All stories
Replacing Plastic Prayers With Biodegradable Blessings in the Himalayas
As synthetic prayer flags and scarves pollute the Himalayan region, a team of scholars and activists work to spread sustainable materials drawn from Indigenous knowledge.
What Pots Say—and Don’t Say—About People
Archaeologists long abandoned the simple notion that “pots are people”—that people’s identities directly correspond with the pottery they made and used. What, then, can ceramics reveal about past lives?
What Happens When Catholic Medals Become Mainstream Jewelry
Retailers are selling medallions cherished by Catholics who favor conservative gender roles. Are secular buyers sporting anti-feminist symbols?
Extraordinary Lessons From a Community-Led Excavation
An archaeologist examines how community members in Cardiff, Wales, collaborated with a research team to make important insights into the Bronze Age.
What Ancient Stone “Swiss Army Knives” Mean
An archaeologist explains new evidence from stone tools that shows strong and wide social connections among our ancestors who lived 65,000 years ago in Southern Africa.
What Makes Injections Hard to Swallow?
An anthropological assessment of the differences between pills and injections may shed some light on vaccine hesitancy.
What Did the Stone Age Sound Like?
A team of archaeologists is working to uncover whether ancient objects in South Africa were once used as sound tools to make noise or music.
The FBI’s Repatriation of Stolen Heritage
When the bureau’s Art Theft Program teamed up with a cultural anthropologist to investigate one man’s private collection, they began a yearslong project to return cultural objects and human remains to their rightful homes.
Florida’s Indigenous Heritage Faces a Watery Grave
Hundreds of ancient Native American sites along the Gulf Coast are at risk.
What Ancient Landscapes Foretell About Climate Change
An archaeologist who has studied the charred remains of historic people's lives reflects on what the past can tell us about disasters and climate change.
The Pussyhat’s Identity Crisis
Critics maintain that the now iconic pink caps are too stereotyped and exclusionary. Can an inclusive symbol of women’s rights be found?
Do Clothes Make a Messiah?
A historian explores how Jesus’ dress was simple—and probably scruffy. There's a reason this still matters.
