A Cahokia leader (center) greets the rising sun on top of Monks Mound with his priests and attendants around him in this artistic depiction of religious activities. Art by Michael Hampshire.

Religion And The Rise Of Cahokia

Spring 2016: By Alexandra Witze. Some 12 miles east of St. Louis in the midst of Looking Glass Prairie stands a ridge the height of a four-story building. Known as Emerald, it is a natural...

The Purpose Of Archaeology | American Archaeology

By Elizabeth Lunday | Archaeologists study the past, but they live in the present—and 2021 is a particularly tumultuous present. Americans have endured political conflict, violence, protests, and a global pandemic. Multiple social justice movements...

Read Highlights from the Winter 2022 edition of American Archaeology Magazine

Cover Photo from the article "The Oldest Human-Made Structures In The Americas?" - Syracuse University student wearing mosquito netting to ward off gnats takes notes. | Credit: Joshua Ives. The latest edition of American Archaeology...
Gambling artifacts have been found at Chetro Ketl, a great house in Chaco Canyon. Credit: ANDREW KEARNS

When The Gambler Came To Chaco

Summer 2018: By Alexandra Witze. Navajo oral histories tell of a Great Gambler who had a profound effect on Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloan capital located in what is now northwestern New Mexico. His name...
This aerial photo of the Nunalleq site was taken by a drone in 2017. Credit: Sven Haakanson

The Story Of Nunalleq

Spring 2018: By David Malakoff. When Russian fur traders began exploring southwestern Alaska in the early 1800s, they met native Yup’ik people who told horrific tales of violence and revenge. In one common but unverified...

The Search For Sarabay | American Archaeology

By Stephenie Livingston | The sparsely populated barrier island of Big Talbot looks much like it did when Europeans first met the local Mocama-speaking Timucua people nearly 450 years ago. Keith Ashley, a University of...

Changing Times | American Archaeology

By Julian Smith | When European explorers and missionaries began arriving in the Great Lakes region in the sixteenth century, they found groups including the Huron (also known as the Wendat) and Iroquois (also known...

Dealing with the Funding Crisis

Winter 2018-19: By David Malakoff In the summer of 1894, archaeologist Ernest Volk of Harvard University was excavating a promising prehistoric site in New Jersey’s Delaware River Valley when he hit an unyielding obstacle: money....

American Archaeology Winter 2018 is Here!

The most recent issue of American Archaeology Magazine, Winter 2018-19, is now available! COVER: These are three of the amazing items discovered by archaeologists who excavated Key Marco in southwest Florida in 1896. These...

The Stories Of The Slave Wrecks | American Archaeology

By Paula Neely This is an article excerpt from the Winter 2020 edition of American Archaeology Magazine. Become a member of The Archaeological Conservancy for your complimentary subscription.  When the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History...