Summaries | Headlines

Everyday Life In Pompeii Revealed (April 27, 2007) -- Until recently archaeologists working on Pompeian artefacts have tended to concentrate on examples of art, some of it erotic, from the town that was suddenly destroyed by the eruption of Mount ... > full story

An Ancient Inca Tax And Metallurgy In Peru (April 24, 2007) -- Scientists in the United States and Canada are reporting the first scientific evidence that ancient civilizations in the Central Andes Mountains of Peru smelted metals, and hints that a tax imposed ... > full story

Space Data Unveils Evidence Of Ancient Mega-lake In Northern Darfur (April 12, 2007) -- Researchers used recently acquired topographic data from satellites to reveal an ancient mega-lake in the Darfur province of northwestern Sudan. According to the researchers, mapping the site of the ... > full story

Pig Study Forces Rethink Of Pacific Colonisation (March 13, 2007) -- A survey of wild and domestic pigs, published in PNAS, has caused archaeologists to reconsider both the origins of the first Pacific colonists and the migration routes humans travelled to reach the ... > full story

Americans Cultivated And Traded Chili Peppers 6,000 Years Ago (February 16, 2007) -- Smithsonian researchers and colleagues report that across the Americas, chili peppers (Capsicum species) were cultivated and traded as early as 6,000 years ago -- predating the invention of pottery ... > full story

Mummy's Amazing American Maize (February 12, 2007) -- The far-reaching influence of Spanish and Portuguese colonisers appears not to have extended to South American agriculture, scientists studying a 1,400-year-old Andean mummy have found. The ... > full story

Forensic Photography Brings Color Back To Ancient Textiles (February 9, 2007) -- Archaeologists are now turning to forensic crime lab techniques to hunt for dyes, paint, and other decoration in prehistoric textiles. Although ancient fabrics can offer clues about prehistoric ... > full story

Fitness Has Fallen Since The Days Of Ancient Greece (February 8, 2007) -- We may not be as fit as the people of ancient Athens, despite all that modern diet and training can provide, according to research by University of Leeds (UK) exercise physiologist, Dr. Harry ... > full story

Earliest Semitic Text Revealed In Egyptian Pyramid Inscription (January 30, 2007) -- The first public revelation of the earliest continuous Semitic text ever deciphered has taken place at the Hebrew University of ... > full story

Researchers Track Movements Of Ancient Central Americans Using Satellites, Video-game Technology (January 4, 2007) -- Satellite imagery meshed with video-game technology is allowing University of Colorado at Boulder and NASA researchers to virtually "fly" along footpaths used by Central Americans 2,000 years ago on ... > full story

Scientists Solve Riddle Of Mysterious Faces On South Pacific Artifacts (December 14, 2006) -- Experts have long viewed the faces sometimes sketched by ancient potters on "Lapita" pottery as human in appearance. Now scientists have pieced together evidence of several kinds leading to a ... > full story

Riddle Of The Great Pyramids Of Giza: Professor Finds Some Building Blocks Were Concrete (December 9, 2006) -- In partially solving a mystery that has baffled archeologists for centuries, a Drexel University professor has determined that the Great Pyramids of Giza were constructed with a combination of not ... > full story

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Rome : An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford Archaeological Guides)
The city of Rome is the largest archeological site in the world. If your idea of a good Roman holiday is uncovering the archeological mysteries of the Roman Empire, then Oxford Archeological Guides: ... > read more

The Archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)
The regions that compose the current state of Israel and the emerging state of Palestine have yielded a wealth of fascinating archaeological evidence, from the Dead Sea Scrolls found in a cave in ... > read more

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt : 3 Volume Set
Featuring 600 original articles written by leading scholars, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt goes far beyond the records of archaeology to make available what we know about the full social, ... > read more

Myths of the Archaic State : Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations
Classical archaeology promotes the view that a state's evolution reflects general, universal forces. Norman Yoffee challenges the model in this book by presenting more complex and multi-linear models ... > read more

The Goddess and the Bull : Catalhoyuk: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization
Thousands of years before the pyramids were built in Egypt and the Trojan War was fought, a great civilization arose on the Anatolian plains. The Goddess and the Bull details the dramatic quest by ... > read more

The Oracle : The Lost Secrets and Hidden Messages of Ancient Delphi
A renegade team of scientists discovers the truth behind the Oracle of Delphi's mythical powers of second sight. Of all the stories of life in ancient Greece, few capture the imagination as much as ... > read more

Silent Images : Women in Pharaonic Egypt
Our endless fascination with ancient Egypt owes much to the beauty of the tomb paintings, statuary, temple reliefs, and other magnificent artworks that are the legacy of this remarkable culture. But ... > read more

Underground! : The Disinformation Guide to Ancient Civilizations, Astonishing Archaeology and Hidden History
Where did "modern" civilization begin? What lies beneath the waves? Do myths describe interstellar impact? How'd they lift that stone? Was the Ark of the Covenant a mechanical device? Were there ... > read more

The 12th Planet (The Earth Chronicles, Book 1)
Zecharia Sitchen's The 12th Planet is the starting point on a quest that spans six books and 20 years worth of ancient aliens, genetic manipulation, and scrutiny of linguistic minutiae. If we trust ... > read more

The Collapse of Complex Societies (New Studies in Archaeology)
Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social ... > read more