The Great American Cultural Eclipse
Viewers in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which was briefly renamed “Eclipseville” for the eclipse. Photo courtesy Nicole Erwin, WKMS. Total solar eclipses are magnificent, dramatic visual colli…
Tag: Science
No ‘lost tribes’ or aliens: what ancient DNA reveals about American prehistory
New genetics research settles questions about the peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador – and helps highlight what genetics can’t tell us Genetics research has transformed our understanding of…
No ‘lost tribes’ or aliens: what ancient DNA reveals about American prehistory
New genetics research settles questions about the peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador – and helps highlight what genetics can’t tell us Genetics research has transformed our understanding of…
The climate has changed before. But this is different – look at the archeological record
A major new report states unequivocally that humans are changing the planet. Archaeology puts those changes into context – and explains why action is crucial The United States…
The climate has changed before. But this is different – look at the archeological record
A major new report states unequivocally that humans are changing the planet. Archaeology puts those changes into context – and explains why action is crucial The United States…
Can We “See” Climate Change?
While standing on the Senate floor in Washington, D.C., in February 2015, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma expressed his deep skepticism about climate change. “We keep hearing…
The Paranoid Style of Climate Change Denial
How Conspiracy-driven theories help the Trump administration reject science. After the unprecedented flooding in Houston due to Hurricane Harvey, Michael Mann, a leading scientific voice on climate ch…
How ancient lentils reveal the origins of social inequality
Lentils might not sound like a spectacular archaeological find but at the prehistoric site of Gurga Chiya in Iraqi Kurdistan they hold the clues to social transformation I…
How ancient lentils reveal the origins of social inequality
Lentils might not sound like a spectacular archaeological find but at the prehistoric site of Gurga Chiya in Iraqi Kurdistan they hold the clues to social transformation Related:…
What mysteries could be unlocked by new Antikythera shipwreck finds?
Excavation has revealed fragments of bronze sculpture and raises the possibility of several buried statues in the area. So what do these discoveries tell us? The shipwreck at…
What mysteries could be unlocked by new Antikythera shipwreck finds?
Excavation has revealed fragments of bronze sculpture and raises the possibility of several buried statues in the area. So what do these discoveries tell us? The shipwreck at…
Archaeology and blockchain: a social science data revolution?
Blockchain technology is revolutionising financial systems. Could it do the same for archaeological data? This month the world’s first “archaeology coin” launched to fanfare from a small community;…
How the female Viking warrior was written out of history
What Bj 581, the ‘female Viking warrior’ tells us about assumed gender roles in archaeological inquiry In the 1880s Scandinavian archaeologists unearthed a grave containing all the implements…
The secret about human evolution found in spit
Genetic detectives discover surprising findings about our evolution by studying saliva What does a protein in our spit called MUC7 that all of us have – but most…
Castle of the Sealand kings: Discovering ancient Iraq’s rebel rulers
British and Iraqi archaeologists identify the first known settlement built under the enigmatic Sealand kings The Kings of the Sealand sound like they come straight out of a…
Why the Famous Folsom Point Isn’t a Smoking Gun
Remember the iconic Folsom point? The one that I said, in my last post, changed the future of archaeology? To recap: On August 29, 1927, paleontologists from the…
The Church of the Solar Eclipse
Extreme eclipse chasers travel the world roughly every 18 months to witness a total solar eclipse from inside the path of totality. Murray Anderson-Clemence/Getty Images Glenn Schneider r…
‘Rivers of bones’: rituals of life, death and hunting in the American west
Communal bison hunts were used by Native Americans for upwards of 11,000 years on the great plains to procure meat and other goods for the winter It’s still…
If Mary Beard is right, what’s happened to the DNA of Africans from Roman Britain?
There are many reasons why a genetic legacy might not be seen in contemporary populations – Mary Beard was right to defend the BBC’s cartoon If you have…
How the Folsom Point Became an Archaeological Icon
The Folsom spear point, which was excavated in 1927 near the small town of Folsom, New Mexico, is one of the most famous artifacts in North American archaeology,…
Did human women contribute to Neanderthal genomes over 200,000 years ago?
A new Neanderthal mitochondrial genome supports a remarkable hypothesis – that there was interbreeding with an extremely early migration of African hominins Keeping pace with new developments in…
Conversations and Podcasting as Social Technology
This episode is a little different from our normal content. In it we feature a presentation Adam gave for Pivotal Labs in which he explores This Anthro Life’s (and…
Consecrating Science: new book on science, myth, and the Anthropocene by Lisa Sideris
A title soon to be released that is worth adding to your “to read” list from Lisa Sideris, published by University of California Press. A bit of a…