What Google Maps Don’t Show You
When I was a boy, my father and I used to plan road trips together. We would go to our local American Automobile Association (AAA) office and get…
Tag: Archaeology
The Skeletons in the Museum Closet
Museums are full of wonderful things. From the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian Institution’s natural history museum to the Folsom point at the Denver Museum of Nature &…
From Crystal Skulls to the Caste War
Intersections of Tourism, Archaeology and Heritage in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico Figure 1. Tourists admire the “El Castillo” pyramid at the site of Chichen Itza in Yucatán,…
Celebrate International Archaeology Day!
Celebrate this year’s International Archaeology Day with the officers and members of our Archaeology Division (AD)! “How do I love archaeology, let me count the ways… One of those…
How Men Stole Civilization
Museum objects such as this painting—Frieze of Dancers, by Edgar Degas—are often impressive and beautiful. But what do they tell us about the cultures that created them? Andrew…
The Mastodon in the Room
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Humans may have been in North America much earlier than previously thought. Here’s the evidence: chipped rocks, crushed mastodon bones, and reliable da…
How Do We Know Which Historical Accounts Are True?
It all started with a stray goat. On an otherwise nondescript day in the spring of 1947, a young Bedouin boy searched for a goat that had strayed…
Ritual Sacrifice May Have Shaped Dog Domestication
[no-caption] Marc Lester/Getty Images In the Siberian Arctic, the Ob River flows lazily across vast, cold stretches of tundra. In the city of Salekhard, Russia, where it meets…
How an Archaeological Experiment Revealed California’s Ancient Past
San Nicolas Island, the most remote and one of the smallest of California’s Channel Islands, is more than 60 miles from the mainland. The seas around the island…
As Seas Rise, Ancient Footprints Are Revealed
Archaeologists are uncovering footprints on beaches from Canada to South Africa. The oldest human footprints, one of which is shown here, were found in Tanzania and date back…
Why Are Some Caves Full of Shoes?
I’ve spent a good chunk of my life hiking the U.S. Southwest, and I’ve kicked my share of sharp rocks and prickly cactuses as I’ve walked across hot…
How Cutting-Edge Archaeology Can Improve Public Health
[no-caption] Megan Brickley Twenty years ago, I held in my hands the leg bones of a 2-year-old child who had died in Birmingham in the early 1800s. They…
The turbulent life of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
Launched in 1932 the school has spent almost a century uncovering Iraq’s ancient treasures, including the spectacular Assyrian capital at Nimrud On a dark November day in 1929,…
The turbulent life of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
Launched in 1932 the school has spent almost a century uncovering Iraq’s ancient treasures, including the spectacular Assyrian capital at Nimrud On a dark November day in 1929,…
Following a New Trail of Crumbs to Agriculture’s Origins
The world’s oldest bread crumbs found to date were excavated from the stone-lined fireplace in the center of this photo. Alexis Pantos It’s mid-August in 2013, and we…
The Myth of Racial Purity in Roman Britain
This model at the Museum of London depicts the first bridge over the River Thames, which was built by the Romans in the first century. Steven G. Johnson/Wikimedia…
An Homage to Teotihuacan
Gabriel Vistrain Andrade travels through time at his shop near the ruins of Teotihuacan. Dominic Bracco II The ruins of Teotihuacan, just outside Mexico City, are Mexico’s most…
Why the Present Matters: The Importance of Community Outreach and Public Engagement in Archaeology
The authors with [Reef Radio TV Productions] host, Eiden Salazar and Camera Tech, Kainie Manuel, after being interviewed on the Good Morning San Pedro Show. Courtesy of Tracie…
The Race to Recover South America’s Ancient Past
Archaeologist Kurt Rademaker feared his field season was over before it had even begun. It was July 2017, and he was scanning Quebrada Jaguay, a desert site on…
Lessons on Social Difference from an Ancient Maya City | Ryan Collins | TEDxBrandeisUniversity – This Anthro Life
Hey Listeners, we wanted to share some news. As you have probably noticed, TAL has been slow to post as of late. Both Ryan and Adam have finished…
How Volcanoes Destroy and Nurture Societies
The explosion must have been deafening. Clouds of black and gray likely erased the horizon as the earth and sky thundered violently. As smoldering debris rained down on…
A Radical New Theory About the Origins of Art
Co-author Paul Pettitt inspects ancient paintings on a wall in Spain’s El Castillo Cave. Becky Harrison/Gobierno de Cantabria This article was originally published at The Conversation and…
Public Anthropology and negotiating what that means on TV.
A few years ago, I wrote a piece on making archaeology popular in which I recounted the ways in which archaeology became part of public discourse through television media, and…
What Clam Thermometers Tell Us About Past Climates
It’s mid-August, 2017, but the temperature in Unalaska, one of the Aleutian Islands that trails off of the western Alaskan coast, is a brisk 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Christine…