning. 1996. People who lived in big houses : archaeological perspectives on large domestic structures, Monographs in world archaeology, no. 27. Madison, Wis: Prehistory Press.

Banning, E. B. (2000). The archaeologist’s laboratory : the analysis of archaeological data (1st ed. 2000.). Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/b110579

Maher, L. A., Banning, E. B., & Chazan, M. (2011). Oasis or Mirage? Assessing the Role of Abrupt Climate Change in the Prehistory of the Southern Levant. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 21(1), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774311000011

Hit piece:

SAA Archaeological Record, “Publishing Regional Journals in the Americas: Surviving or Thriving” https://www.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=862379&p=2&view=issueViewer

Credits

Sponsors: APANB, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Producers: Emanuel Akel (Audio Engineer); Cody Pai (Video/Socials)

Music Credits: Intro/Outro (Remix): Emanuel Akel, Original Title/Hit Pieces: Justin Hoenke

Do you find yourself pondering how the Canada-U.S. Border between New Brunswick and Maine was decided? Have you been searching for a factoid for your next party, like, say, where and when was the first autopsy conducted in North America? Are you aware that the episode title is not just a clever play on Oasis' 1995 smash hit, but references a visible supernova that really did occur on October 4-5, 1604, just on the cusp of what ended up being a rather cold and miserable for Champlain, De Monts, and their company of men? Well, grab your limes and lemons because Gabe and Ken are speaking with Dr. Steven Pendery about the archaeology and history of Saint Croix Island International Historic Site, this fortnight on the New Brunswick Archaeology Podcast.

Show Notes

Pendery, Steven R. (ed.). 2012. Saint Croix Island, Maine: History, Archaeology, and Interpretation. Occasional Publications in Maine Archaeology, No. 14. Augusta: Maine Historic Preservation Commission and the Maine Archaeological Society.

Pagan, Robert. 1797. Robert Pagan deposition about Doccas Island fort, 1797. Maine Historical Society, https://www.mainememory.net/record/9382/image/9382.

To pop some more Champlain, check out the NB Arch Pod S2E18 "champlain problems": https://rss.com/podcasts/nbarchaeology/1539447/

Hit Pieces

Herr, Sarah A. and Maria Gutierrez (eds.). 2026. Publishing Regional Journals in the Americas: Surviving or Thriving?

https://www.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=862379&p=1&view=issueViewer

Credits

Sponsors: APANB, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Producers: Emanuel Akel (Audio Engineer); Cody Pai (Video/Socials)

Music Credits: Intro/Outro (Remix): Emanuel Akel, Original Title/Hit Pieces: Justin Hoenke

This fortnight your hosts are joined by David Black and Josh Cummings to talk about the Archaic period in New Brunswick. We also enjoyed some piping hot mugs of colonial flip. Our guests walk us through the current state of Archaic period research in New Brunswick, and then catch us up on the results of some of their recent collections research on intertidal collections.

Show Notes

• Black, D.W., and J.A. Cummings 2025. “...gathering pebbles on a boundless shore...”—The Rum Beach Site and Intertidal Archaeology in the Canadian Quoddy Region (third iteration/definitive edition). UNB Libraries, Scholar Research Repository. Link: https://unbscholar.lib.unb.ca/items/11515990-9c7a-459b-8869-f81aeb7fcbd1
• Cummings, J.A., and D.W. Black 2024. Evidence for Late Maritime Archaic period occupations in interior riverine New Brunswick. Available online: https://www.unb.ca/fredericton/arts/_assets/documents/anth/late-archaic.pdf
• Black, D.W., and E.L. Hubert 2020. The Birch Islands Cache: Unusual Moorehead Burial Tradition Flaked Stone Assemblage. Maine Archaeological Society Bulletin 60(2):9–33.
• Sanger, David, William R. Belcher, and Douglas C. Kellogg. 1992 . Early Holocene Occupation at the Blackman Stream Site, Central Maine. In Early Holocene Occupation in Northern New England, edited by Brian S. Robinson, James B. Petersen, and Ann S. Robinson, pp. 149-161. Occasional Publications in Maine Archaeology, Vol. 9. Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Augusta.
• Petersen, James B. 1991. Archaeological testing at the Sharrow site : a deeply stratified early to late Holocene cultural sequence in central Maine. Occasional publications in Maine archaeology, Vol. no 8. Maine Archaeological Society : Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Augusta, Me.
• Black, David W. 1997. A Native Artifact from the Ocean Floor Near Indian Island. Fieldnotes: The Journal of the New Brunswick Archaeological Society 3(2):5-7.
• Sanger, David. 2009. "Foraging for Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the Gulf of Maine." In Painting with a Broad Brush: Papers in Honor of James V. Wright, edited by David L. Keenlyside and Jean-Luc Pilon, 1-36. Gatineau: Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Hit Pieces

Surovell, Todd A., César Méndez, Juan-Luis García, Christopher Lüthgens, Jay M. Thompson, and Claudio Latorre. 2026. A mid-Holocene age for Monte Verde challenges the timeline of human colonization of South America. Science 391(6791):1283-1288. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw9217

Credits

Sponsors: APANB, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Producers: Emanuel Akel (Audio Engineer); Cody Pai (Video/Socials)

Music Credits: Intro/Outro (Remix): Emanuel Akel, Original Title/Hit Pieces: Justin Hoenke