News
Well, it's the end of another year, and we welcome in three new executive members (and welcome back one old one). Aurora Bowery and Eric Skawski would like to thank you all for giving us a great year and a great experience as executive members, and we hope to stay in touch despite our graduations. Field school attendees should remember to participate in the highway cleanup, if possible, as this will help fund you in your digs and cover expenses, and raises at least $1000. Your new executive will be posting for the first time in September, but until then, have a great summer!
Archaeology in the World
New evidence coming out of Cambridge university suggests illness may have led to the decline and eventual extinction of the Neanderthal population. Former theories of their extinction involved foreign illness, climate change, out-competed by modern man, and even notions that they never went extinct, but merely interbred into modern humans. This evidence, however, suggests that some diseases are older than previously thought, including tapeworm and tuberculosis, which may have been transmitted with lethal effects to the local Neanderthals from the invading African species Homo sapiens. The tropical Africa has always been a hotbed for disease, even into colonial times. When Native Americans were being wiped out by European diseases, would-be colonists from Europe were being wiped out by African ones.