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.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

See the Directory for current tour opportunities.

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.

See the full Cover Articles archive →

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.