Popular Archeology

Searching for the First Europeans
by James Kensington
The startling finds of Atapuerca and Dmanisi have revolutionized our thinking about the first humans in Europe.
The Secrets Beneath Copan
by Jason Weaver
Archaeologists tunneling below the monuments of a famous ancient acropolis have unveiled new revelations about a great Maya kingdom.
The Ancient Architects of Sound
by Linda Eneix
Scientists are discovering that the prehistoric builders of the great megaliths created something far more than monuments of stone.
Sifting through the Smoke and Noise
by Meredith Poole with contributions by Andrew Edwards and Eric Schweickart
Excavation and reconstruction of the 18th century blacksmith shop and public armoury at Williamsburg, Virginia, tells a story of wartime effort during the American Revolutionary War.
Guardians of Heritage
by Joanie Eva Meharry and Shaharzad Akbar
Far beyond strategic military imperatives, the U.S. and Afghanistan have become partners in saving a rich cultural heritage.

Popular Archaeology is a quarterly online magazine exploring the human past, from prehistoric beginnings to the present day. See About Us for more details. Regular subscriptions are FREE. Access to all premium level content (our best articles, including all back-issue premium articles) is only $9.00 annually.

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Cover Stories

Neanderthal genes give clues to human brain evolution

3D-printed reconstructions provide clues to ancient site

Versatility in hominin diets

New Light on the Ancient Human Populations of Patagonia

Chipped stones and cut bones show early hominin presence in North Africa

The Peopling of Earth’s “Third Pole”: The Tibetan Plateau’s Earliest Colonizers

Stone tools linked to ancient human ancestors in Arabia have surprisingly recent date

Stone handaxes, similar to those made by early humans as much as 1.5 million years ago, have been dated for the first time in the Arabian Peninsula, to less than 190,000 years old, where...

Remains of Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered

Prehistoric cave art reveals ancient use of complex astronomy

First ancient DNA from mainland Finland reveals origins of Siberian ancestry in region

New study shows that the genetic makeup of northern Europe traces back to migrations from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago and that, as recently as the Iron Age, ancestors of the...

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A wooden toe: Swiss Egyptologists study 3,000-year-old prosthesis

Multispectral imaging reveals ancient Hebrew inscription undetected for over 50 years

Military correspondence from the First Temple period discovered on reverse side of well-studied artifact at The Israel Museum, Tel Aviv University researchers say.

New research reveals earliest directly dated rock paintings from southern Africa

Scientists have pioneered a technique to directly date prehistoric rock paintings in southern Africa, which revealed dates much older than previously thought.