https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils/ en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. The Danish town of Svendborg was once home to a Franciscan monastery. As at other monasteries in Denmark, it was considered highly prestigious to be buried as close to the monastery church as possible, preferably inside the church itself, for instance near the chapter house or along the cloister. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-archaeological-fish-skeletons-hundreds-years.html Archaeology Tue, 10 Nov 2026 14:00:01 EST news713532542 A fresh excavation of the eastern deposit at Riparo Mochi, a rock shelter near today's French–Italian border, has pushed back the timeline for when Ice Age hunter-gatherers from Spain first entered Italy. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ice-age-reveals-hunter-italy.html Archaeology Tue, 10 Nov 2026 10:40:05 EST news713524984 More than 2,000 years ago, Egyptians offered cats to the gods. Now, a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science suggests that even cats destined for the gods did not necessarily live pampered lives. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-egyptian-cats-meant-gods-harsh.html Archaeology Tue, 10 Nov 2026 07:40:15 EST news713446014 Archaeological excavation uncovers the past but also changes the landscape that has preserved sites for centuries or millennia. These changes influence water flow, soil erosion and the stability of exposed remains. Researchers from Istanbul Technical University and the U.S. have shown how computer models can assist archaeologists in understanding and planning for these effects, especially regarding erosion risks. Using an Early Bronze Age settlement in Türkiye as a case study, they reconstructed the landscape before and after excavation. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ground-beneath.html Archaeology Tue, 10 Nov 2026 04:40:03 EST news713507465 Ten years after 8,000 ancient frog bones were discovered in a single ditch, scientists at Bournemouth University and the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) have finally identified the culprits https://phys.org/news/2026-11-case-roman-frog-graveyard.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Nov 2026 19:10:09 EST news713469601 Analysis of silver and gold from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria finds that, contrary to popular belief, it did not suffer from a shortage of precious metals, questioning why the kingdom used copper-alloy coins rather than silver like its contemporaries. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-anglo-saxon-kingdom-chose-copper.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Nov 2026 19:00:16 EST news713036101 Popular media, from computer games to movies, often portray medieval life as being dominated by fighters and farmers. In these depictions, there's little evidence of a world beyond political struggle and simple subsistence. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-archaeological-irish-fort-reveal-insights.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Nov 2026 18:40:05 EST news713453877 Most of us are familiar with the urge to pick up a seashell from the beach or keep a stone from a hiking trip. The object itself may be ordinary, but to the person who keeps it, it serves as a reminder of a particular moment, place or person. Where did this behavior come from? Did early humans do the same? A new study by Tel Aviv University researchers suggests that this practice stretches back approximately half a million years, with important consequences for the evolution of memory. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-early-humans-keepsakes-years.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Nov 2026 18:00:01 EST news713453338 It's not easy to extract iron from its ore. But the peoples of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe—the capital of a thriving kingdom in southern Africa between A.D. 1000 and 1700—were masters. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-migration-remade-africa.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Nov 2026 09:00:13 EST news713436020 Cutting-edge medical imaging techniques have revealed that Jeremy Bentham, the Georgian philosopher and reformer, suffered from chronic toothache and a jaw riddled with arthritis. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ct-scanning-centuries-jeremy-bentham.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Nov 2026 07:37:06 EST news713432160 To understand how societies might react to climate change, archaeologists look at social responses to extreme climate events in the past—and in some places, that included measures as drastic as human sacrifice. Mass ritual sacrifices along the desert coast of northern Peru have been linked to catastrophic flooding caused by El Niño, which made researchers wonder if such sacrifices were part of a rise in violence driven by resource scarcity. But a new survey of the Lambayeque Valley suggests that violence was extremely rare, even during periods of ecological upheaval. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-sacrificing-people-catastrophic-el-nio.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Nov 2026 00:00:02 EST news713119561 Medieval health and sanitation efforts involved deliberate interventions; however, some of these measures had the opposite effect, leading to an increased spread of disease in Trondheim. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-introduction-medieval-health-exposed-population.html Archaeology Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:30:01 EST news713180960 Tech billionaire Elon Musk was up in arms about the recent adaptation of Homer's "Odyssey" by director Christopher Nolan, which he heavily criticized for its diverse casting and accused of lacking historical accuracy. Claiming he wanted to show that artificial intelligence could bypass traditional Hollywood studios and deliver a story "historically accurate and true to the art of Homer" at a fraction of the cost, he set his AI Grok Imagine to the task. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ai-wont-historically-accurate-archaeology.html Archaeology Fri, 06 Nov 2026 14:20:11 EST news713187261 Cannabis is one of the most commonly used psychoactive plants today. However, it is difficult to determine archaeologically how cannabis was used in prehistoric times. Plant parts such as flowers, leaves and resins are perishable and therefore rarely survive. It is known that cannabis served various purposes, such as the production of oil or fiber, and was not used solely as medicine or a drug. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-cannabis-intoxicant-early-years.html Archaeology Thu, 05 Nov 2026 14:00:09 EST news713005921 The hunt for the source of Stonehenge's mysterious Altar Stone has entered a new phase after scientists ruled out several previously proposed locations and moved a step closer to identifying its origins. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-mystery-iconic-stonehenge-altar-stone.html Archaeology Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:00:02 EST news713097601 On a desolate island at the end of the world, battered by freezing winds, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a possible 19th-century castaway camp that may have belonged to a renowned Argentine sailor and his shipwrecked crew. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-archaeologists-uncover-19th-century-castaway.html Archaeology Thu, 05 Nov 2026 11:00:38 EST news713093852 During England's Industrial Revolution, when the country's farming-based economy transformed into an industrial one between roughly 1760 and 1840, pollution, harsh working conditions, inadequate housing and limited access to sunlight drove disease. Rickets, in which the growing skeleton fails to properly mineralize, was commonplace among children. Traditionally, urbanization, latitude and socioeconomic status were considered the main drivers. A factor that has largely been overlooked is climate. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-centuries-cemetery-scientists-link-climate.html Archaeology Thu, 05 Nov 2026 00:00:06 EST news713005744 Bournemouth University (BU) archaeological research has revealed that Iron Age British ruler "Verica," who was central to the Roman invasion of Britain in A.D. 43, was in fact a woman. This discovery rewrites the history of early Roman Britain. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ancient-coins-influential-iron-age.html Archaeology Wed, 04 Nov 2026 19:10:01 EST news713031241 Archaeologists have discovered the third-largest assemblage of Ice Age cave art ever found in Mediterranean Iberia in a region thought devoid of cave art, transforming our knowledge of Paleolithic European art. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-hundreds-ice-age-art-engravings.html Archaeology Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:00:06 EST news712558476 Ancient DNA reveals that denizens of the Iberian Peninsula made leather from domestic goats as far back as 7,000 years ago, according to a study published Nov. 4, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Jolijn A. M. Erven of University College Dublin, Ireland, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-year-piece-leather-reveals-deep.html Archaeology Wed, 04 Nov 2026 14:00:16 EST news712932901 English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages are all members of the Germanic language group, spoken by hundreds of millions of people today. But where did these languages come from? https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ancient-dna-english-german-scandinavian.html Archaeology Wed, 04 Nov 2026 11:00:24 EST news712921202 Experts from Amgueddfa Cymru and Cardiff University have used cutting-edge CT scanning technology to unlock a centuries-old combination lock recovered from one of Wales' most remarkable maritime discoveries. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ct-scans-reveal-letter-code.html Archaeology Wed, 04 Nov 2026 09:20:05 EST news713005504 Eighty-eight years after pioneering British archaeologist Starkey was shot dead while traveling from the ancient city of Lachish to Jerusalem, researchers say they have uncovered compelling new evidence explaining who was behind his murder—and why he was targeted. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-british-archaeologist-james-starkey-archival.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Nov 2026 22:40:01 EST news712946761 About 300,000 years ago, the emergence of the first Homo sapiens in Africa was accompanied by major cultural and technological changes, marking the beginning of a new archaeological period, the Middle Stone Age. At that time, African landscapes were also undergoing profound transformations. To understand how the earliest members of our species lived and adapted, it is therefore essential to reconstruct the environments in which they lived. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-scarcer-food-early-humans-rework.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Nov 2026 18:00:01 EST news712933802 Autumn walks in Britain are glorious, as the foliage changes color and cool, crisp air begins to bite. However, some of these European trees hide a much darker secret. For example, the yew tree's lovely red arils—the cup-shaped coverings around the seeds—carry toxins that may have been used to poison arrow tips in the past. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-stone-age-hunters-northern-europe.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Nov 2026 17:40:13 EST news712920789 For a comprehensive understanding of the content of millions of Arabic manuscripts held in libraries around the world, it is crucial for scholars to first examine what their marginalia reveal, according to a new study published in the Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-marginalia-millions-arabic-manuscripts-reshape.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Nov 2026 17:00:01 EST news712933143 Cold conditions may not have been responsible for the centuries-long pause in the spread of farming across south-eastern Europe during prehistory, according to a new study by the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) in Germany, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers found no evidence of extreme cold at the Greek archaeological site of Franchthi, nor any statistically significant link between local temperature fluctuations and changes in how people obtained their food. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-cold-consequences-short-term-climate.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Nov 2026 13:40:22 EST news712926721 Visigothic and Vandal forces marched into Italy and conquered Rome; the Huns spread fear and terror on their campaigns through Western Europe; the Franks expanded their domain southward—the fifth century was an era of profound, often violent upheavals in Europe, and at the same time one of great mobility. Researchers from the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (NIhK) have now identified a specific example of this mobility in the Fallward burial ground in what is now the district of Cuxhaven. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-boat-burial-reveals-leprosy-strain.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Nov 2026 12:00:06 EST news712924261 More than a century after they were excavated from beneath Cairo, almost 3,000 stone tools from Heliopolis show that specialized work was already reshaping village life before Egypt became a state. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-forgotten-flint-tools-reveal-egypt.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Nov 2026 10:20:12 EST news712920841 Archaeologists have performed toxicological analysis on the mummified remains of people sacrificed at mountain shrines across the Inca Empire, revealing the psychoactive substances they consumed before their deaths. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-analysis-inca-mummies-drugs-important.html Archaeology Mon, 02 Nov 2026 19:00:01 EST news712314301