Around the World March 1, 2011
VIRGINIA: An encrypted message in a bottle dating to the Civil War has been removed and deciphered by codebreakers. "You can expect no help from this side of the river," began the unsigned message, which is in a museum collection. It was meant for Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, in response to his request for aid during the Siege of Vicksburg in Mississippi. But the note never reached his hands—it was dated July 4, 1863, the date he surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant.
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2018
Letter from Virginia July/August 2015
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
Letter from Williamsburg July/August 2025
Archaeologists are reconstructing the complicated 400-year history of Virginia’s colonial capital
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2022
Features September/October 2025
Why are archaeologists constructing a thirteenth-century fortress in the forests of France?
Features September/October 2025
The world’s oldest mummified person is the ancestor of Nevada’s Northern Paiute people
Features September/October 2025
On a small Danish island 5,000 years ago, farmers crafted tokens to bring the sun out of the shadows
Features September/October 2025
Eclectic artifacts from tombs in northeastern China tell the story of a little-known dynasty
Features September/October 2025
Ancient Bactrians invented distinct ways to worship their gods 2,300 years ago in Tajikistan
