Archaeology

More Stories in Archaeology

  1. stone with microscopic bone residue
    Archaeology

    Two stones fuel debate over when America’s first settlers arrived

    Stones possibly used to break mastodon bones 130,000 years ago in what is now California get fresh scrutiny.

    By Bruce Bower
  2. dugout canoe crafted using axes modeled off of Japanese artifacts
    Humans

    Ancient humans may have deliberately voyaged to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands

    Satellite-tracked buoys suggest that long ago, a remote Japanese archipelago was reached by explorers on purpose, not accidentally.

    By Charles Choi
  3. David and Goliath illustration
    Archaeology

    The biblical warrior Goliath may not have been so giant after all

    Archaeological finds suggest the width of the walls of Goliath’s home city were used to metaphorically represent the Old Testament figure’s height.

    By Bruce Bower
  4. an illustration of a woman throwing a spear
    Anthropology

    Female big-game hunters may have been surprisingly common in the ancient Americas

    A Peruvian burial that indicates that women speared large prey as early as 9,000 years ago sheds new light on gender roles of ancient hunter-gatherers.

    By Bruce Bower
  5. preserved nerve cells
    Anthropology

    These human nerve cell tendrils turned to glass nearly 2,000 years ago

    Part of a young man’s brain was preserved in A.D. 79 by hot ash from Mount Vesuvius’ eruption.

    By Laura Sanders
  6. Mummified llama head from Inca sacrifices
    Anthropology

    Mummified llamas yield new insights into Inca ritual sacrifices

    Bound and decorated llamas, found at an Inca site in southern Peru, may have been buried alive as part of events in annexed territories.

    By Bruce Bower
  7. workers standing at a drilling site in Kenya's Koora basin
    Anthropology

    How environmental changes may have helped make ancient humans more adaptable

    An East African sediment core unveils ecological changes underlying a key Stone Age transition.

    By Bruce Bower
  8. bones from ancient Iberian massacre
    Archaeology

    Bones from an Iron Age massacre paint a violent picture of prehistoric Europe

    Bones left unburied, and in one case still wearing jewelry, after a massacre add to evidence that prehistoric Europe was a violent place.

    By Curtis Segarra
  9. drone view of pasture in Kansas
    Humans

    Drones find signs of a Native American ‘Great Settlement’ beneath a Kansas pasture

    An earthwork buried under a cattle ranch may be part of one of the largest Native American settlements ever established north of Mexico.

    By Bruce Bower