Science Stories Archive
Archived Stories - Past Cultures
(11/2008) It's easy to get carried away romanticizing the cushy lives of the fabulously wealthy, even those who lived in exotic ancient cultures. We may pin all sorts of stereotypes to them: that they employed...
(12/2008) Scientists collected lice from two mummified heads, similar to the one shown above, that were so well preserved even their long braids were still intact. Samples of the lice were...
(11/2008) The process of resource overexploitation is not a new one. Rather, it began prehistorically – as green turtles from Coralie, a turtle harvesting site within the Turks and Caicos Islands, illustrate...
(10/2008) When you finish your chicken dinner, your next step is most likely to toss the leftover bones in the garbage. And if you hunt, you probably discard the bones after skinning and gutting your hard-earned carcass. What else would you do with old bones, right?...
(06/2008) The Turks and Caicos are truly blessed. The crystal clear waters surrounding the Islands contain an abundance of marine life. As Columbus noted, many of these are marvelous to see, while others are marvelous to eat. The Spanish recorded more than...
(05/2008) The unusual discovery of well-preserved fossils in a water-filled sinkhole called a blue hole revealed the bones of landlubbing crocodiles and tortoises that did not survive human encroachment...
(04/2008) A study published by Kitty Emery, Florida Museum Assistant Curator of Environmental Archeology, is the first to document ancient hunting effects on large-game species in the Maya lowlands of Central America...
(12/2007) As one approaches the plantation along the north coast from Nassau there are eight stone buildings that served as the homes for Wylly’s married slaves. These buildings are in relatively good condition, although their roofs have deteriorated. Next,...
(02/2007) A new study provides evidence that the last inhabitants of Christopher Columbus’ first settlement desperately tried to extract silver from lead ore, originally brought from Spain for other uses, just before abandoning the failed mining operation in 1498...
(02/2007) Rewind 300 years and imagine you are a Spanish colonist in Florida fleeing for your life to the protection of St. Augustine's fortified walls. Or maybe you are a Native American desperate to escape the relentless assaults of...
(07/2006) tlantean columns with the heads lopped off are evidence of a catastrophic revolt at Mayapan. Archaeologists from the Carnegie Institution never found the heads when excavating the city some 50 years ago. These extraordinary heads are...
(06/2006) In 426 AD, a noble we now know as K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' (Great Sun First Quetzal Macaw), arrived in the Copán Valley of Honduras, Central America, and founded a dynasty of Maya kings that endured for over 400 years. Where Yax Ku'k Mo originally traveled...
(09/2005) Few people today are aware that a century and a half before there was a San Francisco in California, a San Francisco mission existed in northern Florida. San Antonio, San Diego, Santa Fe—all were missions that once served Florida Indians...
(07/2005) The Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the oldest U.S. military installation on foreign soil. It was established at the end of the Spanish-American war and celebrated its centennial in 2003...
(01/2005) New genetic research of human lice supports the evolutionary theory of direct contact between modern and archaic humans, according to a study lead by a Florida Museum of Natural History researcher...
(12/2004) To the west stretched the vast expanse of the Caribbean Sea; to the north rose the magnificent Pitons, the symbol of St. Lucia. In April 2004, a pick-up truck deposited our field team...
(06/2004) The remnants of an Indian village destroyed by war almost two centuries ago reveal the Seminoles were actually blending into the American melting pot before they were driven to the swamps of South Florida, say Florida Museum of Natural History researchers....
(03/2004) A team of specialists from the Florida Museum of Natural History Environmental Archaeology Program has identified the Archaic people of Lake Monroe in central Florida as hunter-fisher-gatherers...