Societies around the world have buried their dead at home. Anthropologists want to understand why the practice started, and why it has largely disappeared
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Cover Stories
Diet reveals what life was like 2,700 years ago in a local community: Gender inequality, social status, and migration
Biological and archaeological analysis of human remains from a 2,700-year-old Italian necropolis reveals, through what the people ate, how they lived, how they moved, and how they organized their society.
How Digital Archives Reshape Archaeological Research
Digital archives have changed what archaeologists can access, compare, and verify. Here's what that shift actually looks like in practice and where the field is heading.
Cracking the Indus Script
Long undeciphered, has the mystery of the Indus Script finally been solved?
Latnija Cave: Malta’s Game-Changing Revelation
Discoveries in a cave on the Island of Malta have opened the eyes of scholars on what was possible for humans before the Neolithic in the Mediterranean.
Temples on the Edge
Modern development on Malta has already led to irreversible cultural destruction. Can it be stopped before it gets worse?
Before the Pyramids: Malta’s Prehistoric Landscape and the People Who Keep It
A remarkable island country with a deep past.
Alba Longa: the City that Gave Birth to Rome
The ancient city that foreshadowed Rome.
A Tale of Loyalty Carved in Stone: The Dog Stephanos and the Tears of Rhodope
A small sarcophagus in the ancient city of Termessos tells the story of the love of a woman for her beloved pet.
Teotihuacán, a City of Life
The place where the gods were created.
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Other Stories
Research reveals ancient Maya lessons on surviving drought
Huge variety of plant foods made their starvation unlikely.
Nits on ancient mummies shed light on South American ancestry
New technique means head lice can provide clues about ancient people and migration.
Scientists digitally ‘unwrap’ mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I for the first time in 3,000 years
Study shows that 21st dynasty restorers ‘lovingly restored’ mummy, dispelling theory that they were bent on reusing old royal burial equipment.
New dates for Viking trade
Solar flare throws light on ancient trade between the Islamic Middle East and the Viking Age.
Humans Reached Remote North Atlantic Islands Centuries Earlier Than Thought
Faroes Settled Well Before Vikings Arrived, Lake Sediments Show.
Mystery solved: Footprints from site A at Laetoli, Tanzania, are from early humans, not bears
Findings provide conclusive evidence that multiple species of hominins co-existed on the landscape.
Volcanic eruptions contributed to collapse of China dynasties
Eruptions create sulfuric acid clouds in the upper atmosphere and can cool the climate.
A Child of darkness
The first partial skull of a child of Homo naledi begins to give us insight into all stages of life of this remarkable species.
More than ceremonial, ancient Chaco Canyon was home, new study says
Early puebloans impacted the ecosystem around Chaco Canyon earlier than previously believed.
