Letters From
Letter from Nigeria July/August 2024
A West African Kingdom's Roots
Excavations in Benin City reveal a renowned realm’s deep history
RECENT Letters From
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
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
Letter from Rome January/February 2024
Secrets of the Catacombs
A subterranean necropolis offers archaeologists a rare glimpse of the city’s early Jewish community
Letter from El Salvador November/December 2023
Uneasy Allies
Archaeologists discover a long-forgotten capital where Indigenous peoples and Spanish colonists arrived at a fraught coexistence
MORE Letters From
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Letter from England September/October 2015
Writing on the Church Wall
Graffiti from the Middle Ages provides insight into personal expressions of faith in medieval England
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Letter from Virginia July/August 2015
Free Before Emancipation
Excavations are providing a new look at some of the Civil War’s earliest fugitive slaves—considered war goods or contraband—and their first taste of liberty
(Library of Congress) -
Letter from Hawaii May/June 2015
Inside Kauai's Past
Ideal conditions within an ancient cave system are revealing a rich history that reaches back to a time before humans settled the island and extends to the present day
Courtesy Lida Piggott Burney -
Letter From the Marshall Islands March/April 2015
Defuzing the Past
Unexploded ordnance from WWII is a risk for the people of the Marshall Islands—and a challenge for archaeologists
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Letter From Cambodia January/February 2015
Storied Landscape
Through centuries—and perhaps even millennia—of cultural, political, and environmental change, Phnom Kulen has retained its central role in the spiritual life of a people
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Letter From Montana November/December 2014
The Buffalo Chasers
Vast expanses of grassland near the Rocky Mountains bear evidence of an extraordinary ancient buffalo hunting culture
(Maria Nieves Zedeño)