ARCHAEOLOGY

Regular readers of this magazine will be familiar with the idea that archaeologists often interpret sites and artifacts as having had ritual significance to people of the past. Scholars often joke among themselves that, when confronted with a puzzlin

At some point, you inevitably want to repaint your dorm room, apartment, or house. You visit the hardware store, where you’re confronted with a dizzying array of colors with names like Tippy Toes and Lilting Laughter—these are real names from well-kn

Evidence that many sculptures from antiquity were not the bright white marble that people imagine today but were originally painted in various colors that have worn away over the millennia has been amassing for decades. Researchers have now found the

People belonging to several diferent Andean societies lived in and around the city of Tiwanaku near Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca from around A.D. 590 to 1150. Tiwanaku was the most important political and religious Andean center of its era. Its ritual pre

Archaeologists have unearthed the unusual tomb of an Egyptian dignitary who was interred in the necropolis at Abusir around 2,500 years ago. The ornately decorated burial chamber, which was found at the bottom of a 45-foot-deep shaft, belonged to a m

Deep inside Cova Dones, a cave in the province of Valencia in Spain, archaeologists have found more than 100 paintings and engravings, some of which they have dated to almost 25,000 years ago. The artworks depict geometric motifs and animals includin

Mohenjo-Daro, located in southeastern Pakistan, is best known as the largest settlement of the Indus civilization, which dominated parts of what are now Pakistan and India 4,500 years ago. However, the site also has a rich Buddhist history, the clear

For the ancient Romans, both rich and poor, their panoply of gods and robust mythology were part of everyday life. Images in a newly discovered tomb in the city of Giugliano, just outside Naples in southern Italy, suggest that at least one wealthy Ro

At the site of Barranco Gómez in eastern Spain, a team led by archaeologist Inés Domingo of the University of Barcelona recently discovered a 9,000-year-old Neolithic rock art depiction of a high-flying honey hunter. The panel, made in what scholars

Excavations in the English town of Rendlesham by archaeologists from the Suffolk County Council have confirmed its status as an important Anglo-Saxon royal center between the sixth and eighth centuries A.D. The site is located near the princely buria

Perched on the Mutluca Plateau in southwestern Turkey’s Muǧla Province, the medieval walled city of Beçin was built on the ruins of a site whose history began thousands of years before. Based on the discovery of walls beneath the fortified inner cita

THE TAŞ TEPELER, or Stone Mounds, in southeastern Turkey’s şanlıurfa Province arc roughly 125 miles along the foothills of the Taurus Mountains, overlooking the Harran Plain and the Balikh River, a tributary of the Euphrates. The region features plat

ENGLAND: The Cerne Abbas Giant has towered over the Dorset countryside for centuries, yet experts continue to debate when and why the 180-foot-tall figure was carved into the chalky hillside. New evidence indicates the giant was created between A.D.

In 2021, in the modern village of Sayburç, archaeologist Eylem Özdoǧan of Istanbul University discovered a rare Pre-Pottery Neolithic (ca. 12,000 to 10,200 years ago) relief including detailed depictions of humans and animals on a large stone bench i

FOR MORE THAN 1,000 years, worshippers have made the grueling journey across the barren Arabian Desert along well-worn pilgrimage routes to the Islamic holy city of Mecca. One such route, a roughly 1,000-mile, 37-day trek, began with the Darb al-Hajj

IN 1715, A MANDINGA MAN from the Gambia region of West Africa who would go down in history under the name Francisco Menéndez escaped from enslavement in the English colony of South Carolina to join up with local Native Americans, the Yamasee, who wer

AT ITS HEIGHT DURING the fifteenth century, the vast Inca Empire spanned some 2,500 miles along the western coast of South America. Its kings were called “Son of the Sun” and were believed to be descendants and earthly representations of the sun god,

IN THE ALMOSI Gorge in the Hissar Mountains of western Tajikistan, a 20-foot-tall, pyramid-shaped boulder rests in a meadow about 10,000 feet above sea level. The meadow is not on any commonly traversed route across the mountains, and it’s likely tha

Rising from the middle of Lake Cocibolca—also known as Lake Nicaragua—the largest lake in Central America, dumbbell-shaped Ometepe Island is formed by two volcanoes joined by a narrow isthmus. The twin peaks of Volcán Concepción and Volcán Maderas ar

How does the AIA work to prevent the illicit export and trafficking of cultural heritage? Through widespread collaboration, international diplomacy, public awareness campaigns, intelligence gathering, and engagement with organizations and communities