Features
Features July/August 2025
Italy’s Garden of Monsters
Why did a Renaissance duke fill his wooded park with gargantuan stone sculptures?
RECENT Features
Features July/August 2025
Setting Sail for Valhalla
Vikings staged elaborate spectacles to usher their rulers into the afterlife
Features May/June 2025
Lost City of the Samurai
Archaeologists rediscover Ichijodani, a formidable stronghold that flourished amid medieval Japan’s brutal power struggles
Features May/June 2025
A Passion for Fruit
Exploring the surprisingly rich archaeological record of berries, melons…and more
Features March/April 2025
An Egyptian Temple Reborn
By removing centuries of soot, researchers have uncovered the stunning decoration of a sanctuary dedicated to the heavens
MORE Features
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Features January 1, 2011
Early Pyramids - Jaen, Peru
Peru's towering burial mounds, with their underground chambers and layers upon layers of history, had long been thought to be a distinctive feature of the country's arid coast.
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Features January 1, 2011
Royal Tomb - El Zotz, Guatemala
A deep looters' trench led archaeologists to a series of amazing, macabre finds beneath the El Diablo pyramid at the modest Maya city of El Zotz.
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Features January 1, 2011
Decoding the Neanderthal Genome - Leipzig, Germany
This past year will always be remembered as the year we found out that the Neanderthals survived and they are us.
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Features January 1, 2011
"Kadanuumuu" - Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia
For the last 35 years, the short-legged “Lucy” skeleton has led some scientists to argue that Australopithecus afarensis didn’t stand fully upright or walk like modern humans, and instead got around by “knuckle-walking” like apes. Now, the discovery of a 3.6-million-year-old beanpole on the Ethiopian plains—christened “Kadanuumuu,” or “Big Man” in the Afar language—puts that tired debate to rest. The new fossil demonstrates these early human ancestors were fully bipedal.
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(Photo courtesy Thomas Strasser) -
(Courtesy Parks Canada)