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Investigations
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Beginnings TO 1620

This era includes stories that relate to events and objects from before 1620. The main themes of this period include societies in the Americas, Western Europe, and Western Africa that increasingly interacted after 1450. Early European exploration and colonization resulting in cultural and ecological interactions among previously unconnected peoples.

Click on the links below to go to a particular investigation or go back to the Archive.

Atocha Spanish Silver
What is the meaning of these markings on a silver bar discovered in the wreck of the Spanish ship?...More

Body in the Basement
While on a dig, “The Lost Towns of Anne Arundel County” Project unearthed a rather surprising discovery....More

Calf Creek Arrow
An Oklahoma resident discovered an unusual bison skull while fossil hunting in a dry riverbed....More

Mystery Crystal Cross
A crystal cross is discovered at an archeological dig of an old Spanish mission and the chief of the Apalachee Tribe wants to know if it could have been made centuries ago by his own ancestors...More

Pebble in the Sand
Just a pebble in the sand–with sculpted human features. ...More