Letters From
Letter from Mongolia November/December 2025
Building the Black City
Why the nomads of the Uighur Empire constructed a medieval urban center like no other
RECENT Letters From
Letter from Greece September/October 2025
Searching for Washingtonia
How archaeologists located a forgotten nineteenth-century utopian community
Letter from Williamsburg July/August 2025
A New Look at an Old City
Archaeologists are reconstructing the complicated 400-year history of Virginia’s colonial capital
Letter From Albania May/June 2025
The Many Fortresses of Ali Pasha
How a father and son are documenting the architectural legacy of a renegade nineteenth-century warlord
Letter from the Levant March/April 2025
On the Origin of the Pork Taboo
Exploring ancient people’s shifting beliefs about rearing and eating pigs
MORE Letters From
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Letter from Uzbekistan January/February 2025
An Oasis City’s Origin Story
Searching for the earliest history of a fabled Silk Road metropolis
Sören Stark -
Letter from Poland November/December 2024
Remembering an Unspeakable Crime
Excavations of a mass grave expose evidence of Nazi-era massacres
Courtesy Dawid Kobiałka -
Letter from Siberia September/October 2024
Strongholds of the Taiga
Beginning 8,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers in the forests of northern Russia built some of the world’s earliest fortified settlements
Courtesy Henny Piezonka -
Letter from Nigeria July/August 2024
A West African Kingdom's Roots
Excavations in Benin City reveal a renowned realm’s deep history
(Mike Pitts) -
Letter from the Catskills May/June 2024
Ghost Towns of the Ashokan Reservoir
An archaeologist investigates how construction of New York City’s largest reservoir a century ago uprooted thousands of rural residents
(Courtesy the New York City Department of Environmental Protection) -
Letter from Nicaragua March/April 2024
Who Were the People of Greater Nicoya?
Archaeologists are challenging long-held assumptions about Mesoamerica’s influence on Indigenous peoples to its south
