This week, Anna and Amber head to ancient Central Asia for a sponsored episode in which they explore the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Come along and learn why there's BMAC stuff all over the place! Visit Gonur and the man that wants to be buried in its deserts! Consider the who and the why of the BMAC and its collapse (psst it wasn't a collapse)! Meet some Horse Guys! Links * Bactria (Encyclopedia Iranica) [https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactria] * Margiana (Livius) [https://www.livius.org/articles/place/margiana/] * Archaeology Wordsmith [https://archaeologywordsmith.com/search.php?q=complex] * Central and North Asia, 2000–1000 B.C. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History) [https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/03/nc.html] * Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley (via Google Books) [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Art_of_the_Bronze_Age/Qbnyh2YH2KQC?gbpv=1&hl=en&printsec=frontcover] * Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex objects in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Bactria-Margiana%20Archaeological%20Complex&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSize=0] * On the Origin of Metallurgical Technologies in the Bronze Age (Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11106-013-9550-6] * The Middle Asian Interaction Sphere (Expedition) [https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-middle-asian-interaction-sphere/] * Central Asia's Lost Civilization (Discover) [https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/central-asias-lost-civilization] * The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and The Indus Civilization (Oxford University Press) [https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226909.001.0001/acprof-9780190226909-chapter-8] * Early evidence for horse utilization in the Eurasian steppes and the case of the Novoil'inovskiy 2 Cemetery in Kazakhstan (Journal of Archaeological Science) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X2030211X] * What Language Was Spoken by the People of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex? ("At the Shores of the Sky": Asian Studies for Albert Hoffstädt) [https://brill.com/view/book/9789004438200/BP000002.xml?language=en] * The Formation of Human Populations in South and Central Asia (Science) [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6822619/] * Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of the Oxus Civilization in Southern Central Asia (Socio-Environmental Dynamics along the Historical Silk Road) [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-00728-7_14] Contact * Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com Affiliates * Wildnote [http://www.wildnoteapp.com/] * TeePublic [https://www.teepublic.com/?ref_id=5724&ref_type=aff] * Timeular [https://timeular.com/ref/chriswebster/]