Ancient Cultures
Sound Sessions
Part of Jeff Place’s job as an archivist at Smithsonian’s Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is to field questions from around the world about music. And with his desk, nestled amidst original recordings of songs and interviews with some of the biggest names in music, he is well-prep...
December 03, 2007 |
By Megan Gambino
Romancing the Stone
An Egyptologist explains the Rosetta stone's lasting allure
November 05, 2007 |
By Beth Py-Lieberman
Symbolically Speaking
A Q&A with hieroglyphs expert Janice Kamrin
November 05, 2007 |
By Jess Blumberg
Rebellious Son
Amenhotep III was succeeded by one of the first known monotheists
November 2007 |
By Andrew Lawler
Tongue Tied
Some 200 Native American languages are dying out and with them valuable history
October 31, 2007 |
By Robin T. Reid
Unearthing Egypt's Greatest Temple
Discovering the grandeur of the monument built 3,400 years ago
October 2007 |
By Andrew Lawler
Down to Earth
Anthropologist Amber VanDerwarker is unraveling the mysteries of the ancient Olmec by figuring out what they ate
October 2007 |
By Andrew Lawler
Monumental Shift
Tackling an ages-old puzzle, a French architect offers a new theory on how the Egyptians built the Great Pyramid at Giza
August 01, 2007 |
By Diana Parsell
Snapshot: Tikal
A virtual vacation to Tikal National Park in Guatemala
July 01, 2007 |
By Maggie Frank
Reconstructing Petra
Two thousand years ago, it was the capital of a powerful trading empire. Now archaeologists are piecing together a more complete picture of Jordan's compelling rock city
June 2007 |
By Andrew Lawler
Return of the Sun Cult
In Peru, scientists discover the oldest solar observatory in the Americas
May 01, 2007 |
By Eric Jaffe
Saving Machu Picchu
Will the opening of a bridge give new life to the surrounding community or further encroach upon the World Heritage Site?
May 01, 2007 |
By Whitney Dangerfield
Raising Alexandria
More than 2,000 years after Alexander the Great founded Alexandria, archaeologists are discovering its fabled remains
April 2007 |
By Andrew Lawler
The Mystery of Easter Island
New findings rekindle old debates about when the first people arrived and why their civilization collapsed
April 01, 2007 |
By Whitney Dangerfield
Who Was Cleopatra?
Mythology, propaganda, Liz Taylor and the real Queen of the Nile
April 01, 2007 |
By Amy Crawford
Reading Between the Lines
Scientists with high-tech tools are deciphering lost writings of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes
March 2007 |
By Mary K. Miller
The Queen Who Would Be King
A scheming stepmother or a strong and effective ruler? History's view of the pharaoh Hatshepsut changed over time
September 2006 |
By Elizabeth B. Wilson


