Americas

Last surviving ‘Band of Brothers’ officer Edward Shames dies

A member of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Shames was involved in some of the most important battles of the Second World War.

Current World Archaeology 110

• Origins of the Incas: from human sacrifice to mythical beings
• Rethinking the jungle
• The origins of early Christianity in Africa
• Butrint’s slave manumissions
• The treasures of Sanxingdui, China
• Tracy Roberts and LoveItaly: saving Italy’s heritage

Above Portrait of Julio Tello, ‘father of Peruvian archaeology’.

Julio César Tello Rojas

“Our present Hispanic-Peruvian civilisation cannot stand except on an indigenous pedestal.”

Above Mantle depicting ancestors with feline mouth masks and holding severed heads. Cotton and camelid fibres; early Nasca, 100 BC AD 100. Size: 142cm x 286cm

Peru: the hills are alive

For some ancient Peruvian societies, the past and the future were alive, as were the dramatic landscapes they lived in. Lucia Marchini speaks to Cecilia Pardo, Jago Cooper, and Tom Cummins to find out more about how these concepts permeated the art of the Andes.

World News in brief: Viking colonies, a Bronze Age hillfort, and Byzantine medicine

A round-up of some of the latest archaeological news from across the globe.

John Dee’s mirror and the magic of geochemical analysis

The geochemical compositions of ‘the John Dee mirror’ were found to match obsidian from Pachuca

OPPOSITE Numerous societies rose at different times and places in the central Andes. Various traditions can be traced from one to another, with human style figures that took on animal attributes proving to be a popular theme. Here we see an example from 100 BC AD 650, showing a mythical being who adopted the traits of several animals and was associated with a group known as the Nasca.

Peru: a journey in time

The Incas dominate perceptions of Peru’s past, but their empire did not appear out of nowhere. Instead, it drew on traditions and concepts that developed across the central Andes for thousands of years, as Cecilia Pardo and Jago Cooper told Matthew Symonds.

Viking settlement in Canada dated to exactly 1,000 years ago

The latest research has used a newly developed approach to radiocarbon dating, which is capable of dating objects to an exact year.

The Past

This week: Peru

A number of imaginative solutions to the global-warming crisis were on offer this month, as world leaders gathered in Glasgow to discuss ways of tackling climate change – but one subject that was not up for discussion was human sacrifice. As a fascinating new exhibition on the history and culture of Peru makes clear, however, the Inca and other pre-Columbian civilisations of the central Andean region had no such qualms.

Top The footprints discovered in White Sands National Park paint a picture of early humans and animals co existing on the edge of an

On the tracks of the earliest Americans

Archaeologists working in New Mexico, USA, have discovered a set of human footprints that date to thousands of years before people were thought to have arrived in the region.

ABOVE LiDAR examination at the Maya site of Tikal revealed the existence of a previously unknown complex that mirrors the Ciudadela at Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan complex found in Maya city

Archaeologists exploring the Ciudadela at Tikal have discovered six phases of construction, mostly dating to the Early Classic period (c.AD 300-550).

Above The footprints found in White Sands National Park have been dated to 23,000 21,000 years ago, providing evidence that humans were present in the Americas by this time.

American advances

activists in Mexico City are claiming that the arrival of Columbus in America opened the door to European oppression and colonialism. Mexico City’s governor has confirmed that the place of Columbus will be taken by a replica of a pre-Columbian statue

The Past

South America Quiz

To which other land mass is South America believed to have been joined before the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea around 225 million years ago?

The Past

This week: Pearl Harbor

It was, according to a famous speech made by US President Franklin D Roosevelt the following day, 'a date which will live in infamy'. Shortly before 8am on Sunday 7 December 1941 – 80 years ago next month – 360 aircraft launched in two waves from carriers belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) made a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

RIGHT Recreated Norse buildings at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. Up to 100 Vikings may have been present here at any one time, the study suggests.

Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago, study confirms

Discovered in 1960 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is the first and only base established by the Vikings in North America.

LEFT The attack on Pearl Harbor. The lack of real footage of the raid has given multiple filmmakers a chance to offer their own interpretations of the event.

War on Film – Pearl Harbour

Taylor Downing surveys screen depictions of Pearl Harbor in a ‘War on Film’ special.

OPPOSITE British Redcoats drive off Rebel militia at Lexington in 1775. Few at the time would have put money on an American victory over the British Empire.

How the Americans defeated the British in the Revolutionary War

William V Wenger offers a forensic analysis of the American victory, apparently against the odds, in the war of 1775-1783.

Current World Archaeology 109

• Exploring sacred spaces on Rapa Nui
• Before Tokyo: piecing together the past of a megacity
• Roman colonial city at Libarna
• Prehistoric diets in the southern Levant
• Secrets of Classical trade in the Mediterranean

LEFT Iron tools including celts reworked from Spanish objects were found at Stark Farms.

Reworked battlefield finds in Mississippi

Military items – like a cannonball, lead shot, apparent pieces of a sword, and a ramrod tip, which were rarely traded – were found at the site complex of Stark Farms

John Dee’s ‘magic mirror’ has Aztec origins, study confirms

Dee used the polished mirror as a scryer to try to commune with spirits.

The Aztecs: Lost civilizations

Five hundred years ago, the spectacular city of Tenochtitlan, power centre of the Aztec empire, upon which modern Mexico City was later built, fell decisively to the Spanish. The conquistador Hernán Cortés had entered the city in 1519 without much…

Archaeology Lectures, Events, and Exhibitions – October 2021

Now that museums and heritage sites around the UK are reopening and in-person events are beginning to be held again, we wanted to highlight some of the ‘real life’ exhibitions, lectures, and activities coming up. However, if you’re still looking for ways to get your archaeology fix at home, Amy Brunskill also has a selection of online museums tours, resources, activities, and more to keep you busy.

Combining aDNA and radiocarbon dating

Humans only live for so long. Thus, if two individuals are identified as having had a close genetic relationship there can only be so many years between their dates of death

The Past

Footprints offer early evidence of human occupation in North America

These tracks could offer concrete evidence that humans reached North America before glacial advances closed the ice-free corridor and Pacific Coastal Route

The Past

This week: Rapa Nui

For centuries, the work of archaeologists has allowed us to piece together a picture of the past, and to understand our ancestors' place in the universe. Without it, we would not know what life was like in Pompeii, or how the Ancient Egyptians buried their dead, or what role the sun and stars played in the building of Machu Piccu.

New dates for Machu Picchu

Radiocarbon dating of burials from the Inca site of Machu Picchu has revealed that it was occupied several decades earlier than previously thought. The famous UNESCO World Heritage site in Peru is believed to have been built after the Emperor…

Hare paenga: the canoe-shaped houses and monumental archaeology of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

The archaeology of Rapa Nui is dominated by the Easter Island heads, but these were just one element of larger ceremonial complexes. Colin Richards explores some distinctive houses, which offer tantalising clues for understanding the celebrated statues.

The Past

Volcanic eruption influenced Maya construction

It is believed that the pyramid’s creation was connected to the TBJ eruption as volcanoes and mountains were sacred to the Maya. The structure may have served some kind of religious function, perhaps it was even intended to guard against future eruptions.