World Atlas of Archaeology
By K. Kris Hirst, About.com Guide to Archaeology
Archaeology is practiced in all of the seven continents and most of the countries in the world. Archaeologists come from many of these countries as well. On the World Atlas of Archaeology you'll find resources on the archaeological sites of the world, the cultural histories of the different countries, the ongoing archaeological excavations conducted there, and advice for travelers to those countries.
Africa
Africa is our human home--the place where the first humans, called Australopithecenes, evolved some two million years ago; and it is also where the first modern humans evolved. Africa is the site of some of the most heart-heartbreakingly ephemeral architecture--the Butabu adobes of West Africa--and some of the most permanent--the pyramids of Egypt and Sudan.
- Australopithecus
- Middle Stone Age in Africa
- African Iron Age
- Kilwa Kisiwani
- Aissa Dugjé (Cameroon)
- Nabta Playa (Egypt)
- Egyptian Civilization
- Royal Tombs of Aksum
- Elmina: Portuguese Slave Colony
- Butabu: West African Mud Brick Architecture
- Timbuktu (Mali)
- Africa by Country
- Current Digs in Africa
Arctic and Scandinavia
The harsh arctic and subarctic regions of the world are among the most fascinating areas to do archaeological investigation. To live in these cold climates, people had to adapt their living situations, with specialized needs for housing, diet and subsistence, and growing and raising plants and animals. At the same time, the conditions led to some of the best preserved archaeological remains on the planet.
- Late or Terminal Siberian Paleolithic
- Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site
- Ushki Lake Sites
- Beringia
- Ertebølle-Ellerbeck Culture
- Bog Bodies
- Thule Tradition
- Vikings
- Domestication of Reindeer
- Inuit Wayfinding and GPS Techniques
- Arctic and Subarctic Regions by Country
Asia
The archaeology of the near and far eastern parts of the world include the inventors of pottery--the Jomon; the long-lived and powerful Chinese civilization, creator of the world-famous terracotta soldiers; the roots of the Indian subcontinent cultures, the Indus Civilization of Pakistan and India; and evidence of the earliest human migration patterns along the coastlines.
- Ortvale Klde (Georgia)
- Jomon Tradition
- Hoabinhian
- Shandong Survey from the Field
- Zhou Dynasty
- Shang Dynasty
- Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin
- Indus Civilizations
- Khmer Civilization
- Ban Non Wat (Thailand)
- Ban Chiang (Thailand)
- Anatolia
- Nara (Japan)
- Asian Archaeology by Country
- Current Digs in Asia
Australia and Oceania
Australia and the islands near it represent the adventurous human past. Arriving in the region perhaps some 40,000 years ago, the human explorers found an area populated by plants and animals not seen anywhere else in their journeys across Asia. Australia is also the last place colonized by the British empire. Thus, Australia's prehistoric past is at once deep, unique, and recent.
- Flores Man
- Human Colonization of Australia
- Lake Mungo (Australia)
- Koonalda Cave (Australia)
- Lapita Culture
- Strangways Sheep Station
- Searching for Amelia Earhart
- Archaeology of Oceania and Australia by Country
- Current Digs in Australia and Oceania
Central America
The modern countries that make up what we call Central America today were the homelands of the sophisticated Olmec, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec civilizations. At once famously gruesome and less-famously civilized, the ancient kings of central America commissioned beautiful architectural wonders in varied places, in jungles, on coastlines, in swamps and on upland plateaus.
- Cerén: The Lost Village of El Salvador
- Aztec Civilization
- Archaeology of Mesoamerica by Country
- Current Digs in Central America
Eastern Europe
Central Europe, with its dark forests and deeply incised rivers, has a special attraction to archaeologists. Gravettian sites like Dolní Vĕstonice in the Czech Republic and Mezhirich in the Ukraine have taught us about living at the end of the last Ice Age. The reconstructed town of Biskupin in Poland lets visitors see what living in an Iron Age settlement might have been like.
Middle East
The middle east is often considered the cradle of civilization, with the rise of Mesopotamia at the juncture of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq. It is also the original land of most of our earliest domesticated plants and animals, in the Zagros Mountains of modern-day Iran; and the place where the Persian Empire got its start.
- Archaeology of the Middle East
- Current Digs in the Middle East
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Egypt
- Georgia
- Iran
- Iraq
North America
The North American continent was discovered by humans sometime around 15,000 years ago, and the secrets to that migration into the Americas are being researched at this very moment in the Russian east and the Bering Strait. North America also is where big game hunting became a way of life for a brief period of time; and where the remnants of the Mississippian and Pueblo cultures can be found.
- Archaeology of North America
- Current Digs in North America
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Barbados
- Bahamas
- Canada
- Cuba
South America
South America is the last continental body discovered by human beings, and it is also home to the oldest civilization in the Americas, the Caral-Supe civilization of Peru of some 5,000 years ago. Other advanced civilizations such as the Inca, Wari, Tiwanaku and Moche societies, as well as the mysterious geoglyphs of Nasca and the Atacama Desert of Chile.
Western Europe
Western Europe contains the heart of the Greek civilization, what many people consider the epitome of classical art and politics. It was also the home of the Roman empire, and of course, Stonehenge and the remarkable monumental art of the Morbihan coast of France.
