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Archaeology news
Investigation of ancient Tel Dan sanctuary reveals Phoenician ritual bathing traditions
A recent study by Dr. Levana Tsfania-Zias, published in the journal Levant, reveals how ancient Phoenicians may have incorporated cleansing into their religious purification rituals at the sacred precinct of Tel Dan for nearly ...
Peru gas workers find thousand-year-old mummy
Peruvian gas workers this week found a thousand-year-old mummy while installing pipes in Lima, their company said, confirming the latest discovery of a pre-Hispanic tomb in the capital.
Archaeology
Jun 20, 2025
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Stone tools from a cave on South Africa's coast speak of life at the end of the Ice Age
The Earth of the last Ice Age (about 26,000 to 19,000 years ago) was very different from today's world.
Archaeology
Jun 19, 2025
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'Upstart Crow'—who insulted Shakespeare, and why?
New research has cast fresh doubt on the origins of one of the most famous insults aimed at William Shakespeare, pointing the finger at a friend of the Bard.
Archaeology
Jun 19, 2025
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Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed
Vance Holliday jumped at the invitation to go do geology at New Mexico's White Sands. The landscape, just west of Alamogordo, looks surreal—endless, rolling dunes of fine beige gypsum, left behind by ancient seas. It's ...
Archaeology
Jun 18, 2025
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The Inca string code that reveals Peru's climate history
Five centuries ago, the Incas ruled the western half of South America with the help of a unique form of writing based on colored and knotted cords. These strings, called khipus, recorded major events, tracked economic matters, ...
Archaeology
Jun 17, 2025
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Precise measurement standards have revolutionized museum science, helping nail down where artifacts are from
On a cool February morning in 1904, a spark ignited a fire in the heart of downtown Baltimore. Within hours, a raging inferno swept eastward across the harbor district, consuming everything in its path. By evening, the local ...
Archaeology
Jun 17, 2025
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'Spectacular' Viking burial site discovered in Denmark
In an accidental find, a 10th-century burial site believed to have belonged to a Viking noble family has been discovered in northern Denmark, packed with a "spectacular" trove of ancient objects, a museum announced Tuesday.
Archaeology
Jun 17, 2025
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The European Huns had ancient Siberian roots, linguistic study reveals
New linguistic findings show that the European Huns had Paleo-Siberian ancestors and do not, as previously assumed, originate from Turkic-speaking groups. The joint study was conducted by Dr. Svenja Bonmann at the University ...
Archaeology
Jun 17, 2025
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Australia's oldest occupied ice age cave found at high elevation in Blue Mountains
Archaeologists from the Australian Museum, the University of Sydney and The Australian National University (ANU), in collaboration with First Nations community members who hold cultural connections with the Blue Mountains, ...
Archaeology
Jun 17, 2025
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Rare sperm whale tooth unearthed at Copper Age megasite sheds light on ancient human-sea connections
An extraordinary discovery was made at the Valencina Copper Age mega-site in southwest Spain, which has captured the attention of a team of Spanish researchers—a rare sperm whale tooth uncovered in 2018 during excavations ...
Rare medieval bed burials show considerable variation across Europe
A recent study by Dr. Astrid Noterman examined the rare bed burials of medieval Europe. Found predominantly in Germany, England, and Scandinavia, these burials exhibit considerable variation depending on the region.
'Eldest sons held the power in ancient Egypt,' says researcher
For decades it was thought that the family system of the ancient Egyptians was very similar to our own. However, Ph.D. candidate Steffie van Gompel explains that the reality is somewhat different. "In Egyptian families, it ...
Archaeology
Jun 13, 2025
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Mysterious boat burial practices on the desert's edge: Study sheds light on ancient Xiaohe funerary rites
The Bronze Age Xiaohe culture (ca. 1950–1400 BCE) is renowned for its distinctive funerary practices and exceptional organic preservation, largely due to its location in a hyperarid environment. Burials feature boat-shaped ...
Cesspit shows songbirds served hot and flat as first-century street-food
The Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (UIB-CSIC) reports that thrush bones discarded in a Roman cesspit at Pollentia reveal the songbirds were routine street food rather than an elite rarity.
Were the first kings of Poland actually from Scotland? New DNA evidence unsettles a nation's founding myth
For two centuries, scholars have sparred over the roots of the Piasts, Poland's first documented royal house, who reigned from the 10th to the 14th centuries.
Archaeology
Jun 12, 2025
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Archaeologists find France's deepest shipwreck
Archaeologists have discovered what they say are the remains of a 16th-century merchant ship more than 2.5 kilometers underwater off southern France, the deepest such find in its section of the Mediterranean or any other ...
Archaeology
Jun 12, 2025
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How I uncovered a potential ancient Rome wine scam
Before artificial sweeteners, people satisfied their cravings for sweetness with natural products, including honey or dried fruit. Raisin wines, made by drying grapes before fermentation, were particularly popular. Historical ...
Archaeology
Jun 11, 2025
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How was the wheel invented? Computer simulations reveal the unlikely birth of a world-changing technology
Imagine you're a copper miner in southeastern Europe in the year 3900 B.C.E. Day after day you haul copper ore through the mine's sweltering tunnels.
Archaeology
Jun 11, 2025
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Archaeology in the age of big data: User-friendly software streamlines analysis of past collections
Archaeologists often face major challenges when trying to connect new discoveries with information from old books: How can the findings of 200 years of archaeological research be combined with new data?
Archaeology
Jun 11, 2025
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