The Hidden Ancestry Extracted From an Ancient Pendant

An anthropologist explains how new forensics tools offer unprecedented answers to questions about who likely held or wore Stone Age…

Writing Indigenous Oral Tradition to Fight a Dam

In the northern Philippines, the Isnag are documenting their Traditional Stories to sustain their culture and fight a legal battle…

Piecing Together the Puzzle of Oman’s Ancient Towers

In recent years, the Omani government has invested in archaeology and heritage tourism to boost its economy—renewing interest in mysterious…

Why Store 41,000 Bison Bones?

An archaeologist explains why a museum keeps so many bones from the Jones-Miller site, an ice age bison kill on…

What Indiana Jones Gets Right About Archaeology

As Dr. Jones returns to the big screen, a real archaeologist acknowledges the movie franchise’s shortcomings while espousing its merits.…

Can Digitizing Gravestones Save History?

An anthropologist is digitizing gravestones at Burial Hill, a historic cemetery in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that holds the remains of some…

Should Paviland’s Red Lady “Come Home”?

Two archaeologists explore the complicated story of 33,000-year-old human remains—and calls for their repatriation to Wales. This article was originally…

Reconsidering Fragility in Museums—and the World

Following climate protests at art museums, a conservator considers museums’ role in the unsustainable exploitation of nature and cultural heritage.…

What Do Archaeologists Do?

Archaeologists use a wide variety of methods to explore a fascinating range of topics about human history, culture, and behavior.…

Piecing Together History From a Roman Mosaic

The 2020 discovery of an ancient villa in Britain uncovered the most important Roman mosaic found in the last century.…