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Archaeologists Are Unraveling the Mysteries Behind Deep Pits Found Near Stonehenge

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Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Archaeologists Are Unraveling the Mysteries Behind Deep Pits Found Near Stonehenge Based on a comprehensive study, researchers are now convinced the shafts were human-made, likely dug during the Late Neolithic period roughly 4,000 years ago Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent December 10, 2025 9:59 a.m. The pits are evenly spaced around a large circle. University of Bradford In 2020, archaeologists in the United Kingdom made a surprising discovery. At Durrington Walls, a large Neolithic henge not far from Stonehenge, they found more than a dozen large, deep pits buried under layers of loose clay. The pits are mysterious. Each one measures roughly 30 feet wide by 15 feet deep, and together they form a mile-wide circle around Durrington Walls and neighboring Woodhenge. They also appear to be linked with the much older Larkhill causewayed enclosure, built more than 1,000 years before Durrington Walls. For the last few years, archaeologists have been puzzling over their origins: Were they dug intentionally by human hands? Were they naturally occurring structures, like sinkholes? Or is there some other possible explanation for the existence of these colossal shafts? Quick fact: The purpose of Durrington Walls While Stonehenge is thought to have been a sacred place for ceremonies, Durrington Walls was a place where people actually lived. In a new paper published in the journal Internet Archaeology, archaeologists report that they have a much better understanding of the pits’ purpose, chronology and environmental setting. And, now, they are confident the shafts were made by humans. “They can’t be occurring naturally,” says lead author Vincent Gaffney, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford, to the Guardian’s Steven Morris. “It just can’t happen. We think we’ve nailed it.” Chris Gaffney, an archaeologist at the at the University of Bradford, surveys the ground near Durrington Walls. University of Bradford For the study, researchers returned to the site in southern England and used several different methods to further analyze the unusual structures. They used a technique known as electrical resistance tomography to calculate the pits’ depths, and radar and magnetometry to suss out their shapes. They also took core samples of the sediment, then ran the soil through a variety of tests. For instance, they used optically stimulated luminescence to determine the last time each layer of soil had been exposed to the sun. They also looked for traces of animal or plant DNA. Astonishing' Stonehenge discovery offers new insights into Neolithic ancestors. Together, the results of these analyses indicate humans must have been involved, which suggests the pits could be “one of the largest prehistoric structures in Britain, if not the largest,” Gaffney tells the BBC’s Sophie Parker. Researchers suspect the circle pits were created by people living at the site over a short period of time during the Late Neolithic period roughly 4,000 years ago. They were not “simply dug and abandoned” but, rather, appear to have been part of a “structured, monumental landscape that speaks to the complexity and sophistication of Neolithic society,” Gaffney says in a statement. For example, the pits are fairly evenly spaced around the circle, which suggests their Neolithic creators were measuring the distances between them somehow. “The skill and effort that must have been required to not only dig the pits, but also to place them so precisely within the landscape is a marvel,” says study co-author Richard Bates, a geophysicist at the University of St Andrews, in a statement. “When you consider that the pits are spread over such a large distance, the fact they are located in a near perfect circular pattern is quite remarkable.” Researchers used multiple methods to investigate the pits at Durrington Walls. University of Bradford But who dug the pits? And, perhaps more importantly, why? Archaeologists are still trying to definitively answer those questions, but they suspect the shafts were created to serve as some sort of sacred boundary around Durrington Walls. Their creators may also have been trying to connect with the underworld, per the Guardian. “They’re inscribing something about their cosmology, their belief systems, into the earth itself in a very dramatic way,” Gaddney tells the BBC. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Based on a comprehensive study, researchers are now convinced the shafts were human-made, likely dug during the Late Neolithic period roughly 4,000 years ago

Archaeologists Are Unraveling the Mysteries Behind Deep Pits Found Near Stonehenge

Based on a comprehensive study, researchers are now convinced the shafts were human-made, likely dug during the Late Neolithic period roughly 4,000 years ago

Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent

Illustration with dots and circles on it
The pits are evenly spaced around a large circle. University of Bradford

In 2020, archaeologists in the United Kingdom made a surprising discovery. At Durrington Walls, a large Neolithic henge not far from Stonehenge, they found more than a dozen large, deep pits buried under layers of loose clay.

The pits are mysterious. Each one measures roughly 30 feet wide by 15 feet deep, and together they form a mile-wide circle around Durrington Walls and neighboring Woodhenge. They also appear to be linked with the much older Larkhill causewayed enclosure, built more than 1,000 years before Durrington Walls.

For the last few years, archaeologists have been puzzling over their origins: Were they dug intentionally by human hands? Were they naturally occurring structures, like sinkholes? Or is there some other possible explanation for the existence of these colossal shafts?

Quick fact: The purpose of Durrington Walls

  • While Stonehenge is thought to have been a sacred place for ceremonies, Durrington Walls was a place where people actually lived.

In a new paper published in the journal Internet Archaeology, archaeologists report that they have a much better understanding of the pits’ purpose, chronology and environmental setting. And, now, they are confident the shafts were made by humans.

“They can’t be occurring naturally,” says lead author Vincent Gaffney, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford, to the Guardian’s Steven Morris. “It just can’t happen. We think we’ve nailed it.”

A man pushing a wheeled cart across a flat landscape
Chris Gaffney, an archaeologist at the at the University of Bradford, surveys the ground near Durrington Walls. University of Bradford

For the study, researchers returned to the site in southern England and used several different methods to further analyze the unusual structures. They used a technique known as electrical resistance tomography to calculate the pits’ depths, and radar and magnetometry to suss out their shapes.

They also took core samples of the sediment, then ran the soil through a variety of tests. For instance, they used optically stimulated luminescence to determine the last time each layer of soil had been exposed to the sun. They also looked for traces of animal or plant DNA.

Astonishing' Stonehenge discovery offers new insights into Neolithic ancestors.

Together, the results of these analyses indicate humans must have been involved, which suggests the pits could be “one of the largest prehistoric structures in Britain, if not the largest,” Gaffney tells the BBC’s Sophie Parker.

Researchers suspect the circle pits were created by people living at the site over a short period of time during the Late Neolithic period roughly 4,000 years ago. They were not “simply dug and abandoned” but, rather, appear to have been part of a “structured, monumental landscape that speaks to the complexity and sophistication of Neolithic society,” Gaffney says in a statement.

For example, the pits are fairly evenly spaced around the circle, which suggests their Neolithic creators were measuring the distances between them somehow.

“The skill and effort that must have been required to not only dig the pits, but also to place them so precisely within the landscape is a marvel,” says study co-author Richard Bates, a geophysicist at the University of St Andrews, in a statement. “When you consider that the pits are spread over such a large distance, the fact they are located in a near perfect circular pattern is quite remarkable.”

Two men holding up a piece of equipment in a grassy field
Researchers used multiple methods to investigate the pits at Durrington Walls. University of Bradford

But who dug the pits? And, perhaps more importantly, why? Archaeologists are still trying to definitively answer those questions, but they suspect the shafts were created to serve as some sort of sacred boundary around Durrington Walls. Their creators may also have been trying to connect with the underworld, per the Guardian.

“They’re inscribing something about their cosmology, their belief systems, into the earth itself in a very dramatic way,” Gaddney tells the BBC.

Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Read the full story here.
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Is red meat bad for you? Limited research robs us of a clear answer.

We’d all appreciate more definitive guidance. Eating a varied diet is a wise move while we wait.

Over and over, we ask the question: Is Food X good or bad for you? And, over and over, belief in the answer — whether it’s yes or no — is held with conviction totally out of proportion with the strength of the evidence.Today’s illustration: red meat. It has become one of the most-disputed issues in food. It’s so polarizing that some people decide to eat no meat at all, while others decide to eat only meat. It’s poison, or it’s the only true fuel.The latest salvo in the Meat Wars was kicked off by a new report that outlines the optimal diet for both people and planet. The EAT-Lancet Report comes down hard on red meat; its recommended daily intake is a mere 14 grams — that’s half an ounce.Read on, and the news gets worse: “Because intake of red meat is not essential and appears to be linearly related to higher total mortality and risks of other health outcomes in populations that have consumed it for many years, the optimal intake may be zero.”Note that word: “related.” It’s the source of the problem with the report and its recommendation.The EAT-Lancet report, by researchers from 17 countries, bases its recommendation solely on observational data. When you do that, meat comes out looking pretty bad. In study after study, people who report eating a lot of meat have worse health outcomes than people who eat little. Meat-eating correlates with increased risk of heart disease, some cancers and all-cause mortality.But, as always with observational research that attempts to connect the dots between diet and health, the key question is whether the meat itself, or something else associated with a meat-heavy lifestyle, is actually causing the bad outcomes.That’s a hard question to answer, but there are clues that people who eat a lot of meat are very different from people who eat a little.Let’s look at a study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, cited by the EAT-Lancet report; it has a convenient demographic summary. According to it, people in the top one-fifth of meat eaters are different from people in the bottom fifth in a lot of important ways: They weigh more, they’re more likely to smoke, they’re not as well-educated, they get less exercise, and they report lower intakes of fruit, vegetables and fiber. On the plus side, they report drinking less alcohol. But other than that, we’re looking at a litany of markers for a lifestyle that’s not particularly health-conscious.So, to suss out whether it’s the meat that’s raising disease risk, you have to somehow correct for any of the differences on that list — and most of that information also comes from observational research, so even the confounders are confounded.Then there are the things you can’t correct for. Sleep quality, depression and screen time, for example, all correlate with some of the same diseases meat correlates with, but most studies have no information on those.All this confounding explains one of my all-time favorite findings from observational research. It comes from the same study the demographics came from (analyzed in a 2015 paper). Sure enough, the people who ate the most meat were more likely to die of cancer and heart disease, but they were also more likely to die in accidents. And the biggest difference came from the catchall category “all others,” which invariably includes causes of death that have nothing to do with meat.Basically, there’s a very simple problem with relying on observational research: People who eat a lot of meat are very different from people who eat less of it. The meat definitely isn’t causing the accidental deaths (unless, perhaps, they’re tragic backyard grill mishaps), and it isn’t causing at least some of the “all others” deaths, so we know that heavy and light meat-eaters are different in all kinds of ways.That’s where controlled trials come in.In a perfect world, we could figure this out by keeping a large group of people captive for a lifetime, feeding half of them meat, and seeing what happens. Okay, maybe that’s not a perfect world, but it would be the best solution to this particular problem.Instead, we have trials that are short-term (because of logistics and cost), and necessarily rely on markers for disease, rather than the disease itself. For that to be useful, you need a marker that’s a reliable indicator. For a lot of diseases — including cancer — those are hard to come by. For heart disease, we have a good one: low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. So, most of the controlled trials of meat-eating focus on heart disease.If you spend some time reading those trials (and I did, so you don’t have to), you find that most of them show some increase in LDL cholesterol, although it’s generally small.A 2025 analysis of 44 controlled trials on meat found that the only ones showing positive cardiovascular outcomes had links to the meat industry, and even then, only about one in five came out positive. Of the independent studies, about three-quarters showed negative outcomes, and the remaining one-quarter was neutral.This isn’t surprising. Red meat contains saturated fat, and we have countless trials that demonstrate sat fat’s ability to raise LDL. But if the meat you eat is relatively lean, that effect is going to be small.The lesson here is that we don’t have a lot of good evidence on meat and health. The observational evidence is hopelessly confounded, and the evidence from clinical trials is woefully limited. There’s so much we simply don’t know. There may be other ways meat raises risk (leading to over-absorption of heme iron and stimulating the production of TMAO, or trimethylamine N-oxide), but there’s little definitive evidence for them. And, of course, there’s the question of what you eat instead. If you’re eating red meat instead of, say, instant ramen, that may be an improvement. If, instead, you’re cutting back on your lentils, not so much.As always, the single-most important thing to remember about nutrition is that what we know is absolutely dwarfed by what we don’t know. Which means that, if you’re making decisions based on what we do know, you could very well be wrong.So what’s an eater to do? Meat is a nutritious food. In fact, animal foods are the only natural sources of a vitamin we need — B12 — which is an indication that we evolved with meat and dairy as part of our diet. It’s very hard to know whether eating some lean meat leads to better outcomes than eating no meat, but I think some meat is a good hedge against all that uncertainty. (The ethical and environmental concerns are also important, but for today let’s focus on health.)But plant foods are also nutritious. And eating a wide variety of them is also a good hedge against uncertainty. Which means the carnivore diet — all meat, all the time! — is a pretty bad bet.Unfortunately, “uncertainty” is not a word that features prominently in the Meat Wars. Instead, we have an unappetizing combination of nastiness and sanctimony, with each camp convinced that the truth and the light are on their side.Not that this is a metaphor for our times or anything.

Animals
Food
Health

New Wildlife Books for Children and Teens (That Adults May Find Interesting Too)

These books for young readers will delight and encourage interest in mammals, insects, octopuses, and other creatures in our shared environment. The post New Wildlife Books for Children and Teens (That Adults May Find Interesting Too) appeared first on The Revelator.

Creating excitement about our amazing planet in young people has never been more important. A pack of new books make environmental science fun and fascinating, teaching children, teens, and even some adults just how diverse and rich our planet’s wildlife and their habitats are to behold. Reading them can encourage us all to become better guardians of the Earth. We’ve adapted the books’ official descriptions below and provided links to the publishers’ sites, but you should also be able to find these books in a variety of formats through your local bookstore or library. Insectopolis By Peter Kuper Award-winning cartoonist Peter Kuper transports readers through the 400-million-year history of insects and the remarkable entomologists who have studied them. This visually immersive work of graphic non-fiction dives into a world where ants, cicadas, bees, and butterflies visit a library exhibition that displays their stories and humanity’s connection to them throughout the ages. Layering history and science, color and design, it tells the remarkable tales of dung beetles navigating by the stars, hawk-size prehistoric dragonflies hunting prey, and mosquitoes changing the course of human history. Read our interview with Kuper. They Work: Honey Bees, Nature’s Pollinators By June Smalls and illustrator Yukari Mishima The newest addition to June Smalls’s nature series, this is a gorgeous nonfiction picture book about life for a hive of honeybees, complete with factoids. Readers learn about the beehive queen, who fights to be queen from the moment she breaks out of her cell. Her job is important, but a hive is only successful if many, many bees are working together. Experience the life cycle of the honeybee up close and personal with this striking picture book. Told in a poetic style along with fun facts on each page for older readers wanting a deeper dive, this book is a beautiful exploration of life inside a beehive — as well as the dangers and predators bees face in the world, including humans. Bison: Community Builders and Grassland Caretakers By Frances Backhouse Bison are North America’s largest land animals. Some 170,000 wood bison once roamed northern regions, while at least 30 million plains bison trekked across the rest of the continent. Almost driven to extinction in the 1800s by decades of slaughter and hunting, this ecological and cultural species supports biodiversity and strengthens the ecosystems around it. This book celebrates the traditions and teachings of Indigenous peoples and looks at how bison lovers of all backgrounds came together to save these iconic animals. Learn about the places where bison are regaining a hoof-hold and meet some of the young people welcoming them back home. Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses by David Scheel and Laurel ‘Yoyo’ Scheel This compelling middle-grade adaptation dives deep into the mysteries of one of our planet’s most enigmatic animals. Among all the ocean’s creatures, few are more captivating — or more elusive — than the octopus. Marine biologist David Scheel investigates these strange beings to answer long-held questions: How can we learn more about animals whose perfect camouflage and secretive habitats make them invisible to detection? How does an almost-boneless package of muscle and protein defeat sharks, eels, and other predators while also preying on the most heavily armored animals in the sea? How do octopuses’ bodies work? This fascinating book shows young readers how to embrace the wisdom of the unknown — even if it has more arms than expected. Animal Partnerships: Radical Relationships, Unlikely Alliances, and Other Animal Teams By Ben Hoare and Asia Orlando Discover partnerships from across the animal kingdom with unexpected animal teams around the world who thrive in the wild as they defend, feed, and plot with each other to survive. Friendly, informative explanations are paired with striking photographs and colorful illustrations to make every page captivate the imagination. This unique animal book for children offers impressive facts about previously unknown animal behaviors that are guaranteed to wow adults and children alike. Conker and the Monkey Trap By Hannah Peckham Deep in the jungle, a chameleon named Conker finds two animals in need of his help. Though he first wants to run and hide, he remembers what his mom taught him about being kind and helpful to others. Once Conker saves Sanjeet the lost lorikeet from a puddle, the two of them come across a monkey caught in a trap. Conker and his new friend work together to save the day. This sweet rhyming story will teach young readers the value of friendship and helping those in need. There are plenty of points for discussion and those are aided by the probing questions at the back of the book and the various activities. Mollusks By Kaitlyn Salvatore From the Discover More: Marine Wildlife Series. Not all marine wildlife lives completely underwater. While some mollusks do, other species live both above and below the water’s surface. As readers learn about the different classes of mollusks, they uncover how a mollusk’s body allows it to do amazing things, learning about the unique ways different mollusk species, from slugs to squid to clams, contribute to their environments. Their lifestyles, diet, and the threats to their survival come to life through vivid photographs and age-appropriate text. Becoming an Ecologist: Career Pathways in Science By John A. Wiens What influences a person’s decision to pursue a career in science? And what factors determine the many possible pathways a budding scientist chooses to follow? John A. Wiens traces his journeys through several subfields of ecology — and gives readers an inside look at how science works. He shares stories from his development as an ornithologist, community ecologist, landscape ecologist, and conservation scientist, recounting the serendipities, discoveries, and joys of this branching career. Wiens explores how an individual’s background and interests, life’s contingencies, the influences of key people, and the culture of a discipline can all shape a scientist’s trajectory. This book explores why ecologists ask the questions they do, how they go about answering them, and what they do when the answers are not what they expected. Bringing together personal narrative with practical guidance for aspiring ecologists, this book provides a window onto a dynamic scientific field — and inspiration for all readers interested in building a career by following their passion for the natural world, presented in an enticing way for young professionals and students. Enjoy these engaging reads and get young friends and family members involved with activities that support our environment and wildlife. We hope you and your children and grandchildren will be motivated to protect and reclaim our environment through these remarkable books. And there’s more to come: We’ll cover more books for young readers in the months ahead. For hundreds of additional environmental books — including many for kids of all ages — visit the Revelator Reads archives. The post New Wildlife Books for Children and Teens (That Adults May Find Interesting Too) appeared first on The Revelator.

Animals
Conservation
Culture

Sea lions keep eating the salmon in the Columbia River. Some lawmakers want to kill more of them

A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives spent more than two hours debating the Pacific Northwest’s sea lion problem.

Pacific Northwest sea lions got the spotlight in a Congressional hearing last week.The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources spent nearly two and a half hours Wednesday debating the long-standing issue of the Columbia River sea lions, who are known to feast on the salmon that swim down and upriver. It wasn’t great news for the sea lions, as the debate centered primarily around how best to kill the pinnipeds. The hearing featured testimony from Aja DeCoteau, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fishing Commission, who urged the committee to expand efforts to remove the animals and research the problem, The Columbian reported. “Historically, our elders remember an occasional sea lion reaching Celilo Falls,” DeCoteau said at the hearing. “However, these occurrences were rare. Now, a combination of hydro-system infrastructure, changing environmental conditions and the success of the Marine Mammal Protection Act has resulted in unprecedented numbers of sea lions in the Columbia River.”For years, state wildlife managers have sought ways to keep sea lions from gobbling up salmon. Exclusion gates have been installed at the entrances to fish ladders. Sea lions have been hazed with underwater explosives and firecracker shells fired from shotguns. Agencies have tried using fake orcas and arm-flailing inflatables. Animals that have been trapped and relocated, driven hundreds of miles and released into the ocean, have returned upriver within days.In 2008, Oregon was given permission to kill some of the sea lions, though officials were required to capture and brand individual animals, and catch them in the act of consuming salmon, before they could euthanize. The frustrated efforts led to a 2020 federal law that permitted Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as some tribes, to bypass the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, allowing them to trap and kill up to 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lions from the Columbia River and its tributaries. In the five years since, only 230 total sea lions have been killed.While the 2020 federal permit to kill the sea lions was renewed without controversy this September, extending the law through 2030, lawmakers are now examining how effective the legislative efforts have actually been. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat who represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, which runs along the lower Columbia River, sat in on the Congressional committee Wednesday, asking why more sea lions haven’t been killed.“Ask yourself, why are these numbers so small?” she said. Gluesenkamp Perez argued the removal process is arduous and expensive, estimating the cost of removing one sea lion at $38,000, or roughly $203 per salmon saved.She recommended expanding the reach of the permits and suggested a process that would allow local fisherman and tribal members to bid on permits to assist with sea lion killings. “I have seen and heard firsthand how much work goes into managing sea lion populations and preserving local fisheries,” she added. “As the name implies, sea lions are a species that belong in the sea, not in our rivers.” Larry Phillips, policy director for the American Sportfishing Association, who also testified before the committee Wednesday, said he thought people would “line up” to participate in sea lion removals.“I also think that we need to be really careful, make sure we’re investing in good science to monitor the outcomes of any type of programs that we implement or decide to implement, and that’s that clearly is going to be the foundation of how we move forward,” Phillips said. “But you know, I would certainly support being creative and coming up with unique ideas.” Killing sea lions in the Pacific Northwest has long been a contentious issue. A 2023 video of a fishing boat repeatedly charging large groups of sea lions demonstrated the animosity many fishers feel toward sea lions, though it shocked even fellow anglers, who condemned the act of aggression toward the animals.

Animals
Resources
Science

A land fight pits a sacred Apache tradition against a copper mine

An Apache girl comes of age in a traditional ceremony, possibly the last at Oak Flat before copper mining threatens to transform the sacred site in Arizona.

The girl danced for hours in the knee-deep water as slanting rain pelted her slight frame weighed down by a sodden buckskin dress. Each step brought her closer to the end of a ritual that also signified a beginning.The Washington Post was allowed to record parts of the Sunrise Dance ceremony without audio, to preserve its spiritual power.Several days earlier, Lozen Brown-Lopez had arrived at the top of Oak Flat. She was 11 years old, from the San Carlos Apache Tribe and about to endure a grueling four-day ceremony that has been practiced by Apaches for centuries. Surrounded by a hundred family and fellow tribal members, dancers, singers and medicine men, she would perform the Sunrise Dance, reenacting part of the Apache creation story. At the end, after she had been daubed in clay to represent the mythological mother of all Apaches and ritually cleansed, Lozen would emerge as a young woman.What worried many of those who came to this mesa in mountainous southern Arizona in early October was the very real possibility that this Sunrise Dance might be the last one at Oak Flat.Oak Flat sits on one of North America’s largest undeveloped deposits of copper. The mineral is used in dozens of items, including smartphones, electric vehicles and solar panels. The company Resolution Copper believes there are 20 million tons of copper under Oak Flat that could supply up to one-quarter of the U.S. copper demand over 40 years. At today’s prices, experts say that much copper would be worth about $200 billion. The company asserts it will create more than a thousand jobs in an area with high unemployment.Map shows the location of major copper deposits in the Southwest.Mining Oak Flat, however, would eventually transform the landscape, creating what geologists say would be a vast crater. To prevent this, the tribe and other opponents of the mine have filed multiple lawsuits and tried unsuccessfully to get one of the cases heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. A federal appeals court will hold a hearing for several of the suits in early January.“If they take Oak Flat, they destroy our religion and who we are,” said Vanessa Nosie, an archaeology aide for the San Carlos Apache Tribe who also helps her father lead a nonprofit fighting the mine. Lozen, she added, is “dancing to carry the fight for all we’re trying to save.”As the singers drummed in the downpour, Lozen pounded her ceremonial cane into the muddy ground. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and she faltered for a moment.A woman in the crowd whooped. Another onlooker yelled, “Go, Lozen!” She pulled her shoulders back, lifted her head and looked straight ahead to the sprawling landscape of cacti and Emory oaks that give the region its name.She kept dancing.For many in the San Carlos Apache Tribe, Oak Flat — or Chi’chil Biłdagoteel — is where time began.Some believe the Creator, or Usen, made a corridor between heaven and earth on Oak Flat, and Ga’an, mountain spirits, live in the hills. Not all of the roughly 41,000 members in the eight federally recognized Apache tribes consider Oak Flat to be sacred ground. Those who do, however, revere it as one of the few places to reenact the story of White Painted Woman. Some believe earth was first covered with water, and when the floodwaters receded, White Painted Woman emerged from the earth as a sign of renewal of life. Apaches believe she was touched by the rays of the sun and gave birth to twins who were guided by Ga’an and fought off evil monsters on earth.“It’s no different than Mount Sinai and how the Holy Spirit came to be,” said Wendsler Nosie Sr., who runs Apache Stronghold, the nonprofit group fighting the mine, and who is a former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. “It’s a holy place that gives the teaching of God’s creation to all of us. It makes us who we are.”Gold, silver and copper were found in the area in the 1870s. As miners moved in, Native Americans were forced out by the U.S. military. In one spot, called Apache Leap, U.S. cavalry pushed warriors to the edge of the cliff. They chose to jump to their deaths rather than surrender.Since then, the history of the land has been a continuing fight among tribes, the federal government and mining companies. For more than 80 years, the Magma Copper Co. ran an operation near Oak Flat. When geologists discovered a huge untapped deposit with high-grade copper at Oak Flat in 1995, the pressure intensified to build a mine. But Oak Flat, which lies within the Tonto National Forest and is controlled by the U.S. Forest Service, has part of the deposit that has been protected from mining. Congress found a way around this problem in 2014 when it passed a law that lifted the ban, allowing a private company to swap land it owns for access to public land.Resolution Copper has offered to exchange 5,000 acres elsewhere in Arizona for 2,400 acres around Oak Flat, but a court injunction has temporarily stopped the transfer. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona) introduced legislation Wednesday to repeal the land exchange with Resolution Copper, a bill similar to one her father filed unsuccessfully in 2015.Mining the ore beneath Oak Flat would not be easy. Roughly a mile beneath the surface, material would be removed from below the deposit and transported underground to a processing facility about 2.5 miles away. As the ore gets removed, the rock above would gradually collapse.In a report this year, the U.S. Forest Service said such mining would ultimately create a crater 1,000 feet deep and two miles wide. By comparison that’s about two times the height of the Washington Monument and the length of the National Mall.Apache Stronghold, environmentalists and the San Carlos Apache Tribe argue in their lawsuits that the mine project violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and an 1852 treaty with the U.S. government to protect certain lands for Apaches.“Religious Indigenous claims are subject to a double standard and get lesser protection,” said Luke Goodrich, a lawyer for Apache Stronghold and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “Because of the nation’s history of dispossessing Indigenous people of their land, their sites are on land that’s controlled by the federal government. Their practices are uniquely tied to land in a way that other religions aren’t, so they disproportionately have to rely on the government for practicing their religious practices.”The legal arguments have mostly failed so far. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear one of the cases. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, a strong defender of Native rights, issued a dissenting opinion, calling the decision a “grievous mistake.”“The government has long protected both the land and the Apaches’ access to it. No more,” Gorsuch wrote. “Just imagine if the government sought to demolish a historic cathedral on so questionable a chain of legal reasoning. I have no doubt that we would find that case worth our time.”Other lawsuits based on similar religious claims and the potentially negative environmental impacts from the mine are making their way through the courts. In early January, the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will hear arguments in three lawsuits filed against the federal government and the company by several Apache women, the San Carlos Apache Tribe and the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, which represents conservation and environmental groups.Adam Gustafson, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement: “These baseless lawsuits are just the latest effort to block development of natural resources that benefit the American people.”Four days before the start of Lozen’s Sunrise Dance, the Supreme Court again declined a request to hear one of the cases.Lozen’s mother, Sinetta Lopez, told her daughter the news.“I told her: ‘You could be the last one to dance at Oak Flat or the first one to win the fight,’” she said.Just after sunrise on the first day of the ceremony, Lozen’s godmother — Tanya Rogers — adorned her with items symbolic of becoming a young woman.A floor-length buckskin dress. A T-shaped beaded necklace. An abalone shell tied with a thin leather strap on her forehead. In Lozen’s long dark hair, she pinned an eagle feather — a symbol of prayers for a long and healthy life. She passed her a cane made from trees at Oak Flat.“Every knot, every piece of leather from a deer, it’s done with prayer and a song that goes with it,” Vanessa Nosie said. “When it’s placed on her, it’s her protection, her shield. It’s her story of our people.”Dozens of Apache girls choose to go through the ritual every year, mainly in the spring and summer. Lozen’s was late in the season to accommodate the class schedule at the charter prep school in Scottsdale where she plays volleyball and basketball and runs cross-country. Not all Sunrise Dances happen at Oak Flat. Some perform the ceremony at their reservations.By tradition, a girl is ready for her Sunrise Dance within four days of her first menstruation. Most families spend months planning the ceremony. Lozen, who is named after a well-known Apache woman who fought alongside Geronimo, had gone as a young girl to the ceremonies of her older cousin and her sister.“She’d play with dolls as a kid and paint their faces with the yellow pollen that we believe is for blessings and prayers,” her mother said.Now it was Lozen’s turn.A week before the ceremony, Lozen’s family brought truckloads of tents, blankets, clothing, pots, pans, grills, folding tables, chairs, firewood and food. One morning, a group of men cut down willow trees for Lozen to build her wickiup — a traditional dome-shaped Apache home.“The home she learns to build is a symbol of how she will form her life,” her mother said. “It has to be strong and keep her family warm in the winter and cool in the summer and be able to withstand life.”Lozen and her cousin, who had already performed the ceremony, stayed in the structure for several nights. No smartphones and no metal were allowed inside.“I got to see more things at Oak Flat that you don’t get to see if you’re on your phone — like hummingbirds,” she said.On that Saturday morning, Lozen began to reenact the story of White Painted Woman. Facing the rising sun, she bounced on her knees with her hands beside her face for roughly 20 minutes.“She’s dancing to the sun, just like the White Painted Woman came out and saw the sun,” said Theresa Nosie, Wendsler’s wife.Two tall mine towers poked from the ridge about a mile away. Resolution Copper, a joint venture of two multinational mining companies (Rio Tinto and BHP), has redeveloped some of the old Magma operation as part of its plan for the new mine.The company says about 80 of the approximately 400 workers preparing the site come from the San Carlos Apache Tribe. When the mine is fully operational, Resolution Copper has said, it will employ about 1,400 workers. Some tribal members see the jobs as a boon to the estimated 10,000 tribal members who live on the reservation, where the unemployment rate hovers above 60 percent. But the tribe’s consultants have disputed the jobs estimate, saying much of the work at the mine will be automated.“People will ask me: ‘Are there any jobs?’ ‘Can you get my son or my uncle a job?’” said Brenda Astor, a member of the San Carlos Apache who lives on the reservation, about 60 miles from Oak Flat. For three years, she has worked as a principal adviser for Native affairs at Resolution Copper. “This is a chance for our own people to help ourselves by getting jobs and bringing that salary back home and providing for their families.”That evening, a few men built a huge bonfire. Dancers dressed as Ga’an — with tall wooden headdresses, bells tied on their ankles and sacred symbols painted white on their bodies — appeared around the blaze. Lozen and a few other girls who had already gone through their sunrise ceremonies danced with them.As the bonfire’s flames stretched into the night sky, a red light atop the mine towers blinked in the distance.Heavy rain and flash flooding arrived before the third day. Women chased pots and pans that floated away in the current. Men carried children in pajamas on their backs, ferrying them from tents filled with water and mud to their vehicles.But no one considered calling off the ceremony as it approached a crucial moment.Lozen’s godfather took white clay — made from water and ash — and painted her face, shoulders and hair with it. In the Apache creation story, the White Painted Woman is covered in ash when she emerges from the earth.Lozen closed her eyes as the dripping clay hardened on her face. After a few minutes, her godmother carefully wiped her eyes with a scarf, marking her official transition to womanhood. Lozen was now seeing with new eyes.“You watch your child go from baby to toddler and then to a young girl,” Sinetta Lopez said. “And then to watch her eyes as they’re wiped as she transitioned to a young woman in front of you. It’s like she’s reborn.”Naelyn Pike, one of Wendsler’s granddaughters, said watching Lozen was powerful. “She’s this young girl telling the world: ‘I’m here. I exist. We, my people, still exist,’” she said.Resolution Copper believes the mine will not impact the Apaches’ desire to preserve their sacred ground.“The copper at Oak Flat is one of the deposits that really counts,” said Lawrence Cathles, a geologist at Cornell University. But getting to the deep reserve, which in spots is more than a mile below the surface, is tricky and involves a method known as panel caving. Workers must bore deep shafts and tunnels to get to the ore. Gradually, the surface at Oak Flat will collapse like a sinkhole, mining experts said. Many conservationists and Native Americans worry about the environmental harm to plants, animals and water supplies.Resolution Copper’s general manager and president, Vicky Peacey, disagreed. She said 70 percent of Oak Flat will be untouched, including the campground where the sunrise ceremonies are held. “It’s possible it may never be impacted,” Peacey said.As part of the land transfer, Resolution Copper agreed to give public access to the campground as long as the company deems it is safe.Peacey said her company has worked with 11 Native American tribes in the region to protect parts of Oak Flat, including historic Apache Leap, and avoid some spots where there are significant streams and medicinal plants. Resolution Copper has said it plans to set aside $54 million in an endowment for the 11 tribes to use for education, helping youths and preserving cultural heritage.“We’ve worked with them,” Peacey said of the tribes, “on how we can change things so culture and nature can coexist with mining.”For Lozen, there was one final step in her passage to womanhood.Still covered in white clay, Lozen rode about two miles down an unpaved road with her mom, sister and a few other women. Then the women hiked, climbing over slippery boulders down into a canyon where rocks rose steeply on either side of a pool of water.Lozen lay on her back on the rocks, her long dark hair flowing in the pool. Her sister and other girls cut open yucca they had carried from camp. Her mother squeezed the yucca so it foamed, making shampoo, and gently washed the clay from Lozen’s hair.After the hair washing, Lozen laughed and swam with her cousin in the pool. Her mom later said: “The trees, the water here. This is all going to be wiped out with the mine, as they dig deep into the ground.”Storm clouds rolled above the canyon wall. Lozen scrambled out of the water in front of the older women and emerged as one of them.

Animals
Conservation
Culture

Scientific American’s Best Nonfiction of 2025

The 10 best nonfiction books of 2025, from the history of replaceable body parts to our AI future

Discovering nonfiction that reads like a story but keeps the scholarship front and center is the great white whale hunt for bookish adventurers. Countless authors attempt the feat, but it’s rare to find a book that showcases not only a fresh voice but also a new perspective.Scientific American staff read some truly exceptional nonfiction books in 2025 while on the prowl for intriguing stories, robust reporting and exceptional voices. Below is Scientific American’s best nonfiction of 2025, culminating a year of reading and adding new books to the top shelf.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.All books featured here have been independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through links on our site, Scientific American may earn an affiliate commission.Empire of AIby Karen HaoPenguin PressTags: AI, InvestigativeEasily one of the most gripping nonfiction books I’ve ever read, it keeps you hanging with cliff-hangers that envelop its dramatic characters, occasionally brave and often cowardly people hired and fired by artificial intelligence company OpenAI. One of the few journalists ever invited to interview OpenAI staff, Hao’s expertise flies off every page, and her dozens of pages of notes and citations back it up. She doesn’t hold back as she unveils the ivory towers and monied meetings driving AI, as well as the unrecognized workers around the globe sacrificing their mental health to build it safer. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights ManagerIs a River Alive?by Robert MacfarlaneW. W. NortonTags: Environment, HistoryDoes nature have inherent rights—to be respected and to be protected and restored from damage? To find answers, nature writer Robert Macfarlane traveled to three very different rivers in Ecuador, India and eastern Canada. His keen observational eye and provocative prose reveal the majesty of the many degraded rivers around the world. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter EditorReplaceable Youby Mary RoachW. W. NortonTags: Medical Science, HumorRoach has knocked it out of the park again. We follow her around the globe as she sniffs out the most curious, novel and extraordinary science happening in the amorphous field of human augmentation. In just the tip of the iceberg of her many adventures in this slim book, she interviews people who have elected to have their limbs removed, meets scientists studying pig organs and spends some time in an iron lung just to see what it feels like. Roach’s writing is on full display on these pages. She’s brilliant but also approachable and funny—a dream dinner guest in your pocket. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights ManagerEverything Is Tuberculosisby John GreenCrash Course BooksTags: Medical Science, HistoryEverything Is Tuberculosis shatters the misconception of a disease too easily thought vanquished. In this urgent and compassionate work, John Green shows how this illness is still the world’s deadliest infectious disease, and he does it with sharp reporting and deeply emotional storytelling. His voice resonates with clarity and conviction. The book combines history and science to make the unsettling point that tuberculosis is nothing but a social issue tied to inequality. Eye-opening and unsettling, it’s a call to action against inequality to be remembered in nonfiction. —Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Feather Detectiveby Chris SweeneyAvid Reader PressTags: True Crime, Bird BooksIn 1960 a commercial flight taking off from Boston Logan International Airport ran into a flock of birds and nosedived into nearby Winthrop Bay, killing 62 of the 72 people on board. Investigators sent bird remains embedded in the wreckage to the Smithsonian Institution in what became the first forensics case for Roxie Laybourne, a then up-and-coming taxidermist at the institute and the wonderful protagonist of this compelling, novel-like account. Journalist Chris Sweeney traces Laybourne’s rise to become a legendary forensic ornithologist, one who in her career would identify the remains of more than 10,000 airplane-struck birds. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter EditorThis Is for Everyoneby Tim Berners-LeeFarrar, Straus and GirouxTags: Technology, HistoryThis might be the first celebrity memoir I’ve ever read, inspired by my former co-worker Hector Coronado’s promise of “Rebecca Solnit–esque optimism” and an introduction to the technology behind the World Wide Web that non–tech nerds could understand. It’s a breezy ride through the life of Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, who peppers the Web’s key technological developments and societal challenges with the occasional encounter with Bono or the Queen of England. Most powerful is Berners-Lee’s dedication to his vision of what the Web, specifically, and the Internet writ large can be—even as the rich and powerful have spent decades manipulating it to their own ends. —Meghan Bartels, Senior ReporterHuman Natureby Kate MarvelEccoTags: Climate Change, HistoryMarvel is a huge figure in the climate science world, and her book offers a compelling introduction to the science of how our planet is changing. But this engaging book does so much more. Each chapter explores one emotion that climate change can inspire in us. And sitting with these emotions isn’t a frivolous distraction from the work that needs to be done, Marvel argues. Instead, feeling deeply about our world and the threats it faces—the anger and fear and grief, of course, but also the wonder and surprise and hope—is a necessary step in healing our planet. —Meghan Bartels, Senior ReporterTake to the Treesby Marguerite HollowayW. W. NortonTags: Memoir, NatureHolloway, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, takes us to a new understanding about the trials and tribulations of ecology, contrasting the planet’s environmental crisis with her own personal stories of survival. She climbs great hemlocks with a women’s climbing group to overcome a fear of heights brought on by motherhood and the loss of her brother and mother. We learn along with her to appreciate the details, described so lovingly and painstakingly, of endangered trees. The spot illustrations of leaves, bark, roots and seeds by Ellen Wiener enliven our enjoyment even more. (Full disclosure: Holloway and I were colleagues at Scientific American for many years, and I was privileged to see her journalism career blossom.) —Maria-Christina Keller, Copy DirectorThey Poisoned the Worldby Mariah BlakeCrownTags: True Crime, HistoryAn epic of science writing, for which Blake conducted more than 600 interviews, They Poisoned the World brings readers to Hoosick Falls, N.Y., where townspeople keep falling ill and dying from a mysterious cause. Meanwhile the local factories producing Teflon pump pollutants into local water supplies. Over decades, the dangers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, so called forever chemicals, come to light despite the manufacturers’ attempts to keep dodging responsibility. This book will likely leave you horrified and enraged. But reckoning with the truth—no matter how stomach-turning—is the first step toward justice. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter EditorRaising Hareby Chloe DaltonPantheonTags: Memoir, NatureIf the sensation “cozy” were a book, it would be Chloe Dalton’s memoir Raising Hare. She recounts her tale as a workaholic city slicker who starts living in a cottage in the English countryside during the height of the pandemic. Out on a walk one day, she comes across an abandoned newborn hare. After deliberating, she brings it home with her. Determined to maintain a kind of wild existence for the animal, she rearranges her life to care for the sweet creature. Along the way, Dalton discovers a newfound interest in the natural world and draws attention to how commercial agricultural practices harm wild animals. This book may especially appeal to animal lovers, but it will warm all hearts. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Animals
Chemicals
Climate

Suggested Viewing

Wild Florida's Vanishing Call

A moving, powerful inside look at what has happened to the wild, rarely seen, real Florida. A compelling, emotional soundtrack carries the viewer through the past destruction of wild Florida habitats, to beautiful scenes of Florida's rarely seen native wild animals, including the most endangered cat in North America, the Florida Panther, and ends with a positive message encouraging the viewer to work to protect Florida's wildlife and habitat before it is too late.

Animals
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Music

The Straight Poop

Our animated short entertains while presenting eye-opening information on one of the fastest, most effective ways to slow the rate of global warming. Our film is an engaging way of addressing the dangers of climate change that educates in a non-threatening comical way. Individuals concerned about climate change can make relatively small personal choices that can have a huge positive effect.

Animals
Climate
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TO SEE THE SNOW LEOPARD

“To see a snow leopard is to see God.” It’s a film about the search of the snow leopard - a beautiful and rare animal. There are only a few thousand of them left on the planet. Most of the animals have been given names but almost no one has seen them. This is a story about the mystery of human’s contact with another life, with wild nature, and the search for the lost source of inner strength. Scientists, hunters, shamans, tourists - the leopard sees them, but they do not see him.

Animals

Coming Home - Back to the Wild

They are among the rarest animals in the world: lynxes, European minks, swamp turtles and ground squirrels. They all once disappeared from Germany. In an attempt to rewild Germanys nature, they are now returning. The film follows their individual journeys back to the wild. For those who are now reclaiming their old habitat, it is a long and dangerous road.

Animals
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Silent Forests

Loss of more than half the central African forest elephant population to poaching in the last decade has led to a concerted effort to save those that remain. These efforts are explored through one of Cameroon’s first female eco-guards, a grassroots wildlife law enforcement group, a Congolese biologist studying elephant behavior, a reformed elephant poacher, and anti-poaching sniffer dogs led by a Czech conservationist, all fighting corruption despite a lack of funding that threatens to derail their work to save the elephants.

Animals
Conservation
Documentary

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