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.
A Tale of Two Ruins
Column / Curiosities
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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.
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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.