https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils/ en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. On the edge of the Mongolian steppe, overlooking where two rivers meet, lies an ancient cemetery. Buried within are two families, traced through ancient DNA across six generations, surrounded by dozens of "strangers." The obvious assumption is that this was a family cemetery. But a recent study used machine learning and a technique borrowed from evolutionary biology to reveal that what really mattered was wealth, status and political power, not blood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-mongolian-cemetery-reveals-power.html Archaeology Sat, 20 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news700818517 Excavations in Nijmegen-West have uncovered large sections of a Roman bathhouse. It is the largest bathhouse complex from the Roman period in the Netherlands. Radboud researcher Stephan Mols can often be found at the excavation site. "The new finds show that the Romans did not regard this city as a backwater. The buildings were even larger and more imposing than we had previously thought." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-unearthed-bathhouse-reveals-roman-nijmegen.html Archaeology Fri, 19 Jun 2026 09:40:02 EDT news701079428 The RINO project was born from the discovery of unusual marks on rhinoceros teeth recovered from the prehistoric Payre site in France's Rhône Valley. The study of fossil rhinoceros teeth from this Middle Paleolithic site, dating to around 250,000–130,000 years ago, provides unprecedented evidence that Neanderthals used them as tools. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-neanderthals-rhinoceros-teeth-tools.html Archaeology Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:20:06 EDT news701004661 The identity of a centuries-old shipwreck discovered off the south coast of England, holding 400 gold coins, has finally been identified as the Dutch trading ship "Dom van Keulen," which left Morocco for the Netherlands in the autumn of 1633. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mystery-17th-century-shipwreck-gold.html Archaeology Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:40:05 EDT news700997942 Heidelberg University researchers have deciphered the inscription on an ancient curse tablet, which was once used to invoke deities and demons in order to harm an enemy. The "magical" artifact from the Roman province of Lower Germania was discovered during excavations carried out in the Dutch municipality of Heerlen. The lead tablet, which dates to the 2nd century A.D., is distinctive in that it contains not a Latin but an ancient Greek text in the Egyptian style, as Dr. Rodney Ast, academic director at the Institute for Papyrology, explains. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-curse-tablet-rare-greek.html Archaeology Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:20:04 EDT news700919282 Plague is commonly associated with rats, crowded medieval cities, and the epidemics that swept across Europe during and after the Middle Ages. But a new study published in Nature shows that the disease was already lethal 5,500 years ago, when it killed humans in small, mobile hunter-gatherer communities—long before the rise of agriculture and cities created the conditions usually associated with plague epidemics. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-dna-uncovers-deadly-plague.html Archaeology Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:00:15 EDT news700748701 Greenland has a long and checkered history of human settlement: several Paleo-Inuit cultures since approximately 2,500 BCE, descendants of Vikings between the 10th and 15th centuries, and early modern Danes since 1721. All left their traces on the landscape, for example in the form of ancient domestic rubbish heaps. Composed of waste like animal bones, excrement, mollusk shells and human artifacts, these middens are a precious resource for archaeologists. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-frozen-greenland-middens-years-farms.html Archaeology Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:01 EDT news700748581 A new study by Prof. Avraham Faust of Bar-Ilan University's Department of General History presents new evidence that may shed light on one of the most debated questions in the study of Israelite religion: Did King Hezekiah's religious reforms actually occur, and did they transform religious practices throughout the Kingdom of Judah? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-year-stone-fresh-evidence-king.html Archaeology Tue, 16 Jun 2026 11:40:06 EDT news700822981 Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have created an open database with 124 carbon-14-dated samples that have made it possible to construct the chronological sequence of 380 sites located in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. The evidence confirms continuous human occupation for several thousand years at sites found at more than 2,000 meters (6,562 feet). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-radiocarbon-dating-years-human-occupation.html Archaeology Tue, 16 Jun 2026 08:40:07 EDT news700817942 Archaeologists have discovered a game board carved into the steps of a medieval bathhouse in the Moroccan town of Walīla (the Roman city of Volubilis). The find is a rare example of a medieval game board that can be securely dated. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-medieval-moroccan-bathhouse-reveal-rare.html Archaeology Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:53:29 EDT news700735920 We see glass objects every day and often don't think much about them. Mass-produced glass has become so cheap we barely think about the things it allows us to do. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-glassblowing-everyday-life-ancient-rome.html Archaeology Sun, 14 Jun 2026 18:30:01 EDT news700232984 Archaeological evidence from the Canary Islands suggests that by the 11th century, people there were harvesting and processing a variety of fish and other marine organisms—indicating that coastal resources may have played a vital role in the economic system, according to a study published in PLOS One by Jonathan Santana of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-canary-island-relics-clues-north.html Archaeology Sun, 14 Jun 2026 14:00:06 EDT news700325786 Archaeologists digging at an Inca site on the arid coast of southern Peru have unearthed two rare, roughly 500-year-old freeze-dried potatoes. The potatoes are among the only ones found in more than a century and would have been transported across the empire from the freezing peaks of the Andes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-rare-year-dried-potatoes-unearthed.html Archaeology Sun, 14 Jun 2026 11:10:01 EDT news700215525 A new study from the HistoGenes project, of which Patrick Geary, professor emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, is co-PI, is helping scholars frame a better picture of the early medieval people who inhabited Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, as well as the societies they created. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-dna-roman-europeans-reveals.html Archaeology Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:00:01 EDT news700472282 Scientists analyzing 2,000-year-old grape seeds from ancient wells in Tuscany have mapped the most extensive genetic history of ancient grapevines recovered from a single site. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-dna-tuscan-wells-reveals.html Archaeology Thu, 11 Jun 2026 19:00:01 EDT news700385461 A clay figurine, small enough to cradle in your hand, with 11 dots arranged in columns where its head should be, may depict the oldest known example of written numbers in Mesoamerica. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-clay-figurine-guatemala-oldest.html Archaeology Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:40:02 EDT news700389498 At Kurd Qaburstan, an ancient site in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, archaeologists have uncovered the first substantial group of cuneiform administrative tablets found in the Erbil region, along with evidence of large-scale destruction, mass graves and citywide fortifications. Together, the discoveries are providing one of the clearest archaeological records yet uncovered of siege warfare and urban life during the Middle Bronze Age. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-archaeologists-uncover-year-evidence-siege.html Archaeology Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:40:04 EDT news700317061 It is generally accepted by archaeologists that modern humans originated in Africa and dispersed worldwide, while other hominins went extinct. Yet how and when Homo sapiens dispersed out of Africa, and whether it was an abrupt event, is still debated. Even more uncertain is how and when humans went from being "archaic" to "modern." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-human-evolution-messy-gradual-abrupt.html Archaeology Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:20:46 EDT news700314854 It is difficult to identify funerary practices in Iron Age (c. 800 BC–AD 43) Britain, as human remains rarely survive. However, evidence is particularly prominent in north-west Scotland, because environmental conditions support the preservation of bone. To take advantage of this, a team of researchers from the U.K. and U.S. examined two individuals (one adult female and one juvenile male) buried in a low stone cairn at Loch Borralie in Sutherland, close to the north-west extremity of the Scottish mainland. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-brain-iron-age-scotland-burial.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:00:05 EDT news699715472 Archaeologists excavating Maya sites at Kaxil Uinik and Ayiin Winik in Belize have discovered the first reported Late Postclassic altar in the region, along with additional evidence that Postclassic Maya people continued to visit abandoned locations. The study, published in Latin American Antiquity, indicates that these activities fit into a broad pattern of Postclassic veneration of earlier Maya civilization after its decline. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-maya-altar-abandoned-belize-sites.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:07:59 EDT news700229260 A study led by a UAB research team of Biological Anthropology has analyzed the genome of 54 newborns with the aim of tracking the genetic history of their culture since it developed in the Early Iron Age until the start of the Roman period, some 2,700 to 2,100 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-iberian-dna-largely-unchanged-centuries.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:00:02 EDT news700223461 Archaeologists working at the ancient Maya site of El Palmar in Campeche, Mexico, have discovered what may be the earliest known Long Count calendar date in the Maya lowlands. It is carved into a stone monument and is interpreted as Aug. 31, AD 180, in our modern calendar. The finding could reveal insights into how the earliest Maya rulers used time to stake their claim to the throne. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-oldest-maya-calendar-date-reveal.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:20:06 EDT news700225629 The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has participated in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports on Sala Keimada, one of the rock art sanctuaries in Cueva Palomera, the main cave of the Ojo Guareña Karst Complex (Merindad de Sotoscueva, Burgos, Spain). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dating-spain-sala-keimada-art.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:40:01 EDT news700222021 A new study finds that ancient hominins nearly 800,000 years ago deliberately selected specific basalt sources for different stages of tool production rather than simply using whatever stone was available nearby. By tracing the geochemical "fingerprints" of stone tools to both exposed and now-buried basalt flows, the researchers demonstrated that these hominins possessed detailed environmental knowledge, advanced planning abilities, and long-term technological traditions that were maintained and repeated across generations. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-hominins-basalt-sources-specific.html Archaeology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:40:03 EDT news700144321 Dozens of human skeletons, lying apparently randomly on and next to each other, with their skulls missing, present a terrifying sight at first glance. Since 2022, this is what researchers have been excavating in a 7,000-year-old settlement near the present-day town of Vráble in Slovakia. Are the headless skeletons the remains of a Neolithic massacre, representing gruesome evidence of a crisis in ancient society? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-headless-skeletons-insights-farming-societies.html Archaeology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:00:04 EDT news700139281 Erich Mercker (1891–1973), a painter from Munich, was quite successful in his day. Between 1933 and 1945, he painted works containing Nazi symbolism, including "Die Stätte des 9. November," which depicts the Feldherrnhalle monument in Munich commemorating the NSDAP's failed coup in 1923. After the war, Mercker, like many other German artists, simply continued his career. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ray-scans-uncover-nazi-hidden.html Archaeology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:00:02 EDT news700134843 The same three-dimensional laser scanning technology used to monitor the Colosseum in Rome will be used in a conservation project at the Ipiranga Museum in São Paulo, Brazil. Beatriz Kuhl, a professor at the University of São Paulo's Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU-USP), presented the initiative, which is scheduled to begin in July, during FAPESP Week London, held June 2–4. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-technology-efforts-rome-colosseum-ipiranga.html Archaeology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:40:01 EDT news700132033 Researchers have characterized the oral microbiomes of the Japanese population across time by analyzing the DNA preserved in dental calculus of human skeletal remains. The researchers compared microbial composition in dental calculus primarily from Edo-period individuals with that of modern dental calculus, and identified differences associated with time period, region, and the phylogeny of several oral bacterial species. The findings show that dental calculus can provide new avenues for examining human history and the relationships between humans and microorganisms. The work appears in Scientific Reports . https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-dental-calculus-uncovers-regional.html Archaeology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 05:00:04 EDT news699812161 The discovery of fire was a major milestone in human evolution, giving our ancestors a way to stay warm, ward off predators, and eventually start cooking food. But exactly when this first happened is still intensely debated, as unambiguous evidence is difficult to find. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-wonderwerk-cave-bones-reveal-human.html Archaeology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:40:01 EDT news699881346 For more than three decades, it was thought to be a relic of the Roman era. New research, however, has shown it to be a key source of evidence for understanding the commercial and military networks of the Late Medieval Mediterranean. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-helmet-hoard-benicarl-coast-roman.html Archaeology Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news699881387