Two Surgeries, 800 Years Apart
As an archaeologist, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what life was like in the past. I’ve also been injured a time or two, and I’ve wondered…
Tag: Archaeology
SAR Welcomes New 2020 Board Members: Perspectives from the Arts, Law, Academics, and Business Community
SAR Welcomes New 2020 Board Members: Perspectives from the Arts, Law, Academics, and Business Community …
Pandemic Bakers Bring the Past to Life
Experimental archaeologist Farrell Monaco re-creates the baking techniques of ancient Romans to produce classic breads such as the panis quadratus. Farrell Monaco Around 2000 B.C., a bake…
Indigenous Cultures Have Archaeology Too
A resident burns off vegetation to clear his garden plot on lands that previously were part of an ancient village called Popo. Chris Urwin In late 2015, I…
A New Way of Connecting: SAR Virtual Happy Hours
The SAR President’s Circle is a group of philanthropic individuals who give generously to support SAR’s mission and programs, helping to fo…
Archaeologists Respond to the Black Lives Matter Movement
Students work with archaeologist Alexandra Jones (center) on an excavation at the Estate Little Princess plantation in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Archaeology in the Community Amid th…
As the Statues Fall: A Conversation about Monuments and the Power of Memory
In the wake of global civil unrest following the brutal killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Atatiana Jefferson, Aura Rosser, Elijah McClain, and countless…
Were Women the True Artisans Behind Ancient Greek Ceramics?
This amphora comes from a period in ancient Greek history called the Early Iron Age. Zde/Wikimedia Commons Painted over the enormous midsection of the Dipylon amphora—a nearly 2,800-year-…
Mentors and Friends: SAR’s 2019–2020 Resident Scholars
Every year SAR welcomes a new cohort of resident scholars, who spend nine months studying, writing, and participating in the intellectual l…
Archaeologies of Empire
Buy this volume SERIESAdvanced Seminar » CATEGORIESAncient Americas »Archaeology »General Ant…
What Ancient Gender Fluidity Taught Me About Modern Patriarchy
Some figurines, like this one from the La Tolita-Tumaco culture, seem to blend gender characteristics from breasts to loincloths into a possible transgender or nonbinary figure. Museo Naciona…
Why the Whiteness of Archaeology Is a Problem
Most archaeological projects in the U.K. and U.S. are largely conducted by people of European descent. Wessex Archaeology/Flickr One hot, sunny day in the Sonoran Desert, I (William)…
Bearing Witness and Raising Awareness: A Conversation with Jason De León
Approximately 3,200 handwritten toe tags representing migrants who died crossing the Sonoran Desert between the mid-1990s and 2019. These t…
A Spark of Insight Into Neanderthal Behavior
In 2017, Naomi Martisius, now a postdoctoral researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, was sitting in a conference session when she had an…
Social Inequality in Times of Pandemics
We should not expect COVID-19 to behave in the same way as historical pandemics of plague. But both show how inequalities exacerbate mortality outcomes. It’s a gorgeous, warm…
Can Archaeology Dogs Smell Ancient Time?
Dax is a trained archaeology dog, seen here at work in southwest Montana. Lauri Travis On a sunny, cloudless afternoon in Croatia, a fierce wind known as a…
What Pandemics Leave Behind
[no-caption] Angus Greig At some time in the future, the novel coronavirus pandemic will fade. What will this globally traumatic contagion leave in its wake? In this episode…
Can Archaeology Explain the Bread Baking Craze?
[no-caption] Jutta M. Jenning/Flickr As coronavirus social distancing wears on, my social media feeds have changed. Travel photos, parties, and concerts have disappeared, replaced by phot…
Could the Coronavirus Pandemic Be Good for the Environment?
[no-caption] Angus Greig SAPIENS host Chip Colwell interviews Elic Weitzel, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Connecticut, about his recent article for SAPIENS tha…
Rethinking Easter Island’s Historic “Collapse”
A row of massive anthropomorphic statues on Easter Island. Henrykkcheung/Flickr Easter Island’s colossal statues loom large—both literally and figuratively—in the popular imagination. The…
Are Pandemics Good for the Environment?
Mountain goats roam the streets of Llandudno, in north Wales, in the absence of tourists. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have noted…
How Kings Created Angkor Wat—Then Lost It
The impressive temples at Angkor Wat make it famous—but there is much more to the site. Vincent Gerbouin/Pexels Over a thousand years ago, the ancient Khmer civilization emerged…
A Curator’s Search for Justice
In October of last year, I found myself with my family in the heart of a sacred forest of the Mijikenda people of Kenya. One of the elders…
The Enduring Mystery of the Human-Horse Story
Archaeologists unearth an ancient habitation site in Western Mongolia, seeking clues to the early history of domestic horses. William Taylor This article was originally published at The C…