Show Notes
First, if you have not read Emily Hauser's PENELOPE'S BONES, remedy that immediately. You've never read anything like it. It is revolutionary.
Why? Because we all grew up with the story of Indiana Jones finding treasures he'd read about in ancient texts and then he'd invariably hustle said treasures back home.
But what if generations of male historians and archaeologists had blind spots?
Did they really look at the evidence, or just for reinforcement of narratives they wanted to believe?
Is there another way? Oh, yes, there is–because in walks a woman, Emily Hauser, who highlights the work of other scholars --including women--and points us to a path that was there all along.
How does the use of DNA analysis transform what we thought we knew? Or the techniques of experimental archaeology?
Also in the interview, Emily shares specific revelations about Homer's women that change how we read THE ODYSSEY.
She discusses "presentism" and why we should worry about it, and yes, she has thoughts about Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY (2026). And since she was invited to the World Premiere in London, you don't want to miss what she has to say!
REFERENCES: Here is a link to the book that first revealed the hard work of American classicist Alice Kober in deciphering Linear B: Margalit Fox's THE RIDDLE OF THE LABYRINTH: THE QUEST TO CRACK AN ANCIENT CODE Here is a link to a great BBC Magazine article about Alice Kober and her uncelebrated dedication to decoding Linear B. Check out Emily Hauser's insightful and balanced review of Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY in The Guardian, 15 July 2026 The book that Dr. Hauser suggests could be Christopher Nolan's main source on the "Sea Peoples" theory is this: Eric H. Cline's 1177 BC: THE YEAR CIVILIZATION COLLAPSED Here is a link to the article Vanessa references about the camera not being unbiased: Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema", written in 1973 and published in 1975 in SCREEN magazine. And just to be fair, here is a link to the Britannica entry on Michael Ventris, the man who announced on BBC radio in June 1952 that he'd deciphered Linear B. Ventris is not a villain, of course, but you'll notice there is no mention of Alice Kober. Anyone looking up Ventris today in Britannica would think he just started from scratch on this very complicated ancient language system. Kober's erasure continues.
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