Viking Houses
Wednesday September 28, 2011
The Vikings, or as they were known outside of their Scandinavian homes, the Norse or those rotten bums, were aggressive colonizers, who murdered and raided their way across Europe and ... Read More
Actun Tunichil Muknal (Belize)
Tuesday September 27, 2011
Actun Tunichil Muknal, or Cave of the Stone Sepulcher, is a long subterranean cave in the Roaring Creek Valley of the Cayo region of Belize, used by the Classic period ... Read More
Iron Age Barley Beer
Monday September 26, 2011
Some 1500 years before hops were added as a flavoring and preservative, making beer was a pressing domestic matter, a foodstuff that needed to be made and drunk very quickly ... Read More
Chicomoztoc and Origin Myths of Mesoamerica
Friday September 23, 2011
Textbooks and general public outreach articles about Mesoamerica often of necessity split Mesoamerica into discrete pieces: Toltec, Aztec, Maya, Olmec. It is plainly easier for us modern types to think ... Read More
Burnum - The Roman Empire in Croatia
Wednesday September 21, 2011
The archaeological site of Šuplja Crkva (Hollow Church in Croatian) is the ruins of Burnum, a Roman empire encampment and city occupied between the first century BC and the sixth ... Read More
Mesoamerican Caves
Tuesday September 20, 2011
Caves, or underground openings of any sort, are seen as places of great mystery, beauty and creepiness even by us secular modern types. The Maya and other Mesoamerican groups saw ... Read More
Ruins of the Riviera Maya
Monday September 19, 2011
Also known as the Maya Riviera, depending on which travel agency you go with, the Riviera Maya is a stretch of heart-breakingly beautiful white sand beaches and rocky outcrops along ... Read More
Etowah Mounds
Friday September 16, 2011
The site called Etowah Mounds is located on the Etowah River near Cartersville in northwestern Georgia in the American southeast, and currently owned by the state of Georgia and open ... Read More
Paleodemography
Wednesday September 14, 2011
Archaeology as a science is characterized by a frustrating lack of direct evidence and an astounding abundance of tantalizing bits of data about the past. Many scholars (me included when ... Read More
Exploring the Northern Maya Lowlands
Monday September 12, 2011
Archaeological travel--designing a vacation around a set of archaeological sites--is one of the most rewarding ways of seeing the world. It gives you a taste of the ancient world, an ... Read More
Australopithecus sediba: New Ancestor?
Friday September 9, 2011
This week, scholars writing in Science magazine announced a new date for the hominin Australopithecus sediba. Au. sediba was reported last year, with a bracketed date between 1.78 and 1.95 ... Read More
Mesoamerican World View
Wednesday September 7, 2011
The world views of all of the ancient Mesoamerican societies had strong similarities, which shouldn't be too much of a surprise to any of us. Beginning with preclassic Olmec civilization, ... Read More
Lake Dwellings and Otzi the Iceman
Tuesday September 6, 2011
Lake dwellings, also called pile dwellings or Alpine lake dwellings, are a type of house, and their remains provide a type of archaeological site dear to the hearts of many ... Read More
Maya Cave Paintings at Naj Tunich
Monday September 5, 2011
Naj Tunich is a cave site, located in the Peten region of Guatemala, which was used as a ritual place by the Classic period Maya. Discovered in 1979, the cave ... Read More
Oxkintok
Sunday September 4, 2011
One of the less well-known Maya sites to visit in the Yucatan peninsula is Oxkintok, a lovely quiet and yet quite dense group of buildings.
Among the many things ... Read More
World's Oldest Acheulean Handaxe - And What it Might Mean
Friday September 2, 2011
Featured on the cover of the science journal Nature this week is an Acheulean handaxe, the earliest ever found anywhere. It was excavated from the Kokiselei complex of sites, out ... Read More