September/October 2018

ARCHAEOLOGY

ARCHAEOLOGY magazine brings the ancient world to life.

ARCHAEOLOGY2 min read
Behind The Scenes
Those of our readers who have glanced at this page know that, over my past eight years as editor in chief, my favorite kind of letter is one in which I preview what the next pages hold. The staff here at ARCHAEOLOGY—editors Jarrett A. Lobell, Eric A.
ARCHAEOLOGY2 min read
Lessons From The Past
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) devotes considerable resources to its mission of educating the public, including publishing ARCHAEOLOGY. I love teaching, even though my career goal was to become an archaeologist, not an educator. In fac
ARCHAEOLOGY2 min readEarth Sciences
From Our Readers
I enjoyed “Haiti’s Royal Past” (July/August 2018) very much. I traveled to Haiti in 2013 to teach a short youth art education program. It is wonderful to see an article that is not about the perceived wisdom of it as a degraded or pitiful place. Beyo
ARCHAEOLOGY3 min read
Ice Age Necropolis
In the Upper Paleolithic period, just over 12,000 years ago, Arene Candide in Italy’s northwestern Liguria region was an imposing cave with a massive, nearly 300-foot sand dune next to its entrance. Today, the dune has been quarried away. For archaeo
ARCHAEOLOGY2 min read
Off The Grid
A two-mile-long dirt road through Benin’s coastal town of Ouidah leads to the Door of No Return, a monument to some one million enslaved people forced there onto boats bound for European colonies in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. It
ARCHAEOLOGY1 min read
Hand Picked
The 1.2-foot-long bronze index finger of a massive fourth-century statue currently on display at Rome’s Capitoline Museums, thought to depict the Roman emperor Constantine, has been rediscovered in the Louvre. Aurélia Azéma, now of the French Laborat
ARCHAEOLOGY1 min read
Ancient Foresters
When the hardy evergreen trees of the Araucaria genus were first shipped from Australia and South America to the gardens of nineteenth-century Europe, they were dubbed “monkey puzzle” trees because of the challenge their needle-like leaves were said
ARCHAEOLOGY1 min read
Do No Harm
For three days in August of 1862, a small stream called Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia, became the site of one of the most decisive contests of the second year of the Civil War. Just 13 months before, the Battle of First Manassas, also known as the
ARCHAEOLOGY4 min read
World Roundup
MONTANA: Retesting of the only known Clovis period burial has finally resolved a long-standing issue. When the Anzick site was uncovered in 1968, it was found to contain a child’s skeleton as well as antler and stone artifacts. Radiocarbon dating ini
ARCHAEOLOGY12 min read
The Rulers of Foreign Lands
EGYPT’S CAREFULLY RECORDED lists of rulers run pharaoh after pharaoh for almost 3,000 years. Except, that is, for a century or so around 1640 B.C. when a new group came to dominate the kingdom on the Nile, throwing the region into turmoil and usherin
ARCHAEOLOGY5 min read
A Local Institution
WILLIAM AND JANE CLAPHAM wed on December 15, 1746, and departed their native Essex for the prestigious university town of Cambridge. There, in 1748, they opened a coffeehouse called, appropriately, Clapham’s, and ran it until at least 1762. The remai
ARCHAEOLOGY8 min read
Fragments Of Ancestral Memory
LYING IN THE FOOTHILLS of the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains of southeastern Oaxaca, the remote town of San Bartolo Yautepec is home to about 700 people. Some still speak the native Zapotec language, and many women in the town maintain a strong link
ARCHAEOLOGY12 min read
When The Inuit Met The Basques
THE NARROW ENTRANCE to Hare Harbor, on the eastern side of Petit Mécatina Island, just off Quebec’s Lower North Shore, is obscured by cliffs and hills and therefore easy to miss. Inside, a mile-long bay protected by high hills on both sides leads to
ARCHAEOLOGY8 min read
Shipping Stone
NEARLY 1,500 YEARS AGO, a Byzantine merchant ship swung perilously close to the Sicilian coastline, its heavy stone cargo doing little to help keep it on course. The ship’s crewmen were probably still clinging to the hope that they could reach a safe
ARCHAEOLOGY11 min read
New York City’s Dirtiest Beach
Brooklyn’s Dead Horse Bay looks about as appealing as it sounds, resembling something out of a postapocalyptic movie. On most days it is devoid of people, yet an improbable amount of debris blankets its shores. Glass bottles, old leather shoes, car t
ARCHAEOLOGY2 min read
Photo Credits
COVER—De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images; 1—The New York Public Library: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47daefbd-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99; 3—(clockwise from top left) Courtesy of the Institute of Archaeology/Russi
ARCHAEOLOGY4 min read
Dispatches From The Aia
archaeological.org In just a few weeks, we’ll be marking the occasion of the eighth International Archaeology Day (IAD). As of July, we had over 100 Collaborating Organizations signed up for the 2018 celebration of archaeology and we’re adding more e
ARCHAEOLOGY2 min read
Aia Grants And Awards
Each year the AIA offers fellowships and grants for travel, study, and publication to deserving scholars and students. Please note that to be eligible for an AIA grant or fellowship, applicants must have been AIA members in good standing for at least
ARCHAEOLOGY2 min readWorld
Artifact
It may not seem that a single artifact recovered from a ship carrying more than 100,000 objects could dramatically alter scholars’ understanding of a historical period. But sometimes it can make a world of difference. Qingbai glazing produces a bluis

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