In this episode we talk about why we think it is wrong to teach children that slaves were able to parlay skills they were taught for their “personal benefit” “later in life,” and what is going on with Northern California’s plague of penis fish. Our pieces of stuff this week involve evidence of necromancy in Israel of the second to fourth century CE and evidence of genuine affection between an Ottoman Sultan and his slave/concubine and the difficulties she overcame to become the most important woman in the empire. 

Tracey’s Stuff in the News

John Bowden, “De Santis defends Florida curriculum that suggests slaves benefited from forced labor.” Independent, July 7, 2023 accessed at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/desantis-florida-slavery-schools-gop-b2380508.html

Simeon Spencer, “Emancipation on the ballot: Why slavery is still legal in America – And how voters can take action,” NAACP Legal Defence Fund, accessed 23 July, 2023 at https://www.naacpldf.org/13th-amendment-emancipation/

François-Xavier Fauvelle, The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018).

E. Zangato and A.F.C. Holl, “On the Iron Front: New Evidence from Central Africa,” Journal of African Archaeology 8, pp. 7-23/

Sean Coughlan, “Last Survivor of Transatlantic Slave Trade discovered,” BBC News 25 March, 2020 accessed on 23 July 2023 at https://www.bbc.com/news/education-52010859

Tracey’s Piece of Stuff

Klein, E., & Zissu, B. (2023). Oil Lamps, Spearheads and Skulls: Possible Evidence of Necromancy during Late Antiquity in the Te’omim Cave, Judean Hills. Harvard Theological Review, 116(3), 399-421. doi:10.1017/S0017816023000214

Daniel Ogden, “Lay That Ghost: Necromancy in Ancient Greece and Rome,” Archaeological Odyssey 5:4, July/August 2002 reprinted by Biblical Archaeological Society accessed 23 July, 2023 at https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/ancient-necromancy/

Benjamin Kerstein, “The Bar-Kochba Revolt,” World History Encyclopedia, 30 August 2018, accessed 23 July 2023 at https://www.worldhistory.org/The_Bar-Kochba_Revolt/

Ashley’s Stuff in the News

Andrew Court, “Thousands of Infamous ‘Penis Fish’ Wash Ashore after Heavy Storms,” New York Post, July 19, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/07/19/thousands-of-fat-penis-fish-wash-up-after-heavy-storms/. 

BBC News, “’Penis Fish’ Wash up on a Beach in California,” December 13, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50779461. 

***Correction to Stuff in the News: the most recent batch of penis fish have washed ashore in Argentina – the California phallus fest occurred in 2019.

Ashley’s Piece of Stuff

Anadolu News Agency, “Newly Published Letter Reveals Hürrem Sultan’s Love for Süleyman the Magnificent,” Daily Sabah, February 15, 2019, https://www.dailysabah.com/history/2019/02/15/newly-published-letter-reveals-hurrem-sultans-love-for-suleyman-the-magnificent?gallery_image=undefined#big. 

Paul Bryers, dir., “The Hidden World of the Harem,” Chronicle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbvzIUicZv0&t=5s. 

Peirce, Leslie. Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2017. 

Peirce, Leslie. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Musallam, Basim. Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control before the Nineteenth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Picture Credit: Tracey-Anne Cooper

Music Credit: Ashley Bozian