Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · 12h

A MacArthur 'genius' gleans surprising lessons from ancient bones, shards and trash

Kristina Douglass wanted to find out the truth about how past communities adapted to environmental change. Her revelatory work has earned her a MacArthur award.

www.npr.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · 8d

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/s... 🏺🌋

After Vesuvius Buried Pompeii, Some Survivors Moved Back In

www.nytimes.com

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · 12d

Wake Forest University is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology! Apply by November 15: apply.interfolio.com/174678

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

Reposted by Jessica MacLellan

Steph Halmhofer, Big Archaeology @cultarchaeo.bsky.social · 13d

“The fact that the settlers and the evangelists and other rightwing Americans found each other a perfect match is not news. But this ceremony is just bad archaeology and another proof that the whole City of David archaeological park project has nothing to do with either archaeology or heritage.” 🏺

‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology to win US support for goals

Scientists say Netanyahu government and its US backers are trying to construct a history shorn of all complexity

www.theguardian.com

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · 17d

Content warning for (many) human remains ☠️ 🏺 "Earliest evidence of smoke-dried mummification: More than 10,000 years ago in southern China and Southeast Asia" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · 19d

www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 🏺🛖🌊

Ancient Maya submerged landscapes and invisible architecture at the Ch'ok Ayin residential household group, Belize | Ancient Mesoamerica | Cambridge Core

Ancient Maya submerged landscapes and invisible architecture at the Ch'ok Ayin residential household group, Belize

www.cambridge.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Aug 30

www.science.org/content/arti... 🏺

AI challenge to find lost Amazonian civilizations draws critics

Scientists, ethicists, and officials worry the OpenAI-sponsored contest sidesteps archaeological norms

www.science.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Aug 23

archaeology.org/news/2025/08... 🏺

News - Archaeologists Locate Significant Native American Campsite in North Carolina - Archaeology Magazine

FLEETWOOD, NORTH CAROLINA—Appalachian State University announced that archaeologists were recently summoned to a university property […]

archaeology.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Aug 14

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/a... 🏛️🏺

Historians Alarmed by White House Plan to Oversee Smithsonian Exhibits

www.nytimes.com

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Jul 17

www.npr.org/2025/07/09/n...

Canceled grants get the spotlight at a Capitol Hill 'science fair'

On Tuesday, scientists held an event organized by House Democrats in which they stood in front of posters outlining their work — and the federal cuts that now threaten it.

www.npr.org

Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Jul 2

aeon.co/essays/did-a... 🏺

Did animals provide the blueprints for human culture? | Aeon Essays

Prehistoric humans didn’t create art and architecture out of nothing. They took inspiration from the nonhuman world

aeon.co

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Reposted by Jessica MacLellan

Jens Notroff @jensnotroff.com · Jun 26

There's bit of discussion about wether freshly published #aDNA 🏺🧬 data from #Catalhöyük allows talking about matrilineally organised Neolithic community there - of course I couldn't help but join having an opinion:

www.livescience.com/archaeology/... by @killgrove.bsky.social via @livescience.com

Ancient 'female-centered' society thrived 9,000 years ago in proto-city in Turkey

Genetic analysis of skeletons buried in a Neolithic proto-city in Turkey reveals that female lineages were important in early agricultural societies.

www.livescience.com

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Reposted by Jessica MacLellan

SAPIENS Magazine @sapiens.org · Jun 26

“By tracing how ... archaeological objects were taken from their contexts, and where they traveled, we can start to understand how U.S. imperialism jumbles historical landscapes—and contemporary ones.”

Read more: www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Jun 24

Job for an archaeologist (working in Latin America) 🏺 careers.saa.org/jobs/ja/2144...

Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology in Nashville, TN for Vanderbilt University

Exciting opportunity in Nashville, TN for Vanderbilt University as a Research Assistant Professor...

careers.saa.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Jun 20

www.science.org/content/arti... 🏺

Funding cuts to U.S. archaeology could imperil field’s future

A Science analysis of canceled and curtailed federal grants reveals hits to research, collections, and training

www.science.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Jun 12

Very cool LiDAR study: www.science.org/content/arti... 🏺🌽

600 years before Europeans arrived, Great Lakes farmers transformed the land

Despite poor conditions, Indigenous growers used innovative techniques to grow large crops of corn, beans, and squash

www.science.org

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Reposted by Jessica MacLellan

Washington Post Opinions @postopinions.bsky.social · Jun 9

"We frequently hear of late that universities are 'dependent on federal money,' as though they were passive beneficiaries of government largesse," Carole LaBonne writes.

"The reality is closer to the opposite." wapo.st/43GspCx

Opinion | Universities and the government: Which needs the other more?

From public health to high-tech innovation, universities are the workhorses of national progress.

wapo.st

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Jun 10

New research from the Ceibal Project (human remains content warning ☠️) doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺💀

A Preceramic–Preclassic transition cemetery at the Lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

A Preceramic–Preclassic transition cemetery at the Lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala

doi.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · May 27

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/s... 🏺

In the U.S., Archaeology Stares Down an Uncertain Future

www.nytimes.com

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · May 12

archaeology.org/news/2025/05... 🏺

News - Oldest Use of Psychoactive Drugs in Peruvian Andes Discovered - Archaeology Magazine

CHAVÍN DE HUÁNTAR, PERU—More than two thousand years ago, high in Peru's Andes Mountains, the […]

archaeology.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Apr 8

🏺 theconversation.com/perus-ancien...

Peru’s ancient irrigation systems succeeded in turning deserts into farms because of the culture − without it, the systems failed

Ancient practices hold important lessons for farmers facing drying lands, but they were often more complex than modern societies realize. Glacier loss adds to the challenge today.

theconversation.com

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Apr 1

www.sapiens.org/archaeology/... 🏺🇬🇹

Cementing the Past

An anthropologist investigates the impacts of the United Fruit Company’s fraught 1940s preservation of an ancient Maya site in Guatemala.

www.sapiens.org

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Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Mar 12

🥑🏺https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/science/avocados-archaeology-domestication.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c&pvid=63812609-45E3-462F-9989-3BE202F6C96B

Humans Have Been Perfecting Avocados for 7,500 Years

Ancient peoples of Latin America saved the fleshy fruits from extinction and gradually made them tastier.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Jessica MacLellan

Jessica MacLellan @archaeolojess.bsky.social · Jan 30

Wake Forest University is hiring a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropological Archaeology 🏺 for 2025-2026! Apply by March 1: wfu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Facult...

Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

Application Instructions: External Applicants: Please upload your resume on the Apply screen. Your application will automatically populate your resume details, and you may verify and update data on th...

wfu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Jessica MacLellan

Archaeology Magazine @archaeologymag.bsky.social · Feb 3

During an aerial lidar survey, researchers spotted the remains of more than 1,000 structures built by the Zapotec in southern Mexico between 500 and 600 years ago in a fortified city known as Guiengola.

archaeology.org/news/2025/01/31/lidar-survey-maps-zapotec-city-in-mexico/

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