Ancient Cultures: Americas
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Riddles of the Anasazi
Toward the end of the 13th century, something went terribly wrong among the Anasazi. What awful event forced the people to flee their homeland, never to return?
July 2003 |
By David Roberts
Winter Palace
The first major exhibition devoted to the Incas' fabled cold-weather retreat highlights Machu Picchu's secrets
March 2003 |
By Fergus M. Bordewich
First City in the New World?
Peru's Caral suggests civilization emerged in the Americas 1,000 years earlier than experts believed
August 2002 |
By Smithsonian magazine
Drawn from Prehistory
Deep within Mexico's Baja peninsula, nomadic painters left behind the largest trove of ancient art in the Americas
May 2002 |
By Donovan Webster
The Secrets of Easter Island
The more we learn about the remote island from archaeologists and researchers, the more intriguing it becomes
March 2002 |
By Paul Trachtman
In Search of St. Augustine
Beyond the tourist trappings and sunny beaches, inquisitive travelers can find remnants of America's Spanish past
October 2001 |
By Richard & Joyce Wolkomir
The Case of the Purloined Pots
In the deserts of the Southwest, pothunters are stealing a priceless heritage of ancient Native American art
September 2001 |
By Kent Black
A Social Divide Written in Stone
Archaeological research at Cliff Palace resumes after 80 years. Surprises are the order of the day
February 1999 |
By David Roberts
The Yucatán's Flooded Basement
Neither darkness nor swirling silt nor an alarming accident rate can keep divers from exploring this surreal labyrinth
April 1998 |
By Michael Agar
Hot-Rock Cooking Party
For archaeologists, the proof is in the pudding or rather, in the agave, cactus and other goodies
November 1997 |
By Jake Page
Tracking a vanished people through the Sierra Madre
In 1890, Carl Lumholtz pushed into Mexico, on a search for the ancient culture now known as the Anasazi. Instead, he found the Mogollon
November 1996 |
By David Roberts


