Elizabeth Tarulis

Photo of a man in a suit holding an award, and a woman with brown hair, slacks, and a floral dress shirt. They are standing in the center of the frame between floral pillars, with another person at a podium to the right.

Honored to have been recognized by UTK for extraordinary teaching! This is bittersweet, since I won't be teaching next year, but I look forward to ending the year with some of my favorite topics — tobacco and colonialism, then Moundbuilders and Pseudoarch Bingo next week!

📸 Britt Cole Photography

Hassan Yarmohammadi, Behnam Dalfardi, Alireza Mehdizadeh, and Sina Haghighat have a great summary on Al-Akhawayani in the 2013 European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Healthcare if you want to learn more!

He wrote about several methods of birth control. One of these methods advocated for using a sheath made from an animal's gallbladder to cover the penis during intercourse "and then fix this sheath to the penis, so after ejaculation, the semen pours into this bag, not into the womb."

Gabriele Fallopio allegedly had 1100 men test a linen sheath soaked in medical herbs as a barrier against syphilis, but he was not the first writer to advocate something similar to a condom! Even earlier is Al-Akhawayni Bukhari, a 10th c Persian physician who wrote the Hidayat, a medical text...

Continuing to work on research into early condom use in the Americas, and early medicine is absolutely fascinating. While a lot of medical history looks at the things that *don't* work, it is incredible to see when folks figured out what does work. A lot of times, things that work don't catch on...

A blue Clif bar, a fruit jerky snack, and a lunchable sitting on grass

When you're only in the field for a long weekend and don't want to buy your usual food...

First fieldwork of 2025 starts tomorrow!

There has been a lot going on recently, but I am reading through my students' midterms and I am genuinely so proud of how much they've learned this semester. Have to embrace the small wins right now

I am working with students to continue rehousing the legacy materials and catalog artifacts from the 2024 field season. I hope we can contribute useful knowledge of what was used at the site to help with the recovery process.

Get updates on the recovery at the Overfield Tavern's Facebook page.

Folks here may already know that the Overfield Tavern Museum experienced a fire on December 7. Museum personnel and volunteers have been working hard to assess the damage and make a plan for recovery.

Fortunately, the archaeological materials were stored off-site at UTK at the time of the fire 1/2

"Denbo Fellowship 2025-2026" in white text on an orange background, surrounding 12 boxes that each depict a different individual.

Thrilled to have been chosen as a 2025-2026 Graduate Fellow at the Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts!

(correction: linen sheath)

This work is ongoing, but I will continue to post here as results become available! #archaeology #experimentalarchaeology #zooms #zooarchaeology #historicalarchaeology #medicalhistory

devices in colonial North America. We are also trying to understand how the manufacturing and processing of artifacts might affect analytical methods like ZooMS. To that end, we made a sheepskin condom and took ZooMS samples at each manufacturing stage. 6/

We are continuing this work with funding from the Gloria King Fellowship and the EXARC Award. The original condom artifact we analyzed is from the mid-18th century, before the use of condoms was documented as widespread in North America. We want to better understand the early use of these... 5/

the 16th century priest and anatomist Gabriele Fallopio (of fallopian tube fame) suggested a lineman sheath soaked in medications to prevent the spread of diseases. Later, shops specialized in bespoke and reusable condoms made from caecums that could be cut to size. 4/

We found out that the artifact was made from a sheep! Specifically, it appears to be a caecum, a pouch along the intestine that is naturally sealed on one side. Sheep happen to have the perfect sized caecum for making condoms. It's unclear when condoms were first used, but... 3/

My colleagues, Brigid Ogden and Taylor Bowden-Gray, and I reached out to the MAC lab to suggest using ZooMS to ID what this mystery artifact was made with. ZooMS looks at the ratios of collagen peptides in skin, bone, or intestinal artifacts to determine the species of animal they came from 2/

Is This America’s Oldest Condom? “In terms of its dimensions, it’s clearly the right shape and everything,” Sara Rivers-Cofield told mental_floss.

I haven't spoken much about research projects on here, but one that is wrapping up looks at the use of prophylactic devices in North America, specifically condoms. Here is the article that inspired this project:
www.mentalfloss.com/article/9138...

Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores. An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community.

On a brighter note, bookshop.org is now offering ebooks! So excited to check out this app

@bookshop-org.bsky.social

I have been considering the ramifications of this all day. As a grad student, most of us are already underpaid. We cannot afford a "pause" on the funding lines that come partially or entirely from federal grants.

A black and white chicken stands partially obscured in a rosemary bush

Finally warm and well enough to get some yard work done. Trimmed back the rosemary A BUNCH to dehydrate and make room for other plants later this spring.

A new way to see what was for dinner 3 million years ago Analyzing the chemistry of some ancient teeth has revealed what human ancestors were eating around 3 million years ago.

Analyzing the chemistry of some ancient teeth has revealed what human ancestors were eating around 3 million years ago.

I love seeing everybody's work at #SHA2025 so far. I gave a talk Thursday morning and have been able to bounce around to different papers and posters since. Some highlights so far include "From Turtle Soup to Turtle Ecology" and "The Lost Beads of the Lost Colony."

I will be at #SHA2025 later this week. Still recovering from surgery, but I would love to see folks! Who all is going?

Historical Overfield Tavern Museum in Troy ‘gutted’ after early morning fire “We have a severe fire at the museum. This is a tragedy for our community and for Ohio history.”

Heartbreaking news out of Troy, Ohio today:

www.whio.com/news/local/c...

I love going to Great Falls for a walk, and there is an excellent bar that just sells beer, tater tots, and many varieties of grilled cheese nearby (~25 min away) called the Spacebar. They've got Ms. Pacman in the back. One of my favorite ways to spend a day in that area.

You are telling me that you are calling someone who is likely facing bills and figuring out how to deal with them, and who may not be in a state to answer questions or see through you, and taking advantage of it? Deliberately? I got four of these calls before the nurses disconnected the phone.

I am recovering from a surgery (I am fine, it's routine) and the wildest thing is that scammers GOT THE PHONE NUMBER TO THE HOSPITAL BED and are repeatedly calling offering to pay all my bills through a "gov subsidy" if I just "answer some questions" and this is so slimy and manipulative I hate it.

A white lab mix named Samwise sits on a dog bed in front of a gas fireplace. The fireplace sits in a tiled wall with a wooden mantle.

Samwise, loyal friend and true hero of our household, loves the chilly weather and cozy fire