Sutton Hoo’s Story Goes Deeper Than The Dig
The Sutton Hoo archaeological site revealed a treasure trove of Anglo-Saxon artifacts, including this iron helmet featuring a flying bird with dragon heads. Gary Todd/Flickr I first saw…
Tag: history
Academic Fictions: Lettre à France
English Version Paris, le 22 Décembre 2020 Chère France, Comme tu[i] le sais, j’ai assisté, sur tes recommandations, au Congrès International des Capitales du monde. Je dois admettre…
Stop Destroying African American Cemeteries
A gravestone in the Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 Cemetery in Cabin John, Maryland. Craig G/Flickr In the late 19th century, a group of once-enslaved, free African Americans in…
How Imperialism Gave Us 2020
Violence and disease have long been intertwined in the Americas. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images The world is caught in the grip of a deadly pandemic and yet another wave…
Time to Rethink Teeth
Tooth enamel growth starts before birth and continues until adult teeth are fully formed. Ksenia Chernaya/Pexels Four years ago, I found myself cataloguing some dusty containers of about…
Unsettling the Past: Radically Reimagining Archaeological Knowledge
For decades, Black and Indigenous archaeologists have rightfully called for a radical reimagining of how archaeology interprets and understands the past. The formulation of archaeologies by, for, and…
What Did the Stone Age Sound Like?
Archaeologists Joshua Kumbani (left) and Sarah Wurz (right) work at a site near the Klasies River in South Africa. Joshua Kumbani On South Africa’s southern coast, above the…
The Silence before the Silent Spring: Narratives of Modernity and the Silences around the Toxicity of Pesticide Use
Pesticide-use and the control of pest populations with synthetic chemicals are a subset of the history of the “modernization” of agricultural practices. This narrative positions pesticides as an…
“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…
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…
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 …
Fiona Murphy: Irish State to seal records of Mother and Baby Homes for 30 years: Urgent call for action
Tiny bodies, the remains of little children entombed without name or mercy, are uncovered in Tuam, a small Irish town in Co. Galway in the west of Ireland,…
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…
The Green Woods of Resilience
Conservationist Madeleine Nyiratuza (center) walks through Rwanda’s Gishwati Forest with three eco-guards, who were charged with protecting the area. Courtesy of Madeleine Nyiratuza For a…
Comparing Comparisons: From the “Historikerstreit” to the Mbembe Affair
In the late 1980s, mostly German intellectuals discussed the question of the “uniqueness” or “comparability” of the Holocaust. In the Cause Mbembe, the fronts, the participants and the…
Like: Memetic Analogies in Social Media
Memes circulating on the net articulate simple comparisons with political intent, for example as an analogy between the USA today and “Weimar” back then, or between German and…
A Japanese Sea Spirit Battles COVID-19
Some public health messages in Japan use the image of Amabie, a three-legged folklore mermaid, to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare…
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…
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…
Why White Kids Need Hamilton More Than Ever
[no-caption] Travis Wise/Flickr Every morning when my son opens the dishwasher for his morning chores, his daily tribute to the Broadway musical Hamilton begins in song: “How does…
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…
Justine Buck Quijada on her book, Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/buddhists-shamans-and-soviets-9780190916794 Interview by Claudia Lahr Claudia Lahr: What makes the subject of time – be it linear or recursive – so important i…