In Defense of Museums
In response to news of ethical violations by museums, a curator reflects on the past and future missions of such institutions.
Why Store 41,000 Bison Bones?
An archaeologist explains why a museum keeps so many bones from the Jones-Miller site, an ice age bison kill on the North American plains.
The Astounding Origins of Chaco Canyon Timber
In a nearly treeless desert, Ancestral Puebloans built Great Houses with more than 200,000 massive log beams. Where they got the wood has long puzzled archaeologists.
When Life Imitates Art in Ukraine
Photographs from Russia’s war on Ukraine dissolve an archaeologist’s fondness for a Soviet-era sculpture.
Tree Rings Are Evidence of the Megadrought—and Our Doom
Scientists are using dendroclimatology to investigate megadroughts in the western U.S., and the trees are telling a disturbing tale.
Two Pioneering Female Archaeologists
Hannah Marie Wormington and Cynthia Irwin-Williams grew up in a time when women were banned from some anthropology classrooms, yet they forged successful careers and set examples as supportive and inspiring leaders.
A Hidden Figure in North American Archaeology
A Black cowboy named George McJunkin, who died 100 years ago, found a site that would transform scientific views about the deep history of Native Americans in North America.
The Blockbuster Exhibit That Shouldn’t Have Been
Museum curators have occasionally embellished archaeological finds with compelling but questionable stories. Consider the Field Museum’s "Magdalenian Girl."
Do Stolen Sacred Objects Experience Culture Shock?
Ancestral memorials from Kenya called vigango have been stolen and sold as "art" around the world. An anthropologist working to return them wonders what the spirits experience when they are displaced.
How Museums Can Do More Than Just Repatriate Objects
It is beautiful when museums go beyond returning objects toward “propatriation”—collaborating to commission new objects for display.
The Phantom Forests That Built Mesa Verde
For years, archaeologists working in Mesa Verde National Park have been looking for evidence of where Ancestral Puebloans harvested the thousands of trees they used to build their elaborate cliff dwellings.
Do Twins Share a Soul?
An anthropologist—and identical twin—grapples with different cultural understandings of twinship.
An Archaeology of Marijuana
How did cannabis—a plant humans have been using for more than 10,000 years—become so vilified in the U.S.?
Wildfire Archaeology and the Burning American West
Archaeologists in New Mexico are pioneering surprising research methods—involving tree rings, pottery, and blasts of light—to explain why wildfire suppression doesn’t work.
Two Surgeries, 800 Years Apart
An archaeologist’s hip surgery prompts him to reimagine the experience of a Puebloan woman who survived a terrible fall centuries ago.
A Curator’s Search for Justice
One museum’s saga of returning stolen vigango statues to Kenya reveals how repatriating sacred objects is both the right thing and a very hard thing to do.
The Masked Man
A history of masks reveals how humans have used them to hide, disguise, transform, and protect themselves.
The Scientific Sorcery of Radiocarbon Dating
An archaeologist explains why figuring out an object's age is harder than you think.
Why We Buy Weird Things in Times of Crisis
With COVID-19 making its way around the United States, people are emptying stores of toilet paper. Archaeology throws a light on other bouts of odd consumer behavior.
What the Cacophony of Modern Life Taught Me About Noise in the Ancient World
After floating in a sensory deprivation tank and visiting Dave & Buster’s, one archaeologist ponders our ancient ancestors’ soundscapes.
A Tale of Two Ruins
New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon showcases magnificent structures that were built on ingenuity. By contrast, the state’s Rio Rancho Estates was built on fraud.
What Do Monuments Reveal About Their Makers?
An archaeologist ponders memorials—from the Monti gate to the Taj Mahal—and finds clues about the reasons people want to be remembered.
Stone Age Myths We’ve Made Up
Commonly held views of ancient history are often colored by what survives in the archaeological record—and by cultural biases.
What Would Leonardo da Vinci Think of the Future?
On the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, an archaeologist and curator imagines the inventor and artist teleported to our time.
Who Decided It Was Bad to Be Fat?
Westerners have long shunned obese people, and this attitude now pervades much of the globe. Was this always the case?
What Google Maps Don’t Show You
The long history of Native American tribes is nowhere to be found on modern maps. So the Zuni decided it was time to create their own kind of cartography.
The Skeletons in the Museum Closet
Can natural history museums justify their collections of human remains?
How Do We Know Which Historical Accounts Are True?
For many years, scholars believed oral history was no more accurate than mythology. It turns out they were wrong.
Why Are Some Caves Full of Shoes?
An archaeologist explores how shoes have embodied our identities through the ages.
Is Cyclical Time the Cure to Technology’s Ills?
We can continue our obsessive, harried pursuit of new technology, or we can relax and enjoy life more—but we can’t do both.
What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
An archaeologist explains what ancient Roman bathrooms were like. Hint: It involved a long stick and a bucket of vinegar.
The Weird, Wild World of Mortuary Customs
Embalming is just one among the world’s wide variety of funeral practices, and in a sense it’s as ordinary as any other. Then again, it’s pretty strange.
Transcontinental Travel—2,000 Years Ago
People who were part of the Hopewell culture ventured far and wide to obtain large quantities of raw materials.
How Archaeologists Uncover History With Trees
Tree-ring dating helps answer questions about pre-Columbian life in the Mesa Verde region.
Were Peace Medals the Price of Loyalty?
Among gifts, the peace medal is one of the most coveted—and complex.
The Surreal World of Money
Without the material value of a literal coin, we are left to trust in the symbolic relationships that give meaning to money.
Why the Famous Folsom Point Isn’t a Smoking Gun
Scientific findings tend to be provisional. That’s a good thing.
How the Folsom Point Became an Archaeological Icon
Scientific discoveries usually involve many people working over long periods of time. But they are generally worth the wait.
Capturing the Art of Imprisonment
The faces of Soviet-era prisoners in a famous sculpture speak volumes about the brutal circumstances that millions experienced under Joseph Stalin. But what of prisoners today in the U.S.?
The Many Hands Shirt: Reuniting a Family and an Heirloom
Sometimes objects in museum collections lead to a lot of conflict. In the best cases, though, they give rise to mutual respect and gratitude.
A Double Bass, Tree Rings, and the Truth
Growth rings in wood can be used to date some surprising objects—even stringed instruments.
The Sound and Fury of the Huey Helicopter
History has produced a lot of famous war machines, but only a few of them have become icons.
A Relic of the Past Soars Into the Final Frontier
An astronaut brought an ancient Clovis point to the space station. What object would you choose to send into space?
The Revolutionary Genius of Neanderthals
Our often-ridiculed ancestors were capable of abstract thought. They deserve some respect. Exhibit A: Neanderthals' Levallois technique.
The Silk Ribbon of Highways
What do 53-foot shipping containers and Bactrian camels have in common? Not much at first glance, but dig a little deeper and you find some surprising similarities.
The Long Count
How we memorialize significant events says a lot about our cultural view of time. Consider the Chief White Horse Winter Count.
The Way Trump Wears His Hat
Donald Trump’s simple fashion statement speaks volumes.
Spirit-Monsters and the Curse of the Chicago Cubs
What do a figurine from Greenland, a burning desire to win, and one man’s plot to overcome a goat's curse have to do with the World Series?
Is a Hand Wave a Universal Greeting?
Whether across the expanse of thousands of years or alongside a river, the hand wave is a gesture that holds social meaning. But has it always been used as a positive greeting?
Forget Not the Mighty Zipper
Velcro might appear to be victorious, but the zipper, a 100-year-old invention, arguably still reigns in both familiar and unexpected places.
Lost or Found? A Stick Chart From the Marshall Islands
Long before Siri, GPS, and well-worn road atlases, mariners relied on ancient, time-tested navigational tools such as stick charts.
How Did We Ever Live Without GPS?
GPS is everywhere these days, but if it suddenly disappeared all would not be lost: We’ve been making cognitive maps for eons.
Did Women and Children Exist in Prehistory?
Mother Nature doesn’t play fair when it comes to the preservation of archaeological remains. Should we study gender archaeology?
HH-39: Why Good Science Doesn’t Need Eureka Moments
The development of tree-ring dating offers a great example of why good science often takes time.
The Right to Own Living Memorials
Hundreds of memorial statues stolen from Kenya and Tanzania have ended up in U.S. museums. Should the principle of informed consent be applied to (apparently) inanimate objects?
Skeleton Sex Pots
An unusual container produced by the Moche civilization of Peru raises many questions about their society—and our own views of sex.
Martin Luther King Jr., in Sapphire
When it came to carving the likeness of the immortal Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the world's most valuable sapphire, there was no room for error.
The World’s Most Sustainable Technology
The Acheulean hand ax is one of the most beautifully designed tools ever produced. And it's by far the most sustainable technology in human history.
Confessions of a Blackhawks Fan
Can an anthropologist who loves hockey embrace his team’s race-based mascot?
