Beginnings of agriculture in Europe

In the Winter 2007 issue of Planet Earth, Glynis Jones, Caitlin Buck,Mike Charles, Tom Higham and Sue Colledge talk about their project to date the spread of agriculture into and across Europe using the appearance of cereal grains. They found that agriculture spread rapidly from Greece (where it first entered Europe from the Middle East) [...]

Human impacts on pre-Columbian tropical forests

When European naturalists first visited the New World Tropics they saw vast forests that seemed untouched by humans. While indigenous people often lived in these forests, their populations were small. This led to a perception of tropical forests as primeval, “virgin” forests. In the last few decades, this perception has changed - [...]

Intelligent design and archaeology

One of the arguments repeated over and over by intelligent design advocates is the assertion that archaeology is a search for design. Like intelligent design, they say, archaeologists assume design once they have ruled out other possible causes, so why shouldn’t IDists? I have always found that analogy annoying - after all, it [...]