Popular Archeology

Before Kings and Temples
by James Kensington
Ancient landscapes in present-day Israel have revealed astonishing evidence of early human occupation.
The Archaeology of the Invisible and the Fall of Rome
by Kyle Harper
Silent killers can help bring down civilizations. Author Kyle Harper relates how the Roman Empire of Late Antiquity was severely crippled by an unseen enemy.
The Archaeological Watchlist
by Dan McLerran
Popular Archaeology suggests a select group of sites and projects that readers can follow as archaeologists and other scientists uncover more tantalizing finds bearing on the human past.
Tunneling Through a Sacred Underworld
by Brian Fagan
Archaeologists are piecing together an ancient sacred view of the cosmos at Teotihuacan, where creation, gods, and mortals intersected to legitimize the power of rulers.
A Decade of Discovery: The Tandy Excavations at Tel Gezer
by Steven Ortiz and Samuel Wolff
A preliminary summary report of the excavations of a city that, according to the biblical account, was fortified by King Solomon during the time of the United Monarchy of ancient Israel.
Uncovering the Secrets of an Island Paradise
by Cristina Bravo, Irene Riudavets, and Montserrat Anglada
Excavations continue to reveal a unique prehistoric monumental sanctuary in Menorca.
Using LiDAR at El Pilar
by Anabel Ford, Thomas Crimmel, Claudia Knudson, Sherman Horn, and Keith Clarke
Well before the recent media reports about the amazing discoveries of ancient Maya remains in Guatemala using laser technology, another team of pioneering scientists had already made equivalent discoveries in Belize.

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

New light on contested identity of medieval skeleton found at Prague Castle

Here’s how early humans evaded immunodeficiency viruses

CryoEM reveals structural effect of mutation that made humans, but not apes, immune to SIV.

20-million-year-old skull suggests complex brain evolution in monkeys, apes

New study reveals that brain enlargement and modern features evolved repeatedly in anthropoids.

Nordic Bronze Age attracted wide variety of migrants to Denmark

Results of largest Denmark multidisciplinary human mobility investigation to date.

A Stone Age boat building site has been discovered underwater

Biomolecular analyses of Roopkund skeletons show Mediterranean migrants in Indian Himalaya

The lake was thought to be the site of an ancient catastrophic event that left several hundred people dead, but the first ancient whole genome data from India shows that diverse groups of people...

Humans migrated to Mongolia much earlier than previously believed

Archaeologists unearth stone tools made 45,000 years ago.

Ancient feces reveal how ‘marsh diet’ left Bronze Age Fen folk infected with parasites

Neanderthals commonly suffered from ‘swimmer’s ear’

Uncovering Zedekiah’s Destroyed City

New archaeological finds uncovered from two separate excavations in 2019 likely support the biblical account of the destruction of Jerusalem and its First Temple in 587/586 BCE.

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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.