September/October 2021 Issue

Features From the Issue

  • Features

    The Pursuit of Wellness

    How the ancients attended to mind, body, and soul

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  • Features

    Secret Rites of Samothrace

    Reimagining the experience of initiation into an ancient Greek mystery cult

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    (© American Excavations Samothrace)
  • Features

    Searching for the Fisher Kings

    In the waters of southern Florida, the creative Calusa people forged a mighty empire

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    (Merald Clark)
  • Features

    Who Were the Samaritans?

    Investigating a once-powerful sect that has preserved its sacred traditions for millennia

  • Features

    The Equestrian's Cave

    Recent discoveries in western Mongolia suggest that nomadic horsemen may have invented a revolutionary technology

Letter From Scotland

Letter From Scotland

Land of the Picts

New excavations reveal the truth behind the legend of these fearsome northern warriors

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(Courtesy The Northern Picts Project)

Artifact

Artifacts

Late Medieval Ring

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(© Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales)

Digs & Discoveries

Off the Grid

Off the Grid September/October 2021

Chalcatzingo, Mexico

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(Suzuki Kaku/Alamy Stock Photo)

Around the World

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  • TURKEY

Slideshow: Mongolia's Cave of the Equestrian

For more than 1,500 years, a cave in western Mongolia’s Urd Ulaan Uneet mountain held the burial of a nomad who was laid to rest with a sophisticated saddle that once had stirrups attached to it. Dating some 100 years earlier than similar saddles in eastern Asia, the find has the potential to change how scholars understand the evolution of equestrian technology. A team led by National Museum of Mongolia archaeologist Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan also recovered the man’s remains in a wooden coffin, the partial burial of a horse, and a number of well-preserved artifacts that speak to the nomad’s way of life. These images of the site and the artifacts discovered in the cave are courtesy of Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan.