Archaeological Methods

Unearthing Humanity’s Oldest Pastime When archaeologists carefully brush away millennia of dust and debris, they sometimes uncover something unexpectedly human: a game board. Not a weapon, not a tool, not a religious idol — but a surface designed for play. These discoveries tell us something profound about our species. Even in the earliest complex societies, […]

In the spring of 1927, a joint British-American expedition led by Sir Leonard Woolley began excavating a series of royal tombs at the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, in what is now southern Iraq. Among the gold headdresses, lapis lazuli jewelry, and evidence of ritual human sacrifice, Woolley’s team uncovered something that would revolutionize our