ScienceInsider: Anthropology Archives

April 13, 2013 9:00 AM |

Survey Finds Sexual Harassment in Anthropology

by John Bohannon

Significant risk for women doing fieldwork

May 9, 2012 4:20 PM |

Ancient Bones Won't Be Reburied Until California Lawsuit Settled

by Ann Gibbons

Deal extends court order

May 1, 2012 4:12 PM |

Ancient American Skeletons Safe From Reburial, But Only for the Moment

by Ann Gibbons

Judge temporarily halts university from giving 9000-year-old human bones to Native Americans

April 13, 2012 12:33 PM |

Anthropological Casting Call

by Ann Gibbons

In unusual show-and-tell, anthropologists share rare finds

October 21, 2011 11:40 AM |

Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance Under Fire—For Intolerance

by Andrew Lawler

In a 20 October letter, leading archaeologists speak out against plans to break ground on a museum that they say will disturb an ancient Muslim cemetery in the heart...

September 29, 2011 11:08 AM |

Germany Returns Colonial-Era Skulls to Namibia

by Gretchen Vogel

BERLIN—The skulls of 20 Namibians killed in brutal wars with German colonists a century ago will be returned to Namibian government officials here on Friday. The skulls have been part...

September 26, 2011 2:18 PM |

After Long Hiatus, Iraq Museum to Open Its Doors

by Andrew Lawler

Following a looting spree during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the famous Iraq Museum was shuttered and sealed. But Iraqi and U.S. officials say the Baghdad repository...

September 1, 2011 5:12 PM |

Claims of Mass Libyan Looting Rejected by Archaeologists

by Andrew Lawler

Archaeologists in contact with colleagues in Libya say that their nation's antiquities appear safe despite the chaos in the country. That news is contrary to reports earlier this week,...

July 18, 2011 3:29 PM |

Eqypt's Antiquities Boss Is Sacked

by Andrew Lawler

After nearly a decade as chief of Egypt's antiquities, Zahi Hawass is now out of a job. The 64-year-old archaeologist was fired yesterday by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf as...

July 1, 2011 5:19 PM |

U.S. National Parks' Cultural and Natural Resources Threatened

by Virginia Morell

Unchecked development, thousands of invasive species, climate change, and reduced budgets and staff all threaten America's national parks, says a decade-long study released earlier this week by the National...

June 24, 2011 2:51 PM |

Firing of Utah Archaeologists Alarms Community

by Keith Kloor

The Utah archaeological community is in an uproar over the abrupt firing earlier this week of Kevin Jones, Utah's state archaeologist, and two of his colleagues. State officials have...

May 4, 2011 5:06 PM |

10 Billion Plus: Why World Population Projections Were Too Low

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The United Nations yesterday revealed unsettling news about the world's population: Instead of leveling off at around 9 billion by 2050, the population will now reach 10.1 billion people...

April 29, 2011 2:30 PM |

Worries Mount Over Smithsonian Shipwreck Exhibit

by Heather Pringle

Smithsonian Institution officials are still debating whether to proceed with a controversial exhibit of shipwrecked artifacts as critics level a new charge that legal matters dogging the corporate owner...

April 29, 2011 2:08 PM |

Anti-Royal Anthropologists Arrested for Planned Protest

by Michael Balter

Yesterday evening, while Prince William and Kate Middleton (now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) were making last minute preparations for their royal wedding, two well-known anthropologists were arrested...

March 28, 2011 10:55 AM |

Ambitious Survey Offers Window Into Chinese Society

by Mara Hvistendahl

Results just in from a pathbreaking survey reveal a wealth of information about everything from economic behavior to happiness in China. Last April, interviewers with the 2010 Chinese Family...

March 16, 2011 3:51 PM |

Group Launches Early-Warning System for Threats to Global Heritage Sites

by Rebecca Kessler

The city of Nineveh in Iraq was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world, but in the past 5 years urban sprawl has gobbled the...

March 10, 2011 3:56 PM |

British Museum Returns Human Remains to Aborigines

by Ann Gibbons

The Natural History Museum (NHM) in London announced today that it will return a significant collection of decorated heads, a mummy, and other 19th century human remains to their...

March 4, 2011 1:14 PM |

Egypt's Hawass Dismayed by Continued Looting, May Quit

by Andrew Lawler

Today, Zahi Hawass threatened to resign from his post as Egypt's minister of antiquities amid growing reports of looting at the country's myriad ancient sites. Some archaeologists fear his departure...

February 22, 2011 12:02 PM |

Egypt's Hawass Fires Back at Critics

by Andrew Lawler

Egypt's ancient monuments reopened to tourists Sunday as the country's beleaguered antiquities minister forcefully defended his stewardship of its treasures. "Under my direction, the SCA [Supreme Council of Antiquities]...

February 18, 2011 2:18 PM |

The News About Egypt's Antiquities Is Good—and Bad

by Andrew Lawler

After weeks of denials, Egypt's top archaeologist admitted yesterday that several ancient tombs and "many" storerooms were damaged or looted during the recent chaos that swept Hosni Mubarak out...

February 14, 2011 2:51 PM |

Yale Agrees to Return Machu Picchu Artifacts to Peru

by Antonio Regalado

Ending a bitter dispute over the repatriation of archeological artifacts, Yale University will return to Peru thousands of items excavated from Machu Picchu by 20th Century explorer Hiram Bingham,...

February 12, 2011 5:44 PM |

After the Revolution, Who Will Control Egypt's Monuments?

by Andrew Lawler

As Egypt struggles to lay the foundations of a new government in the wake of its revolution, archaeologists around the world are closely watching the fate of the nation's...

November 10, 2010 4:32 PM |

Controversy Rages Over Scientific Expedition to Paraguay

by Jennifer Carpenter

A 100-person-strong scientific expedition, set to head off in the next few days for remote regions of northern Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina, is causing an uproar among some anthropologists...

September 3, 2010 11:39 AM |

Hodder Cleans House at Famed Çatalhöyük Dig

by Michael Balter

Researchers finishing the dig season at Turkey’s Çatalhöyük—a 9500-year-old site famed for its art and symbolism at the dawn of agriculture—got a big shock last week. Stanford University archaeologist...

July 22, 2010 2:10 PM |

New Molecule Turns Italian Artifacts—And International Scientists—Blue

by Ann Gibbons

Scientists have found a new organic molecule that may be the mysterious culprit that is turning some ancient stone tools blue and casting a blue sheen over other irreplaceable...

May 21, 2010 12:44 PM |

Official Responds to Scientists' Concerns on Human Remains

by Elizabeth Culotta

Archaeologists and anthropologists are concerned that a new rule implementing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, covering human remains and cultural objects that can't be culturally affiliated...

May 20, 2010 5:02 PM |

Researchers Fear 'Incalculable' Loss From Reburial Rule

by Elizabeth Culotta

Leading lights of anthropology have submitted a plea to the Department of the Interior to change a rule concerning how museums and universities are to dispose of "culturally unaffiliated...

March 4, 2010 5:18 PM |

Researchers Seek Funding to Study How Climate Change Influenced Human Evolution

by Ann Gibbons

Researchers have often proposed that dramatic changes in ancient climates triggered major events in human evolution, such as the emergence of a new species or migrations of our ancestors...

January 12, 2010 2:49 PM |

More Legal Wrangling in Incan Treasures Fight

by Constance Holden

Haggling between Yale University and Peru over Inca artifacts held by the university continues to drag on. In 2005, the Peruvian government threatened to sue Yale for the return...

December 11, 2009 12:32 PM |

Amazing Sky Spiral Generated by Out-of-Control Missile

by Sam Kean

Pictures of it look like something out of a sci-fi comic book—enormous white ripples with a lasery blue beam shooting out of the center. However, the Daily Mail in the...

December 7, 2009 5:14 PM |

Grad Student Charged With Murdering Cultural Anthropologist

by Constance Holden

Another bloody campus murder occurred last Friday. This time it was at Binghamton University in New York state, where anthropologist Richard T. Antoun, who specialized in Muslim cultures, allegedly...

December 3, 2009 3:54 PM |

Anthropologists Slam Using Social Scientists in Mideast Wars

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Since 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has deployed teams of anthropologists and other social scientists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to make better military decisions...

November 20, 2009 3:11 PM |

Map of 7000 Holy Land Archaeological Sites Recognized

by John Bohannon

Israelis and Palestinians—after 2 years of intense negotiation and investigation—have mapped some 7000 archaeological sites in the Holy Land, many of them hotly contested. Some of the information had been kept secret by...