Chapter 1: Africa
Women in Africa weaving grass beds.
From grass to bedding.
A river near a cave where bedding grass grows.
Close-up of an ancient bed.
Sibudu Cave in South Africa, where ancient bedding has been discovered.
Border Cave in South Africa, where ancient bedding has also been discovered.
A xwa water root.
The ostrich egg next to a regular egg for scale.
It took a lot of work, but cracking the ostrich egg was worth it.
A few of the stone tools I made.
A snare being assembled in modern-day Africa.
Chapter 2: Andes
A cushion plant from the Andean highlands.
The bofedales landscape.
The clay “sauce” that makes potatoes less toxic.
Yours truly making the sauce.
Some of the many fun varieties of heirloom potatoes in Peru.
Slices of different heirloom potatoes.
Tool made from elephant bones during the elephant butchery craze of the 1970s.
Cutting into the elephant.
The frozen carcass of Ginsberg.
Playacting an ancient butcher.
An elephant butchered during another experiment in Africa.
Weapons used on the elephants.
Studying wound marks on the hide.
Fossilized giant sloth dung.
Model of a giant sloth cloth, next to my own hand for scale.
Chapter 3: Çatalhöyük
The experimental pond at Boncuklu.
The howitzer of a cow bone we tried to break many times, failing often, but finally did crack.
Çatalhöyük today, an archaeological site.
The deer hide that I brain-tanned.
Yours truly (right) scraping skin with master tanner Caelan Dunwoody (left).
Trying to scrape more skin off.
The raw, smelly skin.
Braaaaaaaiiins!
Wrenching the brain juice out, over and over (and over).
The swirly, almost finished hide.
Preparing to smoke the hide.
Fairly smoked!
Chapter 4: Egypt
A rendition of the rites that priests would perform on mummies.
Removing organs from the human mummy.
Putting organs in the canopic jars.
The palm wine they used to embalm the man from Baltimore.
Inserting the bags of natron.
Piling on the natron.
Mr. E.M. Balm.
Mr. Balm fairly mummified.
Putting the mummy in the MRI.
Removing the brain.
Removing the brains.
Ramses the Great. Apparently Mr. Balm looked very much like Mr. Ramses after just a few weeks of treatment.
To remove Ramses from Egypt to France for treatment to prevent decay, he had to get a passport.
Drinking beer from a straw.
Egyptian beer.
How the fish mummy started.
How the mummy looked halfway through.
The mummy drying.
The space capsule bread mold.
Chapter 5: Polynesia
Pigs and chickens on Hōkūleʻa, the (mostly) authentic Hawaiian ship launched in the 1970s to revive Polynesian, and especially Micronesian, styles of navigation.
Hōkūleʻa arriving in Honolulu under full sail.
Polynesian tattoo implements.
Polynesians enjoyed some of the most elaborate tattoos in the world.
The full-body tattoos of a Hawaiian warrior.
A tattooed military chief from the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.
The beautiful Rock Islands of Palau.
A sunset on Palau.
Models and implements and other accoutrement from the Micronesian sailing education center in Palau.
An intricately woven Micronesian sail.
The water-bailer that also serves as a shield in times of combat.
A representation of a deity of the type that often sat on the prows or bows of vessels in Oceania.
Yours truly hanging out with Ismael on the wonderful boat that (goddamn it!) didn’t go anywhere.
The boat at its dock in Palau.
Yours truly hanging out barefoot in front of a sail.
Preparing to make kapa (or tapa), the Polynesian bark cloth.
The shark-tooth knife I used to cut the paper mulberry stalk.
My decorated kapa. I stand by it!
Chapter 6: Rome
Sala Cattabia, a layered salad of sourdough bread with chicken, lamb’s sweetbreads, pine nuts, pecorino cheese, onion, and cucumber, with a dressing of raisins, ginger, coriander, and mint.
A centerpiece from the Roman banquet. Here, Zeus.
Some of the melon balls that got dipped in the rue-garum sauce.
Another centerpiece from the Roman banquet. Here, Hades.
Yet another centerpiece from the Roman banquet. Here, Hephaestus.
Vitellian, pucks of peas with egg yolks, ginger, and coriander.
A Roman dessert: peaches and plums with mascarpone in mulled wine—and of course the garum fish sauce
Donning the Roman toga. My man was excited!
The start of the Roman road in the back courtyard of Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The pile of rock we had to haul to fill out the road.
The road coming into shape!
The tools Janet Stephens and I used to sculpt Roman hair.
Some big-ass Roman forfex scissors.
Hair that I braided. I don’t think a Roman empresses would approve of my slack knots…
…but I got better over the day!
A small tower of authentic Roman curls.
Chapter 7: California
An array of Native American tools that archaeologists have tested for their deadly impact.
Joseph Curran bashing the half-naked dummy.
The watermelon after I bashed it a few times.
I really beat the crap out of it.
The start of my acorn muffin project.
The T-shirt that I used to hold the acorns when leeching them.
But again, my muffins tasted like crap. 🤢 For a real treat, see….
…the acorns ready to cook at Moose Ridge Wilderness School!
Grinding the acorns into flour at Moose Ridge Wilderness School.
Frying acorn cakes on the griddle at Moose Ridge Wilderness School.
(And in case you haven’t gotten the hint:
Psssst, sign up for classes there! Great food, better people, a wonderful time.)
A poor pic (I’m a writer, not Ansel Adams), but I’m trying to stone-boil water here.
Chapter 8: Vikings
And authentic Viking die.
The white-wine potion from Bald’s Leechbook.
The red-wine potion from Bald’s Leechbook.
The scorched pennies after soaking in the leechbook solution.
The tools I used for the trepanations. Notice the one lonely serrated tool. How I wish I’d had more!
My triangular cuts into the deer skull.
Me cutting the deer head on a stump.
The view of the brain after I finally (finally) cut through.
Another shot of the deer brain, exposed.
The goddamn pig skull I tried to cut through. (Still makes me mad! 😤)
That tiny little divot is all I managed to do.
Bart Huges, the Dutch librarian who trepanned himself.
Huges probing the wound.
Huges examining his handiwork.
Huges in the aftermath. Seems happy!
Nyachoti, the Kenyan who opted for multiple trepanations: Hat on, and hat off!
The full extent of Nyachoti’s trepanations.
Chapter 9: Alaska
Seal flanks and intestines drying in the sun in Shishmaref, Alaska.
Deblubbering a seal skin with an ulu knife.
Another seal skin.
Chopping the blubber into strips.
Hunks of walrus, often eaten with mustard in Shishmaref.
Arctic salad with greens and bits of whale.
A polar bear skin hanging in Shishmaref. It had been threatening people in town.
A sealskin “poke” turned into a backpack.
Another seal poke.
Just because. 🙂
A sled-dog puppy in Alaska.
This Nesquik bottle held the seal oil that we used to make Inuit pots.
Testing whether the pots could boil water.
The aftermath of the failed pots.
Chapter 10: China
Chinese alchemical equipment.
A small Chinese alchemical furnace.
Chinese distillation apparatus.
More distillation equipment.
The bowling ball that the trebuchet cracked in half.
Loading the trebuchet sling.
The “fort” we attacked.
The trebuchet balls we launched left giant divots where they landed.
A hole in the fort.
Yours truly on the trebuchet. And keep in mind: this one was modest.
A video of the trebuchet in action!
Chapter 11: Mexico
The fresh blue nixtamalized torillas I ate. Un-frickin’-believably good.
A modern Aztec ballcourt.
Pulque brewed right in the heart of the agave plant. Great citrus flavor. The insects add a nice crunch.
An Aztec sacrificial stone in the National Museum of Archaeology in Mexico City. The channel drained blood.
Excavated rings from different ballcourts. Notice the variations of sizes.
Another sacrificial stone in the National Museum.
An Aztec codex.
The insects I dined on. They were legimately delicious.
My underkit for the Aztec ballgame.
The artillery range at West Point where we fired medieval gunpowder.
The hillside where we fired the marble balls. Note the derelict tank.
One of the marble balls we fired.
The chemists weren’t messing around. It’s flammable!
The trigger worked, but looked a tad cheap.
Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! (Ka-blooie!)
P.S. If you got through all the notes, congratulations! Why not drop me a line and brag a little…