Archaeology
- Archaeology
Cuneiform Tablets
This Web exhibit from the Library of Congress displays 38 ancient clay tablets and other artifacts that feature the ancient form of writing known as cuneiform. The items include various accounting records (receipts and bills of sale) and school exercises. Go to: http://international.loc.gov/intldl/cuneihtml/
- Archaeology
Ancient Mariners: Caves harbor view of early Egyptian sailors
Archaeologists working near the Red Sea have discovered remains of an Egyptian port that emerged around 4,000 years ago, including two caves used by mariners for storage and for religious ceremonies.
- Archaeology
Pottery points to ‘mother culture’
The Olmec, a society that more than 3,000 years ago inhabited what is now Mexico's Gulf Coast, acted as a mother culture for communities located hundreds of miles away, according to a chemical analysis of pottery remains and local clays from ancient population sites in the area.
- Archaeology
In the Buff: Stone Age tools may have derived luster from diamond
Ancient Chinese people may have used diamonds to polish their stone axes to mirrorlike finishes.
- Archaeology
Chaco’s Past
Explore the intersection of modern science and ancient cultures at a Web site about New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, launched by the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The site includes a look at connections between celestial alignments of prehistoric buildings in the canyon and recent solar research. It also contains a teacher’s guide to classroom activities for […]
- Archaeology
China’s Fermented Past: Pottery yields signs of oldest known wine
Analyses of ancient pottery have yielded evidence the people living in northern China 9,000 years ago concocted a fermented, winelike drink from rice, honey, and fruit.
- Archaeology
Pompeii’s burial not its first disaster
Recent excavations reveal that the city of Pompeii, famed for its burial by an eruption of Italy's Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79, experienced several devastating landslides in the centuries preceding its demise.
- Archaeology
Original Microbrews
Pots, vats, and other artifacts unearthed on three continents are giving archaeologists new clues about ancient cultures' beer-brewing practices.
- Archaeology
Seeds of agriculture move back in time
Excavations in Israel indicate that people began to eat large quantities of wild grass seeds and wild cereal grains by around 23,000 years ago, which pushes back by 10,000 years the estimated shift to a plant-rich diet.
- Archaeology
Mexican murals store magnetic data
Tiny magnetic particles in the pigments of some Mexican murals recorded the direction of Earth's magnetic field when the paint dried.
- Archaeology
Rat DNA points to Pacific migrations
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA from Pacific rats supports a theory that ancestors of today's Polynesians migrated from Southeast Asia to a string of South Pacific islands in at least two separate dispersals.
- Archaeology
Massive Fishery Resurfaces in Amazon
Native groups in an Amazonian region of Bolivia built a large-scale fishery and other earthworks at least 300 years ago, before the Spanish conquest.
