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

Pottery reveals America’s first social media networks

Ancient Indigenous societies, including Mississippian Mound cultures, were built through social networks, PNAS study suggests.

Neanderthals’ main food source was definitely meat

Isotope analyses performed on single amino acids in Neanderthals' collagen samples shed new light on their debated diet.

The monkey hunters: Humans colonize South Asian rainforest by hunting primates

New study provides direct evidence for the hunting of tree-dwelling monkeys and other small mammals by Homo sapiens 45,000 years ago in the rainforest of Sri Lanka.

Quarrying of Stonehenge ‘bluestones’ dated to 3000 BC

Indigenous hunters had positive impacts on food webs in desert Australia

There’s a place for us: New research reveals humanity’s roles in ecosystems

Dog burial as common ritual in Neolithic populations of north-eastern Iberian Peninsula

First Neanderthal footprints found in Gibraltar

‘X-ray gun’ helps researchers pinpoint the origins of pottery found on ancient shipwreck

Prehistoric food globalization spanned three millennia

Peasant farmers began transforming diets across the Old World 7,000 years ago, study finds.

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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.