Achoo, and Welcome to The Dirt The Dirt Podcast

This week, Amber is recovering from a nasty cold that has left her normally dulcet tones extremely froggy. So we've made lemons out of that germy lemonade (ew, sorry). It's an episode about the archaeology, prehistory, and history of the common cold! Learn how to tell if a skeleton had the sniffles, figure out if there are ghosts in your colon, uncover the great Vitamin C scam, and more!
CONTENT WARNING: A case study from ancient Nimrud includes brief mention of a post-mortem treatment for burial that some listeners may find upsetting!
For more on this episode's topics:
Humans are 8% virus – how the ancient viral DNA in your genome plays a role in human disease and development (The Conversation)
Prehistoric viruses smuggled genes into our DNA (Chemical & Engineering News)
Cold Virus Found To Manipulate Genes (ScienceDaily)
Sequences capture the code of the common cold (University of Wisconsin)
Common cold virus may predate modern humans, ancient DNA hints (Live Science)
Paleomedicine and the Evolutionary Context of Medicinal Plant Use (Nature Public Health Emergency Collection)
Cowabunga! Horn reveals herbal mixtures used by medieval healers in South Africa (RFI)
Africa's Medical History Revealed (Origins)
Infectious Diseases in the Archaeological Record (Ember Archaeology)
Disease concepts and classifications in ancient Mesopotamian medicine (Systems of Classification in Premodern Medical Cultures)
The Life and Health of Assyrian Queens (Ancient Near East Today)
Cold Sore Virus Detected in Ancient Human Remains (Archaeology)
Common cold: The centuries-old battle against the sniffles (BBC News)
Medical Practitioners: Ancient Legacy (Prof. Sean Taylor, MSU Moorhead)
Ancient