Becoming America: How science shaped a nation
What role did science play in the emergence of the United States of America? Matthew Symonds spoke to Elissavet Ntoulia about scientific knowledge and its practical applications as a nation was born.
indigenous history
Old Fort Erie
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Christopher Warner.
Machu Picchu may have been known by another name, study suggests
The Inca may have called the city Picchu, or more likely Huayna Picchu.
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.
This week: Hawaii and Polynesia
It is a matter of debate as to whether Captain James Cook was really the first European adventurer to set eyes on the Hawaiian archipelago. According to some historians, the 1778 arrival of the British seafarer's ship, HMS Resolution, in the waters of the North Pacific island chain may have been preceded by a visit from the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos in 1542 – more than 200 years earlier. What is more clear-cut is the effect Cook's arrival would have on the islands' original inhabitants, who had themselves crossed the Pacific to reach these shores many centuries before. With colonisation rapidly taking hold, large numbers of immigrants from Europe and America introduced new diseases to which the locals had no resistance. This lead to a calamitous fall in the native Hawaiian population, from approximately 300,000 in the 1770s to fewer than 40,000 in the 1890s, barely a century later.
Destroyed 19th-century Alaskan fort identified
The team behind a large geophysical survey in Sitka, south-east Alaska, believe they have identified the location of a 19th-century Tlingit fort, destroyed during a battle against Russian colonising forces in 1804.