Archaeological news from around the world. This site is updated daily with the latest world news.  Website

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June 28, 2023
9 Archaeological Finds Scientists Still Can't Explain
Braving the sun's furnace, a fire determined to bake everything, whether living or non-living. Digging up ruins for long hours—sometimes in the terrifying cover of darkness—and where human settlements are few and far between. And then meeting weird people and weird things. This is the life of an archaeologist. Yet, all these pale compared to the sheer thrill of making a huge discovery. Consider the major finds, for instance, at Pharaoh Tut’s tomb. Or even the Rosetta Stone, the key that finally made it possible to decipher the hieroglyphs. However, it is also not rare that archaeologists fail in their endeavors. For example, up to now, they have searched in vain for Cleopatra’s tomb and disagree on the actual purpose of Stonehenge. As curious creatures, humans continue to shine the spotlight on these archaeological finds that scientists still can’t explain. Read More

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June 15, 2023
Provo excavation finds artifacts tied to 1,000-year-old Fremont village
Almost 1,000 years ago, a flourishing Native American village of people archaeologists call the Fremont was sprawled across the area that is now west Provo.

“There were large populations living in these valleys before the pioneers and even before the Ute,” said Dr. Michael Searcy, an anthropology professor at Brigham Young University and co-director of the current excavation at a digging site called the Hinckley Mounds.

The Fremont are estimated to have lived in the area from around 700 A.D. to 1300 A.D., where evidence suggests they farmed corn and hunted and gathered for other food.

The current excavation is part of BYU’s Archaeology Field School from May 1 to June 23, where graduate and undergraduate students can get hands-on experience with archaeology, which Searcy said is “fantastic” in the west Provo area. Read More

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June 09, 2023
'Slow detective process': Archaeologists uncover Native American artifacts in East Peoria
PEORIA – Four weeks of painstaking labor went into the excavation of a 600-year-old Native American home in East Peoria this summer, but the more prolonged task won't begin until archaeologists return to their labs with the artifacts they discovered.

“Usually a month in the field is at least a year in the lab,” said Dana Bardolph, an archaeologist based at Northern Illinois University. She and Greg Wilson, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have been working since mid-May at a site near the McClugage Bridge. The artifacts they found will be cataloged, tested, and analyzed in the coming months. Read More

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June 01, 2023
Siouxlanders get their hands dirty trying out archaeology
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU)– Siouxlanders sifted through dirt at the Sioux City Railroad Museum, in search of artifacts.

This year marks the ninth year the railroad museum has held the Archaeology Field Day event, with roughly 40 Sioux landers participating this year.

“So we are going to dig a few holes to see if we can find any artifacts,” said Cindy Peterson, archaeologist research director with the University of Iowa.

“Sometimes the land is holding a story for us to discover and these artifacts are helping us with telling that story,” said Larry Obermeyer, a railroad historian and researcher at the Sioux City Railroad Museum.

The goal of the event is to find more evidence of where railroad workers lived from 1916 to 1918, when the complex was first built. Read More

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May 21, 2023
5 archaeological site areas in San Diego with remnants of the past
SAN DIEGO — With over 6,500 recorded Native American and historic archaeological sites in San Diego, taking a look back at ancient civilizations is as easy as visiting a one of the many state parks in the region.

According to the California Department of Parks and Recreation (CDPR), San Diego was home to various groups and tribes before later becoming the home of two Spanish Missions. From there, the region developed into homesteads and towns, leaving a trial of history behind. 4 castles within driving distance of San Diego

For an up-close look at remnants of the past, here are five archaeological site areas right here in San Diego County that contain traces of the civilizations that came before us.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
This park contains over 4,400 recorded archaeological sites, according to CDPR. Some of these sites include villages, camps, hunting sites, food and material processing sites, rock art sites and sacred places. California officials say there are eight cultural preserves set aside to protect the cultural resources within this park. Read More

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May 15, 2023
Native American remains discovered at Dartmouth College spark calls for accountability
As a citizen of the Quapaw Nation, Ahnili Johnson-Jennings has always seen Dartmouth College as the university for Native American students.

Her father graduated from the school, founded in 1769 to educate Native Americans, and she had come to rely on its network of students, professors and administrators. But news in March that the Ivy League school in New Hampshire found partial skeletal remains of 15 Native Americans in one of its collections has Johnson-Jennings and others reassessing that relationship.

"It's hard to reconcile. It's hard to see the college in this old way where they were taking Native remains and using them for their own benefit," said Johnson-Jennings, a senior and co-president of Native Americans at Dartmouth. The remains were used to teach a class as recently as last year, just before an audit concluded they had been wrongly catalogued as not Native. Read More

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May 08, 2023
U.S. Repatriates Looted Artifacts to Yemen
NEW YORK, NEW YORK—According to a statement released by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, three artifacts recovered from a private collector were repatriated to Yemen during a recent ceremony attended by Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, the Yemeni ambassador to the United States, and Assistant Special Agent in Charge, James Deboer, of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. The objects include an alabaster ram with an inscribed base from the Hayd bin Aqeel necropolis that has been dated to the fifth century B.C.; an alabaster figure of a female deity dated to the second century B.C.; and an inscribed silver vessel from Shabwa dated to the second or third centuries A.D. These antiquities were among 89 objects looted from 10 different countries that were seized during a recent investigation. Because of continuing conditions of war in Yemen, the artifacts will be temporarily held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. To read about three carved ram's heads found along the Avenue of the Sphinxes, go to "Around the World: Egypt. Read More

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April 13, 2023
1,000-year-old Native American canoe brought to the lake’s surface
LAKE WACCAMAW, N.C. (WECT/Gray News) – Members of the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe worked with a team of archaeologists to bring a nearly 1,000-year-old canoe to the surface of a lake in North Carolina.

Waccamaw Siouan Chief Michael Jacobs said the canoe is a rare opportunity to learn more about Native American culture in southeastern North Carolina.

“That canoe at 28 feet long would have carried many a brave,” Jacobs said. “We feel like in our heart, it’s a history that we’re still exploring and understanding because this is the first time we’ve had access.”

The piece of history had been buried beneath Lake Waccamaw for hundreds of years. It was discovered unexpectedly by three teenagers swimming in the lake during the summer of 2021. Read More

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April 13, 2023
Archaeologist explains why we need to look underwater to understand our past
Traces of the past remain hidden in rivers, lakes and seas. But we rarely look underwater and, as they say, out of sight is out of mind. In his inaugural lecture Martijn Manders will explain why underwater archaeology is so important to understanding our history.

"The water is full of interesting finds," says Manders, Endowed Professor of Underwater Archaeology and Maritime Heritage Management. "In the most unexpected and remote parts of the sea are 1,623 Dutch-owned ships and these tell us who and what we are." One example of this is the Dutch East India Company ship Rooswijk from 1740. Research into this ship brings to light the international and Dutch maritime trade: large trade networks that the Netherlands still relies on. Read More

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April 01, 2023
Clues to the Lives of North America’s First Inhabitants Are Hidden Underwater
Submerged prehistory holds insights on the first humans to live in North America

Below the surfaces of freshwater springs, lakes and rivers, sunken landscapes hold clues about the daily lives, beliefs and diets of the first humans to settle in what is now the United States. But submerged prehistory, as the study of these millennia-old sites is widely known, is often overlooked in favor of more traditional underwater archaeology centered on shipwrecks.

“There’s tremendous work to be done,” says Barbara Purdy, author of The Art and Archaeology of Florida’s Wetlands and an emeritus anthropologist at the University of Florida. “Fast-developing technology holds great potential to explore what lies below. One day, the sunken world will unlock the answer to how America was really settled and how [our] ancestors lived.” Read More

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March 22, 2023
Archaeologist discusses Civil War sites in Missouri
A presentation was held Tuesday at Westminster College about using archaeology as a method to reinterpret Civil War sites in Missouri.

The event was presented by Westminster College, the Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society and Missouri Humanities.

The presentation, titled "Debunking Iconic Myths: Using Archaeology to Reinterpret Civil War Sites' Stories in Missouri," was given by archaeologist Douglas Scott.

Scott is an adjunct research faculty member at Colorado Mesa University, and previously retired from the United States National Park Service after over 30 years with the Department of the Interior. Read More

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March 15, 2023
Discovering shipwrecks: Diving into the Graveyard of the Pacific
The watery Graveyard of the Pacific holds the stories of shipwrecks over centuries. Since 1800, more than 2,000 vessels — including about 200 larger ships — have met their fate near the treacherous waters where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

For the maritime archaeologists who study these ships, careful surveying, research and documentation are essential to identifying and preserving them as pieces of history. But unlike many coastal states, Oregon and Washington do not have dedicated underwater archaeologists. One North Coast group is filling the gap. Read More

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March 03, 2023
World War II sub found: Officials confirm final resting place of Akron sailor
Johnny Carano couldn’t wait to go to war like his big brothers.

So he didn’t wait.
The Akron teenager left high school, lied about his age, joined the U.S. Navy and served aboard a submarine during World War II.

Sadly, he never came home.
Naval historians on Feb. 16 confirmed a shipwreck site off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan, as the USS Albacore (SS-218), which was lost at sea Nov. 7, 1944, after striking a mine.

All 85 crew members, including 18-year-old Carano, were killed in the explosion. Read More

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March 02, 2023
Lidar: Revealing Archaeology’s Hidden World With A Billion Points of Light
When looters discovered Colombia’s Ciudad Perdida (“Lost City”) in 1972, it earned status as one of the greatest archaeological finds in modern history.

A half-century later, the site of this ancient civilization remains extremely difficult to explore, with some of the world’s densest jungle obscuring its secrets.

Then the GEO1 team showed up.
In 2019, the firm partnered with National Geographic explorer Albert Lin to map the area using a helicopter equipped with light detection and ranging (lidar), a laser technology that remotely captures geographic data. It can peek through a thick forest canopy to detect what’s underneath.

Complete excavations of sites like Ciudad Perdida can take decades — and usually involve plenty of environmental destruction along the way. With aerial lidar, the GEO1 team was able to record most of the settlement’s streets and plazas in a single day.

“Lidar has the potential to be that technology not only to discover what’s there but to preserve what’s there,” said Ron Chapple, one of the leaders at GEO1, a subsidiary of NV5 Geospatial. Read More

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February 23, 2023
The big archaeological digs happening up in the sky
Laser technology called lidar is helping archaeologists complete years of fieldwork sometimes in the span of a single afternoon

Archaeology is facing a time crunch. Thousands of years of human history risk imminent erasure, from tiny hamlets to entire cities - temples, walls and roads under grave threat of destruction. Urban sprawl and industrial agriculture are but two culprits, smothering ancient settlements beneath car parks and cattle pastures. International conflict and climate change are also damaging vulnerable sites, with warfare and water shortages destroying pockets of history across the world.

The endless excavations of yesteryear are no longer the best solution. Big digs aren’t the big idea they once were: mapping the human archaeological record is now moving upward, into the sky. Read More

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February 23, 2023
New data suggests a timeline for arrival of the first Americans
umans may have arrived in North America earlier than once thought and encountered previously unrecognized challenges, according to new climate research from an interdisciplinary team that includes scientists from the University of Oregon.

Jon Erlandson, an archaeologist and director of the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is no stranger to research updating the understanding of early human migration to North America. Erlandson helped develop the “kelp highway” hypothesis, which proposed that the first Americans followed a Pacific Coast route from Northeast Asia to Beringia and the Pacific Northwest, using boats to navigate highly productive nearshore kelp-forest ecosystems. Read More

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February 20, 2023
Finding forgotten Indigenous landscapes with electromagnetic technology
Jarrod Burks opened the rear cargo door of his van and pointed to an array of strange equipment tangled inside. White PVC tubes were locked together, forming an expandable, fence-like grid, with large, rugged wheels attached beneath. Beside it all, on a layer of soft blankets, were a tablet computer, many yards of cables, and a GPS antenna, held in a small protective case. Properly assembled, Burks explained, this was a magnetometer—a device for measuring tiny fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field. It is a tool so finicky that interference from a cell phone in his jeans pocket can ruin an entire day’s data, so sensitive that it can pick up traces of ancient campfires extinguished more than a thousand years ago.

Burks, 50, sporting a closely trimmed, graying beard and a pair of rectangular eyeglasses, began hauling his mix of parts outside, where he would piece them together on the dew-covered grass. Emblazoned on the side of his van was the logo of Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc. (OVAI), a privately owned cultural-resource management firm based in Columbus, the state capital. Burks has worked full time at OVAI since 2004, shortly after earning his PhD in archaeology from Ohio State University; he is now its director of archaeological geophysics. In addition to performing site surveys throughout the Midwest and abroad—including congressionally funded trips to map overseas battlefields, where he searches for the remains of US soldiers—Burks is president of the Heartland Earthworks Conservancy, dedicated to “advancing the preservation of ancient earthworks in southern Ohio.” By using one of the most advanced geophysical tools on the market, Burks is helping to reveal—and thus preserve—forgotten monuments of explosively creative cultures, groups that not only were capable of large-scale architectural engineering but thoroughly reshaped the North American landscape. Read More

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February 09, 2023
What Do Archaeologists Do?
Archaeologists use a wide variety of methods to explore a fascinating range of topics about human history, culture, and behavior. Here’s an overview of the ways archaeologists preserve heritage and how you can work in this field.

Archaeologists study the physical objects, places, and landscapes that humans create, modify, or interact with. Their goal is to learn more about human histories and experiences. Archaeologists investigate the physical traces of human activities, which are sometimes called material culture. These materials can be very recent—such as the objects on someone’s bookshelf or trash from the 1969 Woodstock festival. Alternatively, they can be very old—like the first stone tools from 3.3 million years ago or 45,000-year-old cave paintings in Indonesia.

Sometimes, archaeologists study the smallest traces of human activities, such as the microscopic shapes of domesticated maize starch grains or remnants of meals preserved in the plaque that forms on teeth. They also examine some of the largest, such as the ancient city of Petra in Jordan or Maya pyramids in Mexico. Read More

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February 03, 2023
Archaeologist discusses recent discovery of Native American Canal
Victor Thompson, distinguished research professor and director of the Laboratory of Archaeology in the department of anthropology in Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, spoke with Smithsonian Magazine about a recent discovery.

In Gulf Shores, Alabama, archaeologists from the University of Southern Alabama in Mobile have finally investigated a place the locals called an “Indian Ditch.” What they found was much more than an ancient hole.

“I think one of the things that [this discovery] underscores is the incredibly engineered landscape that exists among the Native peoples of the Gulf Coast,” said Thompson. Read More

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January 31, 2023
What makes archaeology useful as well as exciting? It offers lessons from the past
Archaeology is fun. It’s so much fun that sometimes people do not treat it with the seriousness it deserves. Studying the past, through what people leave behind, can offer insights into some of the world’s challenges – like hunger, health, and protecting the environment.

Some of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world include Great Zimbabwe, the Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. Side by side with these very old and massive structures are sediments, old bones, seeds, pottery, glass, metals and human skeletons. All yield clues about ancient environments, societies and economies.

Archaeological discoveries sometimes grab headlines: Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt in 1922, the Terracotta Army discovery by local farmers in China in 1974, the spectacular objects of Igbo Ukwu in Nigeria, the gold burials of Mapungubwe and the Staffordshire hoard in England are a few examples that come to mind. Read More

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January 27, 2023
The Museum Built on Native American Burial Mounds
For decades, Dickson Mounds Museum in Illinois displayed the open graves of more than 200 Indigenous people. Thirty years after a federal law required museums to begin returning remains, the statewide museum system still holds thousands.

Every day when Logan Pappenfort is at work, he tries not to dwell on what’s under his feet. Beneath the south wing of the museum where he’s interim director are the remains of at least 234 of his ancestors.

For more than 800 years, they laid undisturbed, carefully buried inside a mound of earth overlooking a quiet valley and a slow river. Then in the 1920s, a chiropractor named Don Dickson dug open the mound, eventually exposing the remains of hundreds of Native Americans. He left them in place, and his family turned the excavation into a roadside attraction they called Dickson Mounds. They charged visitors 50 cents for admission.

In 1945, the state of Illinois purchased the site and later expanded it into a museum. The exposed human remains were used for decades to teach schoolchildren, visitors and local residents about what the museum presented as a long-gone culture of Illinois Indians. Read More

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January 25, 2023
The Intersection of Archaeology and the Trail
Imagine walking along a beautiful green trail. Wildflowers sprinkle the grass, the birds are singing, the bugs are buzzing, and you’re marching along on this beautiful day. Soon you enter a clearing, a nice flat area that sprawls before you with a small creek running through it. You follow the trail, and while you’re looking down, you see something that catches your eye. It looks like some kind of rock sticking out of the earth. You pick it up and recognize it as an arrowhead. You look around some more, but can’t find anything else, so you pocket your find and keep on hiking.

Hi! My name is Alejandra, and I’m an archaeologist. This year I will be attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. While preparing for this hike, I’ve read several books, multiple of which mention artifact hunting along the AT. As an archaeologist, I believe this is unethical and a topic that requires further attention. In this article, I hope to discuss the previous scenario and why it is important to protect the archaeology around us. But first, let me give you a little introduction to what archaeology is and what I do. Read More

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January 24, 2023
How archaeologists are racing to uncover hidden treasures beneath melting glaciers
Rapidly melting ice in the Alps is revealing all sorts of ancient artefacts. Researchers are now against the clock to protect these antiquities before it’s too late.

On top of a nearby rock, a marmot perches, rotund from a summer of feasting. Cowbells chime in the green pasture below. The path ahead is blocked by a stubborn herd of sheep. As I approach, they scurry up the rocky cliff.

Balancing stone to stone, I cross a small stream, before zigzagging up the mountainside. The higher I go, the harder it is to breathe, the altitude and heavy backpack weighing me down. I’m now past the tree line. The ground is barren, except for some lichen clinging to the rocky ground. Read More

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January 24, 2023
Excavation underway on historic site before construction
A team of archeologists is excavating a site on Redstone Arsenal to preserve artifacts and features there, in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act, before work starts on a construction project.

The excavation site is located at what was the Fennell Plantation, likely occupied between 1820 and 1940, according to Redstone Arsenal’s Cultural Resource Manager Ben Hoksbergen. “The current excavation site was probably the location of the main house for the plantation owned by members of the Fennell family from 1843 to 1918,” he said in a release.

About a dozen people were working at the site Friday, a mix of employees at New South Associates Inc., of Stone Mountain, Georgia, which is under contract to excavate the site, conduct historic research, and analyze the data from the dig, and others hired for the project.

“We’ve numbered up to 81 features so far” from the site, Anne Dorland, of New South Associates, the primary investigator and archaeologist for the project, said. About 5,000 artifacts have also been discovered – from ceramic buttons to stone tools and horseshoes. Features, or nonportable archaeological remnants, that have been found include trash pits, foundations, and cellar pits. Read More

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January 10, 2023
‘Almost at war’: shipwreck hunters battle it out for sunken treasure
Questions of ownership – and whether shipwrecks are being explored or plundered – are causing deep divides among the people who dedicate their lives to unearthing the ocean’s hidden loot

When Ohio shipwreck hunter Thomas “Tommy” Thompson found the wreck of the SS Central America on the bottom of the Atlantic in 1988 he struck gold, literally. He brought to the surface millions in gold bars and coins from the ship, which sank in a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina in 1857.

Over the years, excitement at the discovery of this watery treasure trove soured. Investors, who had helped raise $12.7m to fund the shipwreck hunt, accused Thompson of cheating them out of their share of the proceeds.

After a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in 2012, Thompson went on the run for more than two years, before being tracked down to a Florida hotel room. Still refusing to disclose the location of the coins, he is now about to mark his seventh year in jail for contempt, racking up a daily fine of $1,000. Read More

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January 09, 2023
Drought, floods, wildfires: Climate change upends archaeology
The job of the modern-day archaeologist is changing rapidly, as flooding, wildfires and other extreme weather-related curveballs damage or destroy excavation sites — and drought reveals long-hidden historic artifacts.

Why it matters: Important cultural treasures and historical records are at stake as heirlooms from the past are damaged or curiosity-seekers grab souvenirs.

o "From Iran to Scotland, Florida to Rapa Nui and beyond, sites are currently being eroded at an increasing rate, often before scientists can record them and assess their value," according to a scholarly article in Antiquity magazine.
o At the same time, drought and low water levels have uncovered everything from 113-million-year-old dinosaur tracks in Texas to World War II-era boats in California's Lake Shasta and the Nevada portion of Lake Mead.
o Tourists who stumble on freshly unearthed relics are being asked to report them to authorities — and keep their distance. Read More

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January 04, 2023
U.S. Museum Repatriates Sarcophagus to Egypt
CAIRO, EGYPT—The Guardian reports that a wooden sarcophagus held at the Houston Museum of Natural Science has been repatriated to Egypt. Mostafa Waziri of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said that surviving inscriptions on the coffin, which measures nearly 10 feet long, suggest it may have belonged to a priest named Ankhenmaat. He also explained that the coffin has been dated to Egypt’s Late Period, between about 712 and 332 B.C. The sarcophagus was looted from northern Egypt’s Abusir necropolis by an art trafficking network, and was smuggled through Germany and into the United States in 2008, according to Manhattan district attorney Alvin L. Bragg. A collector later loaned it to the museum in 2013. For more on Abusir, go to "In the Reign of the Sun Kings." Read More

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December 23, 2022
Oregon State archaeologists uncover oldest known projectile points in the Americas
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State University archaeologists have uncovered projectile points in Idaho that are thousands of years older than any previously found in the Americas, helping to fill in the history of how early humans crafted and used stone weapons.

The 13 full and fragmentary projectile points, razor sharp and ranging from about half an inch to 2 inches long, are from roughly 15,700 years ago, according to carbon-14 dating. That’s about 3,000 years older than the Clovis fluted points found throughout North America, and 2,300 years older than the points previously found at the same Cooper’s Ferry site along the Salmon River in present-day Idaho.

The findings were published today in the journal Science Advances. Read More

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December 15, 2022
15 extraordinary discoveries of 2022
We may dream of winning the lottery, but what about finding a medieval-era wedding ring in your yard, or a Byzantine-era mosaic on your farm?

Everyday people joined archaeologists and art conservators in finding some of the year's most compelling discoveries. Among them was a Van Gogh self-portrait, hidden behind a painting, a vast unearthed Roman town, and a secret tunnel to what could be Cleopatra's lost tomb.

Below are the most exciting art and archaeology discoveries of 2022.

'Naughty pupils' ancient punishment method resurfaces

When Ancient Egyptian youth were disciplined with writing lines 2,000 years ago, they likely didn't expect their efforts would survive long enough for us to see. Read More

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December 15, 2022
Aggie Archaeologists Conserving Ship From Colonial-Era Virginia
The long-forgotten trading vessel was unearthed in Alexandria and shipped to Texas A&M for extensive study and preservation.

At a humble facility that once served as the fire station for the Bryan Air Force Base, the timbers of an 18th-century merchant ship lie submerged in a row of long, shallow tanks, quietly awaiting their final voyage home.

Over the next few years, a team of Texas A&M University professors and students will carefully conserve the salvaged remains of a colonial-era shipwreck before sending the pieces back to Alexandria, Virginia, where the wreck was originally discovered in 2015.

It’s a big job, says Chris Dostal, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology’s nautical archaeology program and director of the Conservation Research Laboratory, located at the RELLIS Campus in Bryan. But as Dostal explains, Texas A&M is one of just a handful of institutions in the country with the knowledge and resources to permanently preserve this important piece of American history. Read More

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December 06, 2022
Mysterious Object Emerges on a Florida Beach, Setting Off Speculation
The object appears to be about 80 feet long and made of wood and metal.

There’s something protruding through the sand at Daytona Beach Shores in Volusia County, Fla., and it’s got local residents and officials buzzing with curiosity.

The unknown object was recently discovered by beachgoers and Volusia County Beach Safety, county officials said in a series of statements by email.

They said the object was visible in part because of beach erosion caused by Hurricane Nicole, which ripped through Florida last month, and by Hurricane Ian, which hit the state in September and was one of the most powerful storms to strike the United States in the past decade. Continued high tides and rough surf also played a role in the object’s discovery, just south of Daytona Beach. Read More

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December 05, 2022
The US' 2,000-year-old mystery mounds
Constructed by a mysterious civilisation that left no written records, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are a testament to indigenous sophistication.

Autumn leaves crackled under our shoes as dozens of eager tourists and I followed a guide along a grassy mound. We stopped when we reached the opening of a turf-topped circle, which was formed by another wall of mounded earth. We were at The Octagon, part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, a large network of hand-constructed hills spread throughout central and southern Ohio that were built as many as 2,000 years ago. Indigenous people would come to The Octagon from hundreds of miles away, gathering regularly for shared rituals and worship.  Read More

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December 01, 2022
This Prehistoric Circle In Miami Is The Only One Of Its Kind In The Eastern U.S.
This circle in Miami, Florida, is one of a kind, with twenty-four mysterious holes dating back to prehistoric times.
The Miami Circle, also known as Brickell Point and the Miami River Circle, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2009. The circle, discovered in the early years of 1998, is a result of an archaeological investigation commissioned by real estate developer Michael Bauman.

Surveyors unearthed hundreds of mysterious holes buried beneath a layer of limestone, halting the demolition of the current apartment building and the construction of high-end condominiums. Read More

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November 26, 2022
NWA EDITORIAL | Artifacts found on land near the national battlefield in Pea Ridge can help reveal Arkansas, American history
Planning commissions do important work, but it's not often they draw editorial comment. But when a subdivision is proposed next to a Civil War battlefield and national park, a little extra scrutiny is in order.

This particular subdivision is on 43 acres adjacent to the Pea Ridge National Military Park. At 4,300 acres, the park covers a lot of the area where more than 23,000 soldiers fought in March 1862 in one of the most important Civil War battles west of the Mississippi River. But with that many troops, the modern-day boundary of a national park certainly doesn't contain all the land affected by their presence.

The Benton County Planning Board recently approved the subdivision, but Mayor Jackie Crabtree requested developers keep the Pea Ridge National Military Park Foundation apprised of any historical artifacts found on the property while it's being developed. Read More

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November 18, 2022
With Netflix’s Ancient Apocalypse, Graham Hancock has declared war on archaeologists
Netflix’s enormously popular new show, Ancient Apocalypse, is an all out attack on archaeologists. As an archaeologist committed to public engagement who strongly believes in the relevance of studying ancient people, I feel a full-throated defence is necessary.

Author Graham Hancock is back, defending his well-trodden theory about an advanced global ice age civilisation, which he connects in Ancient Apocalypse to the legend of Atlantis. His argument, as laid out in this show and in several books, is that this advanced civilisation was destroyed in a cataclysmic flood.

The survivors of this advanced civilisation, according to Hancock, introduced agriculture, architecture, astronomy, arts, maths and the knowledge of “civilisation” to “simple” hunter gatherers. The reason little evidence exists, he says, is because it is under the sea or was destroyed by the cataclysm. Read More

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October 26, 2022
Mississippi Drought Reveals Hidden Civil War Relics in River
Relics and artifacts from the American Civil War have been discovered laying on the banks of the Mississippi River due to its lower water levels caused by drought.

Riley Bryant, who goes by the username relic.riley online, shared videos of him discovering Civil War-era bullets and an entire intact belt buckle inscribed with the letters "US."

"I'm walking the riverbank here in Memphis, you can see the Bass Pro Pyramid, and all this stuff is just washed out," Bryant says in a video he posted to Instagram. "And look what I just found laying here, look at that! It's a Civil War belt buckle! Look, it's perfect shape." Read More

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October 25, 2022
US Army bullets unexpectedly found at 1918 Mexico border massacre site
A ballistics analysis has raised new questions about the role of the US Army in the 1918 Porvenir massacre, where Texas Rangers killed 15 unarmed Mexican boys and men

The first archaeological investigation of the site of a century-old massacre at the US-Mexico border has unexpectedly found bullets and cartridge casings for US military weapons.

On the morning of 28 January 1918, Texas Rangers and local ranchers, escorted by the US Army’s 8th Cavalry, rounded up 15 boys and men of Mexican descent from the town of Porvenir, Texas, and shot them execution-style. None of that is disputed. But new evidence suggesting that both civilian and military weapons were used raises … Read More

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October 13, 2022
Four controversial archaeological finds in the U.S.
Who doesn't like to find buried treasure, whether it be in the form of golden riches or something arguably greater: an object that alters human history in a fundamental way? This drive to unearth archaeological fame has driven many bold claims, claims that, though often lambasted by experts, can be surprisingly difficult to dislodge from a public that's readily awed by them.

"The logical inadequacy to disprove historical scenarios, combined with an all too human wish to be part of a spectacular discovery, have laid the foundation for many archaeological controversies," Gert Jan van 'T Land wrote in a 2016 article published to Skeptic Magazine.

Some of those many controversies have occurred right here in the United States. Here are four of them: Read More

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October 10, 2022
Bay Area archaeologists dig deep to uncover San Francisco's hidden history
SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area archaeologists are uncovering San Francisco's hidden past at the largest public archaeological excavation west of the Mississippi.

With the popularity of Indiana Jones, everyone has become familiar with the idea of archaeology, but beneath the surface, archaeology has quite a bit more to offer.

"The biggest misconceptions people have about archaeology is that we are looking for treasures or gems or gold," archaeologist Kari Jones shares. "Archaeologists are looking for evidence or remains of people. We don't dig dinosaurs."

"What we are looking at is the daily lives of people, what they ate, what they wore, what their living conditions were," archaeologist specialist Georgie Deantoni adds. "People really get excited to understand that we're telling stories of people from 200 years ago." Read More

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October 06, 2022
Archaeologists Dig Up 1,400-Year-Old Native American Canal in Alabama
The nearly mile-long structure allowed inhabitants to paddle to rich fishing grounds and access trade routes

In the beachside resort town of Gulf Shores, Alabama, locals had often referred to an odd feature in the landscape as “Indian ditch.” As far back as the 1820s, a handful of antiquarians and United States Army engineers recognized it as a feature that predated white settlers, but it hadn’t received enough scholarly attention to explain its history and function. One resident, Harry King, who had been exploring the back bays of the region, became fascinated with the remnants of this large trench, about 30 feet wide and 3 feet deep. On visits to the archaeology museum at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, King would encourage researchers to examine it. Gregory Waselkov, a now-retired anthropologist at the university, figured the ditch was probably an antebellum construction built by enslaved laborers. Read More

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October 01, 2022
How digging up the past is helping US military veterans build a future
For many armed forces veterans, the return to civilian life can be a challenge. But one organization is taking an unusual approach to helping ex-service personnel find their feet – involving them in archaeological projects to bring home the remains of fallen soldiers.

Stephen Humphreys, a 40-year-old former US Air Force captain, has led American Veterans Archaeological Recovery (AVAR) since founding it in 2016. The nonprofit organization, he says, helps veterans “find their future while exploring the past.”

Originally from Texas, Humphreys served in the Iraq War, and in the skies above Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. He left the military in 2010 and planned to attend a seminary and serve as a military chaplain. But a life-changing trip to join an excavation in Israel inspired him to retrain as an archaeologist instead. Read More

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September 26, 2022
Second Ancient Native American Canoe Discovered in Wisconsin
MADISON, WISCONSIN—According to a statement released by the Wisconsin Historical Society, a second ancient canoe has been recovered from Lake Mendota. Last year, a 1,200-year-old canoe was discovered in the lake’s mud by maritime archaeologist Tamara Thomsen while on a recreation dive. She found this canoe, which has been radiocarbon dated to 3,000 years ago, while diving this past spring. The vessel, carved from a single piece of white oak, measures about 14.5 feet long. “Since it was located within 100 yards of where the first canoe was found at the bottom of a drop-off in the lakebed, the find has prompted us to research fluctuating water levels and ancient shorelines to explore the possibility that the canoes were near what is now submerged village sites,” said state archaeologist James Skibo. The canoe will be cleaned and cared for by members of the Ho-Chunk Nation and the Bad River Tribe, in addition to the staff of the Wisconsin Historical Society, before it joins the 1,200-year-old canoe in the preservation process at Wisconsin’s State Archive Preservation Facility. To read about the discovery of the first canoe, go to "Gone Fishing." Read More

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September 08, 2022
SC archaeologists search for early American shipwreck near Georgetown
GEORGETOWN — A team of underwater archaeologists is on the hunt for a Spanish shipwreck from the 1500s that could unlock more secrets about one of the earliest European settlements in the continental United States.

An hour after the break of dawn, around 7:45 a.m. Aug. 26, Amber Cabading, Athena Van Overschelde and Will Nassif pulled their boat away from the South Island Public Boat Landing.

The trio from the S.C. Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology was sailing 40 minutes south to a 16½-mile stretch of marsh and open water located at the mouth of the Santee River Inlets. Read More

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September 07, 2022
Archaeology at the Borders of the Refugee Crisis
Archaeological methods, which are typically used to study the past, can also illuminate the experiences of today’s displaced people.

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE from the Global South have left their homes behind to escape poverty, violence, war, or drought. Archaeologists, who usually look back in time, can turn their expertise to these forced migrations, learning about the experiences of these displaced people and the barriers they face by examining the things that are used, carried, or cast aside.
A black-and-white sketch depicts the bust of an older adult with short, white hair and a collared shirt.Anthropologist Randall McGuire

Since the 1970s, anthropologist and archaeologist Randall McGuire, of Binghamton University in New York, has been working in the Sonoran Desert, which straddles the United States’ southern border with Mexico. First led there by archaeology, he became part of the community in the border cities of Nogales in Sonora and Arizona, where the wall may hamper people’s movement but doesn’t stop the smell of cooking food from wafting across. Read More

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August 27, 2022
US agents in Memphis seize shipped ancient Egyptian artifact
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Federal agents in Memphis have seized a potentially 3,000-year-old ancient Egyptian artifact that was shipped in from Europe.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says they intercepted the Egyptian canopic jar lid of the funeral deity named Imsety on Aug. 17. The jars were used to hold the internal organs of mummies.

The agency says the item was sent from a dealer to a private buyer in the U.S., and the shipper made contradicting statements about its value.

Experts at the University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology helped determine the artifact’s authenticity. The agency says the lid is likely from 1069 B.C. to 653 B.C. Read More

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August 24, 2022
WestConn students uncover treasures from Native Americans in archaeological dig in Litchfield County
DANBURY — Spending weeks on your hands and knees sifting through dirt isn’t the “dream job” most students might imagine. But for four Western Connecticut State University students, an archaeological dig in a sun-baked field in Warren provided a fascinating look at how New England’s first inhabitants lived thousands of years ago.

These four students were enrolled in WestConn’s Field Archaeology School, which visits the Deer Run site at Lake Waramaug and other places every summer to recover and analyze Native American artifacts. This site is a treasure trove for archaeologists, and the WestConn class is partnered with the Institute for American Indian Studies in nearby Washington. Read More

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August 16, 2022
Digging into history in state parks and forests
The newest addition to DCNR's successful Pennsylvania Outdoor Corps is the Cultural Resources Crew.

The four-person team is an archaeological and architectural history-focused field crew developed to conduct cultural resources management activities throughout the commonwealth's 121 state parks and more than two million-acre state forest system.

Cultural resources are the remains of past human activity. In Pennsylvania, there's nearly 20,000 years of human history. It's no surprise then that state parks and forests are steeped in both natural and human history. Read More

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July 25, 2022
Domestic chores marked Utes’ use of site on Uncompahgre Plateau
Sometime around 1870, a small group of Ute Native Americans gathered on the east side of the Uncompahgre Plateau to undertake domestic chores. The group — probably an extended family band — spent weeks or even months at what is now called the McMillen Trade Goods Site.

The Utes who stopped there refurbished their ammunition and created beadwork and metal decorations for their clothing and their horse bridles.

They cut metal from flattened tin cans to make cone-shaped decorations known as tinklers. They used metal tools such as a triangular metal file, a crude tweezers and a folding pocket knife.

“It’s one of those sites where you feel like the people who were here walked away from it yesterday,” said Curtis Martin of Palisade, the principal investigator for The Wickiup Project, which conducted a recent archaeological assessment of the McMillen Site. Read More

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July 19, 2022
Alabama experts getting ever closer to locating the long-lost site of the Battle of Mabila
On a blustery and blessedly cloudy June day, a team of archaeology experts and student volunteers from the University of West Alabama (UWA) carefully pick through soil in a Marengo County field that is ready for planting.

To the unskilled eye, the land looks no different than hundreds of other farm plots in this area of Alabama’s Black Belt. But sifting through the dirt, team leader Ashley Dumas has no difficulty pointing out the difference.

Scattered among the dusty clods are tiny fragments of pottery and fired clay – lots of it. They are the remnants of a community of native people who occupied this land around the mid-1500s. Read More

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July 09, 2022
Campaign to save Jamestown from sea level rise is well underway
JAMESTOWN — The nonprofit that manages the site of North America’s first permanent English colony at Jamestown is pushing forward with steps to preserve the increasingly flood-prone site.

James Horn, president and chief officer of Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, detailed how climate change poses an an “urgent and imminent” risk to site of the 415-year-old colony as he outlined a rescue plan in a recent presentation to the James City County Board of Supervisors. Horn asked the county for advice in kickstarting a major fundraising campaign as Jamestown Rediscovery seeks help from legislators at a local and national level.

“We are up against something that’s beyond what a small nonprofit can correct on its own,” added Michael Lavin, director of collections and conservation for Jamestown Rediscovery. Read More

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July 07, 2022
Still no answers in Native American burial grounds controversy in Fort Myers
FORT MYERS, Fla. — A North Carolina-based real estate development company still has not responded to questions from Fox 4 about possible Native American burial grounds or artifacts on the site of a new apartment complex starting to go up in downtown Fort Myers.

Mayor Kevin Anderson said Wednesday that he has directed the city attorney to contact the attorney for Zimmer Development to request copies of any reports they have done on the property, including an archaeological study of the site that was conducted this year.

The findings of that study are still not available to the public. Read More

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July 01, 2022
It’s Not Your Headstone: Ethics, Archaeology and Kwajalein’s Cultural of Casual Looting
“[Archaeology is] very systematic and controlled,” said Kwajalein Senior Archaeologist Caitlin Gilbertson. “You never know what you’re going to find, which is what makes it interesting. You may spend a lot of time finding nothing. Then, you do find that one cool thing, and that makes it worth it.”

A day on the job with the Kwajalein Archaeology team is not the “entertainment archaeology” you know from the movies. Before the shovel hits the dirt, sand or ground water, there is a plan to protect the atoll’s historical sites and cultural artifacts.

“We don’t get to choose where we dig, and often, we don’t do the digging,” said archaeologist Susan Underbrink. “If someone is going to put in a new water line, we determine whether the dig must be monitored.” Read More

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June 23, 2022
The history of pirate flags
Flags are mainly used as international symbols to represent a people or a nation, or for nautical and aerial communication.

This was no different during the latter part of the Golden Age of Piracy, where flags, commonly referred to as the ‘Jolly Roger’, would be raised to identify a ship or individual.

During the Golden Age around the 1650s and the 1730s, piracy was subdivided into three periods:

The Buccaneering Period, a time when French seamen attacked Spanish colonies and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Read More

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June 23, 2022
Public Archaeology Field School to dig in at Fort Vancouver
A team of students from Portland State University and Washington State University, professional archaeologists and the National Park Service are set to study the former site of a school for Indigenous and Métis children at Fort Vancouver.

The annual Public Archaeology Field School will run from July 1-30.

Students at the Fort Vancouver schools were children of fur trade families who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company. They included Indigenous children from local tribes and Métis children of mixed European and Indigenous heritage, according to the National Park Service. Read More

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June 20, 2022
Arizona wildfires sweep lands rich with ancient sites, artifacts
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — As Jason Nez scans rugged mountains, high desert and cliffsides for signs of ancient tools and dwellings unique to the U.S. Southwest, he keeps in mind that they’re part of a bigger picture.

And, fire is not new to them.

“They have been burned many, many times, and that’s healthy,” said Nez, a Navajo archaeologist and firefighter. “A lot of our cultural resources we see as living, and living things are resilient.”

As a pair of wildfires skirt this mountainous northern Arizona city, the flames are crossing land dense with reminders of human existence through centuries — multilevel stone homes, rock carvings and pieces of clay and ceramic pots that have been well-preserved in the arid climate since long before fire suppression became a tactic. Read More

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June 17, 2022
UNF digs deeper on Jacksonville's Big Talbot Island to reveal possible centerpiece of Mocama village
Victoria Hayes and Kaia Lacey found buried treasure Wednesday morning as they used spoons to gently scrape the side of a small hole at an archaeological dig on Big Talbot Island.

Pirate gold was not the bounty unearthed by these University of North Florida archaeology students, but a curved piece of glazed pottery that offers more important clues to a Native American village dating back four centuries among these trees.

"Oh, it's beautiful," one student said as it was passed around, sand still stuck to it. Read More

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June 13, 2022
In Seffner, man finds remains of a historic battlefield in his driveway
SEFFNER ― It initially seemed like a child’s treasure-hunting tale.

Aaron Defaria’s kids would bring him what they called diamonds, dug out of the shell-and-rock driveway at their Seffner home.

But he thought they were just shiny rocks, chalked it up to childhood imagination and thought little of it.

Then, as the driveway’s shell and rock loosened over the years, his kids began finding more of the shiny objects, and also what looked like tiny stone and iron cannonballs. Read More

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May 24, 2022
Archaeologists dig into Miami history at Baccarat tower site
The very first beneficiary of the new Baccarat building at 444 Brickell Ave. is likely to be not tenants of a 75-story luxury residential tower but a museum, as archaeological work at the site uncovers shards of pottery and bones of millennia-old early residents of Miami.

The 4-acre property, bought in 2013 by the Related Group, Florida’s largest developers, and SH Hotels & Resorts for $104 million, is to have three towers that will hold 1,400 residential units with an office, hotel, and a retail space.

But first, archaeologist Robert S. Carr works carefully below ground for the developers to document what came long before – human remains of a 2,000 years-old Native American tribe. Read More

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May 19, 2022
Archaeological dig at Presidio of Monterey solves mystery
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. (May 19, 2022) – A team of archaeologists has solved the mystery of what lies under a layer of abalone shells on a proposed construction site at the Presidio of Monterey.

Laura Prishmont-Quimby, the archaeologist and cultural resource manager for U.S. Army Garrison Presidio of Monterey, said that when storm water exposed the shells a few months ago, she knew right away that archaeologists would have to investigate.

Abalone are large sea snails, and since humans eat them, discoveries of their shells means humans put them there. The question was whether Native Americans deposited the shells—a frequent indication of a burial site—or others such as Army personnel. Read More

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May 14, 2022
Stories in stone: Guide Rickey Hayes interprets the past at Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park
One of our archaeological treasures in the Four Corners is Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park. All visitors must be accompanied by an official Native guide and one of the best is Rickey Hayes, who knows his sites and coaxes stories from stones.

The park itself was the vision of Chief Jack House whose Weminuche band of Utes moved to the far western side of the Southern Ute Reservation rather than have their land allotted.

“Chief Ignacio said NO. This land belongs to all of us and most importantly for your children and grandchildren,” Hayes said. “Take care of it. Make it better. Honor your mother and father and elders.” Read More

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May 13, 2022
160 Years After Sinking, NOAA Scientists Plan to Survey USS Monitor
U.S. researchers and scientists will soon embark on a 10-day expedition to explore and investigate the shipwreck of the Civil War vessel USS Monitor, which sank 160 years ago off the North Carolina coast.

On May 15, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists and partner researchers will set out on an expedition to survey the Monitor for the first time since her turret was recovered in 2002.

The remains of the iconic Civil War ship lie sixteen miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and area surrounding the vessel is designated a national marine sanctuary. Read More

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May 04, 2022
Largest Native American cave art revealed by 3D scans
Deep in a damp cave in northern Alabama, archaeologists have made a giant discovery. On a subterranean ceiling just half a meter high, researchers have uncovered the largest cave art discovered in North America: intricate etchings of humanlike figures and a serpent, carved by Native Americans more than 1000 years ago.

“It’s exemplary and important work,” says Carla Klehm, an archaeologist at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (UAF).

Although the U.S. Southwest is famous for petroglyphs carved into canyons and cliff faces, much of the southeast’s rock art is hidden underground in caves. “Forty years ago, no one would have thought the southeast had much cave art,” says Thomas Pluckhahn, an archaeologist at the University of South Florida who wasn’t involved with the paper. But over the past few decades, archaeologists including the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Jan Simek have shown that’s not the case. Read More

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April 25, 2022
Researchers look at Valley Oak archaeology site
In the middle of one of Pulaski’s modern industrial parks lies an area that is a window into life in Kentucky back before European settlers reached the Americas – closer in time to the era of the Roman Empire than to the us.

In the midst of the Ky. 461’s manufacturing row – just off Pin Oak Drive and behind Gatormade Trailers – is a flat field that is in the process of applying to be placed on the Nation Register of Historic Places. It’s a field in which artifacts dating back to 400 or 500 AD have been found, and it’s proof that Native Americans had villages and settlements here.

Last Wednesday, a group of archeologists and archeologists-in-training – instructors and students from the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University – used specialized equipment to survey the area and make an electronic map in search of more evidence that the area holds historical significance. Read More

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April 19, 2022
The City Archaeology Program Brings Boston's History to You
You may have seen some of our artifact photographs or even our 3D artifact models, but digitization also includes some serious behind the scenes work as well. Project Archaeologist Lauryn Sharp has identified, sorted, and cataloged over 213,000 individual artifacts.

In the past, many archaeological collections were never completely cataloged or studied. This made research and viewing these collections difficult. In order to fix this issue, the digitizing team took bags of disorganized artifacts from some of Boston’s most significant archaeological sites and carefully identified all of the objects inside them ranging from brick fragments to buttons to Native stone tools. Then every single item is counted, put into a clean bag and labeled by hand, and its description typed into our artifact catalogs one line at a time. Read More

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April 21, 2022
Big Dig: South Archaeologists Excavate Mobile Bay Bridge Site
The University of South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies is in the final phase of excavating artifacts to make way for construction of the planned Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge. South is leading the project with help from the Alabama Department of Transportation and two cultural resource management firms to recover artifacts from archaeological sites before construction.

“Because of federal involvement in the construction of the new I-10 Mobile River Bridge, the National Historic Preservation Act applies,” said Dr. Phil Carr, professor of anthropology and the Chief Calvin McGhee Endowed Professor of Native American Studies at USA. “It requires the protection of significant cultural resources, such as historic buildings and archaeological sites.” Read More

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April 15, 2022
Recreation and archaeology jobs available on the Plumas National Forest
Applications are still being accepted through Tuesday, April 19, for hundreds of positions in recreation and archaeology with the Forest Service across the nation. On the Plumas National Forest there are at least 25 jobs being filled as part of this event.

Applications are only accepted through www.usajobs.gov. Review the job announcement carefully for deadlines and required information to include in your application. Employment start dates and duty locations vary. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply early, as some of the announcements will close after 800 applications are received. Read More

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April 13, 2022
The History Beneath Us
During the 2019 celebration of Dartmouth’s 250th anniversary, anthropology professor Jesse Casana proposed a project to — quite literally — unearth some of the College’s rich history.

Casana felt inspired to investigate Dartmouth’s subterra after observing some not-very-archaeological excavation of the lawn outside his office in Silsby Hall. He noticed that as crews were digging trenches to lay pipes for the new Irving Institute, they had unwittingly unearthed the remains of the foundation of an 1850s-era household.

“I just wanted, first of all, people to know that Dartmouth has a very long history going back to the 1760s when it was first settled by Euro-Americans, but also longer than that before — there's been people here for 10,000 years,” Casana said. Read More

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April 04, 2022
Forest Service now hiring for recreation, archaeology positions
PORTLAND, OR (KTVZ) – The U.S. Forest Service is hiring hundreds of positions in recreation and archaeology across the nation in a variety of exciting and rewarding locations, including National Forests in Washington and Oregon, and in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

Applications will be accepted beginning Wednesday, April 6 through www.usajobs.gov. Review the job announcement carefully for deadlines and required information to include in your application. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply early, as some of announcements will close after 800 applications are received.

Employment start dates and duty locations vary. For all duty locations covered by these announcements, visit the USFS Recreation & Heritage Job Opportunities map. Read More

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March 26, 2022
Four years and 500,000-plus artifacts later, Peabody Institute of Archaeology wraps up inventory project
The curator of collections at the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology pulls a gray box from a basement shelf, places it on a table and removes the lid.

In the archival storage box are smaller boxes and plastic bags housing stone tools from the oldest known site of human habitation in New England — the Bull Brook dig site, in Ipswich.

The items, made by Native Americans when the land was emerging from the last Ice Age, include a nicely preserved scraping knife.

Also a shapely, even stylish, plummet, rounded at the bottom and middle before tapering to a narrow neck. It was used to sink fishing nets. Read More

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March 23, 2022
Want to Become an Archaeologist? A PhD Student Offers Insight
So, you want to be an archaeologist. Great! Welcome to the field! But before we begin, a few questions. What kind of archaeologist do you want to be? Classical? Anthropological? Historical? Do you want to work with ceramics? Metal tools? Urban structures? Domestic spaces? Human remains? Do you want to excavate? Teach? Work in restoration?

Suffice it to say, there is no one kind of archaeologist to be and the directions that your studies can take you are too numerous to count. Archaeology is a diverse field with countless sub-disciplines and research specialties, and yes, there is always something new to find.

Now, for the sake of perspective, it bears stating that I am a PhD student of classical archaeology, meaning I study the ancient Mediterranean past—particularly the portion involving the Romans. I am by no means an expert on the educational or career paths of, for example, a zooarchaeologist or a paleoethnobotanist, or even any other classical archaeologist. Everyone’s educational journey is unique and will not and should not follow the exact same paths. I am also not a professor nor am I a university official. Read More

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March 22, 2022
App State research team ventures into Linville Gorge Wilderness to discover archaeological sites
BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University’s Dr. Alice Wright and Dr. Cameron Gokee are leading an App State research team into the steep and rugged terrain of the Linville Gorge Wilderness area (LGWA) — with eyes peeled for evidence of ancient activity.

In discovering and documenting probable archaeological sites in the gorge, they hope to learn more about the lives of ancestral Cherokee and Catawba and other Indigenous people who once used the land while facilitating the preservation of cultural resources.

Wright and Gokee, associate professor and assistant professor, respectively, in App State’s Department of Anthropology, have partnered with the National Forests in North Carolina (NFNC) since 2020 to conduct the first broad-scale archaeological survey of LGWA. In fall 2021, they received an $86,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to support the project through 2025. Read More

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March 22, 2022
The mysterious people of the Caribbean
A rare archaeological discovery on the Dominican Republic's secluded Samaná Peninsula could unlock the mystery behind the Caribbean's little-known pre-Arawak past.

You wouldn't think of the overtrodden Dominican Republic as a cutting-edge archaeology destination. Yet hidden beneath the beach cabanas are likely clues to a pre-Columbian mystery that's been perplexing anthropologists for centuries: who actually discovered the Caribbean?

When Columbus arrived on Hispaniola in the 15th Century, he encountered the Taíno, an Arawakan-speaking people who came from the Orinoco Delta of present-day Venezuela, emigrating as early as 400 BCE. While it is often assumed that the Taíno were the "original" inhabitants of the Caribbean, particularly the Greater Antilles, other peoples had already been living there for several thousand years. Read More

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March 07, 2022
Civil War Shell Discovered Intact in Georgia
COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA—The Charlotte Observer reports that archaeologists conducting a metal detecting survey ahead of the construction of a hiking trail in northwest Georgia’s Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield discovered an intact, 10-pound Parrott shell, a type of ammunition used by the Union Army during the Civil War. The percussion fuse on this shell, however, did not ignite when it hit the ground, according to researchers from the Southeast Archaeological Center. The bomb squad at the Cobb County Police Department moved the explosive to a bunker for storage until it can be safely detonated. More than 5,000 soldiers died in the Confederate victory at Kennesaw Mountain, which was fought from June 19 through July 2, 1864. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman pushed on toward the capture of Atlanta after the loss. To read about a Civil War POW camp in Georgia, go to "Life on the Inside." Read More

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February 21, 2022
Here Are The World's Most Recent Archaeological Discoveries
Archaeological discoveries are interesting because they reveal more about the lives of ancient humans. Every discovery adds to the knowledge of the ancient past, leaving us hungry for more. And who knows how much more there could be out there seeing the amazing achievements of the Ancient people.

Many of the findings might just be for curiosity's sake but some of them might be the key to the future of humans. While the findings go on, these are the most recently uncovered things about the Ancient world of humans. Read More

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February 18, 2022
Archaeologist stunned as 'trophy' taken by Brit in War of Independence found on shipwreck
he item — a pewter military button embossed with the letters USA — was found embedded in mineral deposits in Florida that had formed around a cannon after spending centuries underwater. The vessel sank one mile off the coast of St Augustine in late 1782, less than a year before the end of the war, while evacuating British soldiers and loyalist civilians from the nascent republic. Archaeologists are unsure of the ship’s name, referring to her simply as the “Storm Wreck” — as the records in the National Archives at Kew are missing the relevant pages.

Chuck Meide, the director of the St Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, which made the find, said that his team were “shocked” by the find.

He added: “We know that we have a British, loyalist shipwreck, and it didn’t seem likely at first that we would have a rebel’s uniform button. Read More

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February 13, 2022
Tucson archaeologist: Found artifacts linked to 16th century
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A Tucson archaeologist has unveiled a discovery in Santa Cruz County that she thinks could rewrite the history of the Coronado Expedition.

Deni Seymour said she has unearthed hundreds of artifacts linked to the 16th century Spanish expedition, including pieces of iron and copper crossbow bolts, distinctive caret-headed nails, a medieval horseshoe and spur, a sword point and bits of chain mail armor.

The “trophy artifact” is a bronze wall gun — more than 3 feet long and weighing roughly 40 pounds — found sitting on the floor of a structure that she said could be proof of the oldest European settlement in the continental United States.

“This is a history-changing site,” said Seymour, who touts herself as the Sherlock Holmes of history. “It’s unquestionably Coronado.” Read More

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February 10, 2022
18th-Century Cannons Recovered in Georgia
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA—CNN reports that 12 cannons that may date to the Revolutionary War period were recovered from the Savannah River by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been deepening the channel in Savannah’s harbor. The British captured the city in 1778 and held it until 1782. Three other cannons were found last year, near Old Fort Jackson, constructed in the early nineteenth century. Historical research in British archives indicates these cannons may have been aboard two or more British troop transport ships that had been scuttled to block the channel and prevent French ships from coming to the aid of the Americans. Cleaning of the newly raised cannons could reveal information about where and when they were manufactured, if they had also been carried by British ships, or if they were later reused at Fort Jackson. For more on Revolutionary War–era archaeological discoveries in Georgia, go to "Small Skirmish in the War for Freedom." Read More

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February 06, 2022
Veteran volunteers begin the largest effort ever to locate the site of the Battle of Medina
The 1813 Battle of Medina was one of the largest and bloodiest battles in Texas history. Yet little is known about it, including the actual location of the battle. It posed an army of around 1400 Tejanos, Anglo American and Native American volunteers against about 1900 Spanish army regulars. Almost all the Texans were killed. Now, the largest organized effort to locate the battle site has begun.

It's a beautiful, sunny February morning, about a dozen volunteers are working in a small area behind the Losoya Middle School football field on the city's far south side. The area is cordoned off with small flags.

History podcaster Brandon Seale has led the push to find the battle site. He says this area is closed to the burial site of the Spanish soldiers killed in the battle. Read More

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February 04, 2022
America’s oldest cave art discovered in Tennessee dates back 6,000 years
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Tennesseans have been fascinated by caves for centuries. And long before that, when Native Americans inhabited the rolling landscape, they too traversed the deep dark rock masses leaving meaningful messages uncovered thousands of years later.

“There are these hidden treasures and gems everywhere,” said Jan Simek, who has a long list of accolades to his name, including Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee.

He’s also the man who led the team that uncovered hundreds of images of prehistoric cave art. “Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky in particular, but Georgia as well, is one of the richest areas for caves anywhere in North America,” Simek said. Read More

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February 04, 2022
Was James Cook’s Endeavour found off U.S. coast? Archaeologists argue over findings.
Australian maritime experts said Thursday they believed they’ve found the wreck of one of the most important ships in the history of the South Pacific after it was scuttled in the U.S. more than 200 years ago.

But archaeologists in the U.S. quickly countered by saying the findings were premature and a breach of contract in their joint research. Read More

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January 27, 2022
Looking Back: Cumberland River left behind some local Civil War reminders
We know that the Cumberland River has seen everything, from dugout canoes to flat boats to steamboats. But one type of boat that has plowed the waters of the muddy Cumberland can only be described as “a floating tin can.”

During the Civil War both the Union and Confederate governments invested in the building of gunboats covered in metal! And some of those boats traveled up and down the Cumberland River, even going right past our own Hartsville Landing and up the river as far as Gainesboro!

The idea of using iron to protect a boat in battle goes back to the early 1800s and the first “ironclad” was built in France in 1859. When the War Between the States broke out in 1861, the need for a metal-covered warship was evident. Read More

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January 11, 2022
CDOT documentary depicts new era of archaeology
COLORADO — The Colorado Department of Transportation will debut a documentary on Rocky Mountain PBS this weekend. "Durango 550 - Path of the Ancestral Puebloans" depicts how CDOT worked with archaeologists and regional Native American tribes to document, study and ultimately share the discoveries unearthed near Durango, in southwest Colorado. The archaeological excavation took place in 2018 and 2019 prior to the US 550-US 160 Connection South project breaking ground in 2020.

CDOT and its contracted firm, Alpine Archaeological Consultants of Montrose, CO, worked closely with regional tribes. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Hopi Tribe and the Pueblo of Laguna were official consulting tribes under the National Historic Preservation Act and were greatly involved during the planning and implementation processes for the archaeological dig documented in the video. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe also participated in aspects of the project. Read More

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January 10, 2022
Archeological digs in CT shed light on humans who lived over 10,000 years ago
Catherine Labadia, an archaeologist at the State Historic Preservation Office, was on vacation when the first text came in from fellow archaeologist David Leslie. The picture on her phone was of a channel flake, a stone remnant associated with the creation of spear points used by Paleoindians, the first humans known to enter the region more than 10,000 years ago. “I responded, ‘Is this what I think it is?’ ” “It most definitely is,” texted back Leslie, who was on site at the Avon excavation with Storrs-based Archaeological and Historical Services (AHS). “It was all mind-blowing emojis after that,” Labadia says.

But that first picture was just the beginning. By the time the excavation on Old Farms Road was completed after a whirlwind three months in the winter of 2019, the AHS team had uncovered 15,000 Paleoindian artifacts and 27 cultural features. Prior to this dig, according to Leslie, only 10–15 cultural features — non-movable items such as hearths and posts that can provide behavioral and environmental insights — had been found in all of New England. Read More

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December 12, 2021
Excavation of Utah internment camp monument upsets descendants trying to heal
Last year, a researcher found a map in the National Archives that pointed to a unique monument, one for a Japanese American man killed by guards in a Utah internment camp during World War II. A survivor of the camp was ready to pay for its archaeological excavation but wasn't given the chance. Now Japanese Americans with ties to the camp are trying to find healing. Sonja Hutson with member station KUER reports.

SONJA HUTSON, BYLINE: The former Topaz Internment Camp sits in the remote Utah desert more than 100 miles south of Salt Lake City. About 11,000 Japanese Americans were held here from 1942 to '45. Now, on a recent December morning, researcher and writer Nancy Ukai walked among the greasewood shrubs on the cracked earth here, where a dozen of her relatives were imprisoned, along with 63-year-old James Wakasa.

NANCY UKAI: We're retracing the route that James Wakasa took after dinner on Sunday night, April 11, 1943, and he was walking his dog. Read More

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December 06, 2021
‘Archaeology Magazine’ Names Slave Tag Found at CofC Among Top 10 Discoveries of 2021
As soon as the cool metal of the dusty diamond shaped object hit his hand, College of Charleston classical archaeology professor Jim Newhard felt a tingle of excitement.

“I knew what I had been handed pretty instantaneously and I went into a poker-face,” recalls Newhard, director of the Center for Historical Landscapes. “When you find something like this, its discovery needs to be managed. ‘It’s just another piece of data,’ one tells oneself. You keep matters subdued because sensational discoveries can put a site at risk.”

Indeed, the discovery last spring of an 1853 slave tag on the CofC campus quickly became a complex and profound opportunity to recognize the contributions of the enslaved people who lived and labored at the site during a dark period of American history. In use from the 18th century to 1865, a slave tag is a small, metal object that served as a permit showing slaveholders had registered an enslaved person with the city to work for someone else.
Read More

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December 04, 2021
Discovered in Baltimore park: Native American artifacts 5,000-9,000 years old
Lisa Kraus and Jason Shellenhamer admit it: When they began their search for Native American artifacts at Herring Run Park in northeast Baltimore, their expectations were low.

In a city that has seen centuries of human habitation and development and little urban archaeology in recent years, they figured they might find a few small flakes of chipped stone.

Instead the archaeologist couple found a trove of projectile points, drills and other artifacts that humans fashioned from stone some 5,000 to 9,000 years ago.

From the more recent Woodland Period, they found pottery shards, some handsomely decorated.

The duo is still studying the artifacts, but they know enough to conclude the spot was probably used as a seasonal hunting camp for many centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Read More

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December 01, 2021
Archaeologists unearth the oldest adobe architecture in the Americas
Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known adobe architecture in the Americas in the Pampa de las Salinas on the north coast of Peru.

Excavations were conducted by an international team, led by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) at the site of Los Morteros in the Chao Valley.

Previous studies had identified an extensive mound-shaped feature thought to be a burial site built through a combination of human activity or aeolian windblown sediment processes. In 2012, excavations uncovered a long occupation history evident in stone hearths containing small fish bones, charcoal, and scallop shells. Read More

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November 17, 2021
Combining Geophysics and Archaeology: Nature of work and what to study
Do you know that Terrestrial and Marine Geophysics can be used in archaeological digs and that too on both land and in water? It’s a unique combination of measuring the earth’s properties through scientific methods, analysing data to hit upon something hidden under earth layers or in deep sea.

We caught up with Scott Chaussée, a terrestrial and marine geophysicist at Wessex Archaeology, a UK-based company that provides archaeological and heritage services, to know how to make a career in this field and the skills needed for the job. Read More

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November 11, 2021
Dozens of Shipwreck Discoveries Anticipated in New Marine Sanctuary
Gray blotches poke up from the murky depths of Lake Michigan in an image on maritime archaeologist Tamara Thomsen’s computer screen. These are the remains of the SS Wisconsin, an steel-hulled steamer that sank in 1929 off Kenosha, Wis., after a storm engulfed the vessel during a routine passage between Chicago and Milwaukee.

The shipwreck of the SS Wisconsin is one of hundreds believed to be lurking in Lake Michigan’s depths (which reach a maximum of 923 feet), says Thomsen, who works with the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program. Little is known about most of these sunken craft, and diving to study them can be dangerous and expensive. But in June the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration designated a 962-square-mile section of the lake north of where the SS Wisconsin rests as the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary. The move could take Thomsen and others a giant step closer to exploring the region’s underwater artifacts in unprecedented detail—and to bringing its unique and often overlooked maritime history into much sharper focus. Read More

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November 04, 2021
Archaeologists recover 1,200-year-old dugout canoe in Wisconsin lake
Maritime archaeologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society have recovered a dugout wooden canoe in Lake Mendota, located in Wisconsin, United States of America.

The canoe was first discovered in June 2021 at a depth of 30 feet, in which divers from the WHS and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office dive team collaborated to retrieve from the lakebed.

Carbon dating has placed the canoe to around AD 800, centuries before the arrival of Europeans to the continent, which was also found with net sinkers indicating that it was used for fishing in the lake. Read More

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October 26, 2021
Wreckage of U.S. Revenue Cutter Found
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Live Science reports that the wreckage of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear has been found in Canadian waters by the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other researcher groups. Although the wooden vessel has been badly damaged by fishing trawlers and strong currents, it still has the Bear’s distinctive “bow staples” for traveling through heavy ice in polar waters, according to Brad Barr of NOAA. Built as a commercial sealer in 1874, the ship was purchased by the U.S. government for rescue work in the Arctic in the 1880s. The vessel also served as a relief ship around Alaska during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, a floating museum in California, a film set in 1930 for The Sea-Wolf, and as a part of Admiral Richard Byrd’s Antarctic explorations. Read More

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October 20, 2021
New Dating Method Shows Vikings Occupied Newfoundland in 1021 C.E.
Three rough pieces of wood—discarded sections of branches and tree stumps found among the refuse Vikings left behind after their short sojourn in Newfoundland—have turned out to be some of the more important evidence of the Norse in North America. The scars left by iron blades on these sections of fir and juniper can still be seen after more than 1,000 years. Was it the legendary Viking explorer Leif Eriksson himself whose blade chopped off these unwanted scraps? Might it have been Thorfinn Karlsefni or his wife, Gudrid, the lesser-known explorers of a different Viking saga who tossed these useless scraps aside? Many questions may never be answered, but researchers now have an extraordinarily precise date for when Norse hands and blades worked in the New World.

A new study of wooden artifacts found at Newfoundland’s famed L’Anse aux Meadows site shows that Vikings lived, and felled trees, on North American soil exactly 1,000 years ago—during the year 1021 C.E. The evidence, published today in Nature, means that these Norse seafarers accomplished the earliest known crossing of the Atlantic from Europe to the Americas. Such incredibly precise dating of the wood was possible thanks to an intriguing new method that examined growth rings for a once-in-a-millennium cosmic-ray event that showered Earth with high energy particles in 993 C.E. Finding that telltale spike in the tree rings allowed scientists to count additional rings outside that mark to pinpoint the exact year the Vikings cut fir and juniper trees here, as they lived and explored on the edge of the continent. Read More

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October 18, 2021
Archaeologists unearth first-ever house for Chinese transcontinental railroad workers in the US
Archaeologists from the Utah State Historic Preservation Office have uncovered the first Chinese house for transcontinental railroad workers in the U.S. during an excavation of a ghost town in Terrace, Utah, last May.

The discovery: Preservation officer Chris Merritt led a team of archaeologists to conduct two excavations in September 2020 and May 2021, according toFOX13 Now. Read More

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October 16, 2021
Humanlike Footprints in Crete Dated to 6 Million Years Muddle Archaeologists
Fossil footprints made by a mysterious bipedal creature strolling on a beach in Crete are even older than first suspected. They are about 6.05 million years old, an international team reported in Nature last week.

The paper by Uwe Kirscher et al posits that the footprints, if hominin, have the potential to change the picture of the earliest human evolution, moving it from Africa to the Mediterranean and/or Europe. Others remain unconvinced that the walker wasn’t a bipedal ape and, even if it was hominin, what that might mean. Read More

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October 15, 2021
Western Colorado’s early archaeologists
This past weekend the Colorado Archaeological Society (CAS) held its annual conference in Montrose. CAS has been around since 1935 and the local Chipeta Chapter formed a few weeks after the state organization was founded.

As a long-time member of the chapter, I was asked to present a brief history of the Chipeta Chapter as part of the conference’s morning program. I joined the chapter in 1984 and had learned about the chapter’s history from some of the early-day members.

When I joined the chapter, I met one of its charter members, Carlyle (Squint) Moore. Squint and his sister, Ruth had joined the chapter when they were teens. They both had more than a passing interest in archaeology. During their spare time they roamed the hills around their Pea Green home finding a plethora of artifacts and sites. Read More

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October 01, 2021
California drought reveals 112-year-old freight train derailment wreckage on Shasta Lake
LAKEHEAD, Calif., — When Shasta Historical Society’s Education and Community Engagement Manager Jeremy Tuggle finished filming a segment of his popular YouTube show ‘Exploring Shasta County History’ earlier this month he never could have imagined the “rare and historic” discovery that would follow just days later.

The find, described as wreckage and artifacts from a long-forgotten 1909 train derailment, has since sent local railroading enthusiasts and history buffs into a frenzy, with many wanting to know more about the accident that led to the eventual discovery some one hundred and twelve years later.

Word of the “mind-blowing” discovery began to emerge Sept. 9, after a local resident picked up the search after seeing Tuggle’s video that featured him and a friend metal detecting near Railroad Tunnel Number 6 at Charlie Creek, on the Sacramento River arm of Shasta Lake. Read More

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October 01, 2021
Veterans at Revolutionary battlefield dig find camaraderie
STILLWATER, N.Y. (AP) — Military veterans who carefully dug and sifted through clumps of dirt in September at a Revolutionary War battlefield in New York did more than uncover artifacts fired from muskets and cannons.

The meticulous field work gave the veterans — some dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and physical injuries — a familiar sense of camaraderie and mission.

So while the archaeological dig at the Saratoga National Historical Park produced evidence from the tide-turning Second Battle of Saratoga, the teamwork behind the finds also benefited the veterans. Read More

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September 27, 2021
The ‘Orderly Anarchy’ of Ancient California
On a smoky day last fall, a small party of aging males huffed and puffed its way up above 12,000 feet in the White Mountains, near the California-Nevada border. The winds were strong, and the summit zone—think of the treeless Tibetan Plateau, minus yaks—was seriously cold. The leader of our little expedition, Robert Bettinger, a UC Davis anthropology professor emeritus, carried an ice ax as he meandered up. No reason to hurry, his slouching pace seemed to say, but keep an eye out: there are interesting things all over this ground.

Bettinger should know. Forty-nine years ago, he began exploring in the Whites, looking for signs of prehistoric human presence. The idea that ancient hunters had come up high, tracking mountain sheep, was plausible, but Bettinger looked harder and longer than his peers might have, finding strong evidence to support the hunch. “I looked in places other people didn’t want to look” is how he explains it. Eventually, he found not just the signs of hunting trips but the remains of whole villages, sites where families had come to live for a while, venturing into the mountains as soon as the snows melted out in summer. The discovery of this intermittent use, which continued for over a thousand years, went against conventional wisdom about hunter-gatherers: why make the trip to the nosebleed zone, bringing your vulnerable women and children, when you could stay down in the Owens Valley, fishing and hunting and harvesting berries and roots and maybe even lolling in the local hot springs on occasion? Read More

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September 23, 2021
Veterans at Revolutionary Battlefield Dig Find Camaraderie
STILLWATER, N.Y. (AP) — Military veterans who carefully dug and sifted through clumps of dirt this month at a Revolutionary War battlefield in New York did more than uncover artifacts fired from muskets and cannons.

The meticulous field work gave the veterans — some dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and physical injuries — a familiar sense of camaraderie and mission.

So while the archaeological dig at the Saratoga National Historical Park produced evidence from the tide-turning Second Battle of Saratoga, the teamwork behind the finds also benefited the veterans.

“We can all come together, share your battle stories, your deployment stories, and share your love for the history of what you’re digging," said Bjorn Bruckshaw, of Laconia, New Hampshire, during a break on a recent hazy morning. Read More

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September 17, 2021
Jamestown Rediscovery’s archaeological team finds evidence of Bacon’s Rebellion nearly 345 years later
JAMESTOWN — While placing lights at the front of Historic Jamestowne’s memorial church ahead of its 2019 reopening, Jamestown Rediscovery’s Senior Staff Archaeologist Sean Romo made an interesting discovery: burn deposits buried just below the surface.

With several recorded accounts of open fires at the settlement, Romo said there were three possible causes. It could be evidence of the January 1608 fort burning, the result of Confederate troops’ 1862 retreat or it could be evidence of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676. Read More

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September 15, 2021
A statistical fix for archaeology's dating problem
Archaeologists have long had a dating problem. The radiocarbon analysis typically used to reconstruct past human demographic changes relies on a method easily skewed by radiocarbon calibration curves and measurement uncertainty. And there's never been a statistical fix that works -- until now.

"Nobody has systematically explored the problem, or shown how you can statistically deal with it," says Santa Fe Insitute archaeologist Michael Price, lead author on a paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science about a new method he developed for summarizing sets of radiocarbon dates. "It's really exciting how this work came together. We identified a fundamental problem and fixed it." Read More

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September 13, 2021
Excavation to explore church’s role in Underground Railroad
Cornell researchers and students are poised to help shed light on the history of St. James A.M.E. Zion Church, the world’s oldest active A.M.E. Zion church.

A multidisciplinary team of Cornell students and faculty and local schoolchildren will begin an archeological dig Sept. 18 at St. James, to deepen the understanding of the church’s role in safeguarding enslaved freedom-seekers in the 19th century and shed new light on the church’s long history.

Built between 1833 and 1836, St. James is Ithaca’s most important Underground Railroad station and has hosted dignitaries including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and W.E.B. Du Bois. It is believed to be the oldest religious structure in Ithaca and one of the first A.M.E. Zion churches in the country. Read More

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September 09, 2021
Clovis Camp Site Discovered In St. Joseph County, Thought To Be Earliest Archaeological Site In Michigan
Independent researcher Thomas Talbot and researchers from the University of Michigan have discovered a 13,000-year-old Clovis camp site in St. Joseph County and it is now thought to be the earliest archaeological site located in Michigan.

In an article by the University of Michigan, it was explained that at the time of the Clovis people, the location of the site, and most of Michigan, were covered in glaciers. Because of this, the site was uninhabitable besides being visited for fishing trips.

For a little bit of background information, the Clovis people lived in the Americas between 13,000 and 12,500 years ago, and this prehistoric Paledonian culture is identified by the tools they used. Read More

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September 01, 2021
Farm field find rewrites archaeological history in Michigan
Thirteen thousand years ago, most of Michigan was covered in a wall of ice up to a mile high. Archaeologists believed this kept some of the continent’s earliest people, a group called Clovis after their distinctive spear points, from settling in the region.

But an independent researcher along with University of Michigan researchers have identified a 13,000-year-old Clovis camp site, now thought to be the earliest archaeological site in Michigan. The site predates previously identified human settlements in the Michigan basin and potentially rewrites the history of the peopling — or settling — of the Great Lakes region.

The site was likely occupied by a small group of people, about six or seven, who briefly lived on a river in southwest Michigan toward the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. The finding also suggests this is the northwesternmost Clovis settlement in the Great Lakes region. The researchers describe their findings in a paper published in the journal PaleoAmerica. Read More

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September 01, 2021
Unlocking the Secrets of Mesa Verde National Park
“Look all around you,” she says. “Then close your eyes. Think about these mesas and canyons as a bustling community. Think about seeing women cooking, men hunting, kids playing, dogs barking, grandmas holding babies. You can smell the smoke from the cooking fires. You can hear the regular noise of daily life echoing out of these alcoves that are natural amphitheaters.”

T.J. Atsye knows Mesa Verde National Park better than most, and that’s not just because she worked there for the better part of eight years, first for the museum association and then as a seasonal ranger. Atsye’s relationship with this landscape goes much deeper. Read More

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August 17, 2021
CCSU student group working hands-on to discover more about African-American slavery in Connecticut
There was a time when African-Americans were enslaved in Connecticut, and local students are working to discover more about some of those held captive.

Central Connecticut State University’s African Diaspora Archaeology program brought its Field School to the Chaffee House in Windsor this summer session. A small group of students and several CCSU faculty members spent about a month digging in and around the house and will be examining their discoveries in the school’s laboratory this fall.

Anthropology Professor Dr. Anthony Martin and Lab Coordinator Janet Woodruff worked with the Windsor Historical Society to provide the class this unique opportunity. The WHS leases the property in the Hayden Station area of town, where a small African-American community was rooted in the 18th and 19th centuries. Read More

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August 16, 2021
Archaeologists Are Re-Excavating And Reconnecting Descendants Of Anderson Township Site
Under a tent in the middle of an Anderson Township field, archaeologists are dredging up the past with hopes of learning more about the people who once lived here: Native Americans and Europeans.

It’s believed members of the Miami and Shawnee tribes migrated to this area 1,000 years ago and settled in villages.They are thought to have been the first to farm corn in the eastern U.S.

Their existence intersects with the Turpin family. The Turpins were given the property after the American Revolution and moved there in the 1700s. Read More

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August 04, 2021
U.S. Returns Looted Artifacts to Iraq
BAGHDAD, IRAQ—Reuters reports that the United States is returning more than 17,000 ancient artifacts looted and smuggled out of Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion, inlcuding the so-called Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, a 3,500-year-old cuneiform tablet bearing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Tens of thousands of antiquities are thought to have disappeared from Iraq in the years following the invasion, and many more were smuggled or destroyed by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which held roughly a third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017. U.S. authorities seized the tablet, which is believed to be one of the world's oldest religious texts, in 2019 from the Hobby Lobby–funded Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., after a court found that the artifact had been brought illegally to the United States and auctioned with counterfeit provenance records. To read more about Greek and Akkadian cuneiform writing, go to "Last Tablets." Read More

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August 04, 2021
Just keep digging: Fort St. Joseph archaeology field school returns with open house
After patiently waiting a year during the pandemic, the remains and grounds of Fort St. Joseph are once again revealing the buried history they've hidden for hundreds of years.

The Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Open House returns to Niles this weekend with the theme of People of the Post. The event, made possible through the collaboration of Kalamazoo's Western Michigan University and the City of Niles, features this summer’s findings from the archaeological site of Fort St. Joseph as well as entertainment and historical education.

“It’s great to be back in the field,” field director Erika Hartley said Monday at the site. Read More

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July 22, 2021
Scattered pieces of history: Historians piece together evidence of Gov. Walker home, grave sites
Pieces of Rapides Parish and Louisiana history are scattered across this field located on Bayou Rapides Road.

These pieces are evidence that could solve one of the biggest mysteries in Central Louisiana, says local historian Mike Wynne. Where are the home and gravesites of Gov. Joseph Marshall Walker?

Walker served as governor from 1850-53. He died in 1856 and was buried in a family cemetery located on the land that was once part of his plantation.

"We found this amazing collection of ceramics," said Wynne holding a bag full of broken pieces. "We found a whole bunch of ceramics and glass. Read More

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July 16, 2021
UNF archaeology students unearth artifacts from almost 500-year-old Native American village
BIG TALBOT ISLAND, Fla. — Deep in the woods of Big Talbot Island, you’ll find a group of UNF archaeology students with shovels in hand.

“I found some pretty cool things out here,” Annie Bitner said.

For the past six weeks, she and her classmates have been uncovering a village buried in time. Once called Sarabay, indigenous people called it home more than 400 years ago. Read More

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July 15, 2021
Ball State’s Applied Anthropology Laboratories Digging Into Muncie’s History
Can you name the man who’s widely credited as being “Muncie’s Pioneer?” If you answered Goldsmith Gilbert, you’re likely among the relative few who would get it right.

But, right or wrong, do you really know the true story of how history has portrayed him? And is there more to the story beyond Gilbert himself?

Those questions and more are at the forefront of a project being taken on by Ball State’s Applied Anthropology Laboratories (AAL) to create a public educational program for all ages based in archaeology and history about the heart of downtown Muncie and the creation of Delaware County.

“We’re not starting with the goal of rewriting history,” said Caroline Heston, education and outreach coordinator for AAL. “But recent research has shown us that there’s so much more to this story than what might be considered the ‘official’ version. We will be diving in to some areas that have never before been investigated.” Read More

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July 11, 2021
Items found by archaeologists at future Remembrance Park point to past memorial site
Archaeologists combing a hill near Plymouth Rock where a park will be built in tribute to the Pilgrims and their Native American predecessors have made a poignant discovery: It's not the first time the site has been used as a memorial.

David Landon of the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s Fiske Center for Archaeological Research says his team unearthed a cache of personal items he thinks were buried there in the late 1800s, most likely by a brokenhearted settler who had outlived all three of her children. Read More

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July 06, 2021
Harvard returning Standing Bear’s tomahawk to Ponca Tribe in Nebraska
A tomahawk once owned by Chief Standing Bear, a pioneering Native American civil rights leader, is returning to his Nebraska tribe after decades in a museum at Harvard.

The university’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology says it’s been working with members of the Ponca Tribe in Nebraska and Oklahoma to repatriate the artifact.

Larry Wright, Jr., chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, said Tuesday the return of the historic weapon is a powerful symbol of homecoming for the tribe, which was among many forcibly relocated from their homelands to other territories by the federal government in the 1800s. Read More

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July 02, 2021
Chickasaws repurposed objects from fleeing Spanish conquistadors
Archaeologists have unearthed a rare trove of more than 80 metal objects in Mississippi, thought to be from Hernando de Soto’s 16th-century expedition through the Southeast.

Many of the objects were repurposed by the resident Chickasaws as household tools and ornaments, an unusual practice at a time when European goods in North America were few and often reserved for leaders.

The researchers believe Spaniards left the objects behind while fleeing a Chickasaw attack that followed frayed relations between the two groups in 1541. The victors took advantage of the windfall of spoils – axe heads, blades, nails and other items made of iron, lead and copper alloy – modifying many of them to suit local uses and tastes. Chickasaw craftspeople turned pieces of Spanish horseshoes into scrapers, barrel bands into cutting tools and bits of copper into jingling pendants. Read More

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June 23, 2021
Archaeology breakthrough: Researchers uncovered 'underwater Stonehenge' beneath US lake
ARCHAEOLOGISTS were stunned after finding a 10,000-year-old stone circle deep beneath Lake Michigan that appeared to resemble the UK's Stonehenge.

Researchers were taken aback on finding a series of stone circles beneath Lake Michigan. The rocks formed what appeared to be perfect rings, yet were hidden away deep beneath the Great Lake. Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of America and is deep-rooted in the country's history, sitting in the northeast spanning several states. Read More

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June 19, 2021
Tantalizing discoveries about Charles Towne’s first settlers
Visitors to Charles Towne Landing have seen the beautiful riverfront site where the first English colonists settled shortly after their arrival in 1670, but they haven’t been able to see much of the settlement itself.

That will change soon.

Years ago, the state park was remodeled and reinterpreted to emphasize what archaeology can tell us about the founding of the Carolina colony and Charles Towne. A wooden palisade has been built where archaeology showed the original once stood. There were also soil stains from old post holes found years ago, evidence of an early wooden structure. Other digs found traces of an early crop garden and a cannon moat, as well as a Native American ceremonial site. Read More

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June 19, 2021
Archaeological dig at North Idaho College aims to unearth ‘invisible histories’ of Fort Sherman
There was a point Monday when student archaeologists unearthed what looked like a shattered piece of wood from a hole several feet deep on the North Idaho College campus in Coeur d’Alene.

The find occurred at the tail end of a two-week historical excavation at sites that were once part of Fort Sherman, a U.S. Army stronghold established in the late 1800s. As part of an archaeology field school through the University of Idaho, the dig – organized through a collaboration between UI, North Idaho College and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe – involved students from five colleges and universities.

“Fort Sherman is an ideal location to explore identity construction and negotiation in spaces of cultural meeting,” said Katrina Eichner, an assistant professor of anthropology at UI. “It’s our hope that materials discovered here will allow for more diverse and nuanced understanding of the past.”

With the excavation complete, UI researchers will work to identify just what was found at the sites, which were set up along College Drive and West River Avenue approximately a half-mile apart. The northern site was once home to the fort’s married men’s quarters, said UI graduate student Conner Weygint. The noncommissioned officers’ quarters, meanwhile, were to the south. Read More

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June 16, 2021
UNF archaeology students unearth artifacts from almost 500-year-old Native American village
BIG TALBOT ISLAND, Fla. — Deep in the woods of Big Talbot Island, you’ll find a group of UNF archaeology students with shovels in hand.

“I found some pretty cool things out here,” Annie Bitner said.

For the past six weeks, she and her classmates have been uncovering a village buried in time. Once called Sarabay, indigenous people called it home more than 400 years ago.

“It’s pretty cool to think about the last people that were touching these items were probably the indigenous population at the time,” Bitner said. “It’s important to learn about the people that were here before us.” Read More

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June 15, 2021
At underwater site, research team finds 9,000-year-old stone artifacts
An underwater archaeologist from The University of Texas at Arlington is part of a research team studying 9,000-year-old stone tool artifacts discovered in Lake Huron that originated from an obsidian quarry more than 2,000 miles away in central Oregon.

The obsidian flakes from the underwater archaeological site represent the oldest and farthest east confirmed specimens of western obsidian ever found in the continental United States.

"In this case, these tiny obsidian artifacts reveal social connections across North America 9,000 years ago," said Ashley Lemke, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at UT Arlington. "The artifacts found below the Great Lakes come from a geological source in Oregon, 4,000 kilometers away---making it one of the longest distances recorded for obsidian artifacts anywhere in the world." Read More

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June 14, 2021
New exhibit at Capitol Park Museum to highlight 200 year old Gulf Coast shipwreck
A new exhibit highlighting the over 200-year-old history of "The Mardi Gras Shipwreck" will open this week at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge.

Accroding to the Louisiana Division of Archaeology and the Capitol Park Museum, in 2007, a team of archaeologists and researchers mapped, recovered, and analyzed more than 1,000 artifacts from an underwater archaeological site in the Gulf of Mexico. Read More

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June 10, 2021
Archaeologists Dig Hilltop Over Plymouth Rock One Last Time
BOSTON (AP) — Archaeologists are giving a grassy hilltop overlooking iconic Plymouth Rock one last look before a historical park is built to commemorate the Pilgrims and the Indigenous people who once called it home.

Braving sweltering heat, a team of about 20 graduate students enrolled in a masters program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston began excavating an undeveloped lot on Cole's Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, this week.

The National Historic Landmark site — which contains the first cemetery used by the Pilgrims after they arrived from England in 1620 and was a Wampanoag village for thousands of years before that — has been poked and prodded numerous times over the past century. Read More

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June 08, 2021
The Enduring Myths of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’
Forty years later, archaeologists look back at what the first Indiana Jones movie got wrong about their profession

“That belongs in a museum!” Indiana Jones shouts at the man in the Panama hat, instantly creating the most memorable archaeological catch phrase of all time, though perhaps the competition isn’t all that fierce.

Forty years after Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered to the public on June 12, 1981, the outsized shadow of Indy still looms large over the field he ostensibly represented. Over three movies in the 1980s, plus a prequel television series and a fourth film that came out in 2008, Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr., became indelibly tied to American archaeology. Despite it being set in the 1930s, an homage to the popcorn serials of the 1940s, and a cinematic blockbuster of the 1980s, Raiders of the Lost Ark is still influential to aspiring and veteran archaeologists alike. Even in the 21st century, several outdated myths about archaeological practice have endured thanks to the “Indiana Jones effect.” And contemporary archaeologists, many of whom harbor a love/hate relationship with the films, would like to set the record straight. Read More

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May 25, 2021
Turning an archaeological practice on its head
Archaeologists often spend a career studying a single site, region, or time period, building on the field's previous research and interpretations. But some, like Penn's Megan Kassabaum, take a wider view that spans both time and geography by focusing on understanding widespread practices. Since arriving at Penn, Kassabaum has focused on tracking the long history of Native American platform mounds in the eastern United States.

The most common narrative is that these flat-topped mounds emerged about 1,000 years ago, at the same time as social hierarchy and corn agriculture. That conclusion worked because many excavated platform mounds dated to that particular time, and their sites tended to reveal a significant volume of "cool, fancy things," that have long attracted the attention of American archaeologists. Beyond that, it's easy to overlay the agriculture-based hierarchical society that has dominated the recent past onto deeper history, even if doing so doesn't quite fit. Read More

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May 16, 2021
Listen: Have aliens already visited us?
Theoretical physicist Avi Loeb of Harvard wants you to think seriously about the possibility that an artifact made by an extraterrestrial intelligence passed through our solar system in 2017. This object – called ‘Oumuamua, or scout, by earthly astronomers – was traveling at a speed indicating an origin outside our solar system. But we never got close enough to it to see what it was. For the past few years, Loeb has argued that ‘Oumuamua was an alien artifact. In this episode of the University of Chicago’s Big Brains podcast, Loeb talks about the controversy and explains why he thinks we need to invest more in the search for alien life by developing the field of space archaeology.

‘Oumuamua was traveling too fast (196,000 miles per hour, that’s 54 miles per second or 87.3 kilometers per second) to have originated in our solar system. Loeb’s ideas on this subject caused a stir in the scientific community. Loeb commented: Read More

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May 15, 2021
Vets Help Researchers Pinpoint The Site Of The Bloodiest Battle In Texas History
The Battle of Medina was fought just south of San Antonio in 1813. But as large and significant as this battle was, no one is exactly sure where the battle site is located.

Brandon Seale, a history podcaster, is spearheading the effort to locate the site. He spoke with TPR's Jerry Clayton.

Jerry Clayton: Tell me about the significance of the Battle of Medina.

Brandon Seale: So the Battle Medina is the largest, bloodiest battle in Texas history, and yet it's largely unknown. It occurred in 1813, so [about 23] years before the better known events of the Texas Revolution in 1835-36. But it was a really important event ... in the history of the continent. It posed an army of Tejanos, Anglo American volunteers and of Native Americans against the might of the Spanish Empire. Read More

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May 14, 2021
Archaeology project underway at historical Utah railroad town
TERRACE, Utah — Roughly 60 miles southwest of Snowville lays a stretch of barren Utah desert. What may surprise many is the fact that the site is an archaeological treasure trove. It's home to what was once Terrace, Utah, a town of about 1,000 people during its heyday in the late 1800s.

“Terrace is one of the largest townsites along the stretch of the central pacific grade we have here in Utah," said Michael Sheehan, the lead archaeologist for the Salt Lake field office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "It was a major maintenance facility for the railroad.” Read More

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May 11, 2021
As Part of $3 M. Initiative, Researchers Document Ancient Murals at U.S.-Mexico Border
Archaeologists are working to document ancient artworks at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas that face environmental threats. The Texas-based nonprofit Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center has established a $3 million research effort, called the Alexandria Project, to support the research.

According to a report by the Art Newspaper, researchers have already recorded over 230 murals that are between 1,500 and 4,200 years old along the Rio Grande. These ancient paintings are found in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands Archaeological District, which spans 50 miles in Texas, primarily in Val Verde County, and 60 miles south into Mexico’s Coahuila state. Many of the works, which depict human figures, animals, and more, are situated on private land. As a result, most of them have not been previously documented by researchers. Read More

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May 04, 2021
U.S. Government Seeks Forfeiture of Roman Statue That Was Allegedly En Route to Kim Kardashian
A newly filed lawsuit reveals that, in 2016, the U.S. government seized an ancient Roman statue that was allegedly being delivered to Kim Kardashian.

In the suit, filed on April 30 in the United States District Court of Central California’s Western Division, the U.S. government called for the forfeiture of the “illegally imported” statue, which resembles the lower half of a person draped in fabric. The lawsuit, filed in rem (or against the statue itself), was first reported on Twitter by Robert Snell, a writer for the Detroit News.

According to the suit, the statue had been displayed at the booth of Brussels’s Axel Vervoordt gallery at the 2011 edition of the TEFAF art fair, which offers wares from antiquity to today, in Maastricht, the Netherlands. When the work was seized in 2016 in Los Angeles, the importer’s name was allegedly listed as “Kim Kardashian dba Noel Roberts Trust.” The work is currently held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Read More

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April 20, 2021
Archaeologists: Site of Harriet Tubman's father's home found
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Archaeologists in Maryland say they believe they have found the homesite of famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman’s father.

The homesite of Ben Ross was found on property acquired last year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an addition to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, officials said Tuesday. An archaeology team led by the State Highway Administration conducted research that led to the find. Read More

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April 20, 2021
U.S. Repatriates Pre-Hispanic Artifacts to Mexico
EL PASO, TEXAS—According to a statement released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and National Park Service representatives handed over more than 500 stone artifacts to Mexican consul General Mauricio Ibarra Ponce de León at the Mexican Consulate last week. Special agents traced the smuggled knives, arrowheads, and stone tools to a single individual after National Park Service rangers spotted some of the artifacts in Big Bend National Park, which is located in southwest Texas. Read More

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April 19, 2021
Mike Parker: Local historian publishes a compilation of Wyse Fork documents
When Dennis Harper was 11 years old, he became fascinated with the Wyse Fork Battlefield. In the decades since, Harper has collected more than 12,000 artifacts from that battle.

“First one I ever found was laying in my front yard,” Harper told Zach Frailey in a 2016 interview. “I got a metal detector at 14 and upgraded from there. When most kids played ball, we hunted bullets.”

Over the years Harper has recovered pieces of china dating back to the late 1700s (soldiers may have used to help dig earth works due to their lack of shovels), bottles, and other not-so-obvious era relics. Read More

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April 17, 2021
Space is the final frontier for archaeologists
The boot prints left by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong are a tangible legacy of one of humanity's greatest achievements -- putting a man on the moon.

It's a technological feat easily on par with Egypt's pyramids, the Great Wall or Stonehenge -- but how should the Apollo 11 mission site and others be preserved and protected for future generations?

Right now, the bootprints, rovers and hundreds of other artifacts from the Apollo missions are not protected like heritage sites are on Earth -- something a small but growing number of space archaeologists want to change. Read More

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April 16, 2021
Hidden history: Archaeologists turn to technology to look for clues at Fort Owen
y summer, the acre just south of historic Fort Owen is scheduled to become a much-needed parking lot.

Before that happens, archaeologists will have one more opportunity to uncover history with the help of the same high-tech equipment that uncovered fire hearths used by Lewis and Clark at Travelers’ Rest over 20 years ago.

On Thursday, Dan Hall and his team of archaeologists from Western Cultural of Missoula were setting up the grids they’ll use to map the area with a magnetometer at the site just north of Stevensville.

“It’s basically a magnetic survey,” Hall said. “The principle behind this is when soils are laid down, the iron sulfide particles in the dirt orientate toward magnetic north. When Mother Nature comes through or man and disturbs the soil, we can see those disturbances using this device.” Read More

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April 16, 2021
COVID-19 sparks increased antiquities looting in Turkey - the Independent
Treasure hunters are ransacking Turkey’s historical sites amid the coronavirus pandemic, as they take advantage of the prolonged absence of guards and wardens, the Independent said on Friday.

Several individuals have been captured carrying out illegal excavations using tools such as demolition hammers, dynamite and drills in archaeological sites over the last year as they searched golden historical artefacts in cities like Edirne, Iğdır, Kastamonu, it said.

Turkey recorded it’s first case of COVID-19 in March of last year and the government within weeks implemented a series of pandemic measures, with the tourism sector being among those hardest hit by the regulations. Read More

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April 01, 2021
In the discipline of archaeology, harassment is occurring at ‘epidemic rates,’ says Stanford scholar
In the discipline of archaeology, harassment is widespread, with archaeologists of color, LGBTQIA+ researchers and scholars with disabilities reporting abuse at much higher rates, according to research presented by Stanford archaeologist Barbara Voss.

Barbara Voss (Image credit: Courtesy Barbara Voss)

In two peer-reviewed articles published in the journal American Antiquity, considered archaeology’s most prominent academic journal, Voss examines how from the 1800s to the present day, discrimination and harassment, including sexual assault, within her field has occurred at “epidemic rates.” In the first paper, Voss gathers study after study to show how harassment has pervaded the discipline. For her second study, Voss provides a set of evidence-based solutions aimed at ending and preventing harassment, as well as ways to best support survivors. Read More

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March 23, 2021
Archaeologists Have Found Prehistoric Rock Structures Under the Great Lakes. Here's What the Stones Can Tell Us
In 2007, underwater archeologist Mark Holley was scanning for shipwrecks on the bottom of Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay. Instead, he stumbled on a line of stones thought to be constructed by ancient humans — including one stone with what appeared to be a carving of a mastodon. The subsequent press conference generated excited headlines about a “Stonehenge-like structure” found under Lake Michigan.

But these sensationalized headlines are misleading: there’s no “henge” to the structure. The stones are small and arranged in a V-shape instead of a circle. Plus, the supposed-mastodon image hasn’t been analyzed to prove whether it’s a carving or a natural feature of the rock. Read More

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March 21, 2021
Archaeologists find earliest colonial site in Maryland after nearly 90-year search
Maryland archaeologist Travis Parno was at a board game convention in Philadelphia, sitting at a table surrounded by thousands of other enthusiasts when he got a text message.

He was supposed to be on vacation, taking a break from his search for the legendary fort at St. Mary’s, the first permanent English settlement in Maryland and one of the earliest in what would become the United States.

Back at St. Mary’s, archaeological geophysicist Tim Horsley had been scanning a site a half-mile from St. Mary’s River with ground-penetrating radar that could detect the outlines of ancient buildings. Read More

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March 18, 2021
Archaeologist Brings 18th Century Fort to Life with LiDAR and 3D Modeling
A Canadian archaeologist is using advanced mapping and visualization technologies to bring one of the earliest European settlements in North America back to life. Dr. Jonathan Fowler combined a centuries-old map with a modern 3D terrain model to portray Fort Anne and its surrounding in stunning detail – just as the Nova Scotia site looked in 1706.

“Airborne LiDAR has become a powerful tool for archaeologists to tell the stories about our heritage while also providing historical information for us to study and interpret,” said Fowler, an associate professor of archaeology at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. Read More

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March 11, 2021
U.S. Repatriates Pre-Columbian Artifacts to Mexico
NOGALES, ARIZONA—Homeland Security Today reports that U.S. Homeland Security special agents handed over more than 150 artifacts recovered during two separate investigations to officials at the Mexican Consulate. Ten of the objects, ceramics thought to have originated in the western states of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima, have been dated to between 100 B.C. and A.D. 500. Other artifacts recovered at the border include arrowheads, ax heads, hammers, spearheads, and figurines dated to between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago. Read More

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February 26, 2021
‘It’s fantastic’: Archaeologists find artifacts on Henrico property from multiple time periods
HENRICO Co., Va. (WWBT) - The purchase of a nearly 40-acre piece of land in Henrico’s east end has resulted in the discovery of several pieces of artifacts dating back to prehistoric Native American activity to the early 20th Century including an unmarked African-American cemetery.

In March 2020, the Capital Region Land Conservancy purchased the piece of land off Long Bridge Road in Varina through funding from the National Park Service. It was purchased to help connect and protect the property to an overall 6,000-acre area related to American and Virginia battlefields.

Based on the grant requirements, an archeological team from William & Mary contacted the group requesting to assess the property. The area of Long Bridge Road has history tied to the documented events of the Civil War, according to the group. Read More

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February 23, 2021
Boston Archaeology asks public for help identifying mysterious artifact found at Paul Revere House
BOSTON (WHDH) - Boston Archaeology is turning to the public for help identifying a mysterious artifact that was recently found on the grounds of the Paul Revere House in the North End.

Archaeologists say they believe the small item may be a part that was once used in a clock, a lock, or in plumbing.

“It’s irregular notching between the teeth give us possible gear (clocks? locks?) or plumbing hardware vibes,” Boston Archaeology said in a tweet. “Anyone know what this may be?” Read More

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February 16, 2021
Venetian Glass Beads Found in Arctic Alaska Predate Arrival of Columbus
Archaeologists have found Venetian glass trade beads at three prehistoric Eskimo sites in Alaska. In the absence of trans-Atlantic communication, the most likely route these artifacts traveled from Europe to northwestern Alaska is across Eurasia and over the Bering Strait. This is the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the western hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent.

Archaeologists often find ‘trade beads’ at archaeological sites dating between 1550 and 1750 CE throughout the Caribbean, the eastern coast of Central and North America, and the eastern Great Lakes region.

Europeans and others created glass beads using technology that didn’t exist in Native cultures. Read More

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February 16, 2021
'Ice age' horse skeleton found in Utah backyard isn't what we thought
The skeletal remains of a "wild" female horse found buried in a big ancient lake in Utah and thought to date back 16,000 years to the last ice age are actually no older than 340 years old, a new study finds.

The bones, unearthed by landscapers in a Lehi, Utah backyard in 2018, were initially dated to a period that ended roughly 11,700 years ago. But after analyzing the horse's remains, scientists realized that the hoofed beast was actually a domestic horse that lived much more recently. Read More

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February 06, 2021
‘The Dig’ brings out the archaeologist in all of us
In The Dig, Netflix’s hit dramatisation of the 1939 discovery of the Sutton Hoo burial ship and the treasure horde within, the first thing we notice is the sumptuous Suffolk sky (“borrowed from Terrence Malick”, the Financial Times review suggests, loftily). The second is that the film makes scraping about in a mud-filled pit look dreamily desirable.

For the first time in decades, I felt a pang for my counterfactual life and the road not taken. In this version I am an Egyptologist, travelling the world and, like The Dig’s Edith Pretty and Basil Brown, finding astonishing things in pits. Read More

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February 05, 2021
New Orleans Underground: The city beneath the city
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - New Orleans is one of the most historically significant cities in the United States, but beneath the surface lies an archaeological treasure trove.

Some wonder if enough is being done to preserve and protect ancient treasures.

New Orleans is a city where the past culture oozes from the streets.

You can feel the past just below your feet. Read More

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February 02, 2021
Archaeologists Unearth 600-Year-Old Golden Eagle Sculpture at Aztec Temple
Archaeologists conducting excavations at the Templo Mayor, or Great Temple, in Mexico City (once home to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán) have discovered a 600-year-old sculpture of a golden eagle, reports Ángela Reyes for CNN en Español.

Led by Rodolfo Aguilar Tapia of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), researchers from the Templo Mayor Project unearthed the sculpture last February. The eagle—carved out of tezontle, a reddish volcanic rock commonly used in both pre-Hispanic and modern Mexico—measures 41.7 by 27.6 inches, making it the largest bas-relief (or low relief) work found at the pyramid-shaped temple to date. Read More

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February 02, 2021
MSU archaeology professor invites public on summer research trips to 'new and old' worlds
Jimmy Hardin enrolled at Mississippi State to study archeology in 1986, but his interest in the field probably started years earlier, not in school, but in church.

Hardin, now an associate professor at Mississippi State's Cobb Institute of Archaeology, discussed his long archaeological career during Monday's Starkville Rotary Club meeting via Zoom, talking not only about his work in the Middle East, but how his work need not be confined to professional archaeologists.

"I've always loved history," Hardin said. "I can remember sitting in church reading (the biblical books of) Kings and Samuel when I probably should have been listening to the sermon." Read More

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February 02, 2021
Researchers Locate Elusive Tlingit Fort in Alaska
Using geophysical imaging techniques and ground-penetrating radar, a team of scientists from Cornell University and the U.S. National Park Service has confirmed the location of a fort associated with a pivotal battle between Tlingit people and Russian invading forces. The find is preceded by a century of attempts to locate the fort, which the researchers have now identified from its unusual trapezoidal shape.

In 1799, the Russian Empire sent a small army to take over Alaska in order to develop the fur trade, but native Tlingit clans successfully expelled them in 1802.

In 1804, Russian forces, with the support of their Aleut subjects, returned and fought a major battle against the Tlingit in what is now Sitka. The story of the battle was recorded in Russian sources and passed down in Tlingit oral history. Read More

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January 16, 2021
Scattered remnants raise questions of origin of fort along Native American trails
Time travel is possible through the study of history, and sometimes it results in unexpected destinations.

The New Lenox Area Historical Society tells of a fort that once stood in the region, believed to have been built in the 1730s between the Native American trails that became today’s U.S. Highways 6 and 30.

But the fort's existence is about all that can be agreed upon, so Lori Lindberg, chairwoman of the New Lenox Area Historical Society, turned the dialog over to David Rubner, a researcher and author of “about 25 books or booklets” on the area’s history.

“I’ve always been interested in history — in what came before — since I was a little kid and went to the library and looked stuff up,” Rubner said. “I have a degree in geology, which, I guess, is Earth history.” Read More

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January 10, 2021
How do scientists figure out how old things are?
The ability to precisely date, or identify the age of an object, can teach us when Earth formed, help reveal past climates and tell us how early humans lived. So how do scientists do it?

Radiocarbon dating is the most common method by far, according to experts. This method involves measuring quantities of carbon-14, a radioactive carbon isotope — or version of an atom with a different number of neutrons. Carbon-14 is ubiquitous in the environment. After it forms high up in the atmosphere, plants breathe it in and animals breathe it out, said Thomas Higham, an archaeologist and radiocarbon dating specialist at the University of Oxford in England. Read More

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January 10, 2021
The Lost History of Yellowstone
After 14 summers excavating in Yellowstone National Park, Doug MacDonald has a simple rule of thumb. “Pretty much anywhere you’d want to pitch a tent, there are artifacts,” he says, holding up a 3,000-year-old obsidian projectile point that his team has just dug out of the ground. “Like us, Native Americans liked to camp on flat ground, close to water, with a beautiful view.”

We’re standing on a rise near the Yellowstone River, or the Elk River as most Native American tribes called it. A thin wet snow is falling in late June, and a few scattered bison are grazing in the sagebrush across the river. Apart from the road running through it, the valley probably looks much as it did 30 centuries ago, when someone chipped away at this small piece of black glassy stone until it was lethally sharp and symmetrical, then fastened it to a straightened shaft of wood and hurled it at bison with a spear-throwing tool, or atlatl. Read More

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January 07, 2021
An archaeological dig in urban Baltimore reveals a forgotten past
Behind a small brick row house in Druid Heights, one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in Baltimore, a bunch of students and volunteers were hard at work excavating the backyard. The group had painstakingly carved out a pair of trenches in a corner of the lot, searching for where the outhouse, or privy, would have been when the house was built in the late 1800s.

“Because a privy, for most of the 19th century, is the place you put your trash,” said Adam Fracchia, a professor of archaeology at the University of Maryland, who was leading this urban dig.

“The great thing about privies is most people don’t think about what they throw away,” he said. “It’s out of sight, out of mind, so it gives us an unbiased sample of what people had.” Read More

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January 06, 2021
The Archaeologist Who Collected 4,500 Beer Cans
David Maxwell’s office at Simon Fraser University could easily be mistaken for a dorm room. The walls are plastered with antique beer signs, which, when turned on, illuminate the small space in a neon glow. Beer cans are lined up like trophies on top of the bookcase and prop up archaeology textbooks. Maxwell is not just an avid collector of breweriana; he’s also the world’s foremost—and probably only—archaeological scholar of beer cans.

For most people, archaeology conjures images of timeworn tombs and temples. But archaeologists have long relied on garbage, whether sherds of pottery or empty beer cans, for insight. Trash is a testament of daily life. Regardless of its age, it represents a wealth of information about the society that produced it. Read More

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December 30, 2020
The 10 Most Astonishing Archaeological Discoveries of 2020, From an Ancient Cat Carving to the Amazon Rock Paintings
Despite its many difficulties, 2020 gave us some incredible discoveries.

Shortly after scientists confirmed that the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, owned Dead Sea Scroll forgeries, putting the authenticity of some 70 other known fragments in question, the University of Manchester realized that parchment scraps believed to be blank and worthless were actually part of a cache of ancient manuscripts.

Of course, 2020 reminded us that discoveries can be a bit of a bummer: museum visitors might be destroying The Scream, and a possible new Leonardo da Vinci drawing might prove the record-setting $450 million Salvator Mundi isn’t the Renaissance master’s painting. And this year also proved the groundbreaking discovery of the oldest example of the written Basque language to be a hoax. Read More

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December 21, 2020
Ancient Wolf Pup Mummy Uncovered in Yukon Permafrost
While water blasting at a wall of frozen mud in Yukon, Canada, a gold miner made an extraordinary discovery: a perfectly preserved wolf pup that had been locked in permafrost for 57,000 years.

The remarkable condition of the pup, named Zhùr by the local Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people, gave researchers a wealth of insights about her age, lifestyle, and relationship to modern wolves.

“She’s the most complete wolf mummy that’s ever been found. She’s basically 100% intact–all that’s missing are her eyes,” says first author Julie Meachen, an associate professor of anatomy at Des Moines University. “And the fact that she’s so complete allowed us to do so many lines of inquiry on her to basically reconstruct her life.” Read More

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December 19, 2020
Thousands of Missing Artifacts Back at Mississippi Museum
Thousands of artifacts missing from the Museum of the Mississippi Delta’s most prized archeological collection have been returned.

The largest recovery occurred Thursday when two officials from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History returned 37 boxes of artifacts — stone tools, pottery pieces, petrified wood and the like — that had been deposited at the Jackson facility two years ago without authorization.

Most of the returned items are from the L.B. Jones Collection, a highly regarded compendium of prehistoric artifacts that has been on loan to the museum for decades.

“This is a good day for our Delta prehistoric heritage and a great day for theL.B. Jones Trust,” said Anna Reginelli, the curator of the collection.

Reginelli and the trust’s chairman, Donnie Gayle Lay of Brandon, had been working for more than a year to get the scads of material back from MDAH after learning that Cheryl Thornhill, the Greenwood museum’s former executive director, had given them and other stored artifacts away without the trust’s permission or supporting documentation. Read More

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December 04. 2020
How do archaeologists know where to dig?
National Geographic magazines and Indiana Jones movies might have you picturing archaeologists excavating near Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and Machu Picchu. And some of us do work at these famous places.

But archaeologists like us want to learn about how people from the past lived all over the planet. We rely on left-behind artifacts to help fill out that picture. We need to excavate in places where there's evidence of human activity—those clues from the past aren't always as obvious as a giant pyramid, though. Read More

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December 02, 2020
Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists finding ‘full, human range of occupation’ at Custis Square dig site
As the seasons change in Colonial Williamsburg, the work at the Custis Square archaeology site continues.

Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists will put on extra layers of clothes as temperatures continue to drop, and keep their fingers crossed that they don’t have wet weather this winter like they did in the late-summer and fall.

But the cold weather doesn’t necessarily slow down their work, according to Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s director of archaeology. In some ways, the cold can actually help with the many hours of digging inside excavation units.

“When you’re digging a unit out, and it’s 100 degrees, that’s tough,” Gary said. “But when it’s 40 (degrees), it’s much more comfortable, and the work keeps you warm, so in some ways we can get more work done in the winter.” Read More

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November 16, 2020
Archaeologists in Colonial Williamsburg uncover more findings at First Baptist Church site as Phase 1 of the dig ends
The first phase of excavation has ended for a Colonial Williamsburg archaeology project aiming to help tell the story of Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church, one of America’s oldest churches founded by free and enslaved Blacks.

Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s director of archaeology, said his team recently uncovered the brick foundations of more historic structures within the South Nassau Street lot that held the first physical location of First Baptist Church, including what Gary referred to as the building’s 1953 annex, an addition to the church building that was never completed. Read More

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November 12, 2020
Anthropology professor to discuss Chaco jewelry finds
Chaco Canyon is extraordinary in many respects, not least in the dense concentration of jewelry found in archaeological contexts dating between the 9th and early 12th centuries CE (Current Era). The largest and most prominent pueblo in the Canyon is Pueblo Bonito, a 650-room structure with elite burial chambers and material imported from across the Southwestern U.S. and Mesoamerica. Excavations at Pueblo Bonito between 1896 and 1927 resulted in the collection of over 100,000 items of personal adornment fashioned from turquoise, marine shell, jet, and local stone.

Hannah Mattson, Southwestern archaeologist and an assistant professor of Anthropology at The University of New Mexico, has studied Pueblo Bonito’s ancient jewelry assemblage for over a decade. In this year’s Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Fall Archaeology Lecture, she will discuss her research, including how these objects were produced and what their past social meanings may have been. Read More

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November 11, 2020
Home of Harriet Tubman's father could soon be unearthed by archaeologists in Maryland
DORCHESTER, Md. (ABC7) — A property in Dorchester County, Maryland could be the home of Harriet Tubman's father, and archaeologists with Maryland's Department of Transportation State Highway Administration are hoping to find it.

MDOT SHA archaeologists are reportedly working on the property this week, which is part of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The site is thought to have once been home to the Underground Railroad conductor and her family. Read More

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November 05, 2020
Investigating Parsons Island
UD grad student and research team investigates archeology, geology of Chesapeake Bay island

Neeshell Bradley-Lewis was completing an undergraduate double major in both archaeology and geology at Appalachian State University when she met Michael O’Neal, a professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Earth Sciences, at the 2018 Geological Society of America conference. O’Neal had earned a degree in archaeology before completing his doctorate in geology, and he let Bradley-Lewis know that she could pursue a master’s degree at UD that would combine both of her passions. Bradley-Lewis jumped at the opportunity.

Now entering her second year at UD, Bradley-Lewis combines her love of archaeology with her love of geology by conducting research on Parsons Island in the Chesapeake Bay. On Parsons Island, she works with O’Neal and Darrin Lowery, a geologist and an affiliated professor at UD, who also works as a research associate in archeology at the Smithsonian. Lowery earned his doctorate from UD in 2010, Read More

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November 01, 2020
Archaeologists discover 300-year-old slave quarters at Newtowne Neck State Park
EONARDTOWN, Md. — Archaeologists from the Maryland Department of Transportation and St. Mary's College have unearthed what they believe is more than 300-year-old slave quarters in Southern Maryland.

As you look out at the cornfields on what was a Jesuit plantation, it's what you can't see that holds the true history of what happened there hundreds of years ago.
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"Through my maternal line, I am a Plowden descendent, and the Plowdens were enslaved here by the Jesuits," said the Rev. Dante Eubanks.

Eubanks is a direct descendant of the enslaved African Americans who worked and lived on the land in the 1700s. He said a recent find by archeologists -- a literal treasure trove of information -- hit him on a spiritual and emotional level. Read More

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October 24, 2020
Archaeological misstep on Celestial Railroad site draws fine in Jupiter
JUPITER — When project leaders pitched the Inlet Waters townhouse development in Jupiter's Inlet Village area, they promised to pay tribute to the property's historical nature.

Their plans included mock railroad tracks, a homage to the so-called Celestial Railroad, a 19th-century rail line connecting Jupiter to the Lake Worth Lagoon with freight stops called Mars and Venus. Developers also pledged to place a landmark sign for the railway, whose old right-of-way crosses the property.

But when it came time to survey the land for archaeological resources, Jupiter says the project missed a notable step. Contractors never performed required metal detection, according to the town, a situation that has prompted Jupiter to revise how it will monitor developers who hire the firm for archaeology work in the future. Read More

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October 22, 2020
What Archaeology Is and How to Become an Archaeologist
Often when people hear the word "archaeologist," they think of an iconic film character like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. However, movies about archaeology don't fully capture what this profession is all about, according to archaeologists.

"Archaeology isn’t always glamorous," Emily Swain, a Maryland-based archaeologist with the Stantec global design firm, explained in an email. "It’s a lot of hard work that can involve long days in the sun and the heat, trudging through forests with a shovel and screen in hand. It’s dirty work and you don’t always find things. But when you do find something interesting or unexpected, it can open up a new window to the past and give a voice to the ordinary people who may not make it into the history books." Read More

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October 16, 2020
The last known slave ship has spent 160 years under the Mobile River. Can it be preserved?
Archaeologists will begin next year their attempt to assess and, if possible, preserve remains of the Clotilda schooner, the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the U.S. in 1860.

The Alabama Historical Commission is fielding proposals from maritime archaeologists as the task requires industrial-level diving skills. The commission expects to begin its review of submissions on how to best preserve the fragile wreck site in early November.

Researchers had searched for the vessel for decades when in spring 2019 it was found by AHC and Search Inc. Read More

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October 15, 2020
12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in New Mexico
The human tracks at White Sands National Park record more than 1.5 km (0.93 miles) of an out- and-return journey.

They show the footprints of a woman or an adolescent male that are joined, at point, by the footprints of a toddler.

“An adolescent or small adult female made two trips separated by at least several hours, carrying a young child in at least one direction,” said lead author Dr. Sally Reynold of Bournemouth University and colleagues.

The team found the tracks in a dried-up lakebed, which contains a range of other footprints dating from 11,550 to 13,000 years ago. Read More

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October 10, 2020
UNF Archaeologists Find Ancient Artifact
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The undisputed star of an archeological dig now underway in a buggy jungle on Big Talbot Island is a 4,000-year-old projectile point about 3 inches long, It’s made of chert, a sedimentary rock unlike anything found in the sandy soil of the island.

It came from present-day Gainesville or areas west of that and was likely brought to the coast through a trade network at some point.

Its style points to that early date, so what was it doing for thousands of years before it was found in the excavation of the village of Sarabay? After all, Sarabay was a home for Timucuan-speaking Mocama Indians that dates to far later — roughly to the 16th-century period of first contact with European colonists and soldiers. Read More

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October 04, 2020
U.S. Archaeological Sites Tell Stories, Leave Mysteries
People who ascend a high mountain ridge in Wyoming are greeted by a collection of rocks carefully laid out in a geometric design. Visitors to southwestern Ohio marvel at the sight of a mammoth earthwork shaped like an undulating snake. A maze of stone walls, chambers and other structures perched on a hill in New Hampshire lives up to its nickname of "America's Stonehenge."

If you're under the impression that archaeology is a dull, mind-numbing subject of interest only to scientists, think again. Sites throughout the United States relate fascinating chapters of human history through artifacts and other remnants of people who once lived in the area. An Internet search is likely to reveal the location of one or more within a short commute from where you live. Read More

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September 30, 2020
Tribes, archaeologists are working to identify sites in Greater Chaco for protections from oil and gas
Tribal governments are working with archaeologists to identify thousands of culturally-sensitive sites and resources in the Greater Chaco region, in hopes of preventing oil and gas development in the area from encroaching further onto the sacred landscape.

The studies are part of a multi-pronged strategy to protect the area amid increased oil and gas leasing on federal lands in New Mexico. Under the Trump administration, oil and gas leasing on federal lands, including land in the Greater Chaco region, has increased fourfold in the state.

Last year, Congress passed a bill granting a one-year moratorium on oil and gas leasing within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture Historical National Park. That moratorium expires later this week on September 30. Read More

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September 24, 2020
What Archaeologists Know About The Human Remains Discovered In Burlington
A construction crew doing a home improvement project found something recently that has piqued the interest of archeologists in Burlington.

They're human remains, bones that researchers say that have been around for a while. In fact, they say they're the remains of a soldier from the War of 1812 and there could be others buried nearby. The project is ongoing and is being overseen by the University of Vermont's Consulting Anthropology Program, with support from the State Division for Historic Preservation. Read More

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September 21, 2020
Archaeological dig of Hagerstown cabin reveals African American history
HAGERSTOWN, Md. —

A tiny log cabin located on the once-famous Jonathan Street in downtown Hagerstown is at the center of a major archaeology dig after historians and archaeologists figured out the cabin slated for demolition had major ties to the history of African Americans in western Maryland.

The log cabin may be one of, if not the oldest standing buildings in Hagerstown with strong ties to the oldest African American community. Archaeologists are now digging around it hoping to preserve the past.
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Archaeologists from the Maryland Department of Transportation and Preservation Maryland are trying to learn about who lived in the tiny log cabin that dates to the 1830s. Read More

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September 15, 2020
Archaeological Digging Continues At US 50 & State Line Ahead Of Road Improvement Project
Archaeological digging continues at U.S. 50 and State Line Road. Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Greendale, Ind.) - What's with all the digging at the intersection of U.S. 50 and State Line Road?

It is an INDOT sponsored project where ASC Group, Inc., an archaeological consulting firm, is working to complete a Phase III archaeological mitigation excavation prior to the installation of an improved intersection at U.S. 50 and State Line Road.

Kevin Schwarz, principal investigator for archaeology at ASC Group, Inc., tells Eagle Country 99.3 that 15 individuals have been working at the site for about four weeks. The crew is expected to continue their work for another four weeks on the Native American archaeological site to ensure its proper historical documentation so that the road improvement project can move forward.

"It was a village site," said Schwarz. "They call us in to excavate it and find out the information of what the people were doing when they were living here and so forth." Read More

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September 07, 2020
Archaeologists find War of 1812 artifacts on Horse Island, near Sackets Harbor
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWNY) - The historic battle of Sackets Harbor in May of 1813 started with British troops making landfall on Horse Island. More than 200 years later, researchers are searching for new details about what happened there.

It’s a small island with some big history - something researchers from University of Binghamton’s Public Archaeology Facility are working to uncover.

They have found shell fragments, dropped musket balls, a side plate from a musket and buttons from military uniforms

“So we are using that evidence to help piece together the story that goes beyond what the primary documents say,” said Brian Grills, battlefield archaeologist. Read More

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September 06, 2020
Many relics stored from past archaeological research on American Indian sites along the Roanoke River
his being Labor Day, the following is dedicated to a couple of the hardest working men in research.

The first is our trusted friend and instructor in sundry aspects of history, geography, geology, archaeology, political science and chemistry, the late and keenly missed Jim Glanville.

The other scholar has done more digging than some heavy machinery operators, he being archaeologist Tom Klatka. Read More

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September 01, 2020
Real-Life Archaeologist Reveals What Indiana Jones Gets Right And Wrong About The Field
If you asked a room full of actual archaeologists what inspired them to pursue the field, I’d guess a good number would reference George Lucas’ Indiana Jones. The character is undoubtedly an action-adventure classic fronted by Harrison Ford in one of his most memorable roles to date. But, if you ask an actual archaeologist if Indy’s methods for excavation are sound, they’ll disagree.

There’s a real Dr. Jones of archaeology: Dr. Alexandra Jones, Founder and CEO of Archaeology in the Community. She recently sat down with the most famous on-film depictions of her subject of expertise to discuss how accurate they are from her perspective. When she viewed the famous opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which features Indiana Jones swapping a priceless artifact for a bag of similar weight before running from a series of traps, including the iconic boulder drop, here’s how she reacted: Read More

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September 01, 2020
Dig It: Exploring the archaeology of us
As they imagine archa­eological research, most people conjure mental images that come right out of National Geographic magazine — archaeologists painstakingly excavating artifacts left behind by some ancient and exotic culture.

But archaeology is not so much a cohesive field of study focused on any one culture or time as it is a series of concepts and tools that allow for reasonable inferences to be made about human behaviour based on physical remains. Read More

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August 20, 2020
Virtual tours of Jamestown, including archaeological sites, are on the way
History lovers can look forward to new virtual tours of Historic Jamestowne sites, using an online portal that’s being developed by the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation.

Jamestown Rediscovery has been working on “Rediscovering Jamestown: A New Way to Explore James Fort Virtually,” a six-month project that includes a new virtual tour portal that will be available on historicjamestowne.org. This virtual portal is expected to be completed by early next year and is being funded through a $153,261 grant that Jamestown Rediscovery received from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Read More

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August 17, 2020
Long-Awaited Update Arrives for Radiocarbon Dating
More than 3,500 years ago a catastrophic volcanic eruption struck ancient Thera, known today as the Greek island of Santorini. Ash and pumice rained across the Mediterranean, and tsunami waves rolled onto faraway shores in Crete. In the 1960s archaeologists on Santorini uncovered a Minoan settlement frozen in time, with vibrant wall frescoes decorating multistory houses, all buried by volcanic debris.

The eruption was one of the most powerful volcanic explosions of the past 10,000 years and a crucial time point of the Mediterranean Bronze Age. It is also a major area of controversy in archaeology; researchers have argued for decades over the date of this cataclysm. Read More

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August 09, 2020
Archaeology | 1940s excavation of mound offers clues to Adena, Hopewell cultures
Archaeologists have divided up what is more or less a continuum of 16,000 or more years of Native American history into different cultural periods to help us to think about significant turning points in that history. One of those cultural Rubicons is the transition from the Adena to the Hopewell culture at around A.D. 1.

The Adena culture built Ohio’s first mounds, including Shrum Mound in Columbus. Archaeologists used to believe the Adena were the first farmers and pottery makers in the region, but we now know those innovations happened toward the end of the preceding period.

The big changes that define the Hopewell culture include the construction of gigantic earthen enclosures, such as those at Newark and Chillicothe, which encode a sophisticated understanding of geometry and astronomy in their architecture. Read More

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August 08, 2020
Archaeological dig in Southport unearths relics of the past
OUTHPORT, N.C. (WECT) - Special teams have been working in Brunswick County this month looking for items from the past that have laid forgotten under the ground for generations.

The public archaeological corps have been digging next to St. Philips Episcopal Church in Southport for weeks now, looking to learn more about what life was like for people here centuries ago. The church invited PAC on the property that used to be home to a building built in 1895. The structure was demolished, but they wanted to group to take on the project and learn the history of the area before putting a new building on the lot.

Each day they’ve pulled tiny treasures from the dirt; Saturday morning, a bayonet tip was pulled from the ground less than an hour after teams arrived on scene and deployed metal detectors.

In the past weeks, the group has found an opal ring, a lighter, buttons from the 18th century and coins that date all the way back to 1776. Read More

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August 05, 2020
Archaeologists Locate Earliest Known North American Settlement
The earliest known north American settlement has been located. Paisley Five Mile Point Caves in southern Oregon near the Fremont-Winema National Forest has officially been added to the list of the most important archaeological sites in the United States by the U.S. Park Services under the authority of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The caves have been a popular archaeological site since 1938, but with the advances in carbon dating and other tools, the site offers up new discoveries even today.

According to The Oregon Encyclopedia, archaeologist Dr. Luther Cressman, often referred to as the father of Oregon archaeology and anthropology, began the work at Paisley Caves in the late 1930s and continued until the 1960s. He helped to establish the anthropology department at the University of Oregon and was the first director of what would become the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology. Before Cressman’s groundbreaking work, scientists believed the earliest inhabitants of North America were the Clovis People whose distinguishing spearheads record their places of residence. Read More

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July 22 2020
Humans reached the Americas 11,000 years earlier than previously thought, archaeologists discover
An extraordinary new archaeological discovery has revealed that humans arrived in the Americas at least 11,000 years earlier than previously thought - rewriting the human story of the continent and dramatically changing our understanding of world prehistory.

The find – in central Mexico – indicates the continent was first colonised at some stage prior to 30,000BC. Until now, the earliest proven colonisation had been dated to around 19,000BC, meaning the America’s human story is at least 50 per cent longer than previously thought.

The new research reveals that very early Native Americans were living in Mexico, and presumably also in parts of the rest of North America, from at least 30,000BC onwards. Read More

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July 16, 2020
Archaeologists date earliest known occupation of North America
A team led by Newcastle University, UK, used analysis of ancient coprolites—fossilized excrement—to identify that samples from one of the most famous "pre-Clovis" sites at Paisley Caves, in Oregon, north America, contained human fecal biomarkers.

Their results mean that archeologists are able to confirm that the earliest known humans in the Americas were from a pre-Clovis culture, dating back more than 12,000 years.

For most of the 20th century it was thought that the earliest inhabitants in the Americas belonged to a single group known as "Clovis," who left distinctive large stone tools in the archeological record. While it is now largely accepted that there were several groups present on the continent before the Clovis culture, the dating of these "pre-Clovis" sites has been difficult as the stone tools are not often found with material that can be radiocarbon dated. Read More

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July 10, 2020
Archaeologists find new evidence of early St. Croix River residents
It was a hot and humid day like so many recently. The team of people slowly digging square pits on the banks of the St. Croix River were dripping sweat — while wearing face masks. Even the mosquitoes whining in their ears sounded warm. The young excavators scraped slowly at the soil using flat shovels, then sifted the dirt through screens.

A stone stood out. One edge was straight and sharp. It showed chips that hinted it was hammered into this shape.

The apprentice archaeologist who uncovered the stone handed it to her teacher, Dr. Ed Fleming of the Science Museum of Minnesota. He cleaned the dirt off with a soft brush, studied it, and agreed it appeared to be a scraper made by prehistoric people. Read More

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July 08, 2020
Archaeology ongoing at the Vann House and Springplace Moravian Mission
The Chief Vann House has been the hot topic of conversation for many Spring Place citizens this June. Many readers have witnessed the archaeological crews doing excavation on Alternate Ga. 52 near the God’s Acre Cemetery and the Vann House.

It has long been known that James Vann, wealthy Cherokee plantation owner and merchant, built his 800-acre plantation more than 200 years ago and that his family welcomed the construction of the first school to Cherokee children, the Springplace Mission and School. However, there are extremely few maps and even fewer physical remains of this school and plantation to help us understand the people who first called Spring Place home. Read More

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July 07, 2020
Excavations to Resume for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Graves
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Tulsa will resume test excavations of potential unmarked graves from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre after the effort was halted in March because of the coronavirus outbreak, city officials announced.

The pandemic’s travel restrictions have made it difficult for the archaeology team to reach Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery for an examination, which was initially set to begin April 1. The state archaeological survey at the University of Oklahoma includes scientists from out of state. Read More

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June 19, 2020
Hood brings archeology field school to students' backyards
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread and schools were closed and events canceled, one group of students felt the impact especially hard.

Archaeology students around the world who usually spend their summers traveling and working at archeological field schools were left with nowhere to go and nowhere to dig.

Megan Reeve, an archaeology student completing her senior year at Hood College, was left in that exact situation. She was supposed to work in Italy this summer until the pandemic hit.

But then she heard about a new class Hood launched to help students like herself.

David Hixson, a visiting professor of archaeology at Hood, lives on an 18th-century farmhouse property in West Virginia. Read More

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June 13, 2020
Canyons of the Ancients Artifacts Thief Goes to Jail
Canyons of the Ancients, in southwestern Colorado state, is the Holy Grail of American archaeology with the largest number of archaeological sites dating back over 10,000 years. This week, The Journal reported that the American Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is honoring the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument 's 20-year anniversary. However, CBS has also reported this week that a Colorado man, Lonnie Winbourn, 57, from Cortez Colorado, has been sentenced to over a year in prison for stealing artifacts from the site.

Situated in the Four Corners area of southwestern Colorado, about 45 miles west of Durango, near Cortez and Mesa Verde National Park , the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument contains more than 30,000 well-preserved native American sites. The Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance website says the “76,000-acre monument” was designated on June 9, 2000 by Presidential Proclamation to protect cultural and natural resources on a landscape scale,” but according to the BLM it belongs to a “32 million acre” archaeological zone. Read More

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June 08. 2020
See the fascinating finds unearthed from Mackinac Island’s old dump
MACKINAC ISLAND, MICH. -- The discovery was proof that one person’s trash really can be another person’s treasure.

In September 2011, while stripping away pavement to resurface the runway at Mackinac Island Airport, workers discovered areas of refuse under the former taxiway. Thanks to early maps, archaeologists had been aware of a possible dump site in that area dating back to the turn of the 20th century, and here it was: Piles of old items ranging from bottles to tools to intact light bulbs, buried since 1934, when the airport was built.

Now, after almost a decade, all those items -- nearly 1,000 in total -- are nearly done being painstakingly cataloged. Read More

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June 03, 2020
AIA Statement on Archaeology and Social Justice
Archaeologists examine the physical remains of humankind to answer questions animated by our present. The material record helps us understand the production of inequality, the representation of power, and the targeted discrimination of communities. Archaeological research that describes the lives of everyday people also gives voice to those who lack privileged representation in the dominant historical record. Violence perpetrated against African Americans, Native Americans, women, immigrants, and other minorities in our own society have antecedents in the ancient and more recent past. So too does the use of propaganda to legitimize authority, silence dissent, and maintain control. Our tools carry a professional and ethical obligation to call attention to these connections and to share the context of different human experiences. Read More

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June 01, 2020
Archaeology | Ancient hunters knew their stuff with arrowheads
Kent State University archaeologist Michelle Bebber, along with several colleagues, answered a question it never even would have occurred to me to ask.

Why did no prehistoric cultures ever make their arrowheads from ceramic?

I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that when I first saw the title of their paper, “The non-invention of the ceramic arrowhead in world archaeology,” published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, I chuckled. Why would anyone even think of making an arrowhead out of ceramic?

Actually, there are a number of reasons why prehistoric people might have decided to do just that. Over the past 30,000 years that people have been making stuff out of clay, such as figurines and pottery vessels, we know that some groups made ceramic hide-scrapers and sling stones. Maybe they just used clay when they couldn’t get stone; but then, why no arrowheads — ever? Read More

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May 18, 2020
Civil action filed to forfeit rare cuneiform tablet from Hobby Lobby
NEW YORK – Pursuant to ongoing Cultural Property, Arts & Antiquities investigations by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, a civil complaint was filed Monday to forfeit a rare cuneiform tablet bearing a portion of the epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian epic poem considered one the world’s oldest works of literature. Known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, it originated in the area of modern-day Iraq and entered the United States contrary to federal law. The tablet was later sold by an international auction house (the “Auction House”) to Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (“Hobby Lobby”), a prominent arts-and-crafts retailer based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for display at the Museum of the Bible (the “Museum”). Despite inquiries from the Museum and Hobby Lobby, the Auction House withheld information about the tablet’s provenance. The tablet was seized from the Museum by law enforcement agents in September 2019.

“Whenever looted cultural property is found in this country, the United States government will do all it can to preserve heritage by returning such artifacts where they belong,” stated Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “In this case, a major auction house failed to meet its obligations by minimizing its concerns that the provenance of an important Iraqi artifact was fabricated, and withheld from the buyer information that undermined the provenance’s reliability.” Read More

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May 08, 2020
Archaeology news: Researchers stunned by Civil War finding beneath cemetery
The collapse of a hill at the Vicksburg National Cemetery - a burial site for Union soldiers - in Mississippi led archaeologists to a shocking find. Buried deep beneath the now collapsed hill was the grave of 15 soldiers who had died during the US Civil War - which lasted from 1861 to 1865, when the Union of the north defeated the Confederates of the south.

Experts state further DNA testing may be required to ensure that each soldier’s remains are identified.

According to a release from the Vicksburg National Military Park, the remains will be carefully removed and stored to ensure each set of the remains of each soldier are kept together.

Archaeologist Dawn Lawrence said: “This is among the most important work that we do. Read More

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April 27, 2020
Unearthing the past: local archaeologists add to historical record
Real life archaeology may not have giant boulders and flying arrows and gold artifacts to steal.

But it does have hooch. Sometimes, anyway.

Local archaeologist Jennifer DeRose has seen her fair share of beer bottles and other “refuse” – or garbage – from the early 1900s that suggests a fairly regular consumption of alcoholic beverages.

“Any site that doesn’t have any beer, liquor, or hooch is unusual for North Idaho [of a certain period],” DeRose said. Read More

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April 26, 2020
Archaeology: Saga of giant Mound Builders is a tall tale that won’t go away
It seems I can no longer give a public program about Ohio’s amazing ancient American Indian mounds without someone in the audience asking me about giants, or the lost tribes of Israel — or even aliens.

I try to address these questions politely and explain that there is no hard evidence that any of these things had anything to do with Ohio’s mounds. Occasionally, if the person asking the question is a true believer, they’ll accuse me of lying and hiding the evidence that would prove me wrong.

Some people actually believe that the Ohio History Connection (along with the Smithsonian Institution) has skeletons of giant humans in our collections that we keep hidden from the public. The first time someone accused me of this I was dumbfounded and asked, “Why on earth would we do that?” Read More

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April 24, 2020
Graduate research: Archaeology goes high-tech with LiDAR
Technological advances are allowing archaeologists to take a wider, yet closer, look at ancient sites, opening up long-hidden evidence about the societies of the people who lived there.

Tomos Evans is among the 21st century archaeologists using data derived from LiDAR — a method that uses pulsed-laser scans of the earth’s topography to create three-dimensional images of the landscape.

Evans, a third-year Ph.D. student in William & Mary’s Department of Anthropology, is part of an initiative to use LiDAR to preserve and study an enormous 100 mile-long African system of earthworks known as Sungbo’s Eredo, located in the southwest of Nigeria. His advisor is Neil Norman, assistant professor of anthropology. Read More

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April 23, 2020
Archaeologists verify Florida's Mound Key as location of elusive Spanish fort
Florida and Georgia archaeologists have discovered the location of Fort San Antón de Carlos, home of one of the first Jesuit missions in North America. The Spanish fort was built in 1566 in the capital of the Calusa, the most powerful Native American tribe in the region, on present-day Mound Key in the center of Estero Bay on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Archaeologists and historians have long suspected that the fort, named for the Catholic patron saint of lost things, was located on Mound Key. Researchers have been searching for concrete evidence in the area since 2013. Read More

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April 03, 2020
Researcher Believes He Has ID'd Shipwreck in Maine
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A researcher believes he's identified the mysterious shipwreck that appears from time to time in the right conditions on a beach in York.

The ship's remains, which were last exposed by a nor'easter in 2018, are likely those of the Defiance, a sloop that washed ashore during a violent storm in 1769, said researcher Stefan Claesson, owner of Nearview, an aerial drone and archaeological surveying company.

The Defiance was built in 1754 in Massachusetts, which fits with historical documents and tree-ring dating conducted by Cornell University, he said.

But, he said, “additional historical research and archaeological investigations are needed to confirm the identification.” Read More

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April 03, 2020
Archaeology? What's its relevance in crises-filed world?
You might reasonably suppose that digging up old stones, pots and bones doesn’t have much relevance in a world beset by epidemics, economic crises, political disunity, violent confrontations and climate change.

So many balls in the air! Why ignore them even for a moment to look at curiosities from the deep past?

I claim the necessity of this field, critical especially in these times. Like any serious, scientific discipline, it comprises a vast amount of low-level data in the form of finds, that have to be pieced together, sometimes physically and sometimes metaphorically, to build up a picture of the past, near or distant. Read More

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March 23, 2020
Submarine Wreckage Detected Off Hawaiian Island of Oahu
AHU, HAWAII—Live Science reports that a private group of researchers led by Tim Taylor, founder of the Lost 52 Project, has discovered the wreckage of the USS Stickleback, which sank on May 28, 1958, after an accidental collision with destroyer escort USS Silverstein during a Cold War-era antisubmarine warfare exercise. All of the sailors aboard the vessel were rescued, but Navy ships were not able to keep the damaged submarine afloat. Read More

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March 18, 2020
Digging up war-time history in a field in County Derry
We stand around a neatly dug rectangle of land. The rain is hammering in horizontally off the Atlantic. A glance towards it shows it to be heaving, the waves are tumultuous.

Dr Heather Montgomery has to shout to be heard over the wind.

“This is the reality of frontline archaeology,” she tells us.

The Cadet Training Centre at Magilligan is the centre of a major archaeological excavation being undertaken by Queen’s University’s Centre for Community Archaeology (CCA). Read More

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March 15, 2020
U.S. Museum's Dead Sea Scroll Fragments Turn Out to Be Elaborate Fakes
After conducting a battery of tests on fragments of the historic Dead Sea Scrolls, officials from the Museum of the Bible have confirmed that several samples are fakes. For some, like Dead Sea Scroll expert Kipp Davis of Trinity Western University, the news wasn’t surprising.

Since 2017, Davis had expressed doubts about the authenticity of the fragments due to factors that include “scribal quality and technique in the penning of the texts as well as the physical composition and current state of the manuscript media.” Read More

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March 14, 2020
Summer Archaeology Sites in Bear Brook, Pillsbury Parks
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — This year's summer archaeology field school sites will be in Bear Brook and Pillsbury state parks, the Division of Historical Resources said.

The program will investigate Native American settlement prior to the arrival of European settlers at the Allenstown and Washington parks. The first will take place from July 13-24 along the Suncook River. The second will take place from July 27-Aug. 7 in Washington. They will be directed by division archaeologists Mark Doperalski and David Trubey. Read More

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March 12, 2020
Protecting And Preserving Ancient Sites At Risk From Sea-Level Rise In Florida
Long before condominiums lined the shoreline in Miami Beach, before air conditioning, many thousands of years before Columbus, people lived along Florida's coastline.

Archaeologists say the remains of their settlements are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels as a result of climate change.

In Florida's Palm Beach County researchers are planning how best to protect and preserve the ancient sites most at risk from rising seas. Read More

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March 04, 2020
Brown University archaeologists map out God’s Little Acre
his past February, Brown University archaeology PhD candidates Alex Marko, Dan Plekhov, and Miriam Rothenberg spent a cold cloudy day surveying God’s Little Acre in the Common Burial Ground in Newport. The cemetery is the country’s largest and best-preserved colonial-era African and African-American cemetery, and it is a testament to the perseverance of their community.

Newport’s location meant that the cash crop farming that many people associate with slavery was not feasible, so instead enslaved Africans were trained in the trades required to keep the port city running. They often arrived as children under 13 years old and were raised as carpenters, stonemasons, chocolate grinders, glass blowers, ship riggers, sail seamstresses, and painters. Read More

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March 02, 2020
U-2 Spy Plane Photos Are Windows Onto Ancient Civilizations
In a darkened room of the U.S. National Archives, we stand over a light table, a special backlit surface for viewing film. Our gloved hands slowly turn heavy metal rolls of 9.5-inch-wide film, unspooling our way back in time to the Middle East of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Black-and-white negatives offer a bird’s-eye view of sinuous rivers lined with date palm tree gardens; villages ringed by agricultural fields; the occasional city, crowded with houses, markets, and mosques; and vast tracks of barren steppe-desert punctuated by dirt paths, isolated sheepfolds, or remote air strips. Among these rural and urban scenes, a careful viewer can also find traces of ancient and historical settlements and land use.

These images come from a special collection of footage. In the late 1950s, U-2 spy planes flew at around 70,000 feet over Cold War hotspots in Europe and Asia, capturing images that could show details as small as a person. Read More

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March 01, 2020
Archaeologists find remnants of what could be Squire Pope manor in Bluffton
Local archaeologists believe they’ve uncovered remnants of the original Squire Pope manor at Wright Family Park, a discovery that would debunk a generations-old belief that all traces of the historic Bluffton structure were lost to time, erosion and the 1863 Union Army “Burning of Bluffton.”

Town officials say that last fall, Heyward House volunteers — representatives of the town’s historical preservation society — came upon very old bricks while metal-detecting on the Wright Family Park lawn at the end of Calhoun Street.

The breakthrough launched archaeological work on the property. Read More

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March 01, 2020
44 African American graves found under Florida parking lot
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A private archaeology firm says it has discovered what appear to be about 44 graves from a long-forgotten African American cemetery under a Florida parking lot.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that the firm, Cardno, used ground-penetrating radar to find the suspected graves. The firm was hired by the city of Clearwater and the Pinellas County School Board to conduct the search.

The school district owns the parking lot. Cardno also reported additional graves may exist under a nearby school district building. Read More

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February 25, 2020
Big data could yield big discoveries in archaeology
Centuries of archaeological research on the Inca Empire has netted a veritable library of knowledge. But new digital and data-driven projects led by Brown University scholars are proving that there is much more to discover about pre-colonial life in the Andes.

In a recently released edition of the Journal of Field Archaeology, Brown Assistant Professor of Anthropology Parker VanValkenburgh and several colleagues detailed new research they conducted in the former Inca Empire in South America using drones, satellite imagery and proprietary online databases. Their results demonstrate that big data can provide archaeologists with a sweeping, big-picture view of the subjects they study on the ground -- prompting new insights and new historical questions. Read More

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February 21, 2020
Spy Plane Photos Open Windows Into Ancient Worlds
In a darkened room of the U.S. National Archives, we stood over a light table, a special backlit surface for viewing film. Our gloved hands slowly turned heavy metal rolls of 9.5-inch-wide film, unspooling our way back in time to the Middle East of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Black-and-white negatives offered a bird’s-eye view of sinuous rivers lined with date palm tree gardens; villages ringed by agricultural fields; the occasional city, crowded with houses, markets, and mosques; and vast tracks of barren steppe-desert punctuated by dirt paths, isolated sheepfolds, or remote air strips. Among these rural and urban scenes, a careful viewer can also find traces of ancient and historical settlements and land use. Read More

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February 16, 2020
Thousands of ancestors' remains, sacred objects to return home to North Dakota tribe
FARGO — In a storage room at the University of Tennessee’s anthropology department, the remains of almost 2,000 Arikara and Mandan people rest in boxes, alongside the sacred objects buried with them centuries ago.

There, 65-year-old Pete Coffey, director of the Tribal Historic Preservation Office for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, reunited with his ancestors in 2017.

“The only thing I can tell you is that I felt the presence of those ancestral spirits very strongly when I walked in there,” he said. Read More

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February 12, 2020
The Regulation of American Archaeology
“It belongs in a museum!” So says the young Indiana Jones in one of the hit movies from the 1980s after observing the unauthorized excavation of an important artifact.

But the question of who has the right to artifacts found in the United States depends on a number of factors. Government agencies, Native American tribes, and private property owners may all have a claim to artifacts depending on where they were found.

The first and most significant federal law governing archaeology is the Antiquities Act of 1906. This act was the first to establish penalties for illegal excavations, damage, or appropriation of American antiquities. These penalties, however, only apply when the illegal action takes place on land “owned or controlled” by the federal government. The act also authorizes the President to declare historic landmarks as national monuments. Read More

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February 11, 2020
Researchers Will Search for Spanish Treasure Ship
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—The Guardian reports that researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History and Spain’s National Museum of Underwater Archaeology will renew their search for Nuestra Señora del Juncal, a Spanish galleon that was carrying more than 100 tons of New World gold, silver, jewels, cacao, dyes, and animal hides when it sank off the coast of Mexico in a storm in October 1631. The Juncal’s commander had died before it set sail, and the ship began taking on water before the storm hit. Read More

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February 02, 2020
Mike Wolfe on rescuing America's past
Antique stores are generally home for relics of the past, not newly-minted celebrities. But at Antique Archaeology, in Le Claire, Iowa, shop owner Mike Wolfe gives customer some star power along with the dust. "Every one of these people write my check," Wolfe said. "Every one of them do. So, I try to spend as much time as I can with them, and if we don't rise to the occasion all the time, then I feel like I failed."

If you recognize him, it's probably because you're not only into rusty bits of Americana, but you're also a viewer of the History Channel series, "American Pickers." It's like "Antiques Roadshow" mixed with an episode of "Hoarders."

Wolfe tried to sell the show for five years. But nobody really knew what a "picker" was, including the History Channel. "I said, 'Here's the deal, man: You're the History Channel, let's educate them. Let's tell them what a picker is!'" said Wolfe. Read More

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February 01, 2020
Archaeology and historical record solve a Portage Lake mystery
Once Brendon Baillod and Randy Beebe had surveyed, photographed and documented the sunken vessel in the Keweenaw Waterway near the Michigan Technological University power plant, responses from local divers and residents as to the identity of the hulk simply did not line up with existing data and records Baillod possessed. He has, he said, one of the largest private collections of antiquarian Great Lakes books and ephemera in existence and is active in searching for and documenting historic Great Lakes shipwrecks. Read More

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February 01, 2020
Bones found near Port Angeles likely 500-1,000 years old
PORT ANGELES — Officials Thursday continued investigating the origin of bones found on a Waterfront Trail beach while repairs began on unstable embankments that recently yielded the ancient remains.

A complete human skull including the mandible, and a possible scapula, were found Jan. 14 by a man and his son on the Port Angeles Harbor waterfront abutting the trail, which is part of Olympic Discovery Trail.

“There’s a high probability [the remains] are Native American,” Lower Elwha Tribal Archaeologist Bill White said Thursday. Read More

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January 29, 2020
What Is the Most Significant Archaeological Discovery of the Past Decade? Nine Historians Share Their Favorite Finds
The last decade witnessed major archaeological discoveries, from the 10-month excavation of a Bronze Age settlement in England to what could be the world’s oldest figurative artwork, which was found in Indonesia last year. Which of these finds was most important? To hear more, ARTnews asked nine archaeologists and scholars. Their selections—which span several continents and multiple millennia—follow below.

Among numerous other significant discoveries of the past decade in Egypt, one find earns distinction. In 2013, a French mission [led by] Pierre Tallet discovered in a cave on the Red Sea coast in the Wadi El-Jarf remains of a logbook of a boat captain who had—before his assignment at the Red Sea—shipped building blocks to the pyramid of Kheops (Khufu) at Giza (2580 B.C.E.). By itself, such transports were not new to us, but the daily entries in the logbook connect us vividly with one of mankind’s most admired building projects. Read More

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January 27, 2020
Artifact found at Civil War site may be a 'witch bottle' used to ward off evil spirits. Really
Never heard of a "witch bottle"? Step right in, friend, sit a spell (not the evil kind) and we'll tell you why archaeologists believe a broken bottle found in Virginia just might be one.

Back in the day (beginning around the Middle Ages), people in the British Isles and elsewhere would try to ward off evil spirits by filling jugs or other containers with bent pins, hair, urine, nail clippings or other items. The idea was the contents would draw in and trap a harmful spirit. The witch bottle tradition came to the US and was still in play in the mid-19th century, during the Civil War.

Fast forward to 2016, when the William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research took part in a dig ahead of a widening project on Interstate 64 near Williamsburg. Read More

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January 21, 2020
Archaeologists studying Chinese mining sites on Malheur National Forest in Grant County
It was the kind of July day in Eastern Oregon when the dusty air waits for a spark to ignite a fire. In fact, two fires were already burning nearby.

Chelsea Rose, clad in black jeans, a black woven cowboy hat and black leather combat boots, was leading a team of U.S. Forest Service employees, archaeologists and volunteers through the backwoods. Two-way radios crackled with fire spotters’ updates. Although the fires were still a distance away, another could have started at any minute. Everyone needed to be prepared to evacuate.

Rose stepped over felled logs and rutted ground. Piles from a forest thinning operation were scattered throughout the landscape. There was no trail, but Rose didn’t need it — she spotted a small, unassuming depression in the ground. Read More

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January 13, 2020
Remains of Downed World War II Pilot Recovered in France
BENSON, MINNESOTA—Forum News Service reports that the remains of a World War II pilot have been identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. William J. McGowan by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency through dental records, anthropological analysis, and other evidence recovered from the crash site. McGowan was 23 years old when he was shot down on June 6, 1944, near Saint-Lô, France, during the D-Day invasion. The crash site was first investigated by the American Graves Registration Command in 1947, when wreckage was removed from the impact crater. Read More

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January 04, 2020
Archaeology breakthrough: Researchers crack the secrets of Native American astronomy
The settlements were constructed in 13th century but the Native American tribes left behind a treasure trove of information about their life and culture.

A team of archaeologists from Poland were, in particular, interested in about 40 Pueblo settlements adorned with bizarre stone carvings and murals.

The researchers from the Jagiellonian University of Krakow were stunned to find some of the carvings correspond to specific astronomical events.

But the discovery could have only been confirmed on four very specific dates when the Sun journeyed across the skies in an unusual manner. Read More

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January 02, 2020
Saratoga County Sheriff: Meteor likely cause of widespread Sunday night explosion reports
SARATOGA COUNTY -- A meteor is the likely cause of Sunday night's widespread reports of an explosion and green light over Saratoga County, sheriff's officials said.

They issued their conclusion Thursday, four days after Saratoga County dispatchers were deluged with 911 calls reporting the explosion and light in the overcast sky.

"After discussions with all of our law enforcement partners, government agencies, including the FAA, FBI, ATF, National Weather Service and NASA as well as discussions with scientists and scholars, it is our determination that the likely cause of the event was a meteor entering and burning up in the atmosphere," the Sheriff's Department wrote.

The sheriff originally reported that more than two dozen residents across five towns -- Galway, Milton, Providence, Greenfield and Edinburg -- in the county deluged 911 with calls after the 10:43 p.m. Sunday event. Read More

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January 02, 2020
More Than 3,500 Copper Coins Repatriated to Mexico
MIAMI, FLORIDA—Mexico News Daily reports that a collector in the United States has handed over some 3,500 tongue-shaped copper coins to Mexican authorities. Jessica Cascante of the Mexican Consulate in Miami said the coins are thought to have been used in what are now the southwestern Mexican states of Guerrero and Michoacán between A.D. 1200 and 1500. Read More

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January 01, 2020
5 Big Archaeology Discoveries to Watch for in 2020
New discoveries in the Valley of the Kings, looted art from Venezuela and evidence that humans were in Central America more than 20,000 years ago are just some of the stories Live Science will be watching out for in 2020. Read More

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December 27, 2019
Archaeologists discover remains of vast Mayan palace in Mexico
Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered the remains of a vast Mayan palace over 1,000 years old in an ancient city about 100 miles west of the tourist hotspot of Cancún.

The building in Kulubá is 55 metres long, 15 metres wide and six metres high, and appears to have been made up of six rooms, said Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.

It is part of a larger complex that also includes two residential rooms, an altar and a large round oven. Archaeologists have also uncovered remains from a burial site, and hope forensic analysis of the bones could provide more clues about Kulubá’s Mayan inhabitants. Read More

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December 20, 2019
Discovery of iron anchors raises hopes of finding Hernán Cortés's ships
Underwater archaeologists have found two iron anchors just offshore from the spot Hernán Cortés first set foot in Mexico, raising hopes that the fleet which the conquistador scuttled in 1519 may soon be rediscovered.

The anchors were excavated from under a metre of sediment in the Gulf of Mexico near Villa Rica, the settlement Cortes founded upon landing 500 years ago in what is now the Mexican state of Veracruz. Read More

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December 19, 2019
Working in Clark County: Elaine Dorset, National Park Service archaeologist
When you hear “archaeologist,” some weathered, dirt-coated person, wearing clothing in various shades of brown, probably comes to mind. Maybe it’s a man with a 5 o’clock shadow, scratches and bruises from adventures in exotic places and an iconic brown fedora.

Maybe his name is Harrison Ford.

The field of archaeology intertwined itself in popular culture with the “Indiana Jones” franchise, so much that even National Geographic acknowledged the films’ responsibility for a spike in the career in a 2015 exhibit.

But Elaine Dorset, National Park Service archaeologist at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, followed a different path. Read More

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Decmeber 11, 2019
Archaeologists uncover 12,500-year-old site in Avon, showing evidence of the earliest known population in Connecticut
When the state Department of Transportation began construction on a bridge over the Farmington River archaeologists suspected there could be historic sites hidden under the soil.

In late 2018, once excavation was underway, crews discovered evidence of what scientists have called southern New England’s earliest inhabitants.

The site, located near Old Farms Road, is estimated to be about 12,500 years old, dating back to a time known as the Paleoindian Period. It has been named in honor of Brian D. Jones, the state archaeologist, who died in July. Read More

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December 11, 2019
FBI And Archaeology Institute Team To Recover Stolen Artifacts
ANDOVER, MASS. — Since the early 1990s, the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology has been searching for objects missing from its collection, according to Dr Ryan Wheeler, director of the institute. Among the missing items are carved and decorated stone, shell and ceramic pieces from sites in Georgia and Maine.

The Peabody recently celebrated the return of three missing artifacts, most notably an Etowah monolithic axe. The axe, along with several other artifacts, was taken from the Peabody Institute on the campus of the Phillips Academy sometime in the 1980s. An Indiana man paid $350,000 for the rare Native American axe from the 1400s, only to find out it had been stolen from the Peabody. Read More

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December 11, 2019
Archaeology shock: Experts discover US Civil War soldiers dyed their hair to 'look better'
Scientists unearthed remnants of a US Civil War photography studio at Camp Nelson in Kentucky, on a site of what was once part of a Union camp, along with broke bottles of hair dye. The discovery is the first of its kind and has revealed to researchers that Civil War soldiers dyed their hair to look better in photographs.

Among the many items discovered by researchers Stephen McBride and his team were several broke glass bottles, now known to have once contained hair dye.

The researchers from Transylvania University in Lexington initially thought the bottles were used for medicine. Read More

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December 06, 2019
Council says no to Archaeological Research on Cemetery Property
The Gulf Archaeological Research Institute acquired a grant in Sept. 2018 to “document the history, ethnohistory, and archaeology of Chucochatti and its role in the Second Seminole War.”

The town of Chucochatti was one of the first towns settled by Creek people in Florida.

"Chocochatti is a very important historical-cultural resource for Hernando County, the State of Florida as a Florida Historic Landmark, and to the Seminole Tribe of Florida especially, since it is where their ethnogenesis from Creek to Seminole took place," explained Jon Yeager, Hernando Historic Preservation Society member and former chairman of their Archeological Committee.

In April 2019, Brooksville city council approved GARI access to the City of Brooksville property on Emerson Road for the purposes of archaeological survey investigating the possible whereabouts of Chucochatti. Read More

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December 05, 2019
Mysterious stone structures in North Carolina's rivers linked to prehistoric people
The sites look like piles of stones to casual viewers, but archaeologists have determined the structures often form large V or W shaped patterns when seen from above.

It’s believed the structures were traps called fish weirs, according to a state report released last month. Little is known about their origins in part because the structures are “difficult to access and document,” the report says.

“Dating these features is a challenge since there are few if any elements that can be directly dated,” says David Cranford, assistant state archaeologist with the state office. Read More

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December 03, 2019
Kentucky archaeology dig shows Civil War soldiers dyed their hair. A lot. Here’s why.
Civil War battle sites may grab the public’s attention with their guts and glory appeal but new discoveries at Camp Nelson in Kentucky are providing an unprecedented glimpse into day-to-day military life.

Archaeologists excavating the part of Camp Nelson known as the sutlers’ or merchants’ area in 2015 found remnants of a 150-year-old photography studio, the first ever found at any Civil War site.

“The first photographic artifact that we noticed was a glass cover plate,” said Stephen McBride, Camp Nelson director of interpretation. “It was fortunate that one of my crew was a guy that does Civil War-era photography. He knew instantly what that was.” Read More

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December 02, 2019
Research team to take fresh look at delicate artifacts
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Sandals and baskets that have withstood the ravages of time will be among the perishable artifacts analyzed by a team of scientists looking to learn more about a corner of the southwestern United States that was first excavated decades ago.

Depending on what they uncover, officials are hopeful that the $200,000 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will lead to more research opportunities in the Guadalupe Mountains, which straddle the New Mexico-Texas line and are situated within one of the nation's busiest oil and gas basins. Read More

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November 25, 2019
FBI working with local archaeology institute to recover stolen artifacts
ANDOVER, Mass. - Buying rare art and artifacts is considered a good investment that can end up paying off for those with a lot of cash, but it can also be a risky one.

When it comes to buying one-of-a-kind and historical art and artifacts, it's tough to know where they came from before putting down the cash for them.

That's exactly what happened to an Indiana man who paid $350,000 for a rare Native American ax from the 1400s - only to find out it had been stolen from Andover, Mass. Read More

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November 23, 2019
Archaeologists Find More Graves at Forgotten Zion Cemetery
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Archaeologists who discovered 127 coffins from forgotten Zion Cemetery under Robles Park Village returned to the housing project earlier in the month to continue their work.

Their ground penetrating radar found another 17 coffins within the footprint of the segregation-era African-American cemetery, bringing the total to 144, said Paul Jones, project manager for Cardno, the private archaeology firm hired by the Tampa Housing Authority.

By the end of the year, researchers expect to know whether there are graves all across the 2 1/2-acre cemetery site, about half of it owned by the Housing Authority and another half owned by restaurateur Richard Gonzmart. Read More

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November 13, 2019
Torched town from Texas Revolution reemerges in archaeological dig west of Houston
The Houston Archeological Society is embarking on a new investigation at the site of a town that was set on fire and destroyed during the Texas Revolution, hoping to build more pieces of what life was like during the period as well as learn answers to some unanswered questions.

San Felipe, also known as San Felipe de Austin, located approximately 50 miles west of Houston, is not only rich in Texas history but also in historical artifacts. Past digs have produced several thousand artifacts, multiple colonial-era trash pits, a brick basement and a barrel cistern. Read More

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November 12, 2019
Construction Workers Find “Incredibly Rare” Remains of 8,000-Year-Old Village in Massachusetts
I’m now convinced that if you want to find the remains of ancient civilizations, the fastest, surest way to do so is to start building a road. Anywhere will do. Just grab that shovel out of the old shed, say out loud “I am now building a road,” and start digging. Chances are you’ll find a 10,000-year-old village. It just keeps happening. Either that or a school, but a road is easier for a single determined person with a shovel. Read More

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November 05, 2019
World’s Deepest Shipwreck Is WWII Destroyer Lost in the Philippine Sea
A remote operated vehicle deployed in the Philippine Sea this spring unearthed the wreckage of a World War II destroyer sunk almost exactly 75 years ago, marine archaeologists announced last week.

The team suspects the debris—spotted at a depth of 20,400 feet, making it the deepest shipwreck discovered to date—is all that remains of the U.S.S. Johnston DD-557, which was destroyed by Japanese warships in the Battle off (not of) Samar on October 25, 1944. Per the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC), Samar was one of four military engagements in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a major aerial and naval conflict won by Allied forces.

The Petrel, the ROV research vessel responsible for capturing footage of the sunken destroyer, is the subject of a new expedition video posted on Facebook by Vulcan Inc., which owns and operates the vehicle. Researchers released the film to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Johnston’s sinking and seek the public’s help in confirming the ship’s identity. Read More

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November 05, 2019
A drone helped archaeologists discover a lost Florida island settlement
A team of archaeologists and its trusty drone are revealing an island community that once supplied valuable beads to the inland towns of the Mississippian culture, which thrived in the eastern United States from 800 to about 1600 CE.

The supply end of an ancient trade network A drone armed with laser beams discovered the remains of a long-lost culture on Raleigh Island, off the north coast of Florida. The high-resolution aerial laser scans mapped a massive complex of 37 oyster-shell rings, 23m to 136m across—the kind of rings that build up around coastal settlements through years of people eating oysters and discarding the shells. Some of the rings stood less than a meter high, but others loomed four meters above their surroundings. They formed four cloverleaf-shaped clusters, each with between six and 12 shell rings arranged around the one in the center.

"Given the general size and shape of the shell rings, we suspect each was the locus of a house and household of five to eight people each," University of Florida archaeologist Kenneth Sassaman told Ars Technica. Assuming all the rings were used at about the same time, that means 200 or 300 people once lived on the long, low-lying 30-hectare island—and it looks like every household on the island was involved in making beads from lightning whelk shells. Read More

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November 04, 2019
Archaeologists Rush To Save Oregon's Chinese Mining Sites
It was the kind of July day in Eastern Oregon when the dusty air waits for a spark to ignite a fire. In fact, two fires were already burning nearby.

Chelsea Rose, clad in black jeans, a black woven cowboy hat and black leather combat boots, was leading a team of U.S. Forest Service employees, archaeologists and volunteers through the backwoods. Two-way radios crackled with fire spotters’ updates. Although the fires were still a distance away, another could have started at any minute. Everyone needed to be prepared to evacuate.

Rose stepped over felled logs and rutted ground. Piles from a forest thinning operation were scattered throughout the landscape. There was no trail, but Rose didn’t need it — she spotted a small, unassuming depression in the ground. Read More

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November 02, 2019
Experts push for archaeology law in Charleston to preserve historically black cemeteries
he cemetery neighboring McLeod Plantation wasn’t rediscovered because someone stumbled upon an ornate cemetery gate.

It was located on city property. And during construction on the land for a fire station in the 1990s, some of the bodies of the predominately black cemetery were unearthed. Many of the surviving gravestones are hidden, scattered in a nearby wooded area.

Few people know anything about the lives of those buried there. Fewer still know details such as the existence of black military veterans’ graves. Read More
October 22, 2019
Jamestown mystery: Archaeologists unearth a churchyard grave — facing west
It was tradition in 17th century Virginia to bury corpses with the heads pointed west and the feet to the east. This was done so that the eyes would face east, toward Jerusalem and the rapture.

Almost a year ago, archaeologists in Jamestown found a grave — and perhaps the answer to a mystery — while studying the architecture and foundation of a church that was started in 1639. Read More

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October 18, 2019
Deeper Archaeology Dig To Explore Lesser-Known Areas Of Fort Negley
Archaeological evidence helped protect Nashville's Fort Negley from encroaching development last year. Now the city will look deeper into the ground in search of further Civil War and African American history.

Starting next month, careful excavation, mapping and aerial photography will begin on the slope next to the fort — an area where there's potential to find remnants of a buried Civil War trench line.

It's also where researchers could learn more about the black Nashvillians, including escaped slaves, who built the fort and then created a community just beyond its walls. Read More

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October 08, 2019
Online Map Leads Archaeologist to Maya Discovery
Until recently, archaeology was limited by what a researcher could see while standing on the ground. But light detection and ranging, or lidar, technology has transformed the field, providing a way to scan entire regions for archaeological sites.

With an array of airborne lasers, researchers can peer down through dense forest canopies or pick out the shapes of ancient buildings to discover and map ancient sites across thousands of square miles. A process that once required decades-long mapping expeditions, and slogging through jungles with surveying equipment, can now be done in a matter of days from the relative comfort of an airplane. Read More

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October 07, 2019
Dismissed as fakes for a century, enigmatic Puerto Rican stones could rewrite history
For more than a century, the fist-sized rocks etched with enigmatic patterns were ignored by academics and shunned by cultural power brokers.

Discovered in Puerto Rico in the 1880s by a priest who was convinced they were a link to one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, the stones were declared forgeries in the early 1900s by researchers from the Smithsonian Institution.

And so the rocks languished — literally collecting dust. Read More

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October 01, 2019
Georgia's Oldest City Considers 1st Archaeology Ordinance
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Leaders of Georgia's oldest city are considering new protections for historic relics unearthed by development project.

News outlets report officials in Savannah held a public meeting to discuss a possible archaeology ordinance. Savannah's downtown historic district has been protected by local laws since the 1970s. But the city has no legal protocols for recording or preserving artifacts from pottery shards to graves that can be found while excavating construction sites.

Savannah resident Gale Steves attended the meeting Thursday. She told WTOC-TV she hopes City Hall moves ahead with a proposal that gives Savannah "a chance to look at what's underneath before it gets buried again" during renovations and new development. Read More

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October 01, 2019
Rising Seas Threaten Hundreds of Native American Heritage Sites Along Florida’s Gulf Coast
Native North Americans first arrived in Florida approximately 14,550 years ago. Evidence for these stone-tool-wielding, megafauna-hunting peoples can be found at the bottom of numerous limestone freshwater sinkholes in Florida's Panhandle and along the ancient shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.

Specialized archaeologists using scuba gear, remote sensing equipment or submersibles can study underwater sites if they are not deeply buried or destroyed by erosion. This is important because Florida's archaeological resources face significant threats due to sea level rise driven by climate change. According to a new UN report, global sea levels could increase by over 3 feet by the year 2100. Read More

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September 24, 2019
Cumberland beach dig reveals relics of ancient residents
CUMBERLAND — It’s amazing what a jawbone can tell you.

In the case of a centuries-old dog mandible unearthed in 2016 at an archaeology site at Broad Cove Reserve in Cumberland, it helps tell the story of those who resided there, or as Prince Memorial Library Director Thomas Bennett put it, their “day-to-day living.”

Bennett, who has worked on sites in Maine, Massachusetts and Arizona, and Dr. Arthur Spiess, chief historic preservationist in prehistoric archaeology with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, presented their findings Sept. 19 of the project they co-directed.

Archeology involves some digging and a lot of analysis, according to Thomas Bennett, who co-directed the Broad Cove dig. Shown here are some of the artifacts found and studied. Alex Lear / The Forecaster

The dig was prompted by the town’s 2014 purchase of the preserve, a 22-acre parcel off Foreside Road with 11 acres of shoreline that had been privately owned. Since Bateman Partners was developing homes on abutting land that had once been part of the property, state law mandated that prehistoric and historic surveys of the land be done, Bennett said in an interview. Read More

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September 22, 2019
Space Archaeology: How long lost ancient Mayan cities discovered from space?
ver the years science, technology and space mission have helped the humankind to grow and develop the world. But can they help to dig deep inside to find lost ancient cities or archaeological miracle? Yes, they can.

When archaeologists apply a space-based data to understand the modern landscape, to find out the lost river or archaeological sites, it means they are doing "space archaeology" or "satellite archaeology." It should be noted that this concept is not new, as the US space agency NASA began its "Space Archaeology" program in 2008.

The space archaeology, also known as satellite remote sensing, requires to spend dozens of hours per week in front of a computer screen to look for evidence that would reveal what is hidden under the land. When they find something by analyzing the reflection of light on the ground which varies due to chemical signature, then the archaeologists get a hope to achieve what they're looking for. Read More

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September 20, 2019
Scientists hunt for remains, artifacts at luxury condo site where skeleton was found in Indian River Shores
NDIAN RIVER SHORES — Forensic anthropologists and archaeologists descended Friday on a sliver of shoreline cleared for condominiums, stalled by the discovery of a human skeleton.

Officials said Tuesday the near-intact skeleton unearthed by construction crews digging a dividing wall in June belonged to a Native American man.

At least the immediate future of the site now hinges on their findings and whether the dig raises its historic or archaeological significance. Read More

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September 19, 2019
A digital archaeologist helps inaccessible collections be seen
Davide Tanasi is a digital archaeologist at the University of South Florida. He creates highly detailed 3-D scans of archaeological artifacts that can be viewed online or used to create 3-D printed replicas.

Why is it important to digitize these artifacts as 3-D objects?

It helps spread knowledge about them and guarantees that they will be passed to future generations. For example, the USF Libraries Farid Karam M.D. Lebanon Antiquities Collection is one of the largest collection of Lebanese archaeological artifacts in the U.S. Some of the objects are 3,500 years old. Due to space and personnel restrictions, it was never exhibited and made fully available to the general public. Being unpublished, hardly accessible and poorly visible online, it basically does not exist. Our project to recreate the collection in 3-D is called the Virtual Karam Project. It allows us to share those objects around the world, hopefully triggering interest to curate and display the collection. Read More

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September 18, 2019
Trump’s Mexico border wall could destroy archaeological sites, warns National Park Service
Bulldozers and excavators rushing to instal Donald Trump‘s border wall could damage or destroy up to 22 archaeological sites in a US National Monument in Arizona in coming months.

Construction threatens the archaeological sites in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, according to an internal National Park Service report obtained by The Washington Post. Read More

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September 10, 2019
CDOT says archaeological sites can’t be saved
New construction typically doesn’t bulldoze through a graveyard, so why is it OK for the Colorado Department of Transportation to destroy and pave over a large settlement of Native American ruins for the reconstruction of U.S. Highway 550?

“People think: Why not just move the alignment instead of hitting the archaeological sites?” said Dan Jepson, cultural resource manager for CDOT. “But the bottom line is, it’s not that simple because it’s a balancing act with a lot of issues.”

Native American ruins more than 1,000 years old have been unearthed just south of Durango, where CDOT is realigning a 2-mile stretch of Highway 550. The initial discovery was made years ago as part of the highway department’s early work to realign the road, but the extent of ruins wasn’t realized until this year when archaeologists began excavating and documenting the sites. Read More

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September 06, 2019
Treasure trove of artifacts discovered near this Colorado city
The summer months are the time to work on big highway construction projects. But once you start digging, you never know what you might uncover.

“We have over seven pit houses and similar structures that we’ve identified and are excavating and are trying to get the information we need to interpret the site," said Charles Reed of Alpine Archaeologists.

While getting ready to expand highway 550 near Durango, Colorado, a team discovered a site about the size of half a football field. Inside were multiple structures that likely were home to a Native American settlement more than 1,000 years ago. Read More

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September 01, 2019
15,000-year-old Idaho archaeology site now among America’s oldest
One of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas has been discovered in western Idaho, according to a study published today in the journal Science.

Radiocarbon dates show that people were creating tools and butchering animals in Cooper’s Ferry between 15,000 and 16,000 years ago, making Cooper’s Ferry a rare and important addition to the handful of archaeological sites that are upending the traditional theory of the peopling of the Americas. Read More

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August 23, 2019
Trove of archaeological ruins unearthed south of Durango
A large, extensive network of Native American ruins was recently discovered just outside Durango on top of Florida Mesa, and it’s kind of blowing archaeologists’ minds.

“As an archaeologist with 30-plus years’ experience, I’m really excited by it,” said Dan Jepson, a cultural resource manager for the Colorado Department of Transportation. “This research is a wonderful opportunity.”

Robin Cordero, a human osteologist with the University of New Mexico, is helping analyze human and animal bones collected on the site. He can’t wait to get to work. Read More

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August 21, 2019
Digging Deeper in the Pines
Surf City — The story of what it took to save the historic site known as Cedar Bridge Tavern is one of luck and dedication. It was purchased by Ocean County in 2007, and preliminary archaeological digs and building surveys were conducted to secure its nomination to the national list of historic sites.

According to the county’s publication “Out and About,” “The Ocean County Parks and Recreation Department handles all maintenance and care, doing the physical hands-on-work. Paid for largely by a New Jersey Historic Trust grant, Historic Building Architects of Trenton was contracted to investigate, analyze, date and guide the vision for the site by way of the formal Preservation Plan. Architectural historian Joan Berkey acted as a researcher and consultant. Read More

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August 18, 2019
Dig at Pa. ghost town unearths prehistoric past
Fragments of tools and ceramic ware rested mere inches under the hillside cover where Native Americans scratched out a living until the 1820s in a village overlooking the Conemaugh River in Black Lick Township.

This summer, 17 Indiana University of Pennsylvania archaeology students dug and sifted their way a few inches below the remains of that southern Indiana County river town and uncovered thousands of years of earlier Native American history.

They unearthed a few hundred artifacts where the village of Newport once stood. In addition to ceramic ware that may have been sold at the community’s combined post office and store, they discovered stone fragments that represent either portions of prehistoric tools or excess flakes left behind in making them. Read More

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August 14, 2019
Archaeologists Investigate The Alamo
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS—According to a KSAT News report, archaeologist Kristi Miller Nichols and her colleagues are excavating the long barracks and church at the Alamo in order to assess their condition and prepare a conservation plan. Built as a Roman Catholic mission in what is now southern Texas in the eighteenth century, the site became a military compound in the early nineteenth century. In 1836, during the Texas Revolution, Mexican General Santa Anna laid siege to the Texas-held fortress for 13 days, ending in a Texan defeat. “We want to see what the stones look like, and really, the goal is to go deep enough to where we see where the stones are sitting on top of dirt,” Miller Nichols explained. Once the excavators reach that layer of stone, historic architects will install sensors to monitor groundwater movement before replacing the soil. “This is the first time there is an actual, formalized archaeological project happening inside of the long barracks,” Miller Nichols added, “and it’s going to tell us a lot of information we don’t know yet.” For more on archaeology in Texas, go to "Letter from Texas: On the Range." Read More

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August 09, 2019
Hermit’s Cabin in Idaho Wilderness Restored
SALMON, IDAHO—The Post Register reports that a 100-year-old cabin built by hermit Earl King Parrott in Idaho’s Salmon-Challis National Forest has been restored. Situated along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness, the remote cabin is the only surviving of two buildings constructed by Parrott, whose main residence on the side of a steep canyon burned down in the late 1980s. Read More

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August 08, 2019
How Lasers Are Utterly Transforming Our Understanding of the Ancient Maya, Bringing Their Whole Civilization Back to Light
A LiDAR scan can reveal ancient Maya ruins that might never be found by archaeologists on the ground.
The Maya civilization flourished more than 1,000 years ago, but modern technology is only now revealing the secrets of this ancient Mexican and South American culture—and it’s happening at an unprecedented pace. A recent spate of discoveries is transforming the field of Maya archaeology, as researchers discover new ways to identify and investigate ancient ruins.

In 2018, archaeologists in Guatemala announced the discovery of thousands of unknown Maya structures, hidden in plain site beneath overgrown jungle greenery. But it wasn’t a bushwhacking, Indiana Jones type who found them. Instead, the ancient ruins were identified remotely, thanks to aircraft from the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping that were equipped with high-tech Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) mapping tools. Read More

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August 04, 2019
Satellites are transforming how archaeologists study the past
The term “space archaeology” may conjure up images of astronauts hunting for artifacts from little green men, but the field is much more down to Earth. Space archaeologists use satellite imagery and other remote-sensing techniques to look for ancient sites on our planet. As archaeologist Sarah Parcak explains in her new book, Archaeology from Space, these tools have transformed studies of antiquity. “We’ve gone from mapping a few dozen ancient sites in one summer-long archaeological season to mapping hundreds, if not thousands, of sites in weeks,” she writes. Read More

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August 01, 2019
'Passport in Time' doing archaeological excavations at Camp Au Train
HIAWATHA NATIONAL FOREST, Mich. (WLUC) - Public volunteers are having the chance to work alongside archaeologists in the Hiawatha National Forest this week, it is all part of this unique program called ‘Passport in time.’

This program unites archaeologists and students from Michigan Technological University with the Hiawatha Forest Services and public volunteers.

“It’s really designed to try to engage the public, in a public outreach and education manner,” said Eric Drake, Heritage Program Manager for the Hiawatha National Forest.

“We really like getting people involved so they can understand how important archaeology is but also the methods that are involved,” said Drake. Read More

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July 28, 2019
Archaeologists Unveil Evidence of Lost Mound
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — How many mounds are located at the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians?

Up until very recently, the obvious answer would have been three, researchers said during a presentation at the Grand Village on Thursday evening. However, their recent studies of the land indicate otherwise.

The face of the Grand Village has changed over centuries of erosion, plowing and other work done on the site, Grand Village director Lance Harris said, adding ongoing archaeological studies may change the Grand Village once again — this time restoring some of what was lost.

Thursday (July 18) evening, Vin Steponaitis, a professor of archaeology and anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presented maps from the early 1700s that show a cluster of at least five mounds on the Grand Village site where only three mounds are still visible today. Read More

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July 23, 2019
Digging for History at 1654 Meetinghouse Site
DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Where an untrained eye sees different soil colors and doesn't think anything of it, a trained archaeologist sees history.

This past week, a team of archaeologists working under the direction of University of New Hampshire professor Meghan Howey, found those soil differences as they work on unpacking the history of the Second Meetinghouse built in Dover Point in 1654.

One exciting find of the week was the uncovering of the meetinghouse's clay floor, where European settlers once stood in the then frontier settlement. The clay was likely brought up the hill from the soils of the nearby rivers. Another find was two post holes nearby each other that appeared to be foundation posts of the building. There were also rocks Howey believes were brought to the site to stabilize the foundation posts. Read More

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July 17, 2019
Centuries-old ceramics, other artifacts found at St. Augustine construction site
Crews are digging in one of the most historic parts of St. Augustine on Aviles Street, and they’re uncovering artifacts that span centuries.

Through previous research, the city knows that the old city was in the area in the late 16th century.

The opportunity for the dig came through plans for construction work at 9 Aviles St., a building torn down in 2018 because of emergency structural problems — the demolition and traffic disruptions caused controversy among neighboring business owners.

The city’s archaeological ordinance requires site testing before construction in certain areas to help preserve or make a record of historical artifacts. Read More

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July 15, 2019
'Passport in Time' Volunteers Scan for History in Lincoln National Forest
In the Lincoln National Forest, amateur archaeologists are on a treasure hunt–and they’re finding historical gold in the form of clothing, shell casings and even license plates.

It’s part of a heritage tourism program the U.S. Forest Service runs called Passport in Time. Volunteers work with archaeologists and historians on public lands nationwide to survey, excavate and restore sites of historical or cultural value.

That includes the Baca Campground named after Saturnino Baca, a Civil War captain and father of Lincoln County. Read More

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July 15, 2019
Lycoming College students dig through archeological field school
Williamsport -- This summer, Lycoming College archaeology students found more than just a relaxing vacation. Ten students participated in archaeological fieldwork at the Keebler site, a 19th century historic farmstead on the property of the Lycoming Biology Field Station*. The farmstead was occupied from at least 1832 to the early 2000’s.

The Archaeological Field School, a course developed and taught by Dr. Jonathan Scholnick, an instructor of archaeology, anthropology, and sociology, had two complementary goals. First, the project addresses research questions about 19th- and early 20th-century agriculture and social organization of farms in central Pennsylvania. Second, the project provides an opportunity for students to learn how archaeology is practiced by participating in archaeological excavation and survey. Read More

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July 12, 2019
Coded Jewel Found in 300-Year-Old US Tavern Has Secret Message to Overthrow British King
Brunswick Town, in North Carolina, was once ‘a hotbed of anti-crown sentiment’ where rebellions were plotted and planned. Now archaeologists have made an amazing discovery in a once razed tavern that dates from the pre- Revolutionary period in the United States which proves support for the rebellion. They unearthed a pressed jewel, from a cufflink, inscribed with a secret code used by early revolutionaries to identify each other as they conspired to oppose Royal rule.

The Smithsonian reports that the find was made in Brunswick Town, in North Carolina, which was once ‘a hotbed of anti-crown sentiment’. In the years after the Stamp Act, many of the townspeople were radicals and opposed to the policies of the Royal government. Read More

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July 12, 2019
Space Archaeology Is a Thing. And It Involves Lasers and Spy Satellites
What does it take to be a space archaeologist? No, you don't need a rocket or a spacesuit. However, lasers are sometimes involved. And infrared cameras. And spy satellites.

Welcome to Sarah Parcak's world. Parcak, an archaeologist and a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has mapped sites around the world from space; she does so using images captured by satellites — from NASA and from private companies — orbiting high above the ground. Read More

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July 08, 2019
Archaeologists Hope To Dig Up History In Boston's Chinatown
Excavation began Monday on a site in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, which has been home to English, Irish, Syrian and Chinese immigrants.

Joseph Bagley, Boston's city archaeologist, is in charge of the dig. Bagley joined WBUR's Morning Edition host Bob Oakes on Monday to talk about it. The conversation below has been lightly edited for clarity.

This post has been updated with photos from the site of the dig. Read More

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July 01, 2019
Archaeology Students Visit Sylvester Manor On Shelter Island In Search Of A Complicated History
Nigel Francomb spotted a chunky silver ring in a pile of dirt in the Sylvester Manor gardens. How the dirt got there is no mystery—a team from the University of Massachusetts was doing an archaeological dig, looking for artifacts to tell the story of Sylvester Manor, a former slave-holding Shelter Island plantation that today serves as an educational farm.

How the ring got there, however, is an open question.

“All I know about archaeology, apart from what I’ve learned from documentaries on TV, was what these guys have taught me in the last week,” said Mr. Francomb, a Shelter Island resident who volunteered to help the students in the investigation. “So they put me on the sifting, on the screens. Finding the ring was very special.” Read More

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June 26, 2019
Chinese immigrants built Oregon's railroads and mined for gold
Chinese immigrants helped to develop infrastructure and build wealth during Oregon’s early settlement history, but the extent of their work and the critical role they played has not been well described.

The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, a statewide collaboration of local, regional and federal agencies, wants to change that.

The Chinese Diaspora Project kicks off locally in Ashland on Wednesday, July 3, in Hannon Library’s Meese Room at Southern Oregon University with a free talk by Sarah Heffner of PAR Environmental Services, “Exploring the Health Care of Chinese Railroad Workers Through an Historic and Archaeological Lens.” Read More

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June 24, 2019
Rare 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence on display for the first time in over a century
An extremely rare 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence has gone on public display for the first time in over a century.

The printing is on display at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia through the end of 2019. This is also the first time that the print has been displayed in a museum. Read More

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June 24, 2019
SF Archaeology Class Digs Up Florida’s Native American History
University of South Florida archaeologists are digging into one of Florida’s oldest native landmarks in hopes of unearthing insightful clues about the Tocobaga native people in Safety Harbor.

The last excavation was over 75 years ago during a time when archaeologists were not as careful to preserve the site or piece together the fragments to provide a stronger understanding of the Tocobaga chiefdom period. At that time, they only went back 500 years but now, the USF team is aiming to uncover as much as 1500 years into the past.

“Archaeology has progressed a lot,” Tom Pluckhahn, Ph.D, professor of anthropology, said. “But the knowledge of this site has not advanced very much.” Read More

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June 21, 2019
Organization excavates treasures from the past
The city of Morganton is known to many as a place where archaeological history was made.

Dr. David Moore, professor of archaeology and anthropology at Warren Wilson College, and his fellow researchers discovered remains at what is now called the Berry Site in Morganton of a 16th century Spanish settlement called Fort San Juan, believed to be the first inland European settlement in the U.S., dating back to 1567, according to a previous News Herald article. The site also is the location of the ancient Native American town of Joara.

“The Berry Site, named after the family who has so generously allowed excavations and research to happen on their property for the last three decades, attracts history enthusiasts from across the world,” according to the Exploring Joara Foundation, an organization that raises funds for ongoing research at the site. “EJF is honored to partner with the research team, the Berry family, and many community partners who believe that the encounter between Juan Pardo and the natives of Joara forever changed the trajectory of our nation’s history.” Read More

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June 20, 2019
Think you’ve found an archaeological site? Here’s what to do next.
Some of the most common requests we receive at the Council for West Virginia Archaeology come from members of the public who have found what may or not be an archaeological site.

Invariably there’s a lot of excitement as the mystery of the site begins to take hold. How old might it be? What artifacts might it contain? Will the government be willing to excavate the site?

As exciting as the process is, archaeological work can be slow and painstaking, and it can be difficult to find assistance in a state such as West Virginia where research is under-funded and professionally qualified archaeologists are too few. Read More

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June 15, 2019
Digging history: Student archaeologists learn more about Pope County settlement
POPE COUNTY — The story of Miller Grover, a lost community of free African-Americans in Pope County, is largely untold, but every summer more about the settlement is discovered through a partnership between Shawnee National Forest and the Summer Field School of the Center for Archaeological Investigations at SIU.

“We’ve spent a lot of time at Bedford and Abby Gill Miller’s farm,” Mary McCorvie, an archaeologist with Shawnee National Forest, said. “Bedford came as a little boy with his parents, Harrison and Lucinda Miller.” Read More

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June 14, 2019
Colonial ‘time capsule’ found under floors of NC port tavern that burned in 1760s
Archaeologists exploring the site of a recently discovered 18th Century tavern in eastern North Carolina say they were stunned to learn it burned to the ground with a treasure trove of merchandise stored under the floorboards.

The fire, which occurred in the 1760s, caused the walls to collapse over the floors, sealing the crawl space shut like a “time capsule,” says Dr. Charles Ewen, who led the dig with a crew of students from East Carolina University.

It’s suspected the site may also have served as a brothel for the historic port, known as Brunswick Town. Read More

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June 11, 2019
Texas Archaeological Society conducts dig at Palo Duro Canyon State Park
RANDALL COUNTY — Members of the Texas Archaeological Society (TAS) are in Palo Duro Canyon State Park digging up the earth to learn about the past. They’re using tools of the trade to search for artifacts to get a better understanding of how past occupants of the canyon lived and survived.

“They’re looking for anything that people have left from the past,” said Michael Strutt, Texas Parks & Wildlife.

“We’re out here trying to better understand a group that was out here in the 1930s,” said Karen Lacy, Texas Archaeological Society member. Read More

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June 03, 2019
Archaeological excavation underway along Eno River where Native American town once stood
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- UNC Students and professors are working on an archaeological excavation in the Triangle and hikers can get an up-close look.

The Wall site is along the Eno River walk trail, not far from historic downtown Hillsborough. The five-week dig is part of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology summer session field school at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"It's teaching undergraduate students how to do archaeology, how to do field work," said Dr. Heather Lapham, a Research Archaeologist who teaches the program. "We are working on a site that was a Native American village that was lived in by ancestors of groups local to Chapel Hill area in 1500." Read More

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June 01, 2019
At newly discovered freedmen’s school near Beaufort, students dig into history
EABROOK — Beside a quiet Beaufort County highway in a field where patriot soldiers fought off a British invasion, budding archaeologists spent a recent Friday morning exploring the remains of a Civil War-era school that history almost forgot.

The Whale Branch Middle School Archaeology Club was just scraping the surface of the deep, multifaceted history in a place where few markers exist to offer hints about the past.

Archaeologists have taken an interest in the land off of Trask Parkway near Seabrook because it was the site of the Battle of Beaufort, also known as the Battle of Port Royal Island. On Feb. 3, 1779, British forces attempted a landing nearby, but Brig. Gen. William Moultrie and an American volunteer militia held them at bay with volleys of musket and cannon fire. Read More

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May 28, 2019
Archaeologists on Water Street project unearth the old so Vinik group can raise up the new
TAMPA — New insights into the birth of Tampa are emerging alongside all the high-rises that will make up Water Street Tampa.

Project archaeologists have unearthed projectile points, gun flints, old toys and other artifacts, all tracing the lives of Native Americans, U.S. soldiers and one of the city's earliest African-American communities. Some date back 10,000 years.

"This is a huge amount of land to be able look at," said Paul Jones, project manager for Cardno, a global consulting firm with an office in Riverview that is leading archeological and historical assessment work for the $3 billion Water Street Tampa project. "Normally, when we do a survey, we get half a block and we are happy." Read More

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May 23, 3019
Archaeology Center discovers vandalism at protected Cornville site
CORNVILLE -- The mission of the Verde Valley Archaeology Center includes the protection and preservation of archaeological sites in the Verde Valley.

VVAC Site Watch (www.vvarchcenter.org/sitewatch) is a program of the Verde Valley Archaeology Center that promotes the importance of education about our common cultural and natural heritages and encourages public responsibility in the protection and preservation of cultural and natural resources on public and private lands.

Last August, Site Watch volunteers discovered active vandalism at a site on the Coconino National Forest in Cornville as evidenced by freshly dug soil and collection buckets.

The vandals were digging in an ancient dwelling room apparently in search of possible artifacts to sell. It was reported to U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement officials and archaeologists. Another incident of vandalism was discovered by Site Watch volunteers the week before at a second site in Cornville. Read More

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May 23, 3019
The Last American Transatlantic Slave Ship Has Been Found
The remains of the last ship known to bring enslaved people from Africa to the United States, a schooner named Clotilda, has been discovered off the banks of Mobile, Alabama. The wreck was abandoned in 1860 after illegally transporting 110 people from the Kingdom of Dahomey, now known as Benin, to Mobile.

"The discovery of the Clotilda is an extraordinary archaeological find," says Lisa Demetropoulos Jones, executive director of the Alabama historical commission, in a press statement. She says the Clotilda represents "one of the darkest eras of modern history."

“We are cautious about placing names on shipwrecks that no longer bear a name or something like a bell with the ship’s name on it,” says Dr. James Delgado, a maritime archaeologist and project manager for the dig, “but the physical and forensic evidence powerfully suggests that this is Clotilda.” Read More

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May 16, 2019
Ancient burial site off Manasota Key is 1,000 years older than estimated
SARASOTA — Native Americans in the Archaic Period in Florida used the burial ground now known as the Manasota Key Offshore archeological site as far back as 8,000 years ago, Ryan Duggins told members of the Time Sifters Archaeological Society Wednesday evening in the Geldbart Auditorium at Selby Public Library.

Prior to this, previous activity at the site was thought to date back roughly 7,000 years.

Before the rising of the Gulf of Mexico, it was a shallow freshwater burial pond similar to Little Salt Springs in North Port.

“We know that 8,000 years ago ... there was a small freshwater pond,” said Duggins, underwater archaeology supervisor, for the Bureau of Archaeological Research for the Florida Department of State. “And we know Florida’s indigenous people used that pond as a mortuary pond.” Read More

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May 13, 2019
Thieves breach, loot Utah's Danger Cave
WENDOVER — One of the most significant archaeological sites in North America — Danger Cave near the Nevada border — was breached and looted sometime last week.

"It's Utah Archaeology and Preservation Month," Justina Parsons-Bernstein, heritage resources manager for the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation, said. "It's crazy that one of the most iconic archaeological sites in North America would be broken into and stolen from the very month we are supposed to be learning about and protecting the value of these sites."

The parks division is asking or the public’s help in finding those responsible for a break-in and damage at the Danger Cave State Park Heritage Site, where the culprit or culprits breached the gate and protected area near Wendover and stole all contents, including educational artifacts, lighting and safety equipment. Read More

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May 11, 2019
Arizona author poses 'conundrums' about archaeology and artifacts to Colorado Springs audience
Artifacts tell stories of the people that used them and the places where they spent their lives, says Arizona author Craig Childs.

A red seed jar Childs found in a canyon in the Four Corners can narrate the life of the Native American family who once used it in their home. The array of pots and jewelry surrounding a teenage girl buried in the Southwest can paint her portrait as a princess, someone greatly revered in her community.

So what happens when archaeologists, hikers, looters or just curious passersby remove those artifacts from where they came? Legal or illegal, is taking them morally permissible? Read More

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May 04, 2019
Veterans are digging up new careers
Deep below the Washington State University Museum of Anthropology, Chris Sison sorted through bags of archaeological material — rock, rubber, ceramics. The U.S. Army veteran separated, tagged the finds and photographed, working with a team of veterans.

“It gets me out of the rut I was in, and now I have lab experience,” said Sison, a psychology major at the school.

The WSU team is part of the Veterans Curation Program, a five-month, national program that hires veterans and teaches them a variety of marketable skills to help build their resumes. Read More

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May 04, 2019
Drone deployed to map southeast Colorado World War II internment camp site
A University of Denver team is one step closer to mapping the lives of thousands of Japanese Americans imprisoned at a southeastern Colorado World War II internment camp.

Researchers deployed the Swiss senseFly drone, generating more than 4,000 high-resolution aerial photos of Camp Amache in Granada. With artifact data collected by DU archaeologists, the photos will help create a 3D reconstruction of the prison for further research, interpretation and preservation.

“We’ve got photography already, which you can see on Google Earth. But it is not the resolution that we can layer it for an archaeological survey,” said Bonnie Clark, director of the DU Amache research project. Read More

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May 01, 2019
Toppled Trees in Florida Reveal 19th-Century Fort
PROSPECT BLUFF, FLORIDA—According to a Talahassee.com report, Hurricane Michael toppled some 100 large trees in Apalachicola National Forest last October and revealed traces of the “Negro Fort,” which was built by British soldiers during the War of 1812 near Fort Gadsden. The site was home to a large community of escaped slaves known as Maroons, who joined the British military in exchange for their freedom. They lived in the fort, which housed some 300 barrels of British gunpowder, on a bluff overlooking the Apalachicola River, with members of the Seminole, Creek, Miccosukee, and Choctaw tribes. Read More

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April 21, 2019
Archaeologists Seek to Find Relics at National Park Site
BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — There was a time when plows were drawn across the prairie by early settlers, starting lives in a new world.

These early versions of the plow are long retired, and a very different piece of equipment is soon being drawn across the prairie at Homestead National Monument of America.

It's called a magnetic gradiometer, and workers hope the device will uncover artifacts from the past buried underground at the National Park Service site. Read More

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April 19, 2019
Uncovering the past at Chimney Rock
BAYARD — Makenzie Coufal lifts a pile of dirt out of the ground with his shovel and places the dirt into a screen for Brian Goodrich to sift through. Nolan Johnson and Talon O’Connor measure and record the results from another test hole. As archaeologists for the state of Nebraska, the men are working near Chimney Rock National Historic Site, searching for any evidence of previous occupation.

After the Nebraska State Historical Foundation purchased the land between Chimney Rock and the visitors center, archaeologists were asked to come out and survey the 400 acres of land. Read More

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April 19, 2019
Explore the Spiro Mounds With U of A's Archaeology, 3D Virtual Reality Team
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas’ Arkansas Stories series – which uses objects and places as focal points to narrate compelling stories – continues April 26 and 27 with a virtual visit to the Spiro Mounds.

The prehistoric Native American ceremonial site, with ties to the Spiro tribe, linked a large number of communities in Arkansas and in Oklahoma, and is the focus of the next events in the series.

U of A experts will share a behind the scenes look at the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center in Spiro, Oklahoma, both days, using story-telling, archaeology and immersive 3D virtual reality experiences. Read More

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April 18, 2019
Archaeology Site Looted at Lewis and Clark Historical Park
STORIA, Ore. (AP) — The National Park Service is investigating the looting of an archaeological site at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.

The Daily Astorian reported Thursday that artifacts were unearthed near the Netul River Trail on the south end of the park sometime in late March.

Superintendent Jon Burpee declined to provide details about what might have been taken but told the newspaper the items may be up to a century old. The looting has made the agency concerned that other sites could also be targeted. Read More

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April 05, 2019
Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial archaeology
For millennia, people known as the Marsh Arabs lived in wetland oases fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq. But as those marshes became a hotbed of rebellion in the early 1990s, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein systematically drained them—driving out the people and drying up an ancient way of life. It’s hard to know exactly how many were displaced, but a new study, first reported in Secrecy News, reveals a tool archaeologists and anthropologists can use to find out: declassified Cold War–era images snapped by U.S. Lockheed U-2 spy planes. The high-resolution photos could prove a boon for reconstructing sites destroyed by development and war in recent decades. Read More

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March 26, 2019
Southeast Students Use Geophysics to Map Local Archaeology Site
Thirteen Southeast Missouri State University students recently participated in a Geophysics in Archaeology Workshop to uncover clues about life in pre-Columbia Mississippian culture in southeast Missouri.

The three-day workshop March 21-23 was a collaboration between Dr. Jennifer Bengtson, associate professor of anthropology at Southeast; Dr. Tamira Brennan, curator of Southern Illinois University’s (SIU) Center for Archaeological Investigations; and Dr. Bob McCullough of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, to introduce Southeast to using geophysics techniques on a real historical site. Read More

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March 20, 2019
Archaeologist debunks alien influence, other conspiracy theories in archaeology
Have you heard the one about the aliens and the pyramids? Or what about the technologically advanced but tragically lost city of Atlantis?

Chances are that most of us have encountered at least one such story—a tale that tries to explain the past in a way that can sound scientific, but in doing so ignores the evidence and methods of science.

Why is this alternative archaeology so popular? And how do we tell fact from fiction?

Assistant Professor Matthew Peeples, co-director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change's Center for Archaeology and Society and an archaeologist of the Southwest U.S., is no stranger to the weirder side of his field. He has investigated false claims and has even been accused of covering up the truth. Read More

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March 14, 2019
Study of old slave quarters in Maryland leads to scientific breakthrough
The study of a 200-year-old clay tobacco pipe discovered in the slave quarters of an old Maryland plantation, has led to a scientific breakthrough.

The object was found at Belvoir, an 18th-century manor house off Generals Highway in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Scientists found human DNA on the pipe, and used it to determine that it was smoked by a woman. And although the DNA could not be linked to any living descendants, analysis did reveal something about the smoker’s ancestry. Read More

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March 14, 2019
Sea otter archaeology could tell us about their 2-million-year history
Archaeology is defined as the study of human history and prehistory by the analysis of physical remains. But the dictionaries may need rewriting – archaeology is now being used to study the cultural histories of tool-using animals, from sea otters and monkeys to birds and even fish.

Natalie Uomini at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and her colleagues have analysed a site at Bennett Slough Culverts in California where sea otters use rocks as tools for cracking open mussels. At this site, the otters don’t just place smallish stones on their chest and then crack the shellfish on them. Read More

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March 04, 2019
History project becomes display with National Park Service
At Morehead State learning extends well beyond the classroom, giving students the opportunity to collaborate with faculty in their chosen field. Dr. Adrian Mandzy, associate professor of history, just completed an ambitious project with the help of several MSU students. This work has become a permanent public display at the National Park Service in Virginia.

Over the last five years, 46 students from Morehead State University’s public history program have worked with Mandzy studying the Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Virginia. Fought on July 30, 1864, the Battle of the Crater was one of the most important military engagements of the American Civil War. Mandzy started the project in 2014 and in the spring of the following year, six students worked with the National Parks Service and took part in a metal detecting survey of the battlefield to determine the condition of the cultural resources connected with the engagement and to see how far Union troops advanced during the battle. Read More

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March 02, 2019
Piece of Wall Surrounding 1700s Charleston Unearthed
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — As soon as it became clear that the building housing Charleston Cooks was going to be demolished for a new hotel, local historians thought the ground underneath could hold tantalizing clues to the city's earliest years.

They were right, sort of. The historians are part of Charleston's Walled City Task Force, a decade-old group whose goal is to discover, interpret and preserve the city's late 17th and early 18th century fortifications.

They were recently welcomed onto the muddy, exposed construction site at 194 East Bay St. to take a close look at what appeared to be a small section of the city's wharf wall. Read More

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March 01, 2019
U.S. returns hundreds of artifacts to China after an Indiana man acquired them illegally
While Don Miller was hauling the world's treasures into his Rush County farmhouse over the decades, one wonders whether he foresaw a posthumous international ceremony.

If he did, then he was right. Chinese diplomats came together with U.S. officials Thursday afternoon at the Eiteljorg Museum for an event that is guaranteed a seat of honor in the field of art-crime posterity: what the FBI says is the biggest return of cultural artifacts from the U.S. to China.

Kristi Johnson, chief of the FBI's Transnational Organized Crime Section, and Wen Dayan, deputy director general of China's Department of Foreign Affairs, signed a ceremonial certificate that puts 361 artifacts spanning millennia back into the hands of their home country. Read More

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March 01, 2019
Ancient artifact unintentionally discovered by Washington archaeologist has 'great significance'
A 2,000-year-old tool that had been sitting inside a dusty box in a museum storage room for roughly four decades may be the oldest tattooing artifact ever discovered in western North America, Washington State University (WSU) archaeologists revealed this week. Read More

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February 22, 2019
New archaeology sites documented in county
As part of a historic preservation fund grant, Ball State University archaeologists explored the Calvert Porter Woods Nature Preserve in Montgomery County last summer. The results will be unveiled at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County.

The public presentation will review project goals, objectives, and results of this year’s surveys and will concentrate on what the artifacts tell us about the human occupation of Montgomery County during different time periods. Archaeologists will also have artifacts from the survey available to view and will show a video that highlights their field and lab methods. Read More

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February 19, 2019
Archaeologists getting closer to figuring out what happened to 'Lost Colony,' expert says
Archaeologists are getting closer to figuring out where members of the "Lost Colony" went, according to Nicholas Luccketti, the principal investigator and archaeologist with the James River Institute for Archaeology.

Luccketti’s presentation in late January at the Isle of Wight County Museum in Smithfield focused on the "possible relocation" of some of the Roanoke Island colonists to a site in eastern North Carolina named Site X. But he said others from the Lost Colony, maybe even a large group, might have migrated to somewhere near Site X. Read More

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February 18, 2019
Archaeologists Work at NY Site Where Human Bones Were Found
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) — Archaeology work continues at an upstate New York construction site where the skeletal remains of several people have been found at what's believed to be a Revolutionary War burial ground.

State archaeologists led by the New York State Museum were at the site this week in Lake George, in the southern Adirondacks.

A work crew unearthed skeletal remains Feb. 7, while excavating an empty lot for an apartment house. Work was halted, and experts were summoned to examine the property for more remains. Read More

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February 14, 2019
Some of the rarest US coins ever found are hitting the market, thanks to NC shipwreck
A stash of gold coins found Monday is being called the latest bit of proof that a shipwreck 40-plus miles off the North Carolina coast is that of the steamship Pulaski, which took half its wealthy passengers to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838.

The first 502 gold and silver coins plucked from a shipwreck off North Carolina have been sold to a global coin dealer at a price that “wildly exceeded” the recovery project’s expectations.

No one involved in the deal is saying what the coins fetched, but market values suggest it was easily in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Read More

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February 14, 2019
At Florida's gateway to space, archaeologists are in a race against time
Long before Cape Canaveral became home to advanced aerospace technologies, indigenous people and early settlers developed their own tools to live on the beaches and the swampy lands that would eventually become the gateway to space.

Now, in a race against time, archaeologists from all over the state are hurrying to uncover and document the undiscovered archaeological sites across the Cape before they are eroded and lost to humankind forever.

"Every time you lose a piece of the past and a piece of the human story, you're impoverishing your experience in the present," University of Central Florida Associate Professor of Archaeology Stacy Barber told FLORIDA TODAY. Read More

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February 14, 2019
Dig will continue at Native American fort in Norwalk
NORWALK — A tiny but important, artifact-rich archaeological dig will extend at least into the spring, giving researchers a chance to salvage more evidence of the early contact between early Dutch traders and the Native Americans who populated the high ground along the Norwalk River for millennia.

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The research is now focused for the season in a Storrs-based laboratory that has been screening soil samples that were excavated in recent months, Read More

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February 06, 2019
Ancient Native American canal discovered in Gulf Shores
Working on tips from locals, archaeologists announced the discovery of an ancient canal cut through the sandy soil of the Fort Morgan peninsula 1,400 years ago.

The canal, dug in 600 A.D., once ran south from Oyster Bay to the northern shore of Little Lagoon in Gulf Shores. It would have served as a sort of prehistoric super highway, facilitating travel by dugout canoe from Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

The canal is six tenths of a mile, making it one of the longest pre-Columbian canals discovered in North America said Greg Waselkov, head of the archaeology department at the University of South Alabama. Waselkov led the recent excavation of the canal in a forested area near Little Lagoon. Read More

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February 05, 2019
Is it a sign? Huge wooden cross washes ashore on Fort Lauderdale beach
Bales of drugs, derelict vessels, seaweed, whales, and driftwood are among the many items to wash up on South Florida’s beaches, but the latest flotsam and jetsam has made believers of some beach-goers.

A very large, barnacle-encrusted, wooden cross washed ashore behind the Ocean Manor Beach Resort along Galt Ocean Mile in Fort Lauderdale, during the weekend.

“It is fantastic,” said Mary Ann Smolinski, visiting from Michigan. “It’s amazing. Very spiritual.” Read More

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February 03, 2019
Cobblestones at Poplar Forest Carriage Circle Revealed
FOREST, Va. (AP) — A team of archeologists working to restore the carriage turnaround at Thomas Jefferson's summer retreat in Bedford County had an unexpected surprise on a Friday morning: a visit from the third U.S. president himself.

Or at least pretty close.

"This is amazing!" said Bill Barker, who portrays Jefferson at Colonial Williamsburg and was in Bedford County shooting an orientation video for Poplar Forest. "These stones have not seen the light of day for 200 years." Read More

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February 02, 2019
Dig Uncovers Details of First General Assembly Meeting Spot
JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) — Jamestown archaeologists have uncovered the western wall of the church that held the first meeting of representative government in North America nearly 400 years ago.

With the discovery, which lay hidden beneath a 5-inch layer of concrete, brick and dirt, the archaeologists know with certainly the full footprint of the 1617 wooden church, the first of several built on the site.

It matches the 20-by-50-foot layout described in historical documents, said David Givens, director of archaeology for Jamestown Rediscovery. Read More

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January 19, 2019
Archaeologists to Monitor Construction in Deadwood
DEADWOOD, S.D. (AP) — Anyone turning over little more than a shovelful of dirt in the historic town of Deadwood can expect to have an archaeologist peering over their shoulders in case any artifacts from the city's past are unearthed.

OK, that's an exaggeration. But while residents are safe from having their flower and vegetable garden plots scrutinized, any private or public construction project requiring excavation is required to have a state archaeologist monitor it in most of the town, which was named a national historic landmark in 1961.

City zoning laws have an entire chapter on historic preservation, Deadwood Historic Preservation Officer Kevin Kuchenbecker told the Rapid City Journal. Read More

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January 16, 2019
A new clue could explain the mysterious disappearance of a Civil War submarine
A broken pipe may help explain why a famous Civil War submarine sank off of Charleston, South Carolina, more than 150 years ago.

The H.L. Hunley became the first submarine to successfully attack an enemy ship in combat when it sank the wooden ship USS Housatonic on February 17, 1864. The Confederate vessel disappeared with all its eight crew members.

More than 130 years later the Hunley was discovered on the ocean floor. The sub was raised and taken to a laboratory in North Charleston in 2000. Read More

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January 15, 2019
Three large asteroids prompt NASA to issue near Earth object alert
Three rogue asteroids are set to speed uncomfortably close to the Earth tomorrow.

The largest of the trio could cause catastrophe if it smashes into our planet, and is as large as the leaning tower of Pisa.

That’s according to NASA, which has listed the asteroids on its “near-Earth objects” alert page. Read More

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January 12, 2019
Archaeologists Find Ancient Tool in Area That Can Unlock Age
DURYEA, Pa. (AP) — It wasn't only the stone tool — possibly more than 8,000 years old — that excited Al Pesotine.

It was also where volunteers with a local archaeology group found it — next to a fire pit at the group's dig site in Duryea.

That context gave archaeologists with the local chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology a rare opportunity. They could carbon-date the remnants of the fire pit to learn when prehistoric people were using that very tool. Added to other information archaeologists have pieced together from other sites, it shows when, where and how people were living thousands of years ago. Read More

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January 04, 2019
A site thought to be linked to the Lost Colony is now part of a new state nature preserve
A swatch of swamp and farm land at the head of Albemarle Sound that may contain archaeological clues about the fate of the famed Lost Colony is now a state nature preserve.

The Salmon Creek State Natural Area covers 1,000 acres in a remote corner of Bertie County, where the creek meets the sound near the mouth of the Chowan River. The N.C. Coastal Land Trust bought the land and recently gave it to the state parks department.

The property had been approved for development of up to 2,800 homes and a 212-slip marina, said Camilla Herlevich, the land trust’s executive director. Though that project was abandoned with the recession 10 years ago, Herlevich said the owners put the property back on the market in early 2017. Read More

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January 03, 2019
New book sheds light on Harvard’s forgotten 1931 archaeology trek in eastern Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — In the summer of 1931, a group of Harvard researchers descended into eastern Utah to continue a study that first identified a new Native American group that once called the area home. They took to horseback and completed the longest archaeologist trip of its kind.

However, there’s little known about the trip or if it yielded any sort of results because — for no known reason — it was never published. The thousands of documents and hundreds of photos from the expedition were left in boxes in the basement of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University and have remained there for decades. The trip remains an archaeological mystery for that reason. Read More

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December 27, 2018
Archaeology Group: Work on Property Endangering Artifacts
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — A non-profit that identifies, acquires and preserves archaeological sites in the United States has raised concerns that dirt and construction work on county-owned land in Mississippi endangers artifacts connected to what could be the birthplace of slavery in a region.

Jessica Crawford with The Archaeological Conservancy wrote to Adams County Board of Supervisors attorney Scott Slover last week. She expressed concerns that work associated with the construction of a power substation and switching station for the former International Paper Company property is destroying what remains of a 1720s French plantation, the Natchez Democrat reported . Read More

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December 14, 2018
Iowa’s prehistoric value below surface
Megan Stroh Messerole and volunteers did some digs in the area over the summer as part of her archaeology field school.

With hundreds of known archaeological sites along the banks of the Little Sioux River, northwestern Iowa is a treasure for archaeology—a past of intrinsic value that many modern locals have yet to discover.

“If you just go into a museum and see a couple rocks and don’t know what you’re looking at, that’s all they are,” said Stroh Messerole, an archaeologist for Sanford Museum in Cherokee. “A plate is just a plate without a backstory.” Read More

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December 14, 2018
Underwater archaeologists research boats that sank in Lake Minnetonka
Whatever you do, don’t call them treasure hunters.

It’s true that underwater archaeologists Ann Merriman and Christopher Olson hunt for historical treasures while exploring the bottoms of Minnesota lakes. “But we don’t romanticize it,” Merriman said. Read More

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December 08, 2018
Trash Dump Yields Clues About Colorado Springs Founder
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Trash in this city's iconic Garden of the Gods Park is usually nothing to get excited about. It's a regular blemish on a revered place.

But along the park's northern edge, a heap of buried refuse — discovered during work to build a retention pond to control runoff after a wildfire swept through the area — has historians and archaeologists excited, even giddy, about the possibility of learning more about how the wealthy lived in Colorado Springs when it was founded. Read More

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December 07, 2018
The Most Amazing Historical Discoveries of 2018
1. A human jawbone becomes the earliest evidence for humans outside Africa.

Before this year, the oldest Homo sapiens fossil found outside Africa were estimated to be between 90,000 and 120,000 years old. But in January, a team of researchers revealed their discovery of an upper jawbone fossil at least 50,000 years older than that in a mountain cave in Israel, suggesting modern humans may have migrated out of Africa far earlier than once thought. Read More

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December 03, 2018
The Archaeology Of Outer Space
When thinking of archaeology, you likely conjure up images of pyramids, ancient relics, and a dusty mummy or two; but, what about astronauts and space stations? On November 27th, the Australian research council announced the recipients of their annual Discovery Program grants. Among the projects chosen for funding was the International Space Station Archaeological Project (ISSAP) led by Dr. Alice Gorman, of Flinders University in Australia, and Dr. Justin Walsh, of Chapman University in the United States. This grant was big news for the burgeoning field of space archaeology. Read More

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November 16, 2018
First look at archaeological dig near Garden of the Gods
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) An archaeological dig is giving us a first hand look into the life of the Palmer family. General William Palmer founded Colorado Springs.

The dig is between the entrance to Garden of the Gods park and the Glen Eyrie Conference Center along the Camp Creek bike path. The city was about to start construction, so archaeologists did a quick scan of the area and found a treasure trove.

Someone found a shoe, some bricks and other old items. All belonging to the most famous Colorado Springs family, the Palmers. Read More

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November 13, 2018
Ancient Artifacts Stolen 40 Years Ago in Alabama Recovered
MOUNDVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The recent recovery of three Native American artifacts stolen nearly 40 years ago could be the thread that unravels the mystery of the greatest antiquities theft in this part of the world.

Hundreds of pottery vessels, bottles, bowls, ornaments and jewelry items were stolen from the Erskine Ramsey Archaeological Repository at the University of Alabama's Moundville Archaeological Park in 1980. It was a shot in the dark when archaeologists and others contributed to a reward fund for information, which was announced in May.

The publicity worked, leading to the recovery of three vessels in August.

"We were all thinking we'd go to our graves without anything turning up from this burglary," Jim Knight, curator emeritus of American Archaeology for the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the university, said at a news conference Monday. "This is one of the most exciting things that has happened during my archaeological career. Read More

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November 13, 2018
Archaeology project planned for battlefield
STILLWATER, N.Y. — Veterans who fought in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan will join forces next spring for an archaeological project where the Second Battle of Saratoga was fought on Oct. 7, 1777.

Veterans will conduct an artifact survey at Barber Wheatfield, one of the most significant sites within Saratoga National Historical Park.

However, officials said an equally important goal of the project is helping veterans develop skills they can use elsewhere in new careers. Read More

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November 12, 2018
Parks Official's Signature on Documents Raises Questions
PHOENIX (AP) — The deputy director of Arizona State Parks & Trails, who is under investigation over accusations the agency bulldozed over archaeological sites, once signed a federal grant application over the objections of a staff archaeologist, according to documents obtained Monday by The Arizona Republic.

The report adds another layer of questions about an agency whose director, Sue Black, is facing a slew of allegations including disregarding laws protecting historical and Native American sites. Read More

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November 02, 2018
Archaeologists Discover Evidence Of Connecticut's Earliest English Colony
On the grounds of Wethersfield's Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, archaeologists have discovered evidence of the oldest English colony in Connecticut.

In 2016, the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum decided to add a new education and visitor center on the premises. To ensure the addition would not disturb any historically significant artifacts on the site, they hired the Public Archaeology Survey Team to conduct an archeological survey.

Ground-penetrating radar revealed three potential sites. Two were trash pits – one from the 19th century, the other from the early 20th century. Those sites yielded plenty of artifacts. Read More

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November 01, 2018
UWF archaeologists make new discoveries during Emanuel Point I artifact restoration
New wrinkles are being discovered in a 450-year-old artifact at the University of West Florida's Division of Anthropology & Archaeology.

During a 1996 excavation, UWF archaeologists discovered an ancient armored Spanish breast plate — worn by conquistador Tristan de Luna's army in 1559 — at the site of the first Emanuel Point I ship wreck near Pensacola. The breast plate was found in the stern of the ship during one of several excavations conducted since initial discovery was made in 1992. Read More

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November 01, 2018
Archaeologists uncover history in the waterfront
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Alexandria, a Virginia city settled on the Potomac River, is known for its old town history that continues to unfold.

Earlier this year, archaeologists discovered three historic ships in the sparkling Alexandria waterfront. The city is working with a team of experts to research and excavate these exciting pieces of history.

"I love being out on a beautiful day like this one, seeing history come out of the ground and contribute to our understanding of early Alexandrians and particularly our maritime history," said archaeologist Eleanor Breen. "This is portside Alexandria archaeology. We are illuminating the past." Read More

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November 01, 2018
Archaeological finds kept secret in public filings
BRANDON — While finding Native American artifacts on construction sites isn’t common, when they are found the state takes steps to protect them by keeping them secret.

One case in point is the proposed Babcock Solar project.

Babcock Solar Farm LLC, backed by Conti Solar based in Edison, New Jersey, has filed for a certificate of public good with the Public Utility Commission to build a 2.2 megawatt solar facility at the intersection of Park Street Extension and 21 Country Club Road. Among the items its permit application includes is an archaeological survey conducted in June which found three concentrations of “pre-contact” Native American artifacts.

These artifacts, said Dr. Charles Knight, assistant director of the University of Vermont Consulting Archaeology Program, which conducted the survey, were mostly “lithic debitage,” the sharp flakes of stone left over from the making of stone tools. Knight said in an interview Thursday that such deposits show stone tools were once made in the area and indicate the site may have had other uses as well. Read More

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November 01, 2018
Students find 6,000-year-old ax at George Washington estate
MOUNT VERNON, Va. – Six millennia after a stone ax was carved, it was rediscovered by a pair of Ohio teens on an archaeological dig at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

The Washington Post reports Mount Vernon officials announced the Oct. 12 find Wednesday. They called it a major discovery that provides a look into the lives of those who lived on the Virginia site before it became the first president's home.

The 7-inch (17.8-centimeter) ax head was found by Archbishop Hoban High School seniors Dominic Anderson and Jared Phillips while helping map out the dimensions of what's believed to be a cemetery for slaves and their descendants. Read More

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October 24, 2018
Discovery of Ancient Spear points in Texas Has Some Archaeologists Questioning the History of Early Americas
Archaeologists have discovered two previously unknown forms of spear point technology at a site in Texas. The triangular blades appear to be older than the projectile points produced by the Paleoamerican Clovis culture, an observation that’s complicating our understanding of how the Americas were colonized—and by whom.

Clovis-style spear points began to appear around 13,000 to 12,700 years ago, and they were produced by Paleoamerican hunter-gatherers known as the Clovis people. Made from stones, these leaf-shaped (lanceolate) points featured a shallow concave base and a fluted, or flaked, base that allowed them to be placed on the end of a spear. Read More

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October 22, 2018
Archaeologists find clues at the Yellowstone ice patch
Idaho Falls, Idaho • Although archaeology has been around for centuries, “ice patch” archaeology really became a new discipline in 1991 when Otzi the Iceman — a 5,000-year-old body nearly perfectly preserved — was found high in the Italian-Austrian Alps by hikers.

Otzi was found because permanent ice patches and glaciers have been melting back and retreating in recent decades. The Iceman, older than Egyptian pyramids, offered a peek at a human from the Copper Age. Interestingly, it appears he ran up into mountains to escape combatants and died with an arrow point stuck in a shoulder. Read More

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October 21, 2018
America’s archaeology data keeps disappearing – even though the law says the government is supposed to preserve it
Archaeology – the name conjures up images of someone carefully sifting the sands for traces of the past and then meticulously putting those relics in a museum. But today’s archaeology is not just about retrieving artifacts and drawing maps by hand. It also uses the tools of today: 3D imaging, LiDAR scans, GPS mapping and more.

Today, nearly all archaeological fieldwork in the U.S. is executed by private firms in response to legal mandates for historic preservation, at a cost of about a billion dollars annually. However, only a minuscule fraction of the data from these projects is made accessible or preserved for future research, despite agencies’ clear legal obligations to do so. Severe loss of these data is not unusual – it’s the norm. Read More

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October 14, 2018
Dig fails to unearth 100-year-old boat said to be buried in West Palm backyard
An archaeological dig failed to unearth the 100-year-old schooner said to be buried in a North Flagler Drive backyard, clearing the way for West Palm Beach to start work on a retention pond to ease flooding in the sometimes soggy neighborhood.

But did the diggers dig deep enough?

A local who remembered the ship’s first being detected during a swimming pool excavation in the 1970s said the 1800’s schooner was buried in muck 8 to 10 feet down, so the city’s archaeologists, who only went 4 to 6 feet into the sandy fill on top of that muck, wouldn’t have found the vessel. Read More

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