The bog does not neatly divide traces of the distant and recent past. Archaeology and forensic science still have much to learn from each other.
Ancient starch grains of ginger (Zingiber officinale), cinnamon (Cinnamomum sp.) and nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) were identified on the surface of this footed sandstone grinding slab.
Khanh Trung Kien Nguyen
There are arguments over the future of red deer on the Scottish island of South Uist but archaeological expertise can help people live alongside wild animals.
Around 400 local children have been involved in this archaeological project in Cardiff, Wales.
Vivian Paul Thomas
Since 2011, professional and amateur archaeologists in Cardiff have been unearthing prehistoric artefacts. But last summer, they began to discover something even more extraordinary.
The Colchester vase, dating to the later second century AD.
Following Hadrian/Flickr
We uncovered evidence of a rebellion so significant, that events such as Cleopatra’s affairs and the rise of Christianity may not have come to pass without it.
Archaeologists used to dig primarily at sites that were easy to find thanks to obvious visual clues. But technology – and listening to local people – plays a much bigger role now.
You can’t own a human, so why can you own their remains? We need to stop treating human fossils as objects.
Studying ancient African societies, like Great Zimbabwe, can reveal how communities dealt with disease and pandemics.
Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Ben Marwick, University of Washington; Erle C. Ellis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Lucas Stephens, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology e Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Hundreds of archaeologists provided on-the-ground data from across the globe, providing a new view of the long and varied history of people transforming Earth’s environment.
Doonagore Castle, which Cadbury incorrectly identified as Mooghaun Fort in its ad campaign.
Shutterstock.
With the dire consequences of climate change looming, archaeologists recognize the importance of communicating their findings on ancient landscapes and the threats that face vulnerable populations.
A line of protesters against the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota head to a unity rally on the west steps of the State Capitol in September 2016 in Denver.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Development projects are claiming ancestral sites at alarming rates. This ineffective protection of Indigenous heritage is a violation of human rights.
Here’s a modern human skull on the left, and Neanderthal skull on the right.
Darren Curnoe
Maeve, age 8, has a question that has stumped many scientists over the years. And that’s because it’s a surprisingly tricky question to answer. It depends a bit on what you mean by ‘person’.
Tapping into ancient DNA can help us understand ancient humans’ movements and lives.
Illustration: Marlize Lombard, Maryna Steyn and Anders Högberg
Archaeology is not only about stones and bones: it is mainly about the people of the past. DNA is one way to get from the stones and the bones to the people and their stories.
Marcoo was a 1.4 kilotonne ground-level nuclear test carried out at Maralinga in 1956. The contaminated debris was buried at this site in the 1967 clean-up known as Operation Brumby.
Author provided
History is writ large in the remote areas around Woomera and the Nullarbor: from the fossils of microscopic, cell-like creatures to ancient stone tools to the deitrus of rocket tests and the painful legacy of the Maralinga atomic blasts.
Third-year archaeology student Dominic Coe replicates a painting of rhino based on the original image in France’s Grotte Chauvet.
Supplied
In an ideal world, students might visit original cave sites to see ancient paintings in their natural setting. This isn’t possible, so the idea of an artificial cave set-up at a university was born.