archaeology

• 
• SOURCE: Vulture
  3/24/2023
  

  An Amateur Historian Helped Find Richard III's Remains Under a Parking Garage. Her Story Hits the Screen

  The Plantagenet King Richard III was portrayed as a villain by the Tudor dynasty that supplanted him in 1485 (including by Shakespeare). Philippa Langley came to question his bad reputation, and began investigations that led to the discovery of his remains

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/30/2023
  

  The Secrets of Bog People

  Scholars have released a comprehensive survey of bodies discovered in bogs, including a database of more than 1,000 bodies from 266 sites spanning approximately 7,000 years of northern European history.  

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/17/2023
  

  Parthenon Marbles' Fate Subject to Secret Talks

  The British Museum and Greek government officials have acknowledged secret talks over the last two years about the repatriation of marbles taken by Lord Elgin from the Parthenon in the early 1800s. The resolution is not yet known. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  1/5/2023
  

  Alphabet Politics: What Caused the Development of Writing?

  by Josephine Quinn

  Much remains unknown about the earliest development of written language; two new books make important contributions.   

• 
• 12/18/2022
  

  A Grisly but Significant Discovery at Red Bank Updates the History of the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign

  by Robin Baker

  Local volunteers excavating near the site of Fort Mercer in southern New Jersey discovered new evidence of the participation of Hessian mercenaries in a key battle in the British attempt to seize Philadelphia in 1777.

• 
• 11/13/2022
  

  A Hundred Years On, Tutankhamun's Alleged Curse Still Captivates

  by Gill Paul

  The fevered belief that visitors to Tutankhamun's tomb (and their families) were cursed became a media phenomenon in 1922, but popular culture from the Bible to Victorian serial stories and stage plays had already linked mummies and the supernatural. Today, curses persist alongside conspiracy theories to help ease the randomness of tragedy.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/1/2022
  

  Melting European Glaciers Yielding Artifacts Faster than Archaeologists Can Keep Up

  Artifacts trapped in glacial ice are valuable because they are preserved; for archaeologists, climate change means both glaciers and artifacts are at risk. 

• 
• SOURCE: ScienceNews
  10/13/2022
  

  Drone Photos Give New Insight into Mesopotamian City Structure

  Evidence of separate clusters of urbanization on islands separated by marshland suggests that ancient Lagash did not grow out from one administrative and ceremonial center but was a polycentric urban zone. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  10/4/2022
  

  What Will Nobel Recognition Mean for Ancient Human DNA Studies?

  by Mary Prendergast

  An archaeologist sees the recogntion of paleogenomics as a vital tool to reinvigorate the field's access to knowledge about early humans, but warns that the science needs to be accompanied by ethical self-reflection to respect the remains of indigenous people and avoid giving credence to pseudoscientific racism. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/1/2022
  

  New Archaeology of Lost Crops Shows the Reign of Corn Wasn't Inevitable

  The establishment of corn as the center of indigenous American agriculture was slow; researchers are considering how other crops could have come to dominate the American food system.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  10/3/2022
  

  What Must Be Done with Native Remains in Texas's Big Bend Region?

  Byron Schroeder ran into difficulty tracking down the story of a commerical artifact digging operation on private land. Past participants were reticent because, in addition to artifacts, some had removed human remains. The story highlights the divides between academic and amateur archaeologists and the ethics of digs.

• 
• SOURCE: NBC News
  9/4/2022
  

  Search for Missing Native Artifacts Reveals Scandalous Handling of Human Remains by University of North Dakota

  “The best way I can describe how we have found things is in the most inhumane way possible,” Laine Lyons said. “Just completely disregarded that these were once people.” 

• 
• SOURCE: KVUE
  5/17/2022
  

  Discovery of Earliest Known Record of Mayan Calendar

  A fragment discovered at the Las Pinturas pyramid site in San Bartolo, Guatemala connects the ancient site to a calendar system used by indigenous Mayan people today. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/8/2022
  

  The Paradox of Sourness

  Of all the major taste categories, the relationship between human thriving and sensing sourness is the least understood. 

• 
• SOURCE: BBC
  1/10/2022
  

  Thank a Hungry Badger for Discovering a Vast Cache of Roman Coins

  The badger could not be reached for comment. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/3/2022
  

  Richard Leakey, Finder of Fossils Key to Story of Human Origins, Dies at 77

  Leakey's discoveries were foundational both to the study of human origins and the model of scientific investigation. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/13/2021
  

  Discovering the World's Oldest Figurative Paintings

  The Sulawesi pig is estimated to be 10,000 years older than the Lascaux cave drawings and shows that figurative art didn't originate exclusively in Europe. 

• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  11/14/2021
  

  When a Bible Isn't a Bible

  by Kathleen E. Kennedy

  The British press has bungled its accounting of the discovery of a gold bead in the form of an open book. If it's not a Bible, what is it? 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  11/3/2021
  

  How Christian Archaeologists Fed Today's Strife in Jerusalem

  by Andrew Lawler

  The incursions of 19th century Christian archaeologists onto Jerusalem's historic acropolis created a sense of seige on the part of Palestinian Muslims, which is echoed today in ongoing conflict over the city's religious sites. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/18/2021
  

  David Graeber and David Wengrow Have Given Human History a Rewrite

  by William Deresiewicz

  A new effort at a synthesis of the sweep of human history upends what recent popularizers have presented as a progressive path from hunter-gatherer society to corporate capitalism by emphasizing choice, contingency, and the possibility of doing things differently.