Space, the final archaeological frontier? Following NASA’s recent Golden Anniversary celebrations, David Miles looks to the skies for extra-terrestrial archaeology.  
Archaeology, like the Universe, keeps expanding. In the late 1960s pessimists foretold archaeology’s total destruction: sites ripped apart, scattered and buried by humanity careless of its own past. In fact, the evidence of our past has increased enormously in recent decades. At the microscopic level lipids, genes and isotopes tell us where we came from and what we ate. Robots and sonar locate time capsules in the deep sea; landscapes, where once hunters pursued big game, are exposed beneath post-glacial flood-waters. Even in well-explored areas aerial photography, LIDAR and geophysics constantly reveal new discoveries. Archaeologists also increasingly poke their curious noses into the recent past. In the noughties, English Heritage has put more energy into recording the 20th century than any other period – the new archaeology of modern warfare, air travel, mining and manufacturing, petrol stations and seaside resorts. The Defence of Britain project, recording 20th century military remains was a massive volunteer effort. And my favourite recent English Heritage publication: The Archaeology of Rocketry.

The archaeologists had reached the site’s natural sandy substrate – the site was finished and their work was done. Then they noticed a surprise pot and then another pot. Then, before them, an entire, highly unusual cemetery unfolded. Site director Charles Higham reveals the latest findings from Ban Non Wat.

It was not much: two simple hearths, three small postholes, and a fragment of pointed bronze. But it was found on Robinson Crusoe Island. And it was almost certainly the hut of the world-famous castaway. Excavators Daisuke Takahashi and David Caldwell report.

The life of Abraham Lincoln has always aroused passionate interest in the United States, but with 2009 as the bicentennial celebration of his birth,  excitement is gathering at an even faster pace. Some 300 biographies of Lincoln are already on the market, with more to come, along with a Stephen Spielberg cinema biography starring Liam Neeson. Now archaeology is adding a new chapter. Judith Harris reports.

For the half century prior to 1830, Illinois represented the farthest reach of the American frontier. Its erstwhile life is being painstakingly reconstructed by archaeologists from carefully culled material remains and traces in the landscape itself. To find their bearings, many archaeologists can depend upon traces of rock, brick or stone, but in Lincoln’s homeland of Central Illinois—1,500 square miles of flat, grass-covered prairie threaded by rivers and encircled by forest—almost all constructions by the first European settlers were of wood. Ravaged by deep winter snows and torrid summers, the log cabins they built for temporary homes, barns, taverns and shops speedily disintegrated. In addition, log cabins would be abandoned and, often, their logs hauled elsewhere for re-use.
The earliest human settlers, according to general consensus, first appeared here about 12,000 years ago in the then recently glacier-free valleys and uplands, leaving pottery, notched spear points, ornaments, tools and ceremonial objects. In the early 18th century, French trappers and explorers arrived and created their own settlements, followed a century later by American pioneers.