10: Episode 10 - A Spot of Tea and Silk from the Sea

The Past and Stuff

In this episode’s Stuff in the News we talk about Eminem asking a certain GOP candidate not to use his music, and a five thousand year old dragon made of mussel shells that has just been discovered in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. Staying in China, Ashley’s Piece of Stuff this week, was actually five tiny pieces of stuff, tiny tea buds found in the tomb of the Jing Emperor, Liu Qi: the world’s oldest tea. Sticking with a mussels theme, Tracey discusses the history, mystery and miss-history of byssus - sea silk made from the beards of the pinna mussel.
Ashley’s Stuff in the News
Al-Jazeera, “Eminem Tells Republican Ramaswamy to Stop Using His Music in Campaign,” Al-Jazeera, August 29, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/29/eminem-tells-republican-ramaswamy-to-stop-using-his-music-in-campaign.
Tracey’s Stuff in the News
Lynn Halem, “Unearthing the Mussel Shell Dragon: A Pivotal Archaeological Discovery in Chifeng,” Beijing Times, August 24, 2023, accessed August 28 at https://beijingtimes.com/culture/heritage/2023/08/24/unearthing-the-mussel-shell-dragon-a-pivotal-archaeological-discovery-in-chifeng/
BT Business Team, “The Mussel Shell Dragon: Revealing the Secrets of the Hongshan Culture,” Beijing Times, August 24, 2023, accessed August 28 at https://beijingtimes.com/culture/art/2023/08/24/the-mussel-shell-dragon-revealing-the-secrets-of-the-hongshan-culture/
Mark Milligan, “Neolithic Shell Dragon Discovered in Inner Mongolia,” Heritage Daily, August 24, 2023, accessed August 28 at https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/08/neolithic-shell-dragon-discovered-in-inner-mongolia/148395
Ashley’s Piece of Stuff
David Keys, “Archaeologists Discover World's Oldest Tea Buried with Ancient Chinese Emperor,” The Independent, January 10, 2016, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/archaeologists-discover-world-s-oldest-tea-buried-with-ancient-chinese-emperor-a6805171.html.
Jeremy Cherfas, “World's Oldest Tea Discovered in an Ancient Chinese Emperor's Tomb,” NPR, January 26, 2016, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/26/464437173/worlds-oldest-tea-discovered-in-an-ancient-chinese-emperors-tomb.
Archaeological Institute of America, “Oldest Tea Discovered in China,” Archaeology Magazine, January 12, 2016, https://www.archaeology.org/news/4067-160112-han-dynasty-china-tea.
Danny Lewis, “Archaeologists Find World’s Oldest Tea in the Tomb of a Han Dynasty Emperor,” Smithsonian Magazine, January 12, 2016, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-find-worlds-oldest-tea-tomb-han-dynasty-emperor-180957790/.
Maria Godoy, “How Tea + Sugar Reshaped The British Empire,” NPR, April 7, 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/07/396664685/tea-tuesdays-how-tea-sugar-reshaped-the-british-empire.
Smith, Woodruff D. “Complications of the Commonplace: Tea, Sugar, and Imperialism.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 23, no. 2 (1992): 259–78.
Benn, James A. Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2015.
“Han Dynasty,” Encyclopedia Britannica, updated July 7, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Han-dynasty/Cultural-achievements-of-the-Han-dynasty.
Lu, H., Zhang, J., Yang, Y. et al. “Earliest Tea as Evidence for One Branch of the Silk Road Across the Tibetan Plateau.” Scientific Reports 6, no. 18955 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep18955.
"Jingdi," Encyclopedia Britannica, February 11, 2016, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jingdi.
Tracey’s Piece of Stuff
Max Paradisco, “Chiara Vigo: The Last Woman Who makes Sea Silk,” BBC News, September 2, 2015, accessed August 28, 2023 at https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33691781
Erin Blakemore, “The World’s Rarest Silk is made of Clam Spit,” Smithsonian Magazine, September 8, 2015 accessed August 28, 2023 at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-rarest-silk-made-clam-spit-180956516/
Daniel McKinley, “Pinna and her silken beard: a foray into historical misappropriation,” Ars Textrina: A Journal of Textiles and Costumes 29 (1998).
Muscelseide - Sea-silk Project - accessed August 28, 2023 https://muschelseide.ch/en/
Edward Posnett, Strange Harvests: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects (Viking, 2019), Chapter 4: Sea-Silk, pp.125-70.