First: Complex Societies. Then: Moralizing Gods.
New research published in Nature Letters in March shows that complex societies nearly always precede the worship of moralizing gods.
Archaeology
Social Identity and Boundaries Probable Reasons for Cranial Modification in Eastern Europe
Recent work by archaeologists in Eastern Europe, including Georgia and Germany, suggests that the practice of cranial modification, introduced to the region by the Huns before the Migration Period was a means to convey social identity in borderland regions.
Recent Advances in Archaeological Sciences-March 2019
Strontium ratios may need to be reassessed in some reference maps and DNA from historic artifacts show ancestry
Birka Warrior Confirmed Viking Female
A current paper in Antiquity reinforces and confirms that the Birka warrior grave identified in 2017 as a female Viking is, in fact, female.
European and Mediterranean megaliths may have a common origin
Bayesian statistical analysis of 2,410 radiocarbon dates shows some interesting patterns concerning the spread of megalithic architecture.
Technology once thought adopted by Egyptians may have been innovated by them instead
Russian archaeologist, Alexander Belov, has concluded that Ancient Egyptians may have actually invented certain sailing technologies on their own rather than adopting them from other Mediterranean countries as previously thought.
Climate change may have played a significant role in the collapse of the Akkadian Empire
New research reveals a striking correlation between climate change and large-scale settlement abandonment in North Mesopotamia.
The Best and the Worst Archaeology News of 2018
Below is a list of the dozen most popular news stories related to archaeology that were posted on the Archaeology Review Facebook page in 2018. […]
Antikythera mechanism X-ray scans from 2005 get a bit of refinement
Found in 1902 by archaeologist Valerios Stais, the Antikythera mechanism is an analog computer fashioned by early Greek scientists probably around 87 BCE but perhaps as […]
Conflicting reports on bones from Madagascar. Does one debunk the other?
Back in September, a paper published in the journal Science Advances concluded that humans might have settled, or at least visited, Madagascar about 6,000 years […]