https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils/ en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. In 2016, archaeologists working at the Phaleron Burial Ground, part of the ancient Attica region, uncovered an astonishing sight: three mass graves dating to the 7th and 6th centuries BCE containing the skeletons of 79 adult men. Many were bound together with metal shackles. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-shackled-men-year-greek-mass.html Archaeology Sat, 15 Aug 2026 07:20:01 EDT news705924152 For centuries, scholars have read ancient documents describing the production of brass in 10th-century A.D. China. The problem was that the earliest physical evidence of brass production would be found nearly 600 years later, in the 16th century A.D. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-guangzhou-crucibles-earliest-evidence-brass.html Archaeology Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:20:03 EDT news705921784 New genetic analyses of ancient human skeletons from western Remote Oceania are shedding light on the complex history of settlement in this vast Pacific region over the past 3,000 years. With island nations such as Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga, the region is home to societies with a remarkably high degree of linguistic and cultural diversity. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-early-settlement-dynamics-pacific-revealed.html Archaeology Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:40:02 EDT news705932641 A medieval monastery complex, long believed to be lost, has now been identified using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) in Roskilde, Denmark. The investigations have uncovered extensive and well-preserved remains of the St Clare's Convent from the 13th century, approximately 1 meter (3 feet) below today's ground surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lost-convent-rediscovered-soccer-field.html Archaeology Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:00:03 EDT news705925743 The Huashan rock art landscape in southern China, close to the border with Vietnam, is a remarkable UNESCO World Heritage site. Thousands of images are painted on river cliffs across more than 80 locations stretching 260 kilometers (162 miles). They depict people, musical instruments, boats, animals, weapons and many other figures, and date back at least 2,000 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-human-blood-ancient-chinese-art.html Archaeology Fri, 14 Aug 2026 10:00:01 EDT news705842919 Meteorites provided a rare but ready source of iron for ancient Bronze Age cultures before smelting became common. A new study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, sheds light on how the ancient Minoan and Mycenaean elite used this extraordinary metal and when its popularity declined. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-forged-meteorites-fashionable-ancient-greek.html Archaeology Fri, 14 Aug 2026 06:40:01 EDT news705839156 A new study, led by researchers at the University of Staffordshire, has found evidence of potentially hazardous microbial growth on mummified human and animal remains advertised for sale online—posing risks to both sellers and buyers. The paper is published in the International Journal of Cultural Property. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-real-mummy-curse-sale-mummified.html Archaeology Thu, 13 Aug 2026 16:20:05 EDT news705845281 When MIT historian Tristan Brown first examined a Chinese tea chest label displayed as a relic of the Boston Tea Party, he had no reason to doubt its story. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-chinese-boston-tea-party-reveals.html Archaeology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:30:02 EDT news705680941 Egyptian blue, considered the world's earliest synthetic pigment, was prized for its stable blue hues and served as a common blue paint in Egypt as early as 5,000 years ago, as well as the base material for small items such as beads and vessels in later periods. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-egyptian-blue-iron-age-iran.html Archaeology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:40:06 EDT news705664921 Deep in the Vârghiș Gorges, tucked away in the dark recesses of a cave, researchers have found the first evidence that Neanderthals used bone tools in Romania. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-evidence-neanderthal-bone-tool-romania.html Archaeology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 07:00:04 EDT news705585192 Communities living in Colombia thousands of years ago achieved an engineering wonder of the world based on cooperation among family groups without top-down government, a new study shows. Archaeologists argue that policymakers in Colombia should now adopt a similar strategy to solve the country's current water management crisis. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ancient-colombians-built-huge-centralized.html Archaeology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 05:00:05 EDT news705585182 Archaeologists have discovered two giant rock scallop beads that push back the clock on the first appearance of these high-status ornaments. The discovery shows that these prized marine beads were traded hundreds of miles from the California coast thousands of years earlier than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-oldest-giant-scallop-bead-california.html Archaeology Sun, 09 Aug 2026 08:40:03 EDT news705235339 Disarticulated bones found scattered across a luxurious Roman villa on England's Isle of Wight may be evidence of a massacre carried out during a brutal political purge in the fourth century, a new study in Britannia suggests. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-roman-bones-potential-fourth-century.html Archaeology Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:00:07 EDT news705146605 More than 1,000 years ago, two babies were tucked away in an abandoned Roman toilet channel. Yet, despite what the location suggests, they were cherished, not discarded. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-laid-rest-ancient-infants-twins.html Archaeology Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:20:01 EDT news704550428 For archaeologists, the Coëby cemetery in Brittany, France, is a gold mine for research. It contains several prehistoric stone monuments and earth mounds. In a new study of two unusually large mounds, scientists may have stumbled upon a rare style of funerary monument. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-brittany-burial-mounds-human-stones.html Archaeology Sat, 01 Aug 2026 13:00:03 EDT news704706200 The ancient Egyptian god of the moon had two very different faces: a crescent-beaked white bird and a silver-coated baboon. Now, researchers think they may have found the common thread connecting them all. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-moonlight-fur-feathers-egyptian-god.html Archaeology Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:00:01 EDT news704365393 Ancient Rome's greatest threat to food security wasn't the weather but the challenge of getting grain to the capital, according to a new study. By comparing hundreds of years of historical records with reconstructions of past climate, researchers found that periods of unusual heat, cold, drought or heavy rainfall rarely lined up with reported food shortages. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ancient-rome-food-shortages-logistics.html Archaeology Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:20:03 EDT news704705829 Ancient plant seeds provide important archaeological evidence for studying the evolution of human civilization. Lingnan University and Shandong University have jointly developed the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) archaeological system dedicated to identifying ancient Chinese plant seeds. The system emulates the identification process of archaeobotanical experts and achieves a classification accuracy of more than 90%. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ancient-chinese-seeds-spanning-years.html Archaeology Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:00:09 EDT news704640122 A few years ago, the first ceramic finds came to light during construction work in the Burg district of the municipality of Hannersdorf. Geomagnetic surveys in subsequent years provided evidence of numerous kilns thought to lie hidden beneath the field. In a recent educational excavation led by Basema Hamarneh from the University of Vienna, archaeologists uncovered two pottery kilns. Another 100 kilns are thought to remain buried—an unprecedented discovery of a local production center for utilitarian pottery from the Roman period. The finds date from the mid-1st century to the mid-2nd century CE. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-roman-workshop-reveals-large-scale.html Archaeology Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:00:04 EDT news704632681 You might not often think about the molars of livestock, but everything from the grass they eat to the water they drink can tell a story about how people lived centuries ago. An international collaboration led by University of Michigan researchers examined herd management in medieval Kazakhstan using isotopes embedded in the enamel of sheep's molars. They found that people living in the arid region fine-tuned their animal-management strategies to succeed in a challenging environment. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sheep-teeth-life-medieval-kazakhstan.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:00:03 EDT news704551022 Excavations at Hohle Fels Cave in the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Swabian Jura in southwestern Germany have again yielded two spectacular 40,000-year-old depictions of birds carved from mammoth ivory. The two figurines are the smallest discovered so far and are the size of a thumbnail, while still including many details. These remarkable finds come from the rich Aurignacian layers at Hohle Fels, which have produced some of the oldest figurative art known and date to the initial arrival of modern humans in the Upper Danube region. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ice-age-artists-thumbnail-size.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:40:01 EDT news704550903 New research conducted using airborne laser scanning reveals that a multicultural civilization that flourished in southwestern Amazonia between 600 BCE and 850 CE was home to millions of people. Spanning roughly 183,000 square kilometers (71,000 square miles), the Aquiry civilization built large centers for political and ritual purposes. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ancient-civilization-millions-flourished-amazon.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:40:02 EDT news704545984 Using cargo recovered from one of Australia's most infamous shipwrecks, new Curtin University-led research has revealed how surprisingly sophisticated global supply chains helped source and transport construction materials in the 17th century. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-shipwreck-cargo-reveals-global-secrets.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:40:09 EDT news704539141 Built from stones weighing between 2 and 25 tonnes (2 to 28 tons), the structure of Stonehenge demonstrates a scale of construction hard to imagine before the invention of the wheel. The mystery deepens when you consider that the stones are not from the local bedrock. So why these stones, and how did they get there? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-theory-sixtonne-stonehenge-scotland-thousands.html Archaeology Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:20:01 EDT news704463949 Scientists have uncovered an ancient population previously unknown to science in Ladakh, a high-altitude region in northern India. Their studies revealed individuals with a nearly perfect 50–50 mix of South Asian-related and Tibetan-related ancestry who lived approximately 1,500 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-dna-uncover-forgotten-population-world.html Archaeology Tue, 28 Jul 2026 14:20:09 EDT news704462958 The existence of humans on Malta, a tiny Mediterranean island, during the Mesolithic period is puzzling. Archaeological evidence indicates that foragers occupied the Maltese islands between 8,500 and 7,500 years ago, and it is hypothesized that they arrived by sea. How did they survive over such an extended period, given the limited resources available on this small island? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mesolithic-hunter-malta-sea.html Archaeology Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:40:01 EDT news704459221 There are countless cultures and societies around the world, spanning thousands of years. One thing they all have in common is that death is a part of everybody's life. Examining how different societies commemorate their dead can give archaeologists and anthropologists insight into how those societies work and what matters to them. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-exploring-societies-world-longer-dead.html Archaeology Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:00:37 EDT news704118781 As the construction of a hydroelectric dam loomed, archaeologists raced to uncover Angola's earliest dated burials and its only known cremation at a 15th-century settlement before it vanished beneath the water. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-angola-oldest-burials-ancient-cremation.html Archaeology Sun, 26 Jul 2026 09:00:02 EDT news703772273 Dozens of archaeological sites were destroyed by looting during Syria's civil war, which began in 2011 and lasted until 2024. Because the last comprehensive analysis was published in 2017, the extent of more recent damage to cultural heritage sites since 2016—including at UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Palmyra, long-running archaeological excavations like Mari, and the ancient Roman city of Apamea, known for its Great Colonnade—has been largely unknown. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-syria-ancient-sites-widespread-looting.html Archaeology Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:00:01 EDT news704032741 Historians and archaeologists know that maize was a central food source and cultural symbol across the ancient Maya world, but much of what is known has come from studies focused on large Maya cities and elite burials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ancient-bones-smaller-maya-communities.html Archaeology Sat, 25 Jul 2026 11:20:01 EDT news704029965