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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future
Children of the Ice Age | Aeon
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Archaeology

Children of the Ice Age

With the help of new archaeological approaches, our picture of young lives in the Palaeolithic is now marvellously vivid

April Nowell

What the tablets say | Aeon
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Archaeology

What the tablets say

Some 3,700 years ago, an enslaved girl, a barber, and a king crossed paths in a city by the Euphrates. This is their story

Amanda H Podany

The other Cleopatra | Aeon
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The ancient world

The other Cleopatra

Daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, she became the influential queen of a mysterious, abundant North African kingdom

Jane Draycott

London mudlark | Aeon
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Archaeology

From Roman pots to glass eyes, the shore of the river Thames teems with surprises

8 minutes

Finding the First Americans | Aeon
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Archaeology

Finding the First Americans

Archaeology and genetics can’t yet agree on when humans first arrived in the Americas. That’s good science and here’s why

Jennifer Raff

The pharaoh’s trumpet | Aeon
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Archaeology

The pharaoh’s trumpet

The truly wondrous treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb are not made of gold. They are the mundane things of everyday life

Toby Wilkinson

Mutual entrapment | Aeon
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Deep time

Mutual entrapment

As Neolithic people transformed prehistoric forests, they stumbled into an ecological trap. Domestication goes both ways

Mette Løvschal

The modern invention of white antique marble | Aeon
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Archaeology

Ancient Greek sculptures were colourful. Why does the white marble ideal persist?

6 minutes

Out of the forest | Aeon
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Human evolution

Out of the forest

We have thought of humans for a century or more as creatures of the savannah, shaped in every way by grassland life. Not so

Patrick Roberts

Cracking the Cretan code | Aeon
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The ancient world

Cracking the Cretan code

Linear B has yielded its secrets, but Linear A remains elusive. Can linguistic analysis unlock the meaning of Minoan script?

Ester Salgarella

Energised crowding | Aeon
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Cities

Energised crowding

To understand why early cities thrived, look not to the temples of kings but to their subjects’ bustling neighbourhoods

Michael E Smith

The AI historian | Aeon
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Computing and artificial intelligence

How machine learning can help historians decode ancient inscriptions

7 minutes

Museum, 1972 | Aeon
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Art

From archaeology digs to display cabinets: how museums bring exhibits to life

37 minutes

Nefertiti’s bust | Aeon
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Archaeology

Nefertiti’s bust

How did this ancient and enigmatic sculpture of a beautiful Egyptian queen end up as fortune’s hostage in Germany?

Joyce Tyldesley

The invention of trousers | Aeon
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History of technology

Unravelling the surprisingly epic story of the world’s oldest pair of trousers

45 minutes

Unearthing David’s city | Aeon
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Archaeology

Unearthing David’s city

Archaeologist Eilat Mazar dug with a spade in one hand and a Bible in the other. Should her theories be taken seriously?

Andrew Lawler

When Vikings lived in North America | Aeon
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Archaeology

A Viking axe struck a Newfoundland tree in the year 1021. Here’s how scientists proved it

7 minutes

Poseidon’s wrath | Aeon
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Archaeology

Poseidon’s wrath

Vanished beneath the waves in 373 BCE, Helike is a byword for thinking about disaster, for ancients and moderns alike

Guy D Middleton

The Lion Man | Aeon
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video

Anthropology

Although his story is a mystery, the Lion Man forever binds us to our prehistoric past

2 minutes

The clothing revolution | Aeon
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Archaeology

The clothing revolution

What if the need for fabric, not food, in the face of a changing climate is what first tipped humanity towards agriculture?

Ian Gilligan

The artefact artist | Aeon
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Archaeology

New York’s 300-year-old trash becomes treasure in the hands of an urban archaeologist

23 minutes

The Sutton Hoo helmet | Aeon
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video

Archaeology

The meanings and mysteries of the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet brought vividly to life

19 minutes

Beyond the !Kung | Aeon
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Anthropology

Beyond the !Kung

A grand research project created our origin myth that early human societies were all egalitarian, mobile and small-scale

Manvir Singh

Sheanderthal | Aeon
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Human evolution

Sheanderthal

Not all Neanderthals were ‘cavemen’: half were women. What can archaeologists tell us about how they lived?

Rebecca Wragg Sykes