Jack Hawkins articles

Discover the story of the Bactrian Hoard of Afghanistan, a 20,000-piece treasure trove of gold crowns, jewelry, and coins from Tillya Tepe. Explore its 1978 discovery, Silk Road connections, survival through war, and uncertain future.

In Costa Rica’s lush southern landscapes, a newly reported monolith has captured archaeologists’ imaginations. Could this mysterious stone be more than geology—perhaps a carefully placed marker aligned with the stars, ancient cultural traditions, and the rhythms of seasonal timekeeping?

Across Hokkaido and northern Honshu, archaeologists have documented earthwork mounds and ritual spaces dating to the Jōmon period—thousands of years before the political state and keyhole tombs of the Kofun era. Recent fieldwork and renewed attention since UNESCO inscription have cast these sites in a new light: carefully planned cemeteries and ceremonial earthworks that predate the region’s earliest historical civilizations, yet display social coordination, memory-making, and ritual sophistication in their own right.

A forgotten shoreline can be a ruthless editor of human history. When sea levels rose after antiquity, coastal places that once buzzed with trade, ritual, and migration slipped below the waves and out of our stories. Now, an ancient sunken settlement off the Crimean coast of the Black Sea—known as Akra—has been steadily reappearing through underwater archaeology. What scholars are finding there doesn’t just enrich local history; it challenges our sense of how far-flung and sophisticated seafaring societies in the northern Black Sea really were.

High in the rugged sandstone plateau of southeastern Algeria, a vast open-air gallery has preserved thousands of images from a time when the Sahara was green. In Tassili n’Ajjer, researchers have documented over 15,000 prehistoric carvings and paintings—depictions of extinct megafauna, human life, and what may be ancient shamanic or ritual practices.

In an age where burnout is trending and emails ping us into the night, some countries have cracked the code on how to actually live while working. We’ve ranked the top 20 countries that offer the best work-life balance, using a blend of data from the OECD Better Life Index, the World Happiness Report, average hours worked, paid leave policies, and lifestyle indicators like access to nature, family support, and flexible work norms.

Deep in the lush volcanic terrain of American Samoa, researchers have uncovered fragmentary fossilized human remains. These ancient bones may represent some of the earliest human footprints in Polynesia, nestled amid soot-blackened cliffs, dense vegetation, and the whisper of crashing ocean waves. The discovery site, rugged and untouched for centuries, suggests the remains were hidden in plain sight, waiting for time and science to finally collide.

William & Mary College, chartered in 1693, holds the title of America's second-oldest college. Its historic campus in Williamsburg, Virginia, has long been a symbol of colonial academic tradition. But beneath the ivy-covered bricks lies a deeper story. Recent discoveries are challenging the known timeline and illuminating centuries of layered history.

The Nile is one of the world's greatest bodies of water. Running for over 5,000 miles, its path through Egypt is the stuff of legend, but it holds secrets and artifacts long thought lost to the sands of time—until now. A joint French-Egyptian archaeology team has made an incredible discovery: statues and regal slabwork that could change what we know about one of history's greatest civilizations.