Blurs

The Tamang are an indigenous people of the Himalayan hills. Among Nepal's many ethnic communities, the Tamang occupy a distinctive place in the country's history and cultural landscape. Numbering approximately 1.64 million people according to Nepal's 2021 census, the Tamang are one of the country's largest Indigenous groups.  Around three-quarters live in what is now Bagmati Province, particularly in the hill and mountain districts surrounding Kathmandu.  Their traditional homeland encompasses areas including Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Makwanpur, Kavrepalanchok, Sindhupalchok and neighbouring districts. Their communities are particularly associated with the Himalayan foothills and highlands north of Kathmandu — precisely the mountainous region that has repeatedly been exposed to earthquakes, landslides, floods and other natural hazards. Yet the Tamang are far more than a geographical population. They possess their own language, religious traditions, social institutions, ...

Across the hills of central Laos sit thousands of enormous stone jars. They were deliberately carved and transported by people whose culture remains only partly understood.  They are associated with ancient funerary practices, yet their precise purpose and the society that created them still contain unanswered questions. But something rather unexpected has happened to these ancient monuments. For roughly two thousand years, some of the jars have been collecting rainwater. Leaves have fallen into them. Organic matter has decomposed. Algae and microorganisms have colonised them. Nutrients have accumulated. Oxygen levels have changed. In effect, the ancient jars have become miniature ecosystems. And scientists now think they can be used as something even more unusual: a set of natural experiments that have been running for around 2,000 years. A monument hiding an experiment The Plain of Jars is one of Southeast Asia's great archaeological mysteries. Thousands of large stone vessels ar...

Few fossils have captured the imagination of scientists and the public quite like the famous “Fighting Dinosaurs” specimen from Mongolia.  Discovered in the Gobi Desert in 1971, this extraordinary fossil appears to preserve the final moments of a deadly struggle between a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops. More than 70 million years after their deaths, the two dinosaurs remain locked together in what looks remarkably like a fight to the death. For palaeontologists, the specimen is far more than an impressive display piece. It provides one of the clearest snapshots of dinosaur behaviour ever discovered, offering rare evidence of predator-prey interaction preserved in stone. A Discovery in the Gobi Desert The fossil was unearthed during a joint Polish-Mongolian expedition at Tugriken Shireh in the Djadokhta Formation, a region of the Gobi Desert renowned for its exceptionally preserved dinosaur remains. The area was already famous for discoveries such as Velociraptor, Protoceratops an...

Deep within the rugged Altai Mountains of Central Asia lies one of archaeology's most remarkable treasures: a collection of ancient burials so perfectly preserved by ice that they have survived for over 2,000 years.  Known as the Frozen Tombs of the Altai, these extraordinary burial mounds have revealed a vivid snapshot of life, death, art, and belief among the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes. Unlike most ancient graves, where organic materials decay long before archaeologists arrive, the Altai tombs were protected by a unique combination of permafrost and ingenious burial construction. The result is an archaeological record unlike any other—containing textiles, wooden objects, leather goods, weapons, horse equipment, and even tattooed human remains preserved in astonishing detail. The Mystery Beneath the Mounds The frozen burials are primarily associated with the Pazyryk culture, a group of Iron Age nomads who lived in the Altai region between roughly the 6th and 3rd centu...