Earthen and shell mounds built hundreds of years ago by Indigenous people in the Mississippi River Delta contribute to biodiversity and the area's resiliency to erosion today, research by a Florida State University archaeologist has found.

Taking your valuables with you into a swimming pool is always a risk. The Romans should have paid better heed, judging from the quantity of gemstones recovered from the drain of one of their bathhouses.

As many as 30 semi-precious stones have been discovered by archaeologists almost 2,000 years after their owners lost them at a site in modern-day Carlisle, just behind Hadrian’s Wall.

The stones had dropped out of their ring settings, their glue probably weakened in the steamy baths. They were simply flushed into the drains when the pools and saunas were cleaned.

Federal agencies have awarded millions of dollars to scientific studies on Native American human remains, undermining the goals of NAGPRA as tribes fight for repatriation.

Researchers have decoded more than half of the characters in the so-called Kushan script by comparing them with inscriptions in a known ancient language called Bactrian

An archaeologist explains why a museum keeps so many bones from the Jones-Miller site, an ice age bison kill on the North American plains.

On the drive north from Phnom Penh, I asked Gordon how he had learned about the looting of cultural heritage. ‘I went to the British Museum,’ he said drily

Erin Thompson in Cambodia on the trail of artifacts looted from temples during the genocide of the 1970s.

The ethnographic account of an Inuit man manufacturing a knife from his own frozen feces to butcher and disarticulate a dog has permeated both the academic literature and popular culture. To evaluate the validity of this claim, we tested the basis of that account via experimental archaeology. Our experiments assessed the functionality of knives made from human feces in controlled conditions that provided optimal conditions for success. However, they were not functional. While much research has shown foragers to be technologically resourceful, innovative, and savvy, we suggest that this ethnographic account should no longer be used to support that narrative.

Pictures, sfw: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371#ec0005

Paper breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=InxxUbdIeGw

In a new study, researchers and members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area are the first to publish evidence of wealth-driven patterns in maternal investment among ancient populations.

Source: https://botsin.space/@artefactCollection/110698011253218419

This is raising my skeptic hackles a little and I would love someone with more knowledge to let me know if there's a good reason for me to be a little dubious.

It was excavated from the Patuxent Point site, Calvert County, MD. All of the skeletons uncovered (men, women, and children) showed signs of smoking.