… clear and concise presentation. My only real complaint is her pronunciations of several words. But that’s easily overlooked by the complete yet not laborious explanation of the facts.

I found this incomplete , but well worth the time to check out. More episodes please. Jane is an excellent source of information for anyone interested in going into more depth and detail about the ancient near east, pre written language. This series offered the most up to date (at the time of broadcast) theories and information available to archaeologists and shares it with love and knowledge of the subject. I listen to a lot of ancient history podcasts, and having this valuable information is helpful for me to more greatly understand and appreciate the base foundations of what we have learned and achieved in our past.

Well written and narrated this podcast presents the archeology of pre-history of f the Near East in a clear concise manner.

Please more episodes

As a writer I am completely engaged in this epic story of our human ancestors. Well presented and accessible without sacrificing scholarly integrity.

Beautifully clear, concise, intelligible survey of the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean/Levant/Near East or whatever you want to call that incredibly important nexus of human history. I love this podcast, and wish I knew whom to thank for it! Don't miss the supplementary materials--helpful photos, videos, and references--on the podcast website.

I’m on my third or fourth round of listening to all of the episodes. Give it 6 months or so between listening and I’ve forgotten large amounts of what I had learned last time. I find the history of early people and people species fascinating, and Jane does a fantastic job of making a lot of information readily available. It makes me excited to see how much more we learn over the coming decades! I hope there will be more episodes, but even if there are not, this is a fantastic introduction to early human history and what goes into studying it!

I found this just a few months ago. I’ve been working my way through prehistory - Teaching Company courses and Tides of History primarily. This focused podcast gave clearer explanations for things than I’ve gotten from any other source. I studiously listened to every episode over the last 10 weeks. Thank you Ms. Gaastra, and I hope your PhD studies allow you continue soon.

Really scratching the itch left by Graeber and Wengrow’s “Dawn of Everything”. I love thinking about our predecessors and their lives, thanks for this great show. The theme song also is a real bop

This podcast is brilliant. Erudite, well written, and delivered with a sly sense of humor. I hope that the mysterious Jane can be persuaded to write and produce more episodes.

Absolutely fantastic recap of prehistory in middle east. Thoroughly engaging, informative and enjoyable!

This podcast is one of my favorite archeology podcasts. It is very easy to follow along for a layman like me, but also has an excellent academic approach including discussing various perspectives and controversies in the field. Each episode is laid out very logically and the entire podcast has an excellent flow. I appreciate how the host has a website to post images of what she’s been discussing as this helps me better visualize what she’s referring to. This is my second go-around listening to this podcast - I am hoping there will be more to come!

Prehistoric information delivered in concise, clear, informative slices with a host that’s engaging and has a nice sly dry sense of humor at times. Perfect for those interested in this time period of human history.

Informative, enlightening and her voice is soothing 🙂

Superb podcast! Smart, engaging, and extremely well-organized. It perfectly fills in a gap in my historical interests. It has greatly increased my understanding of these most fundamental eras in the human journey.

I binged the first 26 episodes of this show in a week, and can't wait for the next installment on the Ubaid culture of prehistoric Mesopotamia. I love the way the host describes archaeological findings and then discusses the different theories and controversies arising from them.

Excellent historical storytelling that balances fascinating details with big-picture (millennia) explanations.

Just stumbled upon this podcast a few days ago. Wish I knew about it earlier! Catching up now with all the earlier episodes. Very informative.

This series is well organized, well researched, and presented in a clear and enjoyable way. Really tells what we know about human history and well as how we figured it out.

This is my favorite podcast of all time. I’ve learned a lot!

So I love this show. It’s like it was tailor made for me. The topic, the tone, the episode length… everything is great. Hearing about the various arguments and disagreements in the archaeological world is fascinating. However, here I am in August of 2022 and I only have a handful of episodes left in the backlog before I have to wait for new episodes and I am absolutely dreading it. I might have to redownload the existing ones for another go round. Also, I can’t stress enough the tantalizing mystery below the surface here — who is Jane, our mysterious host and narrator? She does such a good job. Alas I fear she shall remain a shadowy figure.

This podcast is pretty easy to follow for someone, like me, with very little familiarity with this subject — but it’s not dumbed down! Super interesting information, and I really like the host’s voice and delivery. Please keep going! ❤️

Love this podcast! So interesting and fun to listen to

Jane presents the topic in a straightforward manner. The podcast is very informative. This is not a podcast to play in the background. It requires a lot of thought and, dare I say, homework. It’s well worth the effort.

This podcast was just what I was looking for, and I love all of the technical information that Jane includes. I highly recommend and enjoy!

Great info, great presenter

Everything I love in a podcast. Highly recommend.

Jane is the best.

I really wanted to love this podcast. The subject is so interesting. But there is no life to it. It would be 10 times better if she had a co-host to discuss the subject matter with and ask questions.

I am a history podcast junkie, I admit it. I had a dual major with anthropology in school and always kept my focus on ancient cultures, and I’ve been endlessly fascinated by ancient history even more since then. My main issue with other history podcasts is there’s not enough detail or technical discussion, but with this podcast you get a hint of how complex the topic actually is without it being overwhelming. I’m always thrilled when next episode finally drops and I can spend a bit of time learning about ancient peoples and the material culture they left behind

So informative!

Very good balance of detailed, informative discussions without taking down and being preachy to the audience. Engaging tone with a good sense of humor. This podcast is an excellent find. Hope more episodes are coming soon.

If you’re interested in ancient history, then you’ll really like hearing the prehistory that came before. Forget all the stuff you learned back in the day, and get up to date on the new scholarship.

No commercials. Great narrator. Perfect depth. Favorite podcast.

She dose a great job explaining how pre history is determined and why it’s important. Scientific but not nerdy. Smooth voice and nice modulation. Highly recommend.

Exactly what I was looking for. The speaker has a great way of speaking to large and complex information in a way that is digestible and doesn’t rinse off any of the good details that make this topic so fascinating. Thank you for your creation!

This podcast is just great! I love the narrative format, and really wish more podcasts would take this approach. The narrator herself has a really smooth and relaxing voice, which is a perk! She presents information in an incredibly accessible way, and talks about all sides when discussing information that has been debated. Wish I could give this show 10 stars.

I love this woman, Jane. She speaks fast enough to keep my attention, for one. She also speaks in a conversational tone that's easy and pleasant to follow. Best of all, it seems as soon as I have a question from something she's said, she answers it. It's like having a private tutor all my own. I'm very glad I found this podcast. I've only ever studied pre-history of humans on my own so it's validating to learn that what I think I understand about the data is in fact correct and areas where I've questioned the data are also in debate in the scientific community. Lastly, Jane is catching me up on recent findings and theories.

A real dive into prehistory. I’m not sure who the narrator is but she knows her stuff.

I love the short, very informative format and the slightly wry and yet generous delivery! I’m glad I came to it a bit late as I don’t want to wait for the next episode. This so far has put all other archaeology podcasts to shame

I stumbled upon this podcast while searching for information on ancient civilizations. I don’t know what the narrator’s credentials are, but she presents the information in a calm, scholarly manner, citing sources, and does so in a way that is refreshingly accessible and interesting to the lay-person. If you’re curious about our ancient ancestors and how we came to be where we are now as humans, I recommend giving this a try.

Every episode is fantastic and packed full of not just excellent information, but also what it means, or the direction it points toward. And yet it maintains this density of information without being dry or boring. My favourite podcast, hands down.

Succinct and informative Jane does an outstanding job of explaining this information. Her clear and calm voice unhindered by background noise pulls the listener into the story. With each episode she gets better at the podcast technically and in timing. Her knowledge and passion of this subject keep me coming back and re-listening to episodes. Jane is not an armature on this subject.

Great narrative and I learn something new every episode.

Great content with contingent narration. If you have a Patreon account, I will pay

I love history podcasts, and I always find that I’m into the early stuff and my interest tails off as the timeline goes on. Now here is finally a PRE history podcast! This one goes as far back as possible, and does a good job explaining the different theories out there. Can’t wait for the next one!

Great content, very well presented. I especially appreciate the scholarly rigour without ever being boring!

Very happy to have found this podcast. Love the content. Well thought out and flows well. Great sound quality too. Please keep the episodes coming

Breaks down pre-history in bite size, accessible chunks, complete with insight into what it’s like to work in the field and the discussions that archaeologists have with each other when writing our pre-history.