Imagine a time when sugar was prescribed, not avoided. For much of its early history, sugar was considered a valuable medicinal ingredient. Today, its overconsumption is linked to some of the world’s most widespread diseases. How did sugar go from being a healing luxury to a global health concern? The answer is a story spanning […]
What do Richard the Lionheart and sugar have in common? Read More »
Figure 1. Wetland landscape, Topsakanaapa, Lapland, Finland. Photo by Harri P on Unsplash. Walking through the countryside have you ever stepped off the path only to be confronted with an area of damp, soggy, muddy terrain that is too wet and unstable to step onto? Was that area called fen, marsh or bog? Most likely
‘Mud, glorious mud’ – Can peat help our planet? Read More »
The importance of bodies—and control thereover—has been recognized much longer and holds more sway than you would think. Habeus corpus (lit. “you shall have the body”) is a foundational concept of many legal systems, and is intended to guard against the physical detainment of a (living) body without just cause. But even dead bodies have
How much is your body worth? Read More »
Before death certificates were a thing, people tried to preserve bodies as proof of death. Evidence suggests that this was practiced in Europe at least from the 6th century AD to help with questions of royal succession. Interestingly, the first step in preserving a body is to remove its organs (particularly the entrails, as these
Where would you send your heart to find peace? Read More »
When was the last time you took a photo of a loved one or a selfie of yourself? It is probably not too long ago! But did it cross your mind that this image could still be around in a few hundred years, telling a story about you and your life? If yes, you have
Carving Memory: What Palmyra’s Portraits Reveal About Ancient Craft Read More »
This snack was first posted on the Scisnack website on 21 April 2024. (Re)moving the dead Death is very quickly followed by movement (or re-movement) of the remains. Swedish author Knausgaard poetically describes this urge: “the way we remove bodies has never been a subject of debate; it has always been just something we have
This snack was first posted on the Scisnack website on December 2020. An abandoned surgical mask on a Dublin pavement during my casual afternoon walk last summer sparked a series of questions about the tangible traces of the 2020 pandemic or, in other words, the material culture of Covid-19. As an archaeologist fascinated by past
Archaeology from the future: The material culture of Covid-19 Read More »
This snack was first posted on the Scisnack website on March 2023. Every retelling of the past consists of a story, a narrator, and an audience, and it needs a time and a place. Even if the intention is to pass on an old, known story, the narrator and the audience are bound to exist
The past is as old as the last story (re)told Read More »
