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.
Stephen E. Nash
Stephen E. Nash is a historian of science and an archaeologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He studies a wide range of subjects, including dendrochronology (tree-ring dating), the history of museums, the archaeology of west-central New Mexico, and Russian gem-carving sculptures by Vasily Konovalenko. Nash has published numerous books, most recently Stories in Stone: The Enchanted Gem-Carving Sculptures of Vasily Konovalenko and An Anthropologist’s Arrival: A Memoir. He lives in Denver with his wife and three boys. Follow him on Twitter @nash_dr.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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The Skeletons in the Museum Closet
Can natural history museums justify their collections of human remains?