Science
Archaeology
THE EGYPTIAN SEQUENCE
Until now, the earliest Egyptians to have even part of their DNA sequenced were three people who lived between 787 and 544 B.C.
1 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
SOURCE MATERIAL
As early as 40,000 years ago, some hunter-gatherers in southern Africa ventured long distances to procure special types of stone to make their tools.
1 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
Secrets of the Seven Wonders
How archaeologists are rediscovering the ancient world's most marvelous monuments
10+ min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
ACTS OF FAITH
Evidence emerges of the day in 1562 when an infamous Spanish cleric tried to destroy Maya religion
10+ min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
OASIS MAKERS OF ARABIA
Researchers are just beginning to understand how people thrived in the desert of Oman some 5,000 years ago
8 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
FOSSIL FORCE
One of the planet's most successful arthropods, trilobites, abounded in the oceans from about 520 million to 250 million years ago.
1 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
BIGHORN MEDICINE WHEEL, WYOMING
Perched almost 9,700 feet above sea level on Medicine Mountain in Wyoming's Bighorn Range, the Medicine Wheel is an 80-foot-diameter circular structure made from limestone boulders.
2 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
ANCIENT LOOK BOOK
A young woman buried in China's Tarim Basin some 2,000 years ago went to the afterlife accompanied by the height of fashion.
1 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
A FAMILIAR FACE
In the early eleventh century, a landslide on the island of Ostrów Lednicki in western Poland caused a hillfort to collapse and slip to the bottom of Lake Lednica.
1 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
Temples to Tradition
A looted cache of bronzes compels archaeologists to explore Celtic sanctuaries across Burgundy
10+ min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
SEARCHING FOR VENEZUELA'S UNDISCOVERED ARTISTS
Inspired by their otherworldly landscape, ancient people created a new rock art tradition
9 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
CANINE COUTURE
A decorated bag used to carry something particular, or for a special occasion such as a night on the town, is often used to signal wealth and status.
1 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
IN HIS MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
The relationship between archaeology and espionage is close. During the twentieth century, for example, both Britain and the United States recruited archaeologists working in some of the world's most sensitive locales as spies. Beginning in 1911, T. E. Lawrence excavated the Hittite site of Carchemish on the Euphrates River, from where he could keep an eye on the Germans, who were constructing a railway supply line between Baghdad and Berlin.
2 min |
November/December 2025
Archaeology
BUILDING THE BLACK CITY
Why the nomads of the Uighur Empire constructed a medieval urban center like no other
10+ min |
November/December 2025
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 |