Unearthing Magic of Slaves and Immigrants
Summer 2015:
By Julian Smith
In the late 17th century, Annapolis enjoyed a thriving economy as the capital of the Maryland colony. An average of at least 300 slaves were brought in every year between 1695...
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...
A Lost City Found?
Summer 2015:
By Charles C. Poling
On March 2, 2015, a news story on the National Geographic website announced the discovery of an ancient “lost city” that was once inhabited by a mysterious culture in the...
Grappling With A Great Mystery
Summer 2015:
By David Malakoff
It had seemed like a good idea at the time. In the spring of A.D. 1250, you and your new spouse decided to move away from the hamlet where you were...
Revisiting Old Vero Man
Summer 2015:
By Tamara Stewart
In 1916, as Florida State geologist Elias Sellards stood on the bank of Van Valkenberg Creek, which has run along Florida’s eastern coastal region for the last 14,000 years, he...
Book Review: Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes of Ohio
Hopewell Ceremonial Landscapes of Ohio: More than Mounds and Geometric Earthworks
By Mark J. Lynott
(Oxbow Books, 2015; 288 pgs., illus., $32 paper; www.amazon.com)
When Europeans first encountered the great earthen mounds and geometric earthworks of southern...
Book Review: Living the Ancient Southwest
Living the Ancient Southwest Edited by David Grant Noble
(School for Advanced Research Press, 2014; 200 pgs., illus., $60 cloth, $25 paper; www.sarpress.org)
David Grant Noble has been writing and editing books about archaeology in the...
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...
Vive La Belle: Reconstructing La Salle’s Ship
Spring 2015: Vive La Belle, By Elizabeth Lunday.
In the spring of 1684, a team labored to assemble a ship in the port town of Rochefort in southwest France. They fastened timbers using iron bolts and...
From Atlatls To Arrows
Spring 2015: From Atlatls To Arrows, By Mike Toner.
For thousands of years, North America’s ancient people relied on an ingenious spear-throwing device called the atlatl to hunt game and wage war. Then they discovered, and...