Excavation – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

A plate of fufu, a meal common in West Africa. Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

April 17, 2022

Chemical traces in ancient West African pots show a diet rich in plants

Julie Dunne, University of Bristol

The preparation of ancient meals in prehistoric West Africa combined vegetables, pulses, tubers and, possibly, herbs and spices.

The Grotte Mandrin rock shelter saw repeated use by Neanderthals and modern humans over millennia. Ludovic Slimak

February 9, 2022

New research suggests modern humans lived in Europe 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, in Neanderthal territories

Ludovic Slimak, Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès; Clément Zanolli, Université de Bordeaux; Jason E. Lewis, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York), and Laure Metz, University of Connecticut

Stone artifacts and a fossil tooth point to Homo sapiens living at Grotte Mandrin 54,000 years ago, at a time when Neanderthals were still living in Europe.

February 15, 2021

Stonehenge first stood in Wales: how archaeologists proved parts of the 5,000 year-old stone circle were imported

Mike Parker Pearson, UCL

A remarkable set of discoveries has confirmed that parts of Stonehenge first stood 140 miles away at Waun Mawn, west Wales.

A variety of clues can tip off archaeologists about a promising spot for excavation. Gabriel Wrobel

December 4, 2020

How do archaeologists know where to dig?

Gabriel D. Wrobel, Michigan State University and Stacey Camp, Michigan State University

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.

Why an interest in archaeology is no longer a thing of the past. shutterstock

December 15, 2016

How community digs can inspire the next generation of archaeologists

Michael Dafydd Nevell, University of Salford

Digging the dirt on the joys of archeology.

Terracotta warriors date from over 2,000 years ago and are considered to be one of the most important recent archaeological finds. Nicky Loh/Reuters

November 18, 2016

Why there’s so much backlash to the theory that Greek art inspired China’s Terracotta Army

Johanna Hanink, Brown University and Felipe Rojas Silva, Brown University

For centuries, historians have assumed that ‘primitive societies’ couldn’t have possibly come up with advanced techniques on their own.

Excavations in Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. Smithsonian Digitization Program Office Liang Bua Team

March 30, 2016

The ‘hobbits’ were extinct much earlier than first thought

Thomas Sutikna, University of Wollongong; Matthew Tocheri, Lakehead University, and Richard 'Bert' Roberts, University of Wollongong

New excavations at an Indonesian cave have pushed back the time the ‘hobbits’ disappeared to about 50,000 years ago.

Doomed dinos, but these Psittacosaurs weren’t killed by volcanic ash. John Sibbick

January 12, 2016

Dinosaurs thought to have died in Pompeii-style disaster probably drowned in porridgy torrent

Chris Rogers, University of Bristol

Was there a ‘dinosaur Pompeii’ in China? New research questions the claim.

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