Researchers reveal how prehistoric Native Americans of Cahokia made copper artifacts
EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern University researchers ditched many of their high-tech tools and turned to large stones, fire and some
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Native American Archaeology News
The latest updates and discoveries in Native American archaeology including Hopewell, Mississippian, and more.
Ancient Seeds Sow Debate Over Sunflower-Farming Origins
Sunflowers were grown as a domesticated crop in Mexico more than 2,000 years ago, according to a new study. The new findings run counter to a theory that sunflower farming began in what is now the U.S. East and then trickled south into Mexico.
Read moreNew Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: A Place of Kings and Palaces?
Kings living in palaces may have ruled New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon a thousand years ago, causing Pueblo people to reject the brawny, top-down politics in the centuries that followed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder archaeologist.
Read moreAncient Rock Art Depicts Exploding Star
A rock carving discovered in Arizona might depict an ancient star explosion
seen by Native Americans a thousand years ago, scientists announced today.
If confirmed, the rock carving, or “petroglyph” would be the only known
record in the Americas of the well-known supernova of the year 1006.
Heavens offer unique clues to the seasons
Before the advent of calendars, the only way to mark the changing of the seasons was through direct observation. Ancient peoples observed the passage of the sun north from the Winter Solstice, and then south from the Summer Solstice. In Mesoamerica the people observed the sun passing directly overhead twice a year by using special tubes in the temples that pointed at the zenith.
Kennewick Man Skeletal Find May Revolutionalize Continent’s History
Dr. Hugh Berryman, research professor, was one of only 11 experts
from across the United States to scrutinize the bones of Kennewick
Man, a 9,300-year-old skeleton found 10 years ago along the Columbia
River at Kennewick, Wash.
Ancient Earthworks Electronically Rebuilt, To Become A Traveling Exhibit
Native American cultures that once flourished in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia constructed geometric and animal-shaped earth works that often rivaled Stonehenge in their astronomical accuracy. This lost heritage from the Adena, Hopewell and Fort Ancient cultures is returning in the form of a traveling exhibit that will include virtual reconstructions of earthworks from 39 sites.
Read moreArcheologists to search for lost mission
Amateur archeologists will get a chance to search this summer for the lost mission of Santa Isabel de Utinahica, built in the wilderness in the 1600s for a lone friar who was dispatched to evangelize among the Indians on the edge of Spain’s colonial empire.
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New Artifacts Suggest Mexican connection to Ohio’s Hopewell Culture
Jaguars and panthers aren’t from Indiana but they show up at the Mann Hopewell Site as beautifully detailed carvings. Put them together with clay figurines that have slanted eyes — not a Hopewell feature — and Linderman says we could be looking at a connection between Indiana and Central or South America.
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Work Continues on Watson Brake Site
Watson Brake, an area of mounds south of Monroe, was discovered by local archaeologist Reca Jones more than 30 years ago. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to have the area declared a state park to preserve its treasures.
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More early dwellings at Ocmulgee monument site, archaeologist finds
An ancient civilization of mound builders who lived near the Ocmulgee River just northeast of what is now downtown Macon may have been home to more native people than originally thought. Though the research, much of it done with a ground-scanning instrument to roughly map underground shapes and forms, is still under way, early analysis seems to indicate more unearthed dwellings at the site than were previously known to have existed.
Read moreAncient Massacre Discovered in New Mexico — Was It Genocide?
Seven skeletons discovered in a remote New Mexico canyon were victims of a brutal massacre that may have been part of an ancient campaign of genocide, archaeologists say. The victims—five adults, one child, and one infant—were members of an obscure native culture known as the Gallina, which occupied a small region of northwestern New Mexico around A.D. 1100
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