Articles by Sandee Oster
Phys.org / New research reveals that America's oldest tombstone came from Belgium and belonged to an English knight
Jamestown, Virginia, was founded in 1607 and was the first English permanent settlement in America. It has been the subject of many archaeological and historical analyses, including a recent study by Prof. Markus M. Key and ...
Phys.org / How Olmec elite helped legitimize their political power through art
In an article recently published in Latin American Antiquity, Dr. Jill Mollenhauer argues that the Gulf Lowland Olmec, one of Mesoamerica's earliest major civilizations, sometimes incorporated aesthetic and ritual practices ...
Phys.org / Archaeologists suggest Neolithic Scandinavians may have used skin boats to hunt, travel and trade
Recent research by Dr. Mikael Fauvelle and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, proposes that the neolithic Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) may have used skin boats to conduct trade, travel, fishing, ...
Phys.org / Pottery sherds provide insight into the lives and trade networks of enslaved people in the Cayman Islands
Ph.D. candidate Elysia Petras and archaeologist Dr. Brandi MacDonald recently discovered 15 sherds of Afro-Caribbean pottery ware at Jackson Wall Manor on the Cayman Islands. Through their analysis, they discovered that the ...
Phys.org / Unique Iron- and Viking-age mortuary houses unearthed in Norway
Recent work published by Dr. Raymond Sauvage and Dr. Richard Macphail in Medieval Archaeology describes the excavation and interpretation of three Iron- and Viking-Age mortuary houses in central Norway, Skeiet, in the village ...
Phys.org / Ancient tree resin artifacts provide earliest-known evidence of humans dispersing through the Pacific
Exactly when and how humans dispersed into and through the Pacific remains an intensely debated topic. Previous studies have been hampered by imprecise chronometric dating, making the exact timing and movement of people into ...
Phys.org / New insight into the origins and motivations for ritual tooth removal in ancient Taiwan
A recent study published by archaeologist Yue Zhang and her colleagues in Archaeological Research in Asia has provided detailed insights into the practice of tooth ablation in Taiwan from the Neolithic through to the modern ...
Phys.org / Pre-Mongolian elite grave found in an abandoned fortress
In 2022, an international team forming the Joint Mongolian-Israeli-American Archaeological Project excavated an abandoned frontier fortress. They made an unexpected discovery: an elite grave buried in the walls of an abandoned ...
Phys.org / Ancient Chinese bone needle workshop reveals industrial practices of the 2nd millennium BCE
Recent excavations at the Shimao site in Shaanxi, China, have revealed one of the earliest and, so far, largest bone needle workshops ever discovered. The research published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology by ...
Phys.org / Medieval French diets discovered through isotope analysis reveal social and religious influences
Archaeologists working in the Languedoc region in southern France have used stable isotopes to reveal new insights into medieval dietary practices. The research, published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences by ...