Pre-Hispanic landscape of Bolivia illuminated A large archaeological survey across the Carangas region of highland Bolivia has identified 135 hilltop sites, each with a number of circular walls built on terraces, ranging between two and nine per location. Ceramics discovered…
Archaeological surveys in the Carangas region of highland Bolivia have identified a previously unrecognised concentration of religious sites built by the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the area, including one site with characteristics currently unique in the Andes. The survey identified 135…
Analysis of pottery from the Caribbean island of Isla de Mona, part of the Puerto Rican archipelago, is shedding new light on food and drink practices on the island at the time of its early colonisation, including what may be…
Just over 30 years after the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, a young reporter who had never heard a shot fired in anger managed to produce a literary classic that not only captured the intensity and confusion of the bitter…
John Lock resumes his occasional series on the ‘Butterfly Effect’ by examining another event that would have unforeseen consequences. This time, he turns his attention to Paul Revere’s ‘midnight ride’ and the events that became known as the ‘shot heard round the world’.
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Christopher Catling, Contributing Editor for CA, delves into the eccentricities of the heritage world.
Archaeologists working at the Moche site of Pañamarca, which is in western Peru, have uncovered intriguing depictions of a two-faced figure among the murals of its pillared hall. This building, which archaeologists believe may have been the most important at…
A round-up of some of the latest archaeological discoveries from around the globe.
The study confirms that the Norse had the ability, knowledge, and vessels necessary to bring timber from North America until well into the 14th century, if not longer.
The ancient Maya ballgame, known as pelota or sometimes pok-ta-pok, played an important ritual and symbolic role in the Mesoamerican culture.
The greatest battle in American history took place 160 years ago this summer, in July 1863. Fred Chiaventone identifies some common misunderstandings about this crucial engagement.
The most important event in the history of the USA began with a disagreement – over the place of slavery in a democratic society. By the time it ended, more than 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers had given their lives…
Who replaced Major General Joseph Hooker as commander of the Union Army of the Potomac on 28 June 1863, just three days before the Battle of Gettysburg?
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
The survey, conducted by a team of scientists from the US National Park Service, is the first of a two-part project.
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Christopher Warner.
When they arrived on set, they held a feast that included dancing and chanting that lasted nearly two days. It also included the ritual slaughter of a water buffalo
The Vietnam War and associated public distaste for military intervention also provided a challenge as to how the study of warfare was conducted and presented.
‘There are probably in Texas about as many revolvers as male adults,’ wrote one correspondent for The New York Times in 1854.
‘As our community comes together to explore this important site, we hope to also reveal voices that have important lessons to teach us about our country’s roots.’
Moai are monolithic stone statues with elongated human faces, thought to have been created by Rapa Nui’s ancestral inhabitants more than 500 years ago.
Elements were added by local weavers according to their own regional design traditions
Review by Eric Singleton It is a welcome departure to see a scholar stepping outside their regionalised field of study to offer an interconnected view of North American history that is not often discussed. This is what Timothy Pauketat, an…
In 2022, archaeologists from the University of Toronto and the University of Trujillo began the first excavations of Cerro Prieto Espinal, a mountainside fortress-temple and settlement in north coastal Peru. Across the 3km-wide site, the team identified massive concentric walls,…
The bone fragments were embedded in a mastodon rib found during excavations at the Manis site in north-west Washington in 1977-1979.
With no contemporary written record to guide us, we cannot know the precise meaning behind the many depictions of human hands featured in prehistoric cave art around the world – the oldest known examples of which are believed to have…
During which time period did the Olmecs flourish?
Recent breakthroughs in the study of Maya hieroglyphs have revealed artist signatures on artefacts long considered to be the work of anonymous artisans. Joanne Pillsbury and Laura Filloy Nadal introduce us to the newly identified sculptors and painters who worked in the Maya royal courts.
In those days, Mesoamerican archaeology was not for the faint-hearted, and Sylvanus Griswold Morley – ‘physically frail, short of stature, squeaky-voiced and near-sighted’, according to Prudence Rice and Christopher Ward – wasn’t really cut out for it. He suffered stomach…
Understanding burial practices and funerary customs is a vital part of any attempt to understand an ancient culture – for while the need to separate the living from the dead is common to all human societies, the way in which…
Which emperor constructed the 15th-century Inca citadel of Machu Picchu?
Among the stone tools recovered from the site were 14 complete and fragmentary stemmed projectile points, dated to around 16,000 years ago.
What can a freshly discovered tomb reveal about the emergence of Andean civilisations? The early date of this rich burial is raising new questions about how and when social elites appeared, as Yuji Seki reveals.
Calum Henderson explores how a new exhibition at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Missouri is illuminating the experiences of prisoners of war.
Pirates or privateers? The buccaneers who haunted the high seas in the 17th and 18th centuries sailed a fine line between fighting Britain’s enemies and profiting themselves. Tim Newark looks at the careers of two notorious figures, and reveals the criminal complexity behind their actions.