Women at the Hearth and on the Hunt
In an artistic rendition of an ancient scene in the Andes, a focused huntress with a spear thrower and a spear in hand hunts her prey. Matthew Verdolivo…
Tag: Archaeology
“For the Welfare of the Whole People”: Heritage Stewardship in Indigenous and Black Communities
Local descendant communities and Indigenous nations continue to be at the center of heritage preservation efforts. While their methods are not always recognized by academic or governmental organizatio…
SAR Press Conversations: What Do Ancient Empires Teach Us about the Modern World?
Empires have profoundly shaped societies around the world for thousands of years. Yet scholarship often portrays imperialism as the result…
Did Processed Foods Make Us Human?
Anthropologist Bill Schindler uses techniques developed thousands of years ago to prepare fresh-caught salmon during the filming of National Geographic’s The Great Human Race. Luke Cormack …
The Evolution of Comfort Food
The winter holiday season will feel different this year for many: Extended families may not be able to gather, leaving holiday meals shared with smaller groups, or digitally,…
Archaeology Worlds, Art Worlds
Archaeologists move from avoiding talking about art to engaging in the critical practice of art. Despite the many books on the subject of archaeology and art, a reader…
What Human Hair Reveals About Death’s Seasonality
A lock of hair from Edith Cook, a girl who died in 1876, offers a window into her death. Jelmer Eerkens Each wave of Edith Howard Cook’s reddish-blonde…
Ancient Beer Is Craft’s New Frontier
Ancient artwork, such as this relief in the Israel Beer Breweries museum in Ashkelon, Israel, offers clues to past beer production. Alamy One morning in May 2019, a…
Climate Change May Have Been a Major Driver of Ancient Hominin Extinctions
New research suggests some of our species’ closest relatives died out because of significant changes in climate, findings that may offer a warning for humanity today. Aliraza Khatri/Getty…
Spelling a Nation’s Name
Ruined buildings serve as reminders of the lives lost and displaced by the Kosovo War more than two decades ago. Erina Baci I’ve been rewriting a grant application…
SAR Press Top Reads: Politics and Power
When life seems to be changing day by day, if not hour by hour, we look to sources of information that we have come to know and trust.…
Black and Indigenous Storytelling as Counter-History
For untold centuries, storytelling has been foundational to the ways Black and Indigenous people understand and connect to the world around them. However, knowledge systems upheld in academic…
A Journey of Interspecies Surprises
[no-caption] Karen Carr/National Park Service This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been repub lished under Creative Commons. Every parent knows the feeling….
When at Home, Bake as the Romans Baked
[no-caption] Angus Greig SAPIENS host Chip Colwell talks with experimental archaeologist Farrell Monaco about her work re-creating ancient Roman bread and what it means to reconnect with …
An Archaeology of Marijuana
In June, the recreational and medical marijuana industry in my home state of Colorado reached US$199 million in monthly sales, a new record. The growth of this industry…
Early Humans Controlled Fire to Make Stone Tools
Researchers found these ancient flint blades in Israel’s Qesem Cave. Filipe Natalio Humanity’s creation and mastery of fire likely came in stages. Being able to reliably kindle this…
An Archaeology of Redress and Restorative Justice
Archaeologists and heritage professionals whose work overlays histories of colonialism, exploitation, collective violence, and genocide are increasingly aware that they cannot simply take refuge in pr…
From the Margins to the Mainstream: Black and Indigenous Futures in Archaeology
Widespread protests against police violence and anti-Black racism have recently swept the globe. In the wake of protests in May and June, specifically, many citizens and communities looked…
Imagining the Neanderthal’s World
[no-caption] Denis Pobytov Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. Bloomsbury Sigma, August (U.K.) & October (U.S.) 2020. Archaeology and genomics k…
Tapping Into Ancient Soundscapes
Remnants of sound-producing implements, like this ivory trumpet from Mozambique, reveal important clues about music and sound in ancient Southern Africa. University of Pretoria Museums …
Wildfire Archaeology and the Burning American West
As I type, the American West is ablaze with more than 100 devastating wildfires. Many of these are record-setting in both size and intensity. Several, including one in…
SAR Welcomes 2020–2021 Resident Scholars
This week SAR welcomes a new cohort of resident scholars. For over forty years, SAR has awarded nine-month fellowships to a small group of …
Reclaiming the Ancestors: Indigenous and Black Perspectives on Repatriation, Human Rights, and Justice
Over the last several centuries, Indigenous, Black, and other colonized peoples’ remains have been turned into objects of study for archaeologists, anthropologists, and other scientists. This ca…
Saving Ifugao Weaving in the Philippines
Paulette Crespillo-Cuison, president of the Kiyyangan Weavers Association, demonstrates weaving to the next generation. Marlon Martin One cloudy July afternoon in 2019, a group of arch…