Archaeology

Archaeologists use the remains of the past to help solve the puzzles of history. Whether you are curious about ancient cultures or are considering a career as an archaeologist yourself, these resources can help you put it all together.

  • Dr. Heinrich Schliemann's Excavations in the Acropolis of Mycenae
    Heinrich Schliemann and the Discovery of Troy
  • Ceiba Tree at Caracol, Belize
    Ceiba pentandra: The Sacred Tree of the Maya
  • Aztec God of Rain
    Tlaloc the Aztec God of Rain and Fertility
  • Laussel Venus, Upper Paleolithic Bas-Relief, ca. 25,000 Years Old
    History of Alcohol: A Timeline
  • Urban Maize Garden in Berlin. Germany
    Ancient Farming - Concepts, Techniques, and Experimental Archaeology
  • Kiva at Spruce Tree House
    Kiva - Ancestral Pueblo Ceremonial Structures
  • The Skull of the Smoking Mirror, Cult Representation of Tezcatlipoca
    Tezcatlipoca: Aztec God of Night and Smoking Mirrors
  • Taino Zemi - Walters Art Museum
    Ritual Objects of the Ancient Taino of the Caribbean Islands
  • Mesopotamian Tablet with Uruk IV Proto-Cuneiform Writing, ca 3200 BC
    Proto-Cuneiform: Earliest Form of Writing on Planet Earth
  • El Chultun, Maya ruins, Kabah, Yucatan, Mexico
    Understanding Ancient Maya Storage Systems
  • Dzitnup Cenote - Valladolid Region, Yucatan, Mexico
    The Geology and Archaeology of Sinkholes
  • detail of part of the Narmer Palette
    The Narmer Palette
  • Homo Erectus (or H. heidelbergensis) Colonization in Europe
  • Close up of the Dancing Girl from Mohenjo-Daro.
    Ancient Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-Daro
  • Close up of Mayan God, Chaac's face on side of building.
    Chaac, the Ancient Mayan God of Rain, Lightning, and Storms
  • Xiahe Mandible Reconstruction
    Complete Guide to the Denisovans, a Newer Hominid Species
  • Bonampak Murals, Room 3: Royal Family Performing a Bloodletting Ritual
    Maya Bloodletting Rituals - Ancient Sacrifice to Speak to the Gods
  • Reconstruction of Hominid Oldowan Flake Production
    Hammerstone: The Simplest and Oldest Stone Tool
  • Persian lion mounted on a wheeled carriage.
    The Invention of the Wheel and Wheeled Vehicles
  • Close up of Sculpted Architectural Head, Angkor Wat.
    The Khmer Empire Water Management System
  • Huitzilopochtli
    Huitzilopochtli
  • A garden in front of a hut.
    The Three Sisters: the Traditional Intercropping Agricultural Method
  • Path through the jungle connects the Mayan temple buildings at Coba.
    Sacbe, the Ancient Maya Road System
  • Carved head of Itzamna in Izamal by Frederick Catherwood (1799-1854), engraving is from Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, by John Lloyd Stephens, 1841. 19th century.
    Itzamná: The Mayan Supreme Being and Father of the Universe
  • A Brokpa woman spinning sheep wool using a drop spindle known as a Yoekpa
    Spindle Whorls
  • Close up of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano Erupting In Iceland, 2010.
    The Dust Veil Environmental Disaster of AD 536
  • The Hero Twins Consult with God L
    Hunahpu and Xbalanque — The Maya Hero Twins
  • One of the many Amesbury Archer arrowheads in detail, from Stonehenge (Beaker 2,300 BC).
    Arrowheads and Other Projectile Points
  • Detail of Venus of Laussel
    Venus of Laussel: 20,000 Year Old Goddess
  • Jade Maya Carving of a Seated Dignitary from Las Cuevas
    Precolumbian Jade
  • Sets of Levallois and Bifacial Tools from Nor Geghi 1.
    The Evolution of Stone Tools
  • Clay Tokens, Uruk Period, Excavated from Susa, Iran
    Clay Token System
  • Nok sculpture on display at a museum.
    Nok Art Was Early Sculptural Pottery in West Africa
  • Melting Glacier, Greenland
    Last Glacial Maximum - The Last Major Global Climate Change
  • Lady Dai's Funeral Banner, Mawangdui, Han Dynasty
    Lady Dai's Funeral Banner
  • El Tajin, Pyramid of the Niches (south-west side)
    Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajin
  • Wooden statuettes
    History of the Quiché Maya
  • Pages from the Madrid Codex
    Mesoamerican Calendar
  • De Soto in America, by Frederic Remington
    Searching for Mabila
  • Paleolithic exhibit showing early humans living in a cave.
    Guide to the Châtelperronian
  • Neanderthal Reconstruction, Neanderthal Museum, Erkrath Germany
    Neanderthals - Study Guide
  • Helicopter Lands at Nenets Encampment
    Lyuba the Baby Mammoth
  • Hand of Grauballe Man, Iron Age bog mummy, Aarhus, Denmark, Scandinavia, Europe
    Grauballe Man (Denmark) - European Iron Age Bog Body
  • Aztec Sun Stone, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
    Tonatiuh, the Aztec God of the Sun, Fertility and Sacrifice
  • Levallois Core from the Douro Basin, Portugal
    Levallois Technique - Middle Paleolithic Stone Tool Working
  • San Bushman Rock Art, Sevilla Rock Art Trail, Traveller's Rest, Cederberg Mountains, Clanwilliam, Western Cape Province, South Africa
    Bow and Arrow Hunting
  • Remains of Temple at Tulum, Engraving by Frederick Catherwood
    John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood
  • Step Pyramid of Djoser
    Step Pyramid of Djoser - Ancient Egypt's First Monumental Pyramid
  • Palisaded Mound Group at Aztalan, Wisconsin
    Moundbuilder Myth - History and Death of a Legend
  • House in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Village of Beidha, Jordan, 7200-6500, 7th-6th Millenium B.C., stone, clay and wood building'
    Pre-Pottery Neolithic: Farming and Feasting Before Pottery
  • Monastery Building on the Vistula River in Poland
    How Gustaf Kossinna Mapped the Nazis' European Empire
  • A mountain range in the Pervuian Andes
    The Archaeology of Peru and the Central Andes
  • Atlantean warriors, Temple of Quetzalcoatl, archaeological site of Tula, Mexico, Toltec Civilization
    The Toltecs - Semi-Mythical Legend of the Aztecs
  • Sunburst over Grand Pacific Glacier, Alaska
    Climate Change: The Archaeological Evidence
  • Banded Mongoose (Mungos mungo)
    Mongooses
  • Laetoli Footprints - Reproduction at the Field Museum, Chicago
    Laetoli - 3.5 Million Year Old Hominin Footprints in Tanzania
  • Early markers of settlement in the Grand Canyon
    How were the Americas Populated?
  • Skeleton of Megatherium, extinct giant ground sloth, 1833.Artist: Jackson
    Ground Sloths - An American Survivor of the Megafaunal Extinction
  • statue of Diego de Landa
    Diego de Landa (1524-1579), Bishop and Inquisitor of Early Colonial Yucatan
  • A cup of traditional drink Pulque also known as octli.
    The Origin of Pulque
  • Discovery of the Skull of the Earliest Member of the Human Family
    Toumaï (Chad) Our Ancestor Sahelanthropus tchadensis
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