As is customary this time of year, Archaeology magazine has named its top ten news stories of the year; this year, editor Mark Rose came up with 17, because it was just one of those years.
- Maya Blue
- Wari Masked Mummy
- Zincirli, Turkey Stone with a soul
- Paisley Caves preclovis DNA
- Bamiyan Oil Paintings
- Homo erectus in Spain
- Oldest shoes, Tianyuan Cave
- 16th century shipwreck off Namibia
- Colossal heads of Rome
- Origins of whaling
- Bamiyan Buddha
- Melting glacial discoveries
- Zaraysk figurines
- Mammoth DNA
- Tracking Tuberculosis
- Arnhem Land rock art
- Roman bust in the Rhone
See our Ancient History guide N.S. Gill's post on Archaeology's top ten for some interesting discussion.
Comments
When I posted about the initial 10, someone responded that the list was very PC. I wonder if the additional 7 rounds it out so it’s not so PC.
Maybe this is a stupid question, but is Mammoth DNA really archaeology? Isn’t that more paleontology. I mean it’s not a study on projectile technology used in killing mammoths or something like that.
Well, yes, you’re right–it is paleontology, but it is also an animal study that’s pertinent to archaeology, since at least for some period of time we were hunting mammoths, and hunting them at the time when the DNA would be pretty interesting to us. There are lots of subsidiary studies of animals and plants that we’d have to leave out of archaeology if they absolutely must have humans involved, so I say–let’s leave it in.