FALL 2019 | The Saga Of The Snakes

The following is an article excerpt from the Fall 2019 Issue of American Archaeology Magazine.  Become a member to subscribe and read the full story!  By Mike Toner A riveting story of dynastic intrigue and bloody...
Viva La Belle: Reconstructing La Salle's Ship.

Spring 2015 is Here

The recent issue of American Archaeology Magazine, Spring 2015 , is now available. COVER: Peter Fix (foreground) and Jim Bruseth reassemble the hull timbers of La Belle, the ship of the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sier...

Book Review- The Archaeology of Smoking and Tobacco

The Archaeology of Smoking and Tobacco By Georgia L. Fox (University Press of Florida, 2015; 192 pgs., illus., $70 cloth; www.upf.com) Nothing in the material culture of the Americas is more ubiquitous than tobacco.  From the times...

The Truth in the Tree Rings | American Archaeology

The University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree Ring Research was founded in 1937 by astronomer A.E. Douglass and is the premiere laboratory devoted to dendrochronology in the U.S.  By Jasmine Demers This is an article excerpt...

Understanding The Lead Rush

By Elizabeth Lunday In 1830, a woman named Susan Gratiot received a letter from her father. Gratiot (pronounced GRASH-it) lived in a two-room log cabin with her husband and several young children in a mining...
than 13,000 artifacts, some dating back 5,000 years, along this three-mile passage called Broadway. Photo Credit: NPS

Celebrating A Centennial

Spring 2016: By Margaret Shakespeare By the turn of the 20th century the secret was out. Maverick rancher and outdoorsman Theodore Roosevelt knew it. The Swedish archaeologist Gustaf N. A. Nordenskiöld knew it. Adventurers, photographers,...
Newspaper Rock is one of Gold Butte National Monument’s amazing petroglyph panels. Gold Butte, located in Nevada, was recently designated a national monument to protect cultural resources like Newspaper Rock, but some people opposed the designation. Kurt Kuznicki/Friends of Nevada Wilderness

Archaeology Under Attack

Spring 2017: By Tamara Jager Stewart. In the late 1980s, while working in Wisconsin, Lynne Goldstein, now archaeology professor and director of the Campus Archaeology Program at Michigan State University, served on a panel working...

Ancient Writing | American Archaeology

Archaeologist Stephen D. Houston of Brown University published a paper in 2006 arguing that a Maya tablet found in Veracruz, Mexico is ”an unambiguous example of writing,” a conclusion that since has been generally...

See what’s coming in the Summer Issue of American Archaeology

Get a preview of the summer issue of American Archaeology Magazine HERE!  Read article excerpts, book reviews, and more!  TAC Members should receive a copy in the mail soon!  Non-members can find a copy on...
Eye-catching cobalt, vermilion, and red ochre pigments embellish the interior of San Miguel Arcángel. Rubén G. Mendoza.

Visiting California’s Historic Missions

Summer 2015: By Gayle Keck  It was 1782, and an earthquake had ripped through Alta California. "In Santa Clara, it broke a bottle of brandy," Father Junípero Serra noted, "which the poor Fathers there were jealously...