Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Undisciplined: Monkeying With History

{{PD-US}}

For decades, researchers assumed the monkeys depicted on a 3,500-year-old painting in Greece were from Africa, just across the Mediterranean. But recently a team of experts looked at these animals and said – wait a second, that’s not right at all – and that’s forced a lot of other scientists to reconsider what they know about the Bronze Age.

Joining me to talk about this new mystery is Nikki Pareja. She is an archeologist and art historian, and the lead author of a new paper in the journal Primates, which doesn’t just rewrite the history of this mural, but also offers enticing new clues about trade in the Bronze Age.

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.