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March 22, 2024

The Great Archaeological Discovery Of Our Time

The Great Archaeological Discovery Of Our Time

It’s not a long-lost tomb or a vault full of ancient treasures, but rather the emergence of a global data set about human history—the accumulated results of diligent research by tens of thousands of archaeologists carefully documenting the past across the planet, a sample size that dwarfs by many magnitudes earlier conceptions of “history.”

MacArthur Curator Gary Feinman has been a leading advocate for developing better models to interpret the past and synthesize archaeological information across time periods and geography. He observes that “we can now begin to assess a truly global historical record that is not narrowly restricted to just literate societies or the European past. For a long time, the classical Mediterranean world or medieval Europe—both known from texts—were used as proxies for humanity’s past. Now, we know that is not appropriate, as our past as a species has neither been uniform nor linear.” This synthesis of human origins research and new understanding of human biology presents a powerful perspective and roadmap for dealing with some of our biggest challenges. Gary discusses the implications of this perspective in Rozenberg Quarterly, which you can read here.
March 22, 2024