CATEGORIES

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

GHOST TRACKS OF WHITE SANDS

Scientists are uncovering fossilized footprints in the New Mexico desert that show how humans and Ice Age animals shared the landscape

GAUL'S UNIVERSITY TOWN

New excavations have revealed the wealth and prestige of an ancient center of learning

Who Were The Samaritans?

Investigating a once-powerful sect that has preserved its sacred traditions for millennia

Digs & Discoveries

Roman marble cutters, anglo-saxon giant, neanderthal hearing… and much more

SECRET RITES OF SAMOTHRACE

Reimagining the experience of initiation into an ancient Greek mystery cult

LAND OF THE PICTS

New excavations reveal the truth behind the legend of these fearsome northern warriors

The Pursuit of Wellness

How the ancients attended to mind, body, and soul

THE EQUESTRIAN'S CAVE

Recent discoveries in western Mongolia suggest that nomadic horsemen may have invented a revolutionary technology

THE PRICE OF PURPLE

Archaeologists have found new evidence of a robust dye industry that endured on the Mediterranean coast for millennia

IN THE REIGN OF THE SUN KINGS

Old Kingdom pharaohs faced a reckoning that reshaped Egypt’s balance of power

WEAVING FOR THEIR ANCESTORS

For 1,000 years, the Paracas people of Peru expressed their vivid conception of life and death through textiles

The Great Wall of Mongolia

A nomadic medieval dynasty constructed a 450-mile barrier to help manage their sprawling empire

CANADA'S FORGOTTEN CAPITAL

Beneath the streets of Old Montreal, the rubble of a short-lived Parliament building offers a glimpse into a young country’s growing pains

Anubian Kingdom Rises

Excavations at a city on the Nile reveal the origins of an ancient African power

A Rare Egg

Egyptian ostrich egg perfume case

WALKING INTO NEW WORLDS

Native traditions and novel discoveries tell the migration story of the ancestors of the Navajo and Apache

Wealth of a Medieval Power Broker

In England’s far northeast, a commanding bishop built a chapel rivaling the grandest in Europe

SOUTH AFRICA'S FATEFUL SHIPWRECK

A seventeenth-century vessel foundered off the coast and transformed a nation’s history

SIBERIAN ISLAND ENIGMA

It’s hard to imagine that a tiny tree ring could help solve one of the medieval world’s most puzzling mysteries.

RESISTING ROME

How a Celtic tribe fought to defend their Iberian homeland against the emperor’s legions