Renato Rosaldo, an anthropologist who helped dismantle the conventions of his discipline, notably through accounts of the accidental death of his first wife during their fieldwork in the Philippines, a shattering episode that Dr. Rosaldo revisited in scholarly papers, autobiography and even poetry, died on May 26 at his home in Manhattan. He was 85….
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF SPIES: The Archaeologists Who Fought the Nazis and Saved the Treasures of Ancient Greece, by Stephan Talty On April 27, 1941, German troops marched into Athens. “The capital is falling into the hands of the conquerors,” a radio announcer declared. “Very shortly the Radio Station of Athens will no longer be…
For nearly a century, thousands of massive stone urns scattered across north-central Laos have stood as one of archaeology’s most baffling enigmas. Local folklore said ancient giants had carved the hollowed-out megaliths to brew celebratory rice wine. But scientists have long suspected a far more solemn purpose: interment of the dead. Now, a study published…
When a 125,000-year-old elephant skeleton, pierced by a wooden spear, was discovered in an ancient lake bed in Germany in 1948, it was assumed that the Neanderthals who inhabited Europe at that time were not sophisticated enough to hunt such massive megafauna. Skeptics argued that the spear found with the bones in the Lehringen lake…
