Big Canoes, Tiny Pots, and a Headless Elephant
Experimental archeology is solving ancient mysteries that digging into dirt never could.
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Experimental archeology is, simply put, archeology that involves running experiments. Where traditional archaeologists may study, research, analyze, and theorize about how artifacts were made or used, experimental archaeologists actually try to recreate, test, and use them to see what they can learn. In doing so, they have given the field a whole new way to glean clues and get insights into the lives of our ancestors.
Sam Kean is the author of a new book all about experimental archeology called Dinner with King Tut . With help from him and a few archaeologists, we dig into a number of puzzles that experimental archeology has helped solve—conundrums involving ancient megafauna, bizarre cookware, and deep sea voyages.
In this episode, you'll hear from archaeologists Susan Kaplan of Bowdoin College and Karen Harry of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Native Hawaiian activist and storyteller Nāʻālehu Anthony .
To learn more about the story of Hokule'a and his first navigator, Mau Piailug, watch Nāʻālehu Anthony's 2010 documentary, Papa Mau: The Wayfinder , as well as The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific .
This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman. Decoder Ring is also produced by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. We had mixing help from Kevin Bendis.
We'd also like to thank Metin Eren and Paul Benham.
If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.
Sources for This Episode
Eren, Metin I., David J. Meltzer, Brett Story, Briggs Buchanan, Don Yeager, and Michelle R. Bebber. “ On the Efficacy of Clovis Fluted Points for Hunting Proboscidans ,” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports , October 2021.
Finney, Ben. Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia , University of California Press, 1994.
Gibbons, Ann. “ ‘Game-changing’ study suggests first Polynesians traveled all the way from East Asia ,” Science, October 3, 2016.
Gingerich, Joseph AM and Dennis J. Stanford. “ Lessons from Ginsberg: An Analysis of Elephant Butchery Tools ,” Quaternary International, 2016.
Herman, Doug. “ How the Voyage of the Kon-Tiki Misled the World About Navigating the Pacific ,” Smithsonian Magazine, September 4, 2014.
Heyerdahl, Thor. American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition , Rand McNally, 1952.
Heyerdahl, Thor. The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas , George Allen & Unwin, 1948.
Huckell, Bruce B. “ The Denver Elephant Project: A Report On Experimentation With Thrusting Spears ,” Plains Anthropologist, August 1982.
Kean, Sam. Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations , Little, Brown and Company, 2025.
Kean, Sam. “ The Ingenious Arctic Cooking Pots ,” Distillations Magazine, 2025.
Kon-Tiki , dir. Thor Heyerdahl, 1950.
The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific , ed. Sam Low and Boyd Estus.
Papa Mau: The Wayfinder , ed. Nāʻālehu Anthony, 2010.
Rensberger, Boyce. “ Ice Age Tools Put to the Test ,” The New York Times, 1978.
Stanford, Dennis. “ The Ginsberg Experiment ,” Natural History, 1987.
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