Archaeology
- Archaeology
Farming sprouted in ancient Ecuador
Analyses of microscopic plant remains from two archaeological sites indicate that people began to grow squash in Ecuador's lowlands between 10,000 and 9,000 years ago, when agriculture was also taking root in Mexico.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Old legend dies hard
People who first entered King Tutankhamen's tomb did not suffer from a legendary curse but instead lived long lives.
- Archaeology
Neandertals’ diet put meat in their bones
Chemical analyses of Neandertals' bones portray these ancient Europeans as skillful hunters and avid meat eaters, countering a theory that they mainly scavenged scraps of meat from abandoned carcasses.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Digging into Ancient Texts
For both scholars and amateur archaeologists, the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative Web site offers fascinating glimpses of a distant past. Visitors can view images of thousands of carefully catalogued cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia. The texts include early creation myths, legal codes, medical prescriptions, and recipes for beer. Many are more mundane–ledgers, deeds, receipts, and lists […]
By Science News - Archaeology
Ancient origins of fire use
Human ancestors may have learned to control fire 1.7 million years ago in eastern Africa.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Guard dogs and horse riders
More than 5,000 years ago, the Botai people of central Asia had ritual practices that appeared in many later cultures.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Maya warfare takes 10 steps forward
The discovery of hieroglyphic-covered steps on the side of a Maya pyramid has yielded new information about warfare between two competing city-states around 1,500 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Early New World Settlers Rise in East
New evidence supports the view that people occupied a site in coastal Virginia at least 15,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Visit Ancient Corinth
Hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, this elaborate, regularly updated Web site features historical, literary, and archaeological information about the ancient Roman colony of Corinth in Greece. Browser plug-ins allow you to fly through the city, traverse digital maps, and view three-dimensional models of various structures. Go to: http://corinth.sas.upenn.edu
By Science News - Archaeology
Could the Anasazi have stayed?
New computer simulations of the changing environmental conditions around one of the Anasazi cultural centers in the first part of the last millennium suggest that drought wasn't the only factor behind a sudden collapse of the civilization.
By Sid Perkins - Archaeology
Ancient Asian Tools Crossed the Line
Excavations in China yield surprising finds of 800,000-year-old stone hand axes.
By Bruce Bower - Archaeology
Vase shows that ancients dug fossils, too
A painting on an ancient Corinthian vase may be the first record of a fossil find.