Walls between Cultures

Walls demarcate frontiers, deter predators, and protect people and their families and possessions. Stone walls punctuated by towers and gates have surrounded cities in the Middle East and North Africa since biblical times, when fortifications were often built in concentric rings and outlined by a ditch or a moat for added protection. Walls were a prominent feature of many medieval and early modern cities; from Baku to Delhi to York to San Juan, visitors still relive a past when constant vigilance and strong defenses were a feature of daily...

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Facts About United Service Organization

A touch of home for the U.S. military--that was the aim of Congress in creating the United Service Organizations (USO) in 1941 at the request of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who believed that private groups should handle the recreational needs of the country's fast-growing military. A touch of home and support for the military remain the USO's goals today. Since its inception, the USO has served as a bridge between the American people and the nation's armed forces. A private nonprofit organization, the USO relies on donations and volunteers....

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Interesting Facts About Trick-or-Treat

When costumed children mark the evening of October 31 by going door to door begging for sweets, they are participating in rituals similar to those that have been practiced for centuries. Halloween, now so much a part of American tradition, has both pagan and Christian roots. The Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the beginning of the new year, was traditionally celebrated on November 1, when summer was over and the harvest gathered. In a time when gods and spirits were very much a part of everyday life, the Celts believed that on...

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The Secrets of Cival: How One Ancient City Is Rewriting Maya History

The ancient Maya city of Cival may represent that most tantalizing of archaeological prospects: a find that forces a sweeping reanalysis of all conventional thinking about an ancient culture. Although the Maya left behind many fabled and enduring monuments, there are relatively few written records of their 2,000-year hold over modern day Mexico and Central America. Consequently, archaeologists are required to decipher Maya history in blurry hindsight, with finds such as those made at Cival potentially forcing vast revisions of our image...

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The Secret of Range Creek: Waldo Wilcox and the Fremont Indians

For more than 50 years, a man named Waldo Wilcox guarded a secret treasure on his ranch in eastern Utah: possibly the greatest single collection of artifacts that belonged to the Fremont Indian tribe, a people who mysteriously disappeared 700 years ago. Today, the former Wilcox ranch represents one of the most significant archaeological treasure troves in North America, but one that now is imperiled by two simple facts: Waldo Wilcox is no longer standing guard, and the rest of world knows what is there. In 1951 Waldo Wilcox purchased 4,200...

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