Features
Features May/June 2026
The Unexpected World of the Odyssey
Discovering the surprising inspirations behind Homer’s great tales of the Trojan War
RECENT Features
Features May/June 2026
Pioneers of Lakefront Living
Why Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers in the Alps built their villages on stilts
Features May/June 2026
The Last Maya Kingdom
On the shores of a lake in Guatemala, the Itzá people defied the Spanish for nearly 200 years
Features May/June 2026
Art for the Ages
A surreal style of painting endured for 4,000 years in the canyonlands of West Texas
Features May/June 2026
Bridge to the Past
The Yellow River brought both prosperity and calamity to China’s dazzling medieval capital By Ling Xin
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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) -
Features January 1, 2011
The Fight for Ancient Sicily
Rewriting one of the ancient world's most dramatic battlefield accounts
