An ancient mass grave, uncovered during the construction of a shopping mall outside San Francisco, contains the bodies of seven men who appear to have been victims of “mass homicide”…
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Violence in the Ancient Southwest Offers Insights Into Peace, Study Says
Despite some recent sensational claims that the prehistoric Southwest was the site of the worst violence in American history, the archaeologist often cited for that assertion says that, in fact,…
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From Stone Darts to Dismembered Bodies, New Study Reveals 5,000 Years of Violence in Central California
From shooting their enemies with darts and arrows to crushing their skulls and even harvesting body parts as trophies, the ancient foragers of central California engaged in sporadic, and sometimes…
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Chaco’s Elites Were Natives of Chaco Canyon, Not Migrants, Their Remains Show
The elites of Chaco Canyon were born and raised there, and weren’t migrants from distant regions, as many thought, new research finds.
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New Evidence Reveals Violent Final Days at Arizona’s Montezuma Castle
The final days at one of Arizona’s most famous ancient landmarks were fraught with violence and death, new research shows.
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900-Year-Old Village Recorded in Volcanic Badlands of New Mexico
A 900-year-old village hidden in New Mexico’s black-rock badlands reveals its unique ties to Chaco Canyon.
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Severed Heads, Skull Bowls Found in California Graves Were Tributes, Not War Trophies, Study Finds
A 3,000 year-old village discovered in central California has been found to contain an unusual set of burials — with more than a half dozen individuals buried without their heads,…
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Victims of Human Sacrifice at Cahokia Were Locals, Not ‘Foreign’ Captives, Study Finds
The practice of human sacrifice in America’s largest prehistoric city was more subtle and complex than experts once thought, new research suggests. Recent studies into the remains of sacrificial victims…
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Hundreds of Dice, Game Pieces Found in Utah Cave Shed Light on Prehistoric Gambling
A cave on the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake is giving archaeologists a rare glimpse into a seldom-studied aspect of life in the ancient West — prehistoric gambling. Researchers…
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Site of Deadliest Native American Massacre Identified in Idaho
A peaceful patch of farmland in southeastern Idaho likely holds a grisly, bitter history — but the full story remains hidden, at least for now. Archaeologists surveying acreage along the Bear…
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Western Digs’ Top 5 Archaeology Stories of 2014
They were made at sites ranging from Hawaii to Colorado. They date back to the dawn of agriculture in the Southwest and to the end of the last ice age…
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Allosaurus Died From Stegosaur Spike to the Crotch, Wyoming Fossil Shows
Analysis of an Allosaurus fossil from southern Wyoming shows that the giant meat-eater died from a painful wound that appears to be unique in the fossil record: a deep stab…
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Tooth Found in Fossil Leg Bone Is ‘First Evidence’ of Clash Between Ancient Apex Predators
A tooth found embedded in a fossil leg bone is evidence of an unlikely battle between two top predators in the American Southwest some 220 million years ago — one…
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Evidence of Hobbling, Torture Discovered at Ancient Massacre Site in Colorado
The site of a gruesome massacre some 1,200 years ago in southwestern Colorado is yielding new evidence of the severity, and the grisly intensity, of the violence that took place there….
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Southwestern-Style Spear Throwers Identified in the Ozarks
New analysis of two spear-throwers excavated nearly a century ago in the Ozark Mountains reveals what one archaeologist calls an “uncanny” similarity to those used in the ancient Southwest and…
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Western Digs’ Top 5 Archaeology Stories of 2013
The topics range from butchered human remains to video games. The stories they tell come from as long ago as 10,500 years, and as recently as the 1980s. Of the…
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