https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils/ en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. The latest discoveries by an international research team, which includes Academy Research Fellow Ferhat Kaya from the University of Oulu, Finland, offer a detailed view of how early humans lived, moved, and adapted to their environment 100,000 years ago. The group has been studying the Afar Rift since 1981. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-human-cremation-date-years.html Archaeology Sat, 23 May 2026 12:00:01 EDT news698577540 Long-distance migration along Peru's Pacific coast began at least 800 years ago, centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire and much earlier than previously thought, a new international study reveals. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-dna-reveals-web-marriage.html Archaeology Fri, 22 May 2026 05:00:03 EDT news698575021 Researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have found new indications of how large prehistoric settlements were organized. Their research focused on a special type of building known as a megastructure. Excavations in Romania have now shown that this type of building was also found in smaller settlements. Megastructures give new insights into how communities with thousands of members were able to function without any recognizable hierarchies. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-romania-uncovers-square-meter-megastructure.html Archaeology Thu, 21 May 2026 19:40:05 EDT news698599861 Analysis of more than 3,000 lithic artifacts from the Cova Gran de Santa Linya site (Les Avellanes-Santa Linya, Lleida) shows that anatomically modern human communities occupying the southern Pyrenees during the Upper Paleolithic used flint (chert) exclusively for tool production. The findings, published in the journal Quaternary International, indicate that raw-material selection was closely linked to technological changes, mobility organization and the ways in which these groups interacted with the landscape. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-flint-reveals-human-mobility-southern.html Archaeology Thu, 21 May 2026 11:40:04 EDT news698577482 Examination of pigeon bones from Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus indicates they were already semi-domesticated as early as c. 1400 BCE, pushing back direct evidence for pigeon domestication almost 1,000 years and challenging perceptions of the birds as opportunistic urban pests. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-friend-foul-exploring-ancient-bond.html Archaeology Wed, 20 May 2026 19:00:03 EDT news697969741 Climate change is rapidly destroying cultural heritage sites across the Arctic, as exemplified in a 17th century "whalers' graveyard" which provides invaluable insights into early whalers' way of life, according to a study published in PLOS One by Lise Loktu of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research and Elin Therese Brødholt of Oslo University Hospital, Norway. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-climate-destroying-arctic-cultural-heritage.html Archaeology Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:03 EDT news698493781 The first documented case of a fixed bone bridge unearthed in Portugal was presented in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology by researchers Ms. Steffi Vassallo and her colleagues. The item is estimated to date to the 19th century and is likely to have served a more aesthetic than functional purpose. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-portugal-burial-reveals-bone-dental.html Archaeology Wed, 20 May 2026 09:20:04 EDT news698487394 For decades, historians have generally agreed that the progress of small villages as they evolved into cities came at the price of widening inequality. A small group of leaders, kings and priests, would inevitably seize control of the wealth and the gap between rich and poor would grow. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-year-city-defied-history-equal.html Archaeology Tue, 19 May 2026 14:10:01 EDT news698414541 Hundreds of stone jars, some weighing several tons, are scattered across the remote uplands of northern Laos. Despite being researched for nearly a century, their purpose remains uncertain. "Archaeologists generally agree they were used in mortuary rituals, but we don't know how they were exactly used, who made them or how old they are," says Dr. Nicholas Skopal from James Cook University, who co-led the study with the Lao Department of Heritage representative, Souilya Bounxayhip. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-burial-emerge-laos-mysterious.html Archaeology Mon, 18 May 2026 19:00:01 EDT news697819981 The climate of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean was far more turbulent than previously thought—and a new study suggests that people adapted anyway. An international team of scientists, spearheaded by UC San Diego's Center for Cyber-Archaeology and Sustainability (CCAS) and the University of Haifa's Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies (RIMS), has developed a new way to track ancient climate and used it to decode 4,000 years of key environmental history in the ancient Mediterranean. The paper was published in Quaternary Science Reviews on May 13. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-wetland-sediment-scientists-uncover-centuries.html Archaeology Mon, 18 May 2026 17:20:04 EDT news698337181 Eastern Africa's earliest livestock herders continued fishing, hunting and gathering for centuries after livestock were first brought to the region. The first pastoralists in eastern Africa didn't suddenly switch to a diet centered only on cows, sheep and goats. Instead, they kept eating a wide mix of foods—fish, wild animals and plants—alongside livestock for at least 1,000 years. The strategy may have helped them adapt to a harsh, changing climate. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-cattle-early-east-african-herders.html Archaeology Mon, 18 May 2026 15:00:09 EDT news698317797 Neanderthal populations in southern Europe collected shellfish throughout the year, with a marked preference for the colder months, according to a new international study led by researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the IsoTOPIK Lab at the University of Burgos (UBU), and the Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria at the University of Cantabria (UC). https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neanderthals-shellfish-strategies-modern-humans.html Archaeology Mon, 18 May 2026 15:00:01 EDT news698322686 Researchers have demonstrated a nondestructive way to collect cellular material from historical parchment manuscripts, allowing them to conduct genetic analyses that offer new insights into everything from trade routes to agricultural practices dating back 1,300 years—without harming the valuable manuscripts. The paper, "Adventures in the Animal Archive: New Techniques for the Genetic Analysis of Parchment Manuscripts," is published in the journal Manuscript Studies. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nondestructive-dna-sampling-reveals-years.html Archaeology Mon, 18 May 2026 14:00:05 EDT news698322298 A millennium-old dingo deliberately buried by Barkindji ancestors along the Baaka, or Darling River, is offering rare insight into the depth of relationships between First Nations people and dingoes in western New South Wales, Australia. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-evidence-reveals-millennium-dingo-ritually.html Archaeology Mon, 18 May 2026 10:00:10 EDT news698071561 A recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, led by Dr. Elena Fiorin and her colleagues investigated the potential use of mercury-based treatments for leprosy during the late medieval period. Typically, such examinations are conducted on bone; this study is the first to analyze mercury concentrations in dental calculus and finds that individuals buried in leprosaria cemeteries had elevated mercury levels, likely from medical treatment. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-medieval-teeth-perspective-leprosy-toxic.html Archaeology Sat, 16 May 2026 08:10:01 EDT news697787929 As the United States prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, researchers from 23andMe Research Institute, Harvard University, and the Smithsonian Institution have teamed up to study one of the country's founding settlements: St. Mary's City, Maryland. Established in 1634, St. Mary's City was the first English settlement in the colony of Maryland. Despite existing written records and the ability of many present-day Americans to trace their ancestry to the historic city, many gaps remain in our knowledge of this early founder population. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-historical-dna-million-17th-century.html Archaeology Thu, 14 May 2026 17:03:19 EDT news697996981 Horses were being ridden, worked, and traded long before anyone thought it possible. New research pushes back the accepted timeline of human use of horses by centuries, showing that humans used horses in organized ways as early as the 4th millennium BCE, if not earlier. The research is published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-domesticated-horses-years-complex-story.html Archaeology Wed, 13 May 2026 15:26:02 EDT news697904274 We hardly give them a second thought, but everyday objects like bags and backpacks belong to a long technological tradition that may stretch back hundreds of thousands of years. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-history-ancient-technology-hundreds-thousands.html Archaeology Wed, 13 May 2026 14:40:02 EDT news697899984 Neanderthals had the know-how to identify a tooth infection and the motor skills to drill out the damage, according to a study published May 13, 2026, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Alisa Zubova of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences (Kunstkamera), St. Petersburg, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neanderthal-dentists-stone-drills-cavities.html Archaeology Wed, 13 May 2026 14:00:05 EDT news697822120 Agriculture reached the coast of southern Denmark around 4000 BCE, but these prehistoric Scandinavians continued to fish and hunt too, according to a study published in PLOS One by Daniel Groß from the Museum Lolland-Falster, Denmark, Sofie Folsach Hellerøe from Aarhus University, Denmark, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-prehistoric-danish-people-fish-agriculture.html Archaeology Wed, 13 May 2026 14:00:01 EDT news697886399 In our research in the British Library's medieval collections, we have identified a previously unnoticed document that provides fresh insights into the survivors of the outbreak of plague known as the Black Death (1346–53). https://phys.org/news/2026-05-black-death-survivors-reveals-people.html Archaeology Wed, 13 May 2026 12:17:19 EDT news697893421 A recent study published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology documented skeletal changes linked to scurvy in Late Holocene archaeological sites in California (500 BCE–1834 CE). The change observed shows the cascading impacts of dietary practices on skeletal development, including in infants, which may have been affected during pregnancy or breastfeeding, highlighting the largely invisible impacts of pregnancy in the archaeological record. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scurvy-skeletal-fingerprint-california-late.html Archaeology Mon, 11 May 2026 21:20:01 EDT news697717776 Recent satellite remote sensing surveys have identified 280 stone structures spread across the Atbai desert in Sudan. Twenty of these structures were previously identified by fieldwork or informal surveys, but were not systematically studied as a regional tradition. Now, new research, published in the African Archaeological Review, takes a closer look at the purpose of these monuments and the unique, cattle-centered pastoralist culture behind them. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-sudan-vast-stone-circles-reveal.html Archaeology Mon, 11 May 2026 13:20:05 EDT news697722033 Having weathered nearly 1,500 years of time and exposure, the remains of Roman-Byzantine villages in Syria have been the subject of recent architectural investigations, which reveal remarkable design features, local construction techniques, and spatial layouts that could inform and be adapted for future restoration projects. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-advanced-techniques-domestic-layouts-roman.html Archaeology Mon, 11 May 2026 12:00:10 EDT news697716062 There is an old adage that goes, "you are what you eat," meaning that the food you consume helps build your body and fuel your mind. The same is true now as it ever was. When it comes to early humans, studying what they ate and how they obtained high-quality food, such as meat, can help us understand how their brains evolved and their social behaviors began to take shape. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-million-year-bones-reveal-early.html Archaeology Sun, 10 May 2026 11:20:01 EDT news697292329 A study published in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology has identified the earliest evidence of prehistoric occupation by island dwellers of northern Sri Lanka. Long thought to be unsuitable for human occupation due to its scarce stone resources and semi-arid landscape, the findings at Velanai Island challenge this long-held belief and offer insights into early raw-material exploitation, seafaring capabilities, and subsistence behavior. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-northern-sri-lanka-oldest-settlement.html Archaeology Fri, 08 May 2026 18:20:02 EDT news697453205 Millet has been an important crop in East Asia for much of the Holocene, a period beginning about 11,700 years ago. To better understand how environmental conditions may have shaped the development of millet agriculture, researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and their collaborators investigated loess deposits from the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-soil-temperatures-millet-farming.html Archaeology Thu, 07 May 2026 17:10:07 EDT news697390681 Neanderthals may not only have feasted on rhinoceroses, they may also have used their exceptionally hard teeth as specialized tools for a range of tasks, such as retouching the edges of stone tools. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-modern-rhino-teeth-neanderthal-toolkits.html Archaeology Thu, 07 May 2026 14:40:03 EDT news697376945 A University of Calgary archaeologist has found evidence that the Classic Period Maya were trading live dogs over long distances between the northern Yucatan peninsula and central Chiapas regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-archaeologists-unearth-evidence-dogs-mayan.html Archaeology Thu, 07 May 2026 10:00:04 EDT news697364055 In central China, scientists have spent over a decade excavating and studying an archaeological site where ancient humans butchered animals. Amidst bones, archaeologists found complex stone tools that would have required a level of intelligence and creativity to make. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ice-age-butcher-tools-ancient.html Archaeology Thu, 07 May 2026 07:00:01 EDT news697275121