https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils/ en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. Nearly 5,000 years ago, respiratory infections, possibly including tuberculosis, were ravaging the children buried at Camino del Molino (CMOL), Spain. The massive circular burial cave carved into rock is Europe's largest Copper Age mass burial, containing over 1,300 individuals, and has been the subject of years of excavation and analysis. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-europe-largest-copper-age-tomb.html Archaeology Sat, 30 May 2026 08:40:01 EDT news698927145 Getting hot and sweaty in a British heat wave, volunteers from home and abroad have been hard at work all week to restore a historic naked chalk giant dubbed "Rude Man" on a hillside in southwest England. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-british-naked-chalk-giant-spruced.html Archaeology Sat, 30 May 2026 06:30:01 EDT news699339143 The Namibian genocide was one of the first genocides of the 20th century. Between 1904 and 1908, tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people were killed under German colonial rule. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-unearthing-namibia-forgotten-genocide-forensic.html Archaeology Thu, 28 May 2026 13:40:02 EDT news699189902 More than 1,000 years ago, Panama elites were buried together with translucent green stones long suspected to be emeralds. However, scientific analysis confirming the suspicion has never been conducted. Now, scientists have confirmed for the first time that these green gems were emeralds that traveled more than 700 km through complex trade networks linking Central and South American societies. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-green-stones-panama-ancient-chiefs.html Archaeology Thu, 28 May 2026 10:40:03 EDT news699178345 Well-preserved archaeological bone samples have different microbial communities than heavily degraded bone samples, providing a new understanding of how microbes contribute to bone degradation, according to a study published in PLOS One by Damla Kaptan from the University of Stavanger, Norway, and colleagues. This study combines detailed analyses of archaeological bone degradation with analyses of microbiome diversity, providing new insights into how microbes may contribute to long-term bone preservation and decay. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-link-specific-microbiomes-archaeological-bone.html Archaeology Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:19 EDT news699026160 Each of us tells a story about who we are, often tracing our identity back through an imagined line of ancestors. Though identity is fundamentally cultural, we tend to anchor it in biology—in the idea of a stable genetic inheritance passed down through generations. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-anglosaxons-celts-vikings-dna-uncovers.html Archaeology Tue, 26 May 2026 18:00:03 EDT news699021062 A new study by the University of Turku and partners provides fresh insights into an individual buried near Lake Kitka in Kuusamo, Finland, at the turn of the 17th century (c. 1600 CE). DNA and isotope analyses show that the individual, whose grave has been linked to Sámi cultural heritage, had a genetic connection to present-day Sámi populations and spent part of his life outside Finland. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-dna-rewrites-story-historical.html Archaeology Tue, 26 May 2026 11:40:03 EDT news699005419 Microscopic analysis of residues on surgical scissors and tweezers from a 1348–1411 CE tomb in Jiangyin, China, finds the first evidence for the controlled application of a highly toxic chemical as anesthetic, highlighting the sophisticated medicine of the Ming dynasty. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-anesthetic-reveals-ming-china.html Archaeology Mon, 25 May 2026 19:00:01 EDT news698420066 The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has led the international team behind a new study published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences exploring the complex evolution of Neanderthals in Europe. Based on the analysis of fossil teeth discovered at the archaeological site of Payre, in south-eastern France, the research provides new insights into the diversity and evolution of Neanderthal populations during the Middle Pleistocene, around 250,000 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-payre-fossils-europe-earliest-neanderthals.html Archaeology Mon, 25 May 2026 14:40:01 EDT news698933895 Children from previous relationships growing up as siblings in a new family, couples adopting or fostering children: So-called patchwork families are a widespread way of life today. It is considered modern, but is in fact ancient, according to a recent analysis of human genetic material from the Neolithic period. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-patchwork-families-years-neolithic-dna.html Archaeology Sun, 24 May 2026 10:00:01 EDT news698597579 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 As the Bayeux Tapestry comes to London, the year 1066 and the Norman Conquest are in the spotlight. The tapestry—an embroidered cloth nearly 70 meters long, created soon after the events it depicts—tells the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and William of Normandy's triumphant defeat of Harold Godwinson, King of England. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-bayeux-tapestry-winner-story-side.html Archaeology Fri, 22 May 2026 21:40:01 EDT news698665321 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 The classic image of an archaeologist is of someone unearthing a potsherd in Pompeii or opening a Viking grave to better understand the distant past. Yet the same methods can also be applied to our own time—a field known as contemporary archaeology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-contemporary-archaeologists-forgotten.html Archaeology Wed, 20 May 2026 16:20:04 EDT news698501751 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 When I first became co-director of an archaeological project at Jebel Barkal in northern Sudan in 2018, I was amazed by the site's pyramids, temples and palaces. It had been an urban center in the ancient empire of Kush, which dominated the Nile Valley off and on for more than 2,000 years, from 2000 B.C.E. to 350 C.E. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-shifting-nile-landscape-ancient-empire.html Archaeology Tue, 19 May 2026 13:40:01 EDT news698411102 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 The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) and the Instituto Tecnológico de Castilla y León (ITCL) have begun a collaboration to advance the application of hyperspectral analysis in the study of archaeopalaeontological sites. As part of this initiative—aimed at strengthening links with the private and industrial sectors in order to foster technical innovation and knowledge transfer—researchers have studied the infrared response of the oldest levels of the Gran Dolina Site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hyperspectral-imaging-gran-dolina-oldest.html Archaeology Thu, 14 May 2026 16:23:38 EDT news697994581