This Week in the Ancient Near East

The podcast that takes archaeology precisely as seriously as it deserves. Two real professors of archaeology and one guy from a fake institution discuss cutting edge archaeological discoveries at a high professional level using technical knowledge and stuff. A scholarly podcast for the discerning listener, it’s handmade, artisanal, and bespoke! Critics say, “A cheeky and irreverent take,” and “the good kind of shenanigans.” Other critics say, “damaging to archaeology,” and “deeply discreditable.” High-level discourse informed by neo-Brechtian, Deleuzian, or post-post processual theory, or just more BS from a couple of bored, middle aged hacks? You be the judge! The Panelists JP Dessel is the Steinfeld Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He is the author of Lahav I. Pottery and Politics The Halif Terrace Site 101 and Egypt in the Fourth Millennium B.C.E. (2009). Rachel Hallote is Professor of History and coordinator of the Jewish Studies Program at Purchase College, SUNY. She is a co-author of Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society (2012) and author of Bible, Map and Spade (2006). Alex Joffe is Director of the Bob and Ray Institute of Archaeology at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. This is fake institution. But he is the author of several real books and many actual articles, most recently ”Notes on the Mesopotamian Energy Economy” (2025).