Ancient Iberians Ingested Red Dust Loaded With Mind-Altering Mercury
Bridget Alex Contributing Writer Five thousand years ago, in what’s now southern Spain, a special set of women donned their ceremonial gowns, bedecked with tens of thousands of beads crafted…
Ancient Greece’s Biggest Port Is Older Than We Thought
About halfway between the Greek cities of Corinth and Lechaio, the area around Corinth’s ancient port is tectonically active. That makes the area even more scientifically precious. While many archaeological…
The Hidden History of Bermuda Is Reshaping the Way We Think About Colonial America
By Andrew Lawler Photographs by Nicola Muirhead A sudden roar broke the muggy stillness, making me jump. A young woman squatting in a shallow trench reassured me. “No worries,” she…
The Globe-Trotting Scholar Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aztecs
By Merilee Grindle Author, In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl: Zelia Nuttall and the Search for Mexico’s Ancient Civilizations On a bright day early in 1885, Zelia Nuttall was strolling around…
Did Ancient Egyptians Know Meteorites Came From Space?
The Pyramid Texts cover walls within the pyramids of King Unis (shown here) and other royals at the site of Saqqara. Victoria Almansa-Villatoro “ Unis seizes the sky and splits…
Tracking Humans’ First Footsteps in North America
Fossilized footprints, preserved in gypsum mud that hardened over time, are estimated to be 23,000-21,000 years old. NPS / Alamy Ancient human footprints, preserved in a dry lakebed at White…
How Ancient Civilizations Reacted to Eclipses
A total solar eclipse as seen from Kentucky in 2017 Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images This April 8, millions of people will watch in awe as…
Did Prehistoric Children Make Figurines Out of Clay?
Two sides of a single ceramic lion’s head and a female figurine from Dolni Vestonice Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz / Becky Farbstein with permission from Martin Oliva at the Moravian…
A Buried Ancient Egyptian Port Reveals the Hidden Connections Between Distant Civilizations
By Jo Marchant Photographs by Roger Anis On a sunny morning this past January, Ingo Strauch, an expert in ancient Indian history, crouches in the courtyard of what was once…
These Ancient Celts Were Buried With Their Animals
The remains of a dog buried next to a baby Laffranchi et al., 2024, CC-BY 4.0 Almost two decades ago, when construction unearthed a 2,000-year-old Celtic cemetery in what’s now…