archaeology
5 articles
Cahokia: North America's Largest Pre-Columbian City and Its Mysterious Abandonment
Cahokia reached 20,000 residents between 1050 and 1350 CE. Monk's Mound has a larger base than the Great Pyramid of Giza. Learn about this Mississippian metropolis and why it vanished.
Easter Island Collapse: Ecocide Myth vs. the European Contact Evidence
Jared Diamond's ecocide narrative blames Rapa Nui's collapse on deforestation. Hunt and Lipo's 2011 research points to European contact and rats instead. Here is what the evidence shows.
Göbekli Tepe: The 11,600-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote Prehistory
Göbekli Tepe's megalithic temples predate agriculture by 1,000 years, overturning the assumption that complex society required farming. Discover Klaus Schmidt's excavation and its implications.
Lascaux Cave Art: 17,000 Years of Paleolithic Painting and Why the Cave Closed
Lascaux's 600 paintings and 1,500 engravings use ochre, hematite, and manganese pigments. Discover the perspective illusions, the 1963 closure due to mold, and the Lascaux IV replica opened in 2016.
Ötzi the Iceman: What 5,300 Years of Preservation Revealed
Ötzi, a 5,300-year-old Copper Age mummy found in the Alps in 1991, carries evidence of Lyme disease, lactose intolerance, arrow murder, and a sophisticated toolkit. Here is what science found.