In 2010, Tamara Estupiñan’s academic research led her to discover forgotten Inca ruins in the heart of Ecuador. For the historian, the Malqui-Machay site represents the final resting place of the last king of the Incas, Atahualpa, but it’s also the subject of a raging academic debate. By Jim Wyss.

ISIS destroyed an ancient shrine — and archeologists may have discovered a wonder of the ancient world underneath. By Noah Charney.

The true purpose of the world’s great prehistoric sites were to act as vast repositories for cultural knowledge, argues Australian oral history researcher Lynne Kelly. Jim Rountree reports.

Undisturbed for centuries, the ruins of a city in a barely accessible region of Honduras suggest an ancient apocalypse. By Douglas Preston.

Turkey’s Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük may have been an orderly society built on tolerance and equality — until it fell apart. By Jennifer Hattam.

Archaeology’s editors reveal the year’s most compelling finds.

The discovery in a remote part of Indonesia has scholars rethinking the origins of art—and of humanity. By Jo Marchant; Photographs by Justin Mott. (Jan., 2016)

Inland Maya communities knew an awful lot about sharks without ever visiting the sea.

The White Shaman mural has been silent for millennia — but thanks to the work of archaeologist Carolyn Boyd, it can begin to speak again. By Brad Tyer.

The unnerving truth that our past might be shrouded in a mystery we might never solve... By Robert Giametta.

Mysterious drawings, thousands of years old, offer a glimpse of lost Native American cultures and traditions. By John Jeremiah Sullivan. (March, 2011)

From petroglyphs to castles carved into hilltops, explore our night sky through our ancestors at these amazing archaeological sites. By Babak A. Tafreshi.

New research suggests that the Bronze Age disaster was caused by the flow of volcanic material into the sea. By Kacey Deamer. (Nov. 8, 2016)

Everywhere Western man longs for Constantinople and nowhere has he any idea how to find her. By Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna.

Archaeological evidence found in a rock shelter in the Flinders Ranges reveals Aboriginal Australians settled the arid interior much earlier than previously thought. By Dani Cooper.

Twenty-five years ago, Meier turned human history into a video game, and sold 33 million copies along the way. With the launch of Civilization VI, Kanishk Tharoor takes a closer look at its impact.

New dating on the stone buildings of Nan Madol suggests the ancient coral reef capital in the Pacific Ocean was the earliest among the islands to be ruled by a single chief. By Margaret Allen.

A new book examines foreign observations of American democracy. By Daniel J. Mahoney.

Jade-inlaid teeth and inscribed tibia unearthed in Holmul ruins of Guatemala hint at influence and power of Mayan dynasty known for snakehead emblem. By Alan Yuhas.

China and the West were in contact more than 1,500 years before European explorer Marco Polo arrived in China, new finds suggest..