Archaeology News Online

A majority of the oldest artefacts in the permanent collection of the Mexican Museum in San Francisco are either forgeries or not up to national museum standards, a new report has determined. A tripod bowl from Costa Rica, 900 C.E.-1200 C.E., is an example of a museum quality artefact pictured at  The Mexican Museum [Credit: Leah Millis, The Chronicle] Only 83 of the 2,000 artefacts in the museum's pre-Hispanic, or pre-Columbian, era collection could be authenticated, the report said. The other 1,917 are considered decorative and will probably be donated to schools or smaller museums. The museum board told the San Francisco Chronicle it was shocked by the results of the $80,000 study conducted as a Smithsonian Institution requirement. The Mexican Museum was founded in 1975 and operated as a community museum until it was accepted as a Smithsonian affiliate in 2012, which raised the bar on the quality of artefacts that can be displayed. A turtle vessel from southern Mexico, A.D. 350...

Metin Eren wasn't satisfied just digging up ancient arrowheads to learn about the past. He wanted to use them for their intended purpose. In this June 1, 2017, photo, Metin Eren, an archaeologist at Kent State University, looks at a newly chipped flake of  obsidian in Kent, Ohio. Eren runs a newly-opened laboratory which makes replicas of ancient arrows, knives,  and pottery to be shot, crushed, and smashed. It's allowing researchers to learn about engineering techniques  of the first native Americans without destroying priceless genuine relics in the process  [Credit: AP/Dake Kang] But shooting and shattering priceless millennia-old tips is out of the question, so instead, the archaeologist chips replicas of the stone-age weapons by hand. "We can break 'em and throw 'em," he says. "Our imagination is the limit." The 34-year-old Kent State University professor specializes in experimental archaeology — re-creating ancient pots, knives and arrows. By t...

Many attempts to explain how past people experienced their wider world have focused on sight at the expense of sound, but researchers from the University at Albany and the University at Buffalo have developed a tool that puts sound back into the ancient landscape. UB's David Witt used GIS technology to explore the possible relationships between features of Chaco Canyon's built  environment and the canyon to learn whether sound played a role in where certain sites were located [Credit: University at Buffalo] UAlbany's Kristy Primeau and UB's David Witt use GIS technology to advance a largely theoretical discussion into a modeled sensory experience to explore how people may have heard their surroundings throughout an entire archaeological landscape, or soundscape. The results, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports , have more fully animated the ancient world and opened a discussion about how people at various locations, at sites ranging from sacred t...

A majority of the oldest artefacts in the permanent collection of the Mexican Museum in San Francisco are either forgeries or not up to national museum standards, a new report has determined. A tripod bowl from Costa Rica, 900 C.E.-1200 C.E., is an example of a museum quality artefact pictured at  The Mexican Museum [Credit: Leah Millis, The Chronicle] Only 83 of the 2,000 artefacts in the museum's pre-Hispanic, or pre-Columbian, era collection could be authenticated, the report said. The other 1,917 are considered decorative and will probably be donated to schools or smaller museums. The museum board told the San Francisco Chronicle it was shocked by the results of the $80,000 study conducted as a Smithsonian Institution requirement. The Mexican Museum was founded in 1975 and operated as a community museum until it was accepted as a Smithsonian affiliate in 2012, which raised the bar on the quality of artefacts that can be displayed. A turtle vessel from southern Mexico, A.D. 350...

Metin Eren wasn't satisfied just digging up ancient arrowheads to learn about the past. He wanted to use them for their intended purpose. In this June 1, 2017, photo, Metin Eren, an archaeologist at Kent State University, looks at a newly chipped flake of  obsidian in Kent, Ohio. Eren runs a newly-opened laboratory which makes replicas of ancient arrows, knives,  and pottery to be shot, crushed, and smashed. It's allowing researchers to learn about engineering techniques  of the first native Americans without destroying priceless genuine relics in the process  [Credit: AP/Dake Kang] But shooting and shattering priceless millennia-old tips is out of the question, so instead, the archaeologist chips replicas of the stone-age weapons by hand. "We can break 'em and throw 'em," he says. "Our imagination is the limit." The 34-year-old Kent State University professor specializes in experimental archaeology — re-creating ancient pots, knives and arrows. By t...