Archaeology 2021-01 amp 3B02 UserUpload Net

72 Pages·2021·23.41 MB·English

July/August 2009
archaeology.org
A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America
January/February 2021

THE DECADE’S 10 MOST EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERIES

PLUS:
Peruvian Cult Cat
Extinct Woolly Dogs
Viking God House
Ancient Greek Editors

Tracking
the Great
Arab
Revolt

Lost Oasis
Cities of the
Bronze Age

Germany’s
Stonehenge

TOP 10
DISCOVERIES
OF 2020

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24 ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE’S

TOP 10 DISCOVERIES

OF 2020*
*AND THE DECADE

BY THE EDITORS

36 RETURN TO THE RIVER
Members of Virginia’s Rappahannock tribe are at
work with archaeologists to document the
landscape they call home

BY MARLEY BROWN

40 AN OASIS CIVILIZATION
REDISCOVERED
In the deserts of Central Asia lie the ruined cities
of a lost Bronze Age world

BY MEGAN GANNON

48 UNFOLDING THE

BAYEUX TAPESTRY
A new theory may explain the origins of the
famed medieval textile

BY JASON URBANUS

50 BEHIND THE LINES OF

THE GREAT ARAB REVOLT
Along an abandoned railroad, traces of a
bitter WWI-era guerilla conflict have emerged
from the sands

BY SAMIR S. PATEL

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 • VOLUME 74, NUMBER 1

FEATURES

12 Feline geoglyph, Nazca Desert, Peru

CONTENTS

Cover: A painted wooden sarcophagus, dating to
Egypt’s 26th Dynasty (688–525 B.C.), unearthed at the
Saqqara necropolis
PHOTO: COURTESY EGYPTIAN MINISTRY OF TOURISM & ANTIQUITIES

archaeology.org
1

4 EDITOR’S LETTER

6 FROM THE PRESIDENT

8 LETTERS
Picturing the past, the skill of Nubian artists, a veg-
etable garden still, and a possible case of subversion

9 DIGS & DISCOVERIES
Siberian mummy mask, Maya sweat bathing,
ancient Greek editors, Persian metallurgy, and a
new Nazca cat

20 OFF THE GRID
Ouro Preto, Brazil

22 AROUND THE WORLD
Peopling the Caribbean, Scythian warrior couple, dogs
of the First Nations, and a stonemason’s inside joke

68 ARTIFACT
Praying inside the box

59 STONEHENGE’S
CONTINENTAL COUSIN
A 4,000-year-old ringed sanctuary reveals a
German village’s surprising connections with Britain

BY ANDREW CURRY

DEPARTMENTS
LETTER FROM WOODHENGE

■ MORE FROM THE ISSUE For additional
information about some of our Top 10 Discoveries of the
Decade, see archaeology.org/decade.

■ ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS Get daily headlines from
around the world and sign up for our e-Update.

■ FOLLOW US

■ INTERACTIVE DIGS Track ongoing work at
interactivedigs.com.

ARCHAEOLOGY.ORG

20

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ARCHAEOLOGY • January/February 2021
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W

e know we aren’t supposed to pick favorites, whether among children, pets, or
articles in the magazine, but we have to admit that it would be hard for a team of
editors not to love “Formatting Bronze Age Tablets,” which appears in this issue’s
Digs & Discoveries section. The image of ancient Greek scribes toiling away at their tablets
more than 3,000 years ago and devising ways to make their work clear and comprehensible
definitely struck a chord with us. Thankfully, we don’t have to edit lists
of bushels of grain or flocks of sheep like those scribes did, and
instead can bring you our annual Top 10 Discoveries. There were so
many wonderful finds from which to choose, including nearly five
dozen mummies in their painted sarcophagi from the Egyptian
necropolis of Saqqara. You’ll also read about the surprising results
of the largest-ever study of Viking DNA and a possible long-lost
shrine dedicated to Rome’s eponymous founder, Romulus. The
news that archaeologists have developed a revolutionary method
to pinpoint the dates of pottery found at ancient sites is yet another
reminder that 2020 was a remarkable year of discovery.
We also have something completely new to share with you in this issue. For the first
time, we bring you our selection of the Top 10 Discoveries of the Decade. Some of you will
remember these stories from previous issues, and we hope you will find some familiar friends
among them. For this issue, we have gone back to the researchers and asked them what they
have learned since they first made their discovery, and what they feel its long-term impact
on the field has been. We know you will find these updates fascinating—we certainly do!
This has been a most difficult year, and I want to extend my thanks to so many of you
who have taken the time to write to us and share that ARCHAEOLOGY magazine has been
a valued companion during the months you have been confined to your homes more than
usual. It’s our hope that we have provided you with an escape to a larger world that has been
temporarily closed to us all. We wish you a very happy and healthy 2021 as we go on toward
the future—always remembering our past.

ARCHAEOLOGY • January/February 2021
4

EDITOR’S LETTER

Editor in Chief
Jarrett A. Lobell

Deputy Editor Executive Editor

Eric A. Powell Daniel Weiss

Senior Editor Associate Editor

Benjamin Leonard Marley Brown

Editorial Assistant
Malin Grunberg Banyasz

Creative Director
Richard Bleiweiss

Maps
Ken Feisel

Contributing Editors
Roger Atwood, Paul Bahn,

Bob Brier, Karen Coates,

Andrew Curry, Blake Edgar,

Brian Fagan, David Freidel,

Tom Gidwitz, Andrew Lawler,

Stephen H. Lekson,

Jerald T. Milanich, Samir S. Patel,

Heather Pringle, Kate Ravilious,

Neil Asher Silberman, Julian Smith,

Nikhil Swaminathan,

Jason Urbanus, Claudia Valentino,

Zach Zorich

Publisher
Kevin Quinlan

Director of Circulation and Fulfillment
Kevin Mullen

Director of Integrated Sales
Gerry Moss

Account Manager
Karina Casines

Newsstand Consultant
T.J. Montilli
NPS Media Group

Office Manager
Malin Grunberg Banyasz

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