Archaeology
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Archaeology
Ancient origins of fire use
Human ancestors may have learned to control fire 1.7 million years ago in eastern Africa.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Guard dogs and horse riders
More than 5,000 years ago, the Botai people of central Asia had ritual practices that appeared in many later cultures.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Maya warfare takes 10 steps forward
The discovery of hieroglyphic-covered steps on the side of a Maya pyramid has yielded new information about warfare between two competing city-states around 1,500 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Early New World Settlers Rise in East
New evidence supports the view that people occupied a site in coastal Virginia at least 15,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Visit Ancient Corinth
Hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, this elaborate, regularly updated Web site features historical, literary, and archaeological information about the ancient Roman colony of Corinth in Greece. Browser plug-ins allow you to fly through the city, traverse digital maps, and view three-dimensional models of various structures. Go to: http://corinth.sas.upenn.edu
By Science News -
Archaeology
Could the Anasazi have stayed?
New computer simulations of the changing environmental conditions around one of the Anasazi cultural centers in the first part of the last millennium suggest that drought wasn't the only factor behind a sudden collapse of the civilization.
By Sid Perkins -
Archaeology
Ancient Asian Tools Crossed the Line
Excavations in China yield surprising finds of 800,000-year-old stone hand axes.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Vase shows that ancients dug fossils, too
A painting on an ancient Corinthian vase may be the first record of a fossil find.
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Archaeology
Ancient birth brick emerges in Egypt
Investigations at a 3,700-year-old Egyptian town have yielded a painted brick that was used in childbirth rituals.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Ancient site yields a copper whopper
Excavations in Jordan revealed the largest known Early Bronze Age metal-production facility, where workers crafted high-quality copper tools and ingots beginning around 4,700 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
The Original Cocoa Treat: Chemistry pushes back first use of the drink
Analysis of residues from ancient Maya vessels has revealed that the pots held cocoa almost 1,000 years before its previously known earliest use.
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Archaeology
Openings to the Underworld
Archaeological finds indicate that ancient groups in Mexico and Central America, including the Maya, held beliefs about a sacred landscape that focused on natural and human-made caves as sites of important ritual activities and burials.
By Bruce Bower