http://archaeology.about.com/ Get the latest headlines from the About.com http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hh http://www.about.com/ 118 20 en-us 2013-05-13T09:18:59Z Mon, 13 May 2013 09:18:59 +0000 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/18/pompeii-streets.htm <p>Anyone who has been a reader of these pages for very long knows I have a thing about <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2008/05/05/ancient-roads.htm">ancient roads</a>. I can't really explain it, except to say that it interests me that in certain places, a public thoroughfare is built and rebuilt and rebuilt, but remains in the same geographical location for hundreds of years. Walking one of these ancient pathways is a little like time travel. </p>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/18/pompeii-streets.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/18/pompeii-streets.htm Sat, 18 May 2013 09:25:39 +0000 2013-05-18T09:25:39Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/13/secrets-of-the-dead-caveman-cold-case.htm <p>This week, PBS airs "Caveman Cold Case", the latest episode of the long-running series <i>Secrets of the Dead</i>, featuring archaeological evidence of survival cannibalism by Neanderthals some 49,000 years ago. </p>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/13/secrets-of-the-dead-caveman-cold-case.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/13/secrets-of-the-dead-caveman-cold-case.htm Mon, 13 May 2013 09:18:59 +0000 2013-05-13T09:18:59Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/10/domesticating-the-sago-palm.htm <p>Chinese archaeologists have found evidence pushing back the domestication of the sago palm at least 3,500 years earlier than was thought. </p> <img class="alignnone" src="http://0.tqn.com/h/archaeology/1/H/6/T/1/sago-palm.PNG" alt="Sago Palm Garden, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia" /> <br /><small>Sago Palm Garden, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Metrox_sagu_071124-1508_stbu.jpg">Toksave</a></small><br /> <p>Sago palms, like other tropical trees, are difficult to identify archaeologically since they don't have hard-cased seeds that might survive the millennia: archaeologists have to rely instead on microscopic plant residues such as starch granules and opal phytholiths. In this case, scholars had often wondered how long ago the sago, with its tremendous store of easily-harvested starch, might have been uprooted from its original swampy habitat and cultivated closer to home.</p>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/10/domesticating-the-sago-palm.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/10/domesticating-the-sago-palm.htm Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:47 +0000 2013-05-10T08:00:47Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/06/damascus-steel-and-nanotechnology.htm <p>Arguably the best sword makers in world history were medieval Islamic blacksmiths, makers of the fearsome Damascus steel blades. </p> <img class="alignnone" src="http://0.tqn.com/h/archaeology/1/H/l/j/damascus_steel.JPG" alt="Sabre #10, Berne Historical Museum, Switzerland, ...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/06/damascus-steel-and-nanotechnology.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/06/damascus-steel-and-nanotechnology.htm Mon, 06 May 2013 08:30:45 +0000 2013-05-06T08:30:45Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/03/ceibal-and-the-mesoamerican-e-group.htm <p>A recent paper in the journal <i>Science</i> describes investigations by Mayanist Takeshi Inomata and colleagues at Ceibal, a Maya capital site in Guatemala. Those excavations recently revealed the earliest known E-Group in the Maya lowlands, ca 1000 BC. </p>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/03/ceibal-and-the-mesoamerican-e-group.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/03/ceibal-and-the-mesoamerican-e-group.htm Fri, 03 May 2013 08:00:31 +0000 2013-05-03T08:00:31Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/01/toba-super-eruption-and-the-human-bottleneck.htm <p>About 75,000 years ago, an immense volcanic eruption occurred in Mt. Toba on the island of Sumatra, in an explosion estimated between 10 and 360 times that of Mt. Pinatubo. Thick ash layers covered much of India and parts of Asia, and ash and aerosols were injected into the atmosphere, creating what must have been devastating environmental effects. But... were the environmental effects world wide? </p>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/01/toba-super-eruption-and-the-human-bottleneck.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/05/01/toba-super-eruption-and-the-human-bottleneck.htm Wed, 01 May 2013 08:05:53 +0000 2013-05-01T08:05:53Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/29/pipestone.htm <p>Pipestone refers to one of a whole slew of stone raw material types that are soft, fine-grained, and easily carved into a wide variety of shapes. </p> <img class="alignnone" src="http://0.tqn.com/h/archaeology/1/H/u/S/1/Tremper-Pipe.png" alt="Hopewell catlinite pipe from ...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/29/pipestone.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/29/pipestone.htm Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:30:29 +0000 2013-04-29T07:30:29Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/26/roman-empire-in-the-netherlands.htm <p>During the first century BC, the Batavi, a branch of ethnic Chatti and auxiliary troops to the Roman legion, left their homes on the east bank of the Rhine River, and moved northward to the Netherlands, which was at the time, according to the historian Tacitus, an uninhabited damp lowland. But the Netherlands was not uninhabited. </p>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/26/roman-empire-in-the-netherlands.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/26/roman-empire-in-the-netherlands.htm Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:42:51 +0000 2013-04-26T09:42:51Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/24/tree-rings-and-culture.htm <p>Tree ring dating, often called dendrochronology, is a fascinating science that uses the growth rings of long-lived trees as a record of climatic change in a region. Tree ring analysis has been around a long time, and perhaps its best known use is to help scientists confirm and correct radiocarbon dates. But that's not all dendrochronology is good for. </p>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/24/tree-rings-and-culture.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/24/tree-rings-and-culture.htm Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:25:06 +0000 2013-04-24T07:25:06Z http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/22/cholulas-great-pyramid.htm <p>The largest pyramid in the American continents, and one of the largest in the world, is that at Cholula, in central Mexico. </p> <img class="alignnone" src="http://0.tqn.com/h/archaeology/1/H/n/S/1/pyramid-model.jpg" alt="Model of the Pyramid at Cholula" /> <br /><small>Model of the classic period (AD 750-950) phase of the great pyramid at Cholula. Cutaway shows earlier phases. Photo by Nicoletta Maestri</small>...<p><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/22/cholulas-great-pyramid.htm">Read Full Post</a></p> http://archaeology.about.com/b/2013/04/22/cholulas-great-pyramid.htm Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:30:19 +0000 2013-04-22T07:30:19Z