Jessica MacLellan

Apocalypse no: how almost everything we thought we knew about the Maya is wrong For many years the prevailing debate about the Maya centred upon why their civilisation collapsed. Now, many scholars are asking: how did the Maya survive?

www.theguardian.com/news/2026/fe... 🏺

Why whistles are becoming the symbol of the moment This hour, we look at how whistles are being used by organizers across the country, we discuss ancient whistles, and we talk about whistleblowers.

I was interviewed live (eek) on the Colin McEnroe Show about the archaeology of whistles and flutes: www.ctpublic.org/show/the-col... Available as a podcast, thanks to Connecticut Public Radio! 🏺

Easter Island and the Allure of “Lost Civilizations” Why Western writers have shrouded the history of Rapa Nui in myth and mystery.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... 🏺🗿

Oldest known cremation pyre in Africa reveals mysterious woman who lived 9,500 years ago | CNN The oldest known cremation pyre in Africa is shedding light on the complex funeral rites of ancient hunter-gatherers 9,500 years ago.

www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/s... 🏺💀

Aguada Fénix

stri.si.edu/story/aguada... Featuring Smithsonian zooarchaeologist Ashley Sharpe 🏺

www.cambridge.org/core/journal... A Classic Maya board game, made from pottery fragments 🏺♟️

Amorphous carbonized objects and their contribution to reconstructing ancient Mesoamerican cuisine: An innovative non-destructive methodological approach Archaeobotanists often come across small, amorphous carbonized objects (ACOs) in their flotation samples. Although their identification remains difficult and requires a range of characterization techn...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... Tamales & Teotihuacan! 🏺🫔🔬

Scientists may finally have an explanation for the centuries-old 5,200 mystery holes in the Peruvian Andes Drone footage and on-the-ground excavations high in the Andes are revealing what the Chincha Kingdom and Inca Empire may have used these holes for centuries ago.

www.livescience.com/archaeology/... 🏺

Massive 3,000-year-old Maya site in Mexico depicts the cosmos and the 'order of the universe,' study claims A roughly 3,000-year-old site in Mexico was built in the shape of a cosmogram that stretches for miles, a new study suggests.

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Archaeologists discover how oldest American civilisation survived a climate catastrophe Experts find artefacts left behind in Caral showing how population survived drought without resorting to violence

www.theguardian.com/science/2025... 🏺

News - Early Maya Monument Examined - Archaeology Magazine TUCSON, ARIZONA—According to a CNN report, excavations at Aguada Fénix, a plateau made of earth […]

archaeology.org/news/2025/11...

La construcción más grande de la región maya fue levantada sin trabajo esclavo para representar el universo El yacimiento de Aguada Fénix es un enorme comosgrama que debieron de construir centenares de personas durante décadas

elpais.com/ciencia/2025...

Some of that knowledge survives, thanks to the Indigenous people of Mexico and Central America.

U of A-led team discovers large ritual constructions by early Mesoamericans Archaeologists working in southeastern Mexico unearthed further signs that a monument first recorded in 2020 is one of the region's most significant ceremonial sites known today.

news.arizona.edu/news/u-led-t...

Oldest and biggest Maya temple was built to depict the cosmos | CNN Archaeologists say a vast and ancient Maya monument reflected how the lost civilization viewed the universe.

www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/s...

Landscape-wide cosmogram built by the early community of Aguada Fénix in southeastern Mesoamerica The cosmogram of Aguada Fénix built over the landscape between 1050 and 700 BCE rivaled the extents of later Mesoamerican cities.

The open-access article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

There’s a Monumental Cosmic Map Hidden beneath Mexico’s Oldest Maya Site Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a ritual-based site that may have been built long before the rise of Maya rulers

www.scientificamerican.com/article/arch... "Archaeologists Uncover a Monumental Ancient Maya Map of the Cosmos" -- exciting news from Aguada Fénix, Tabasco! 🏺

"LiDAR‐Based Storytelling About a Historical Industrial Landscape in Southern Middle Tennessee," by Klehm & Westmont, open-access in American Anthropologist: t.co/3rFWIUFMRN 🏺

It seems that the archaeologists did not remove the protective white-wash layer of stucco that the Maya added at the building's termination. They were able to determine the original colors through small tests. There's some more detailed info on that here, from Barbara Fash: mused.com/stories/960/...

Temple 26 and Excavation Tunnels, Copan | Copán Ruinas Since the 1930’s, archaeologists have tunneled into the acropolis at Copan to understand the many phases of construction throughout its history. With investigations now mostly complete, the tunnels ...

mused.com/guided/158/t... Explore monuments and excavations at the Classic Maya city of Copan, in 3D! 🏺

Early Maya Monumentalism The time period ∼1200–1000 BCE was pivotal in the Maya area, which witnessed the adoption of ceramics, changes in subsistence practices, a decrease in mobility, and the first monumental constructions....

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... Dani Triadan's review of early Maya monumentalism, featuring insights from Aguada Fénix and Ceibal 🏺

A MacArthur 'genius' gleans surprising lessons from ancient bones, shards and trash Kristina Douglass wanted to find out the truth about how past communities adapted to environmental change. Her revelatory work has earned her a MacArthur award.

www.npr.org/sections/goa... 🏺

After Vesuvius Buried Pompeii, Some Survivors Moved Back In

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/s... 🏺🌋

Wake Forest University is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology! Apply by November 15: apply.interfolio.com/174678

‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology to win US support for goals Scientists say Netanyahu government and its US backers are trying to construct a history shorn of all complexity

“The fact that the settlers and the evangelists and other rightwing Americans found each other a perfect match is not news. But this ceremony is just bad archaeology and another proof that the whole City of David archaeological park project has nothing to do with either archaeology or heritage.” 🏺

Content warning for (many) human remains ☠️ 🏺 "Earliest evidence of smoke-dried mummification: More than 10,000 years ago in southern China and Southeast Asia" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 🏺🛖🌊

AI challenge to find lost Amazonian civilizations draws critics Scientists, ethicists, and officials worry the OpenAI-sponsored contest sidesteps archaeological norms

www.science.org/content/arti... 🏺

News - Archaeologists Locate Significant Native American Campsite in North Carolina - Archaeology Magazine FLEETWOOD, NORTH CAROLINA—Appalachian State University announced that archaeologists were recently summoned to a university property […]

archaeology.org/news/2025/08... 🏺