Hush-hush Archaeology

That is the name of an absolutely fascinating story in the San Diego CityBeat. The story is about what happens when the Dept. of Homeland Security and the border fence collide with archaeology and a people’s desire to protect their past. It is an amazing read…

Yale, Skull and Bones, and the Federal Government Sued By Geronimo’s Family: Complications

I recently wrote about a lawsuit filed against Yale, Skull and Bones, and the Federal Government by descendents of Geronimo. The situation has become a little more complicated.

Congratulations to the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

The University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is engaging in a wonderful project to digitize its entire collection. Reuters has the story:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Taino: An Abuse of Power

The Voice of the Taino People Online has an interesting post up concerning the discovery of a five acre site near J&#225cana, Puerto Rico:

The Logical End Result of Repatriation Laws?

Nature has an interesting news item called Online anthropology draws protest from aboriginal group:

Who Owns The Past: Another Possible Solution, Saving Iraq’s Cuneiform Tablets

Recently I wrote a review on Cuno’s new book Who Owns Antiquity. In that review I expressed my disappointment at the few solutions Cuno proposed. The next day, I returned to the subject with a post discussing the Virtual Vault at the Arizona State Museum. In this post I would like to point you to [...]

Field Museum Repatriating Maori Remains

Science Daily has an interesting article up about the Field Museum repatriating, with the assistance of Native Americans, Maori remains back to New Zealand.

Lessons From Kennewick: Fitting it all Together

In the first post in this series I mentioned that the Kennewick skeleton had become available for scientific study. In the second post I discussed different techniques anthropologists use to study skeletal material. In the third I showed how these techniques are used in practice and tried to show how one skeleton can improve our [...]

Kennewick Update

My fourth post on Kennewick is about 1/3 finished. I’m hoping to have it completely finished tomorrow (sorry for the delay, I’ve been fighting off a cold for the last couple of days and it’s making writing – and thinking – difficult).

Lessons from Kennewick: The Value of One Skeleton

Before going any further I would recommend that you read the first and second posts in this series. So, having learned some basic things like how to determine gender, ethnicity, age and stature you might think that nothing more can be learned. You might also think that nothing could be learned from a single skeleton. [...]

Lessons from Kennewick

As I mentioned several days ago, the Kennewick skeletal material as become available for research purposes. During the course of the last 10-15 years physical anthropology has developed some powerful research methodologies to learn about how people lived in the past. In that I studied under (for a few years) one of the protangonists to [...]

Kennewick Man

Study will, finally begin on the Kennewick skeletal material.Preliminary examination will focus on taphonomic issues: The researchers plan to do what is called a “taphonomic” examination of the skeleton, taking measurements and making observations about the processes that affect animal and plant remains as they become fossilized. Further study is planned based on the initial [...]