Archaeology Magazine

English settlers built a village on Maine’s Pemaquid Peninsula in the late 1620s and began trading with the French and the Wabanaki Confederacy. The outpost thrived, before things took a turn. archaeology.org/issues/july-august-2018/off-the-grid/trenches-maine-colonial-pemaquid-state-historic-site/

Intriguing new finds at the site of Troy: Archaeologists have excavated a 2,800-year-old bone flute, the first musical instrument ever found there, as well as the head of an idol dating to the Early Bronze Age! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/23/unusual-objects-unearthed-at-troy/

The Salem witch trials of the 1690s are among the most notorious episodes in Massachusetts history. But the location of the gallows was lost until archaeologists went searching. archaeology.org/issues/january-february-2017/collection/salem-witch-trials-gallows/top-10-discoveries-of-2016/

Hasanlu Tepe was sacked around 800 B.C. When archaeologists discovered a solid-gold bowl crushed near three skeletons, it raised questions. Were these people rescuing it? Or were they stealing it? archaeology.org/issues/january-february-2015/digs-discoveries/trenches-hasanlu-tepe-ancient-looters/

An Egyptian scribe named Butehamun believed that he was haunted by his dead wife. He wrote a letter to her coffin to address her ghost insisting he had done nothing wrong. But … was that 100% true? archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2022/collection/egypt-demons-ancestors/the-world-of-egyptian-demons/

China's Terracotta Army still has secrets to reveal. One lingering question: Who made the sculptures? Archaeologists have now discovered and analyzed fingerprints of artisans captured by the clay. Their identities were a surprise! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/23/who-crafted-chinas-terracotta-army/

The Bronze Age nobles of Greece wore rings made of iron as symbols of power. But the Mycenaeans and Minoans likely didn’t know how to smelt iron. So where did it come from? Archaeologists are looking toward the sky for answers … archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/world/?location=greece-4

What happened after the collapse of the great Maya cities around A.D. 900? Life went on. Archaeologists at Ake, in Mexico, found 96 structures dating to the centuries after the city was supposedly abandoned. archaeology.org/news/2026/10/22/people-continued-to-live-in-maya-city-after-its-collapse/

More than 3,000 years ago, the kings of China’s Shang Dynasty were preoccupied with border states. Archaeologists are now learning about life beyond the empire—and why the kings were right to worry. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/features/unearthing-the-outlanders/

Archaeologists have learned that chocolate made its way to the ancient American Southeast. Analysis of pottery found at Etowah Indian Mounds, Georgia, suggests connoisseurs enjoyed chocolate as early as the eleventh century! archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/world/?location=georgia-2

A distiller in Glasgow, Scotland, instigated a furor in the 1820s when he built 12-foot walls—topped with spikes—that blocked a public path. Now, archaeologists have finally found the remnants of “Harvie’s Dyke.” archaeology.org/news/2026/10/14/harvies-dyke-discovered-in-scotland/

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Moche people of Peru began making some of the most expressive and delightful pottery figurines of the ancient world. Who were the artists behind them? archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/moche-pottery-pros/

Archaeologists studying the skeletal remains of a man buried at a Scottish castle determined that he’d suffered 160 catastrophic fractures not dissimilar to the results of being hit by a train. What happened 700 years ago? archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/world/?location=scotland-5

In 2020, viewers of satellite imagery spotted what they thought might be the lost plane of Amelia Earhart. Archaeologists mounted an investigation, and this week, they finally reached the remote site … archaeology.org/news/2026/10/21/search-for-amelia-earharts-lockheed-electra-10-e-continues/

Did artists 12,000 years ago illuminate a cave in Tajikistan with their vision of the Milky Way? Archaeologists in a remote mountains hit upon a striking theory about rock paintings. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/features/stone-age-stargazers/

Machu Picchu is one of the world’s extraordinary palaces. Using lidar and machetes, archaeologists have also recently identified zigzagging roads, terraces, platforms, and circular structures in a nearby forest! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/19/roads-and-terraces-discovered-near-machu-picchu/

Shég’ Xdaltth’i’, in Alaska, is one of the most tantalizing archaeological sites in North America right now. Artifacts suggest it was a camp for people crossing the Bering Land Bridge! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/20/cultural-connection-identified-between-prehistoric-sites-in-alaska-and-russia/

In the Andean valleys of Colombia, people began carving large sculptures around 2,000 years ago. Who made these fantastical statues, hybrids of humans and Amazonian animals? Archaeologists are making some discoveries. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/off-the-grid/san-agustin-colombia/

Disaster struck when the Overfield Tavern in Troy, Ohio, burned, but a rescue excavation has proved rich with insights into Midwestern life circa 1808. One find: a Spanish coin pierced so it could be worn as a lucky pendant! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/15/frontier-tavern-site-excavated-in-ohio/

The Eurymedon River was a source of agricultural abundance to the people of Roman Anatolia. In a recently discovered mosaic in Aspendos, Eurymedon reclines, laureled, shirtless, and looking carefree. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/reclining-with-the-river-god/

Hunters in western North America wielded the atlatl starting around 10,000 years ago. When the bow and arrow appeared, most adopted it. But some had their reasons for sticking with the atlatl … archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/to-bow-or-to-throw/

When Egyptologists excavated the tombs of five princesses, they found bows and arrows. By studying the skeletal remains of the women, archaeologists have now discovered that they’d been well practiced in archery! archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/egyptian-warrior-women/

The 23 ships depicted at one site in Australia are European-built vessels, painted by Aboriginal people. The artists clearly knew the details of the boats—because, very likely, some had served as crewmembers. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/knowing-the-ropes/

What was the *real* paleo diet? What did prehistoric humans actually eat? Join the Archaeological Institute of America next Weds. for a lecture with paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner! Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4017919070123/WN_XMt8c-fDShGD7752oTIhSg 📅 Oct. 21 | ⏰ 8pm ET

The Inca were maestros of logistics, and archaeologists have now discovered an innovative refrigeration system at the site of 12 food storage facilities! archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/world/?location=peru-12

The oldest shipwreck known in the world has just been discovered, off the southern coast of Turkey. Archaeologists determined that the ship went down in the Mediterranean between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/15/worlds-oldest-shipwreck-discovered-in-the-mediterranean/

Lots of archaeology is finding odd things that were long hidden, but how do you hide a 30-foot-tall 40-ton steel sphere? At any rate, archaeologists found it, during the demolition of a mill in North Carolina! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/14/giant-steel-ball-unearthed-at-north-carolina-mill-site/

By the seventh century A.D., northern England had a thriving lead-mining industry. Archaeologists know that now because they’ve examined lead absorption in tooth enamel from human remains ... archaeology.org/news/2026/10/14/tooth-enamel-records-rise-of-medieval-englands-lead-industry/

Stored—or hidden? That’s the question archaeologists had about the 100 pieces of gold and gemstone jewelry they recently found in a jar at the medieval site of Dhariyah in Saudi Arabia. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/fit-for-a-caliph/

Neanderthals living in a rock shelter in Spain left behind quite a few wooden tools more than 40,000 years ago, including two spears, a club, and some shallow bowls (possibly). They decayed—but left impressions. archaeology.org/news/2026/10/12/impressions-of-wooden-neanderthal-tools-found-in-spain/

In a temple inscription 2,700 years ago, a king of Urartu prayed for the strength of a lion. His nemesis was the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the most fearsome in the Near East. But Urartu, too, was a force to be reckoned with... archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/features/kingdom-of-fortresses/

This small bronze ring fragment features a bizarre scene: a tiny man and a bird fighting. To understand what’s going on here, archaeologists had to get a dirty joke that ancient Greeks and Romans found hilarious … archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/herculean-hilarity/

At Cape Canaveral, archaeologists are exploring the launch complexes for the Mercury and Apollo program rockets—and learning much about the 3,000 years before, when Indigenous Floridians lived and worshipped here. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/letters-from/dawn-of-the-space-age/

Around 1190, a man died in Buckinghamshire, England. The night after he was buried, he returned home and attempted to suffocate his wife. Something had to be done about the vampire. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/night-of-the-dangerous-dead/

Ipuy was an esteemed sculptor in ancient Egypt, contributing masterful carvings to pharaohs’ tombs in the Valley of the Kings. But archaeologists are particularly interested in Ipuy’s most personal work: his own tomb. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/features/a-tomb-of-ones-own/

The Lighthouse of Alexandria collapsed in the fourteenth century, but archaeologists have been exploring its ruins in recent years. Divers have found a bronze signet ring engraved with the image of the lighthouse! archaeology.org/news/2026/10/08/ring-with-lighthouse-of-alexandria-image-recovered/

The Baroque master painter Guilliam de Vries may be forgotten today, but he lived sumptuously in seventeenth-century Belgium according to archaeologists who’ve been rooting around in the garden of his mansion … archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/digs-discoveries/forgotten-flemish-master/

Hooray, a new issue of Archaeology Magazine is here! We’ve got a fascinating look inside a tomb made by one ancient Egyptian artist—not for a pharaoh, but for himself. Plus, adventures in Florida archaeology, real medieval vampire hunters, and more. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2026/

Coca was a sacred plant to the Incas, used in almost every ritual activity—so wrote Spanish chroniclers. Now archaeologists have found evidence of coca while unearthing a site of ritual sacrifice in Peru ... archaeology.org/news/2026/10/07/coca-leaves-found-in-llama-wool-at-perus-tambo-viejo/

What did the boar-headed war horns of the Celts sound like? What about the 1,300-year-old wooden flutes of the Ancestral Pueblo? Archaeologists studying the music of seven ancient cultures spill the secrets of their sounds. Read up and listen! archaeology.org/collection/the-music-of-time/

The first pharaohs of Egypt constructed lavish tombs surrounded by hundreds of subsidiary burials. It seemed suspicious that the royal servants in the lesser burials all died at the same time the pharaoh did ... archaeology.org/news/2026/10/06/did-egypts-first-pharaohs-demand-human-sacrifice/

It’s not tens of thousands of years old nor is it a magnificent marble, but this Venus figurine—recently excavated in Hungary—sure is cute. Made of lead, it’s the first religious object found at the site, a Roman settlement. archaeology.org/news/2026/10/05/lead-venus-figurine-unearthed-in-hungary/

Until now, archaeologists had only seen traces of central Germany's Mesolithic structures in soil discolorations. That’s what makes this wooden post exciting. It’s 10,500 years old, for starters ... archaeology.org/news/2026/10/02/mesolithic-lumber-recovered-in-germanys-lake-arendsee/

Has Peruvian cuisine always been inventive and delicious? At one coastal site, researchers found bundles of seaweed—prepared 3,400 years ago. At another, archaeologists turned up Inca-era freeze-dried potatoes! archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2026/digs-discoveries/peru-foodie-tour/

In a desert 1,000 years ago, the Chimú people built a city that would become the biggest in the Americas. Chan Chan was an engineering marvel, and at last, Peru’s great urban experiment has archaeologists’ attention. archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2023/features/peru-chimu-chan-chan/

On one mural in Chajul, Guatemala, a dancer wears Spanish trousers and shoes, but also accoutrements of the Ixil Maya. As archaeologists uncover the murals, the story of a fraught but creatively rich moment is emerging. archaeology.org/issues/january-february-2025/features/dancing-days-of-the-maya/

A sixth-century A.D. monastery on the tiny Scottish isle of Lismore was a thriving center of worship, craftsmanship, and learning whose importance may have rivaled some of the top monasteries in Britain. archaeology.org/news/2026/10/02/early-medieval-monastery-studied-in-scotland/

Archaeologists in South Korea recently found a nine-inch bronze device that they’ve identified as a Hwangja Hwatong—a 600-year-old firearm. The early handheld gunpowder weapon would have fired arrows or pellets. archaeology.org/news/2026/10/01/early-gunpowder-weapon-from-south-korea-identified/

Roman soldiers played a type of horn called the cornu, 10 feet long and shaped like the letter G. Archaeologists at Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall, recently unearthed the mouthpiece of one! archaeology.org/issues/january-february-2023/digs-discoveries/digs-england-hadrian-cornu/