Archaeology
Extinct Bird Key to Dating Australia’s Oldest Cave Art
When humans first set foot on Australia’s northern shores, a bird three times the height of an emu, would have been on their menu
June 02, 2010 |
By Brendan Borrell
Home Away From Rome
Excavations of villas where Roman emperors escaped the office are giving archaeologists new insights into the imperial way of life
June 2010 |
By Paul Bennett
Humans and Neanderthals Interbred
It's one of the great questions of human evolution: Did Homo sapiens interbreed with Homo neanderthalensis? The two species had many similarities: they lived in caves, used similar types of tools and hunted the same prey. And they lived in the same place for long periods of time, most notably in Eu...
May 07, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Bureaucracy Is Good?
Bureaucrat is a dirty word to some people in modern society, so how can a bureaucracy be a good thing? Charles S. Spencer, an anthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History, argues this week in PNAS that bureaucracy was essential to the growth and expansion of the first states that formed...
April 21, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Smithsonian's Amazing Natural History Collections
Last week I got to look behind the scenes of the entomology collection at the National Museum of Natural History. I learned how the collection of insects and spiders, one of the world's largest, is used by Smithsonian and Department of Agriculture scientists to help port inspectors identify potenti...
April 12, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Newest Member of the Human Family Tree
Poor Rick Potts. He just put the finishing touches on the National Museum of Natural History's new Hall of Human Origins a few weeks ago, and it's already out of date. Now there's a new branch on the human family tree—Australopithecus sediba—and we can thank a 9-year-old kid for its discovery.Throu...
April 08, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Ireland's Forgotten Sons Recovered Two Centuries Later
In Pennsylvania, amateur archaeologists unearth a mass grave of immigrant railroad workers who disappeared in 1832
April 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
Changing Climate May Have Led to Angkor's Downfall
From the 9th to the 13th centuries, Angkor was the center of the Khmer Empire and the largest city in the world. Roads and canals connected the sprawling complex, which included hundreds of temples. But it didn't last.Today, two million people each year visit the site in Cambodia, though much of it...
March 30, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Human Family's Earliest Ancestors
Studies of hominid fossils, like 4.4-million-year-old "Ardi," are changing ideas about human origins
March 2010 |
By Ann Gibbons
The Skeletons of Shanidar Cave
A rare cache of hominid fossils from the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq offers a window on Neanderthal culture
March 2010 |
By Owen Edwards
Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx
After decades of research, American archaeologist Mark Lehner has some answers about the mysteries of the Egyptian colossus
February 2010 |
By Evan Hadingham
Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Resolving the dispute over authorship of the ancient manuscripts could have far-reaching implications for Christianity and Judaism
January 2010 |
By Andrew Lawler
The Mystery of Bosnia's Ancient Pyramids
An amateur archaeologist says he's discovered the world's oldest pyramids in the Balkans. But many experts remain dubious
December 2009 |
By Colin Woodard
Heart Disease Found in Ancient Egyptian Mummies
Heart disease may appear to be a recent problem, brought on by the processed foods and sedentary lifestyles of modern living, but it's been plaguing humanity since ancient times, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.A team of scientists from the United States ...
November 18, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Nan Madol: The City Built on Coral Reefs
One of the oldest archaeological sites not on a heritage list, this Pacific state, like Easter Island, is an engineering marvel
November 03, 2009 |
By Christopher Pala
Looting Mali's History
As demand for its antiquities soars, the West African country is losing its most prized artifacts to illegal sellers and smugglers
November 2009 |
By Joshua Hammer
Trekking Hadrian's Wall
A hike through Britain's second-century Roman past leads to spectacular views, idyllic villages and local brews
October 2009 |
By Andrew Curry
Picture of the Week—Ancient Altinum
Before Venice, there was Altinum. During its heydey in the first century A.D., Altinum was a great Roman coastal city, home to as many as 20,000 people, where traders would come to do business from across the Mediterranean. But in the fifth to seventh centuries, the people left Altinum, driven by ...
August 21, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Finding King Herod's Tomb
After a 35-year search, an Israeli archaeologist is certain he has solved the mystery of the biblical figure’s final resting place
August 2009 |
By Barbara Kreiger
Marshmallows and a Successful Life
Back in the 1960s, Walter Mischel, a psychology professor at Stanford, conducted an experiment called the "marshmallow test" on a group of four-year-olds. A child was given a marshmallow and told he could either ring a bell to summon the researcher and get to eat the marshmallow right away or wait...
August 11, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
