DEFENDING THE CANYONLANDS

Rare shields from the American Southwest are a legacy of a turbulent time in Native history

Inside a Magnificent Celtic Tomb

New investigations of an Iron Age burial in France reveal the source of one woman's exceptional power

Rise of the Persian Princes

In their grand capital Persepolis, Achaemenid rulers expressed their vision of a prosperous, multicultural empire

OFF THE GRID

One of Mexico's most important archaeological sites is hidden in plain view in the Tlalpan borough of southern Mexico City.

BIG GAME HUNTING

Archaeologists rarely unearth the remains of large predators such as leopards, lions, and bears. But University of Haifa archaeologist Ron Shimelmitz and his colleagues wondered if, by looking at a large number of sites over thousands of years, they could identify evidence showing that ancient people hunted these fearsome creatures.

HYBRID HOARD

A hoard of silver and gold items buried in the Netherlands 800 years ago-possibly for safekeeping during a time of war-was recovered by a licensed metal detectorist.

BULLISH ON THE STORM GOD

In southern Turkey's Amuq Valley, a curious one-inch-tall lead figurine unearthed at a rural Bronze Age site is giving archaeologists a glimpse of how villagers living around 2000 B.C. responded to a period marked by increasing drought.

A SURPRISE IN SUDAN

Beneath the ruins of the medieval village of Old Dongola, on the Nile in northern Sudan, a team from the University of Warsaw was surprised to find stone blocks that may date to the time of the pharaoh Taharqo (reigned ca.690-664 B.C.).

THE PALACE ON TABLET HILL

At the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu A in present-day Tello, in southern Iraq, In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, French archaeologists excavated tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets there.

VIKING SUPPORT ANIMALS

The warriors of the Viking Great Army who campaigned in Britain from A.D. 865 to 878 worshipped gods often associated with animal companions, such as Odin and his eight-legged horse Sleipnir.

UPDATE - TEMPLE TIMES TWO

A team led by archaeologist Jessica Ortiz Zevallos has returned to the Temple of the Painted Pillars at the site of Pañamarca in northwestern Peru, where they have discovered new well-preserved, brightly colored paintings.

BOG TOGS

A piece of fabric found in a Highland peat bog in the early 1980s has now been determined to be the oldest example of true tartan ever located in Scotland.

A NEW DAY FOR THE ANCESTORS' MOUNDS

In fall 2007, Glenna Wallace, chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, visited the Octagon Earthworks in the central Ohio city of Newark while attending a lecture series at the Ohio State University in nearby Columbus.

LETTER FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTHEAST SPARTANS OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI

Unearthing evidence of defiance and resilience in the homeland of the Chickasaw

The Man in the Middle

How an ingenious royal official transformed Persian conquerors into proper Egyptian pharaohs

Rituals of the Cattle Raiders

Rock art in the mountains of South Africa tells the story of how the Khoe and San peoples resisted enslavement

Peru's Great Urban Experiment

A millennium ago, the Chimú built a new way of life in the vast city of Chan Chan

REUSING THE PAST

Archaeologists discover how an embattled Assyrian king fortified Nineveh

LOST ROMAN RESORT

In the Bay of Naples, miles of ruins recall the splendor of ancient imperial holidays

AROUND THE WORLD

Researchers determined that a mastodon living in the Pacific Northwest 13,900 years ago was wounded when it was struck by a spear.

Archaeology's Top 10 Discoveries of 2021

Discoveries

A Brush With Genius

An unprecedented find in central China brings to life the early years of a master calligrapher

THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE

In the early 1960s, archaeologists from around the world descended on the Upper Nile Valley.

Under the Holy City

A long-running excavation in Jerusalem unearths evidence for two of the city’s least-known eras

TURNING SALT INTO GOLD

In the Austrian Alps, generations of miners toiled to extract the ancient world’s most valuable resource

OFF THE GRID

OPLONTIS, ITALY

AT FACE VALUE

Researchers are using new scientific methods to investigate how artists in Roman Egypt customized portraits for the dead

When Isis Was Queen

At the ancient Egyptian temples of Philae, Nubians gave new life to a vanishing religious tradition

ITALIAN MASTER BUILDERS

A 3,500-year-old ritual pool reflects a little-known culture’s agrarian prowess

Piecing Together Maya Creation Stories

Thousands of mural fragments from the city of San Bartolo illustrate how the Maya envisioned their place in the universe