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.

Curiosities

$Natural history museum - This is a tiny fraction of the National Museum of Natural History’s anthropology collection, which in turn comprises less than 2 percent of the institution’s astounding array of objects—some 126 million artifacts and specimens in all.$
The Skeletons in the Museum Closet

Can natural history museums justify their collections of human remains?
Curiosities

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.
Curiosities

Why Are Some Caves Full of Shoes?

An archaeologist explores how shoes have embodied our identities through the ages.
Curiosities

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.
Curiosities

What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

Hint: It involved a long stick, sea sponge, and bucket of vinegar.
Curiosities

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.