Features From the Issue
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Features
Japan’s Sacred Island
For centuries, rituals performed on an isolated island played a key role in the emergence of Japan
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Features
Temple of the White Thunderbird
Excavators in southern Iraq have uncovered the long-lost home of the powerful Sumerian warrior god
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Features
Friend? Roman? Countryman?
A rare Iron Age burial in southern England reflects the close connections between Britain and Gaul two millennia ago
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Features
Inca Power Politics
Ruins of a half-built Andean capital are evidence of how the Inca controlled their vast empire—until the Spanish arrived
Letter from Ireland
Letter from Ireland
The Sorrows of Spike Island
Millions were forced to flee during the Great Famine—some of those left behind were condemned to Ireland’s most notorious prison
Artifact
Artifacts
Bronze and Iron Age Drinking Vessels
Digs & Discoveries
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Digs & Discoveries
The Man in Prague Castle
(Prague Castle excavations, Institute of Archaeology, Prague) -
Digs & Discoveries
As Told by Herodotus
(Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, franckgoddio.org) -
Digs & Discoveries
Bath Buddy
(Daniela Agre) -
Digs & Discoveries
Maya Maize God's Birth
(Courtesy Evan Parker) -
Digs & Discoveries
Cretan Coastal Rites
(©EBSA, N. Kress) -
Digs & Discoveries
Still Standing
(Courtesy Matt Ritchie) -
Digs & Discoveries
Deerly Departed
(Courtesy South Gyeongsang Regional Government) -
Digs & Discoveries
The Time Had Come, the Walrus Said
(Nature Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo) -
Digs & Discoveries
Skoal!
(UHI Archaeology Institute) -
Digs & Discoveries
Maya Total War
(J.Enrique Molina/Alamy Stock Photo) -
Digs & Discoveries
A Seaside Journey to America
(Davis et al.) -
Digs & Discoveries
City Limits
(Assaf Peretz/Israel Antiquities Authority) -
Digs & Discoveries
Where's the Beef?
(© Stephen Rippon)
Off the Grid
Off the Grid January/February 2020
Malinalco, Mexico
Around the World
CAMBODIA
CAMBODIA: Workers searching through a pile of debris for fallen roof stones from the Ta Nei Temple in Angkor unexpectedly unearthed the head of an ancient bodhisattva statue. The sculpture, which is around 2 feet tall and dates to the late 12th or early 13th century, has a small Buddha figure carved into the hair above its forehead. In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is someone who is on the path of enlightenment to attain Buddhahood.
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SRI LANKA
SRI LANKA: It was much harder for early humans to fashion small, delicate stone tools such as arrowheads than it was to make large, substantial ones like axes. Yet, by around 45,000 years ago, a community living in the rain forests of Sri Lanka had mastered this technology. A collection of microliths found in the Fa-Hien Lena Cave is the oldest assemblage ever discovered in South Asia. These advanced tools allowed people to thrive in the area’s difficult rainforest environment earlier than was once thought, by hunting small tree-dwelling animals.
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: A wealth of biological material from two islands in the Persian Gulf demonstrates how well Neolithic communities exploited marine resources. For example, thousands of fish bones from the islands of Marawah and Dalma indicate that people living there 7,500 years ago used nets and traps made from date palms to catch a wide variety of fish. On Marawah, archaeologists also discovered the world’s oldest known pearl, a rare item that would have been used as either jewelry or currency.