Ancient Art Deep in the Southeastern United States

An archaeologist examines the history and diversity of art found in the dark zones of caves across the Southeastern U.S.

Tiny Snails Help Solve a Giant Mystery

Archaeologists may finally know the age and true identity of the “Rude Man,” also known as the Cerne Abbas Giant, one of dozens of geoglyphs etched into the British countryside.

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.

Reimagining Rock Art in Southern Africa

With the help of key contemporary ethnographic texts about modern San peoples, archaeologists are reconsidering the meaning of cave paintings created by ancient San in a new—and sacred—light.

Finding and Losing the World’s Oldest Art in Sulawesi

An anthropologist goes back to see Sulawesi cave paintings he reported in Indonesia decades ago—and mourns their degradation and loss.

Earliest-Known Animal Cave Art

Archaeologists’ dates on ancient cave art in Indonesia push the timeline for the first animal depictions back thousands of years.

Do Twins Share a Soul?

An anthropologist—and identical twin—grapples with different cultural understandings of twinship.

The Power of Images

Selecting art for the magazine often raises sticky anthropological questions about ethics, representation, and storytelling.

Were Women the True Artisans Behind Ancient Greek Ceramics?

A new paper makes the case that scholars have ignored the role of female ceramicists in Greece going back some 3,000 years—and that this failing could speak to a more consequential blind spot involving gender.

What Ancient Gender Fluidity Taught Me About Modern Patriarchy

Nonbinary genders and male hierarchy as expressed in Ecuadorian clay sculptures led one archaeologist to see biases in her modern life with fresh eyes.