Human Origins / Archaeology

On Frans de Waal's Coffee Table

The celebrated primatologist gives DISCOVER a peek at his reading list. 05.08.2008

Getting Drunk on Chocolate in 1100 B.C.

Ancient pottery shows traces of a chemical found in cacao. 04.07.2008

The Most Famous Ghost Town in America

Like a zombie, Bodie is in a permanent state of “arrested decay.” 03.17.2008

Giant Mound Is Like an Underground Stonehenge

Radar and sonar reveal sarsen stones buried under Silbury Hill. 02.13.2008

Ancient Finns Saved Energy by Skating

4,000 years before Nokia, Finnish folks created ice skates. 02.07.2008

Using X-Rays To Do Cruelty-Free Dissection

Hi-res, hi-tech imaging can peer inside meteorites, cavemen, and cell phones. 02.05.2008

59. Medieval Mosque Shows Amazing Math Discovery

The never-repeating geometry of quasi crystals, revealed 500 years early 01.09.2008

Did a Tsunami Wipe Out a Cradle of Western Civilization?

Like the Indian Ocean disaster, this wave was a mass killer. 01.04.2008

The Return of the Vikings

61 sailors navigate 2,000 treacherous miles using medieval technology. 11.21.2007

Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?

The universal human myth may be the first example of disaster reporting. 11.15.2007

Mummies: Back from the Dead

Archaeologists rediscover how to store dead bodies ancient Egyptian-style. 10.15.2007

Discover Interview: Director of Iraq's National Museum

The archaeologist talks about the loss of artifacts and why he fled his homeland. 08.03.2007

Bible Villain's Burial Place Found

But all of Herod the Great's loot is gone. 07.11.2007

Kings Who Controlled the Sun

Pre-Incan rulers used a precise observatory to assert power. 06.01.2007

Black Gold of the Amazon

Precious soil could save the rainforest and combat global warming. 04.30.2007

Return of the Bactrian Gold

Ancient Afghan treasures, nearly lost to the Taliban 03.25.2007

Houses of the Holy

Can the first homes unearthed near Stonehenge finally tell us what the world’s most famous megalith was for? 03.12.2007

The First Computer

A mysterious device found in Greek waters was used by ancient Greeks to track distant stars. 10.04.2006

Vox Populi

Gossip in the glory days of Rome was just like ours—but written in stone. 06.25.2006

American Archeology

American Archaeology 04.27.2006

Inside the Restoration of the Amirya Madrassa

The grandeur beneath the rubble was obvious—'impeccable, perfect materials and perfect proportions' 04.02.2006

Megadeath in Mexico

Epidemics followed the Spanish arrival in the New World, but the worst killer may have been a shadowy native—a killer that could still be out there. 02.21.2006

Foundations of Christianity Unearthed

Foundations of Christianity Unearthed 02.20.2006

Nubia's Black Pharaohs

Will a lost coronation temple reveal how the ancient Nubians rose up and seized the throne of the mighty Egyptians? 12.01.2005

Stone Age Beer

It's one thing to re-create a 9,000-year-old brew. It's another thing to drink it 11.22.2005

Old Stock

Where did Europeans come from? 11.13.2005

Tall Tales

Medieval people weren't shorter. 10.28.2005

Archaeology

Two weeks of virtual digging at a fabled site upends two decades' worth of preconceived ideas 10.24.2005

Prehistoric Pasta

So the Chinese probably invented spaghetti, after all. 10.14.2005

Showdown at the O.K. Caral

Archaeologists have an uncivilized fight over how civilization began in the Americas. 09.09.2005

Hagar the Huggable

12.03.2004

The Hidden History of Men

A research team braves Central Asia to capture a surprising genetic record of human migration and military conquest 12.02.2004

Bring Back the Buddha

Archaeologists plot a recovery from the Taliban's cultural vandalism 11.25.2004

Caesar for a Day

06.27.2004

Treasures of the Forbidden City

China kept its most enlightened era behind palace walls. Now that legacy comes to the West 04.21.2004

Cordoba's Coliseum

03.28.2004

Uncovering America's Pyramid Builders

The grandest culture north of the Maya created a city of 20,000 people, built monuments rivaling Egypt's Great Pyramid, then vanished into oblivion 02.05.2004

Archaeology

01.02.2004

Mother Stonehenge

07.01.2003

America's Culture of War

About 800 years ago, Native Americans in the Southwest began building stone citadels and sky-high pueblos. What were they afraid of? 05.01.2003

Archaeology

01.01.2003

La Marmotta

As humans emerged from the Stone Age, they built little cities. The discovery in central Italy of a 7,800-year-old settlement reveals the dawning of Western civilization 11.01.2002

Treasure Under Saddam's Feet

As the waters of the Tigris rise and the world awaits war, archaeologists fear for priceless ancient marvels of the first great empire 10.01.2002

Homer's Bones

Can an archaeological dig in Greece reveal the line between truth and fiction in the Iliad and the Odyssey? 07.01.2002

The Amazon Trail

Anna Roosevelt's ventures into the jungles of South America have turned up traces of human settlements far older than archaeologists ever suspected 05.01.2002

The Chemistry of . . . Mummies

The secret ingredients used by Egyptian embalmers are revealed at last 03.01.2002

Archaeology

Year In Science 01.13.2002

Gladiatrix

When London was a distant outpost of the Roman Empire 1,900 years ago, the favorite local pastime was watching slaves pair off in an arena to kill each other. Artifacts found in an ancient grave site suggest that one of the heroes of the ring was a woman 12.01.2001

Lost City

Has an American archaeologist finally found the home of the 20,000 workers who built the great pyramids of Giza? 10.01.2001

They Invented it

09.01.2001

The Incorruptibles

The bodies of many medieval Catholic saints and martyrs have resisted decay for centuries— just the sort of mystery that begs for scientific inquiry 06.01.2001

Secrets of the Alpaca Mummies

Did the ancient Inca make the finest woolen cloth the world has ever known? 04.01.2001

Bribing Braveheart

02.01.2001

The Nasca Lines Solution

Demystifying South America's gigantic archaeological puzzle 12.01.2000

When Nike Was a God

08.01.2000

Works in Progress

With the help of archaeobotany, the Taj Mahal's evening garden may bloom yet again 07.01.2000

Lost Ships

A long-lost cache of surprisingly well-preserved vessels promises a rare look at everyday life in ancient Rome 04.01.2000

Making a Modern Mummy

Two Egyptologists resurrect a 4,000-year-old tradition--and it works! 03.01.2000

Vanished Vikings

For half a millennium, followers of Erik the Red thrived in Greenland and sailed to North America. Then they mysteriously disappeared. Why? 03.01.2000

Migrant Microbes

03.01.2000

Reviews

Lascaux cave is closed to visitors, but a replica, Lascaux II, captures a glimpse of early man's soul 11.01.1999

Style of the Nile

Re-creating the chemistry and cosmetics of Queen Nefertiti 09.01.1999

Moonstruck Druids

08.01.1999

Learning to Love Neanderthals

Does the 25,000-year-old body of a child found in Portugal make it more likely that they are our ancestors? 08.01.1999

The Dead Wives Club

07.01.1999

A Tale of Two Archeologists

A tale of two obsessed archeologists, one ancient city, and nagging doubts about whether science can ever hope to reveal the past 05.01.1999

A Clockwork Sky

Try a more heavenly calender to avoid the Y2K problem 04.01.1999

Henry's Big Mistake

02.01.1999

Desert Trove

02.01.1999

Venerable Beads

10.01.1998

The Cradle of Cash

When money arose in the ancient cities of Mesopotamia, it profoundly and permanently changed civilization. 10.01.1998

An Unplundered Tomb

09.01.1998

Oil Harvest

07.01.1998

Egyptian Stonehenge

07.01.1998

Ancient Altered States

What do squiggles, dots, and spirals on rock walls mean? Ask your local shaman—or archeologist Dave Whitley. 06.01.1998

Archeology Watch:A Natural History of Mummies

How did the ancient Egyptians perfect their sophisticated mummification techniques? Before preserving flesh, they may have practiced for centuries on skeletons. 05.01.1998

Archeology Watch: Magnetic Bishopric

Before Graham Borradaile's discovery, archeologists didn't know that a powerful dating tool la? hidden in every stone building and statue in the world. 03.01.1998

Empires in the Dust

Some 4,000 years ago, a number of mighty Bronze Age cultures crumbled. Were they done in by political strife and societal unrest? Or by a change in the climate? 03.01.1998

Light Elements: Yankee Doodle Druid

What were people in New Hampshire doing4,000 years ago with a sacrificial table? 02.01.1998

American Cannibal

Signs of an ancient horror lie buried in the southwestern desert. And with them lie hints of a complex societycaught up in turbulent times. 02.01.1998

Archeology Watch

The Earthmovers—Centuries before Egypt's first pyramids were built, and long before Stonehenge, Native Americans constructed large earthen mounds in Louisiana. 02.01.1998

The Year in Science: Archeology 1997

City of the Dead 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Archeology 1997

The Traveler's Tale 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Archeology 1997

Blackbeard's Ship 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Archeology 1997

Old Macdonald had a Henge 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Archeology 1997

The Wreck Route 01.01.1998

Paradises Lost

When the mutineers from HMS Bounty landed on Pitcairn Island, they found no people--just a desolate land marked by the relics of a vanished society. The story of that lost civilization is just now being learned. And it's far more frightening than any tale of Captain Bligh. 11.01.1997

Bronze Age Condos

08.01.1997

Snail City

03.01.1997

Mummy Threads

02.01.1997

King Tut's Tipple

01.01.1997

Chateau Zagros

01.01.1997

Thumb and Thumber

12.01.1996

Keepers of the Oaks

Modern Americans may preserve California better than Native Americans did. 08.01.1996

Easter's End

In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead? 08.01.1995

The Mummy Unwrapped

For nearly 3,000 years this Egyptian woman was safe from prying eyes and hands. Now she's been unwrapped, examined, and autopsied, but she's still not been touched. 04.01.1995

Calendar Redux

11.01.1994

The Mummies of Xinjiang

In the dry hills of the central Asian province, archeologists have unearthed more than 100 corpses that are as much as 4,000 years old, astonishingly well preserved--and caucasian. 04.01.1994

How Africa Became Black

Africa's racial history was not necessarily its racial destiny. To unravel the story of Africa's past, you must not only look at its faces but listen to its languages and harvest its crops. 02.01.1994

Golden Window on a Lost World

Tens of millions of years ago the residents of Carribean forest were trapped in glowing ribbons of resin. Today they're telling scientists what their world was like. 08.01.1993

Paleolithic Paint Job

Two French archeologists are trying to get closer--much closer--to an ancient act of creation. 07.01.1993

Ten Thousand Years of Solitude

What really happends when a society is forced to go it alone? 03.01.1993

Speaking With a Single Tongue

Like many animal species, thousands of languages are in danger of extinction. At stake is the world's cultural heritage. 02.01.1993

A Question of Size

Bigger is better, right? So why in the world have Pygmies opted for smallness? 05.01.1992

Inside the Head of a Tiny T.Rex

One of the world's leading paleontologists describes what happens when prehistoric bones are studied with one of science's most up-to-date tools: the CT scan. 03.01.1992



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