This portrait painted in 1710 shows the extensively tattooed Mohawk leader Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pleth Tow. Credit: Mezzotint by John Simon, after painting by John Verlest

Discovering The Archaeology Of Tattooing

Spring 2018: By Gayle Keck. In old Western movies, Indians were invariably depicted galloping into the scene whooping and streaked with war paint. At least one aspect of that cliché is true. Native Americans did...
The most recent issue of American Archaeology Magazine, FALL 2017, is now available! COVER: This four-hole ocarina depicts an unknown animal. It was found in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and is now in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University. Credit: (c) President and Fellows of Harvard College, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. PM# 17-3-20/C8064.

American Archaeology Magazine Fall 2017 is Here!

The most recent issue of American Archaeology Magazine, FALL 2017, is now available! COVER: This four-hole ocarina depicts an unknown animal. It was found in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and is now in the collections of...
The researchers have found several clay figurines, most of which, like this example, depict women. These figurines have hollow areas, mouthpieces, and holes that enabled them to serve as whistles. They were primarily imported from Lubaantun and other inland sites. Credit: Heather McKillop.

A Story Of Salt: Ancient Maya Saltworks

Spring 2017: By Elizabeth Lunday. Salt is a substance so ordinary and inexpensive today that its ready supply is often taken for granted. Yet salt is essential: humans need salt to live and also crave...
Book Cover: Ancient Ruins and Rock Art of the Southwest by David Noble. Book Cover.

Book Review – Ancient Ruins and Rock Art of the Southwest

Ancient Ruins and Rock Art of the Southwest: An Archaeological Guide By David Grant Noble (Taylor Trade Publishing, 2015; 304 pgs., illus., $20 paper, $10 ebook; www.rowman.com) David Grant Noble has updated his essential guidebook to archaeological...

Cultivation, Cooperation, and Conflict | American Archaeology

Researchers are studying the connections between early plant domestication and changing patterns of settlement and conflict during the Middle Holocene.  By Julian Smith This is an article excerpt from the Summer 2020 edition of American Archaeology...

The Massacre At Mistick Fort

By Wayne Curtis Shortly before dawn on the morning of May 26, 1637, a contingent of seventy-seven English soldiers accompanied by as many as 300 Native American allies quietly advanced upon a palisaded fort of...

Digging Detroit

By David Malakoff The beer stein had seen better days. The hefty glass mug was missing its top half and part of its sturdy curved handle. Still, it wasn’t hard to imagine the stein brimming...
Pueblo Bonito is Chaco Canyon’s largest great house. A number of macaws, which are thought to have been imported from Mesoamerica by Chaco’s upper class, were found here. Credit: Chaz Evans.

Chaco’s Upper Class

2015: By Charles C. Poling. Chaco Canyon has puzzled and intrigued archaeologists for almost 120 years. Despite the abundance of archaeological remains, scholars know relatively little about the people who lived there, including when they...

Physical and Spiritual Health

Winter 2018-19: By Mike Toner. In 1535, an outbreak of scurvy ravaged the crew of French explorer Jacques Cartier’s expedition to the St. Lawrence River. Twenty-five men died before a friendly Iroquois chief summoned tribal...

Exploring Belize’s Deep Past

By Michael Bawaya Jaime Awe had an epiphany. He was scrutinizing a sweat bath he and his crew had uncovered at Xunantunich, a Maya ceremonial center in western Belize, when he realized there were two...