Features From the Issue
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Features
Africa's Merchant Kings
The early Christian kingdom of Aksum was at the heart of a great maritime trading network
(Matyas Rehak/Adobe Stock) -
Features
An Elegant Enigma
The luxurious possessions of a seventeenth-century woman continue to intrigue researchers a decade after they were retrieved from a shipwreck
(Courtesy Museum Kaapskil; Courtesy Museum Kaapskil/© National Portrait Gallery, London) -
Features
Rise of the Persian Princes
In their grand capital Persepolis, Achaemenid rulers expressed their vision of a prosperous, multicultural empire
(Borna_Mir/ Adobe Stock) -
Features
Inside a Magnificent Celtic Tomb
New investigations of an Iron Age burial in France reveal the source of one woman’s exceptional power
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Features
Defending the Canyonlands
Rare shields from the American Southwest are a legacy of a turbulent time in Native history
Letter from Patagonia
Letter from Patagonia
Surviving a Windswept Land
For 13,000 years, hunter-gatherers thrived in some of the world’s harshest environments
Artifact
Artifacts
Norse Gold Bracteate
Digs & Discoveries
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Digs & Discoveries
A New Day for the Ancestors' Mounds
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Digs & Discoveries
A Game to Remember
(Courtesy INAH) -
Digs & Discoveries
Ancient Egyptian Astrology
(Ahmed Amin, Egyptian Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities) -
Digs & Discoveries
Bog Togs
(Alan Richardson Pix-AR) -
Digs & Discoveries
Update: Temple Times Two
(Courtesy Lisa Trever) -
Digs & Discoveries
Viking Support Animals
(The Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo) -
Digs & Discoveries
The Palace on Tablet Hill
(© The Girsu Project) -
Digs & Discoveries
A Surprise in Sudan
(Dawid Wieczorek) -
Digs & Discoveries
Bullish on the Storm God
(Courtesy Murat Akar; Département des Antiquités orientales © 2008 Musée du Louvre/Thierry Ollivier) -
Digs & Discoveries
Hybrid Hoard
(Photo © Archeologie West-Friesland/Fleur Schinning) -
Digs & Discoveries
Big Game Hunting
(Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY) -
Digs & Discoveries
More Images From Digs & Discoveries
Off the Grid
Off the Grid July/August 2023
The Ancient City of Cuicuilco, Mexico
Around the World
INDIA
INDIA: The Indus Valley civilization is known for its megacities and is considered one of the world’s earliest advanced cultures. It flourished between 2600 and 1900 B.C., but the causes of its collapse have been a mystery. Now, though, trace element analysis of stalagmites in a Himalayan cave indicates that, starting around 4,200 years ago, the region suffered a series of major droughts over the course of 200 years. These dry periods may have transformed the existing social structure, gradually forcing populations out of urban centers and into dispersed rural settlements.
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RUSSIA
RUSSIA: For the first time, a Paleolithic artifact has been directly associated with a specific person. Researchers used a groundbreaking technique to extract human DNA left on a deer tooth pendant found in Denisova Cave in Siberia. They determined that the piece of jewelry was made or worn by a woman who lived between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago. She was genetically related to a group of hunter-gatherers known as the Ancient North Eurasians, who typically lived farther east at that time.
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OMAN
OMAN: An archaeological expedition into the underexplored deserts of Dhofar and Duqm has made a wide range of surprising finds. The discoveries include hand axes fashioned hundreds of thousands of years ago, eggshells of extinct ostriches, Neolithic tombs, and more than 500 rock engravings depicting camels, horses, and turtles. The team also located a 2,000-year-old megalithic monument known as a trilithon that features a cluster of large standing stones. Its function remains unknown.