Culture
Archaeology
LEGEND OF THE CRYSTAL BRAIN
When most people envision the victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, they think of the casts of their bodies made by pouring plaster into voids left by their decaying corpses. Yet not all the physical remains of those who perished in the cataclysm decayed. In one case, a remarkable transformation occurred—a man’s brain turned to glass.
3 min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
Birds of a Feather
Intriguing rock art in the Four Corners reveals how the Basketmaker people drew inspiration from ducks 1,500 years ago
8 min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
THE HOME OF THE WEATHER GOD
In northern Anatolia, archaeologists have discovered the source of Hittite royal power
10+ min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
SAINTS ALIVE
Since 2019, archaeologists have been excavating in Berlin's oldest square, known as the Molkenmarkt, or Whey Market.
1 min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
SOLDIERS OF ILL FORTUNE
The Schmalkaldic War, which began in 1546 and lasted less than a year, pitted the forces of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V (reigned 1519-1556) against the Schmalkaldic League, a Protestant alliance formed by German principalities and cities within the empire.
1 min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD CITY
Archaeologists are reconstructing the complicated 400-year history of Virginia's colonial capital
10+ min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
ITALY'S GARDEN OF MONSTERS
Why did a Renaissance duke fill his wooded park with gargantuan stone
10 min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
In Search of Lost Pharaohs
Anubis Mountain conceals the tombs of an obscure Egyptian dynasty
3 min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
Setting Sail for Valhalla
Vikings staged elaborate spectacles to usher their rulers into the afterlife
10+ min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
BOUND FOR HEAVEN
During excavations of a Byzantine monastery in 2017 just north of Jerusalem's Old City, a team led by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists Zubair 'Adawi and Kfir Arbiv discovered an unusual burial in a crypt beneath the altar of the complex's church.
1 min |
July/August 2025
Archaeology
HERO WORSHIP
A bronze knife handle discovered in the 1990s in the northern English town of Corbridge depicting a left-handed gladiator has offered insight into fandom in the ancient Roman world.
1 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
PHARAOH'S FATE
Extensive remnants of one of the temples commissioned by the female pharaoh Hatshepsut (reigned ca. 1473-1458 B.c.) have been discovered in the town of Deir el-Bahari on the west bank of the Nile.
1 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
THE CAT AND THE FAT
During the 19th Dynasty (ca. 1295–1186 B.c.), the village of Deir el-Medina, on the Nile’s west bank in Upper, or southern, Egypt, was home to a community of civil servants and artisans who built and decorated the royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings.
2 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
GODDESS AT THE CROSSROADS
Why a city put its trust in a Greek deity feared throughout the mediterranean
10+ min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
Peru's Timeless Threads
More than 1,000 years ago, master weavers kept the ancient traditions of the Moche culture alive
6 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
Lost City of the Samurai
Archaeologists rediscover Ichijodani, a formidable stronghold that flourished amid medieval Japan's brutal power struggles
10+ min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
THE MANY FORTRESSES OF ALI PASHA
How a father and son are documenting the architectural legacy of a renegade nineteenth-century warlord
10+ min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE of AMERICA
The cultural heritage of world communities and their ancestral landscapes, historic monuments, museums, and physical artifacts are increasingly vulnerable as a result of global climate change.
1 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
BYZANTINE BOOMTOWN
Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have unearthed parts of a Roman and Byzantine settlement just outside the modern city of Kiryat Gat.
1 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
Desert Paradise Found
How a tiny, water-rich kingdom came to dominate vital trade routes in the Arabian Gulf 4,000 years ago
10+ min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
A PASSION FOR FRUIT
Exploring the surprisingly rich archaeological record of berries, melons...and more
8 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
STICKING TO THE RAPTOR DIET
The diet of British birds of prey in the distant past was very different from that of their descendants.
1 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
MAKING HISTORY
Native American oral history and archaeological data alike suggest that farmers in parts of North America began abandoning major settlements such as Mesa Verde in Colorado and Cahokia in Illinois sometime after 1150.
1 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
THE KING'S THRONE
The Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot-long linen cloth crafted in the eleventh century, depicts scenes from William the Conqueror’s invasion of England and his defeat of Harold Godwinson, England’s last Anglo-Saxon king, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. (See “Unfolding the Bayeux Tapestry,” January/February 2021.)
1 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
BULOW PLANTATION RUINS, FLORIDA
Seventy-five miles northeast of Disney World, a tangled forest of palms, pines, and mossy oaks nearly reclaims the charred remnants of Bulow Plantation and the hulking ruins of its massive steam-powered sugar mill.
2 min |
May/June 2025
Archaeology
AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE REBORN
By removing centuries of soot, researchers have uncovered the stunning decoration of a sanctuary dedicated to the heavens
10+ min |
March/April 2025
Archaeology
THE SHELL SEEKERS
How hunter-gatherers in northern Florida facing an uncertain future revived a powerful symbol of their past
8 min |
March/April 2025
Archaeology
The Secrets of Porvenir
Remembering the victims of a 1918 massacre that shook a Texas border community
8 min |
March/April 2025
Archaeology
UNEARTHING ANELUSIVE EMPIRE
Archaeologists have discovered rare evidence of an enlightened medieval dynasty that ruled much of Central Asia
10+ min |
March/April 2025
Archaeology
Ahead of Their Time
Excavations reveal the surprising sophistication of Copper Age villagers in southwestern Iran 6,000 years ago
9 min |