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Archaeology news
Melsonby hoard: Iron-Age Yorkshire discovery reveals ancient Britons' connections with Europe
The Melsonby hoard is a remarkable collection of more than 800 Iron-Age metal artifacts, which was found in a field near Melsonby, North Yorkshire, in December 2021.
Archaeology
Mar 28, 2025
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Ottoman Empire's religious 'tolerance' was another form of control, findings suggest
Population surveillance. The carrying of identification while traveling. Add to that the public presence of diverse religions and it sounds like 2025, but this was life in the Ottoman Empire 200 years ago. Yet this seeming ...
Archaeology
Mar 28, 2025
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Fitting the 'missing puzzle pieces'—research sheds light on the deep history of social change in West Papua
Owing to its violent political history, West Papua's vibrant human past has long been ignored.
Archaeology
Mar 28, 2025
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Even the common people drank wine in Troy
For the first time ever, a team of researchers has found chemical evidence that wine was actually drunk in Troy, verifying a conjecture of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the legendary fortress city in the 19th century. ...
Archaeology
Mar 27, 2025
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Digital cuneiforms: Updated tool expands access to ancient Hittite texts
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Boğazköy-Hattuša is located in the north of Turkey. It was once the capital of the Hittite Empire, a great power in the late Bronze Age around 1650 to 1200 BC.
Archaeology
Mar 26, 2025
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The hidden hand of medieval female scribes
A team at the University of Bergen in Norway have determined that a minimum of 1.1% of medieval manuscripts from around 800 to 1626 CE were copied by female scribes, with a probable total exceeding 110,000 texts. This estimate ...
How ancient stone kitchens preserve food secrets
The mortar, pestle and cutting board in your kitchen are modern versions of manos and metates—ancient cooking implements found in archaeological sites around the world. A mano is a hand-held stone tool used with a metate ...
Archaeology
Mar 25, 2025
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79
Decoding a medieval mystery manuscript
Two years ago, MIT professor of literature Arthur Bahr had one of the best days of his life. Sitting in the British Library, he was allowed to page through the Pearl-Manuscript, a singular bound volume from the 1300s containing ...
Archaeology
Mar 25, 2025
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69
Nescot dog remains provide insight into Romano-British ritual practices
A recent study by Dr. Ellen Green, published in the International Journal of Paleopathology, analyzed the faunal assemblage recovered from the Romano-British ritual shaft at Nescot. Despite only being used for a relatively ...
Radical study of medieval warhorses unveiled in new book
The most comprehensive study of medieval warhorses ever undertaken will be released in the form of a radical new book this week.
Archaeology
Mar 25, 2025
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147
Skeletal analysis in Tombos tombs finds hardworking individuals buried among the elite
Skeletal analysis at Tombos, an ancient Egyptian colonial settlement in Nubia, reveals a more complex labor and social hierarchy than previously understood. Researchers from Leiden University, Purdue University, and the University ...
Historical robber 'Schinderhannes' clearly identified: Skeletons were mixed up about 220 years ago
The legendary robbers Schinderhannes and Schwarzer Jonas were executed by guillotine in Mainz in 1803. In 1805, the first chairholder of anatomy at the University of Heidelberg, Jacob Fidelis Ackermann, brought the two skeletons ...
Archaeology
Mar 24, 2025
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A mix of science and tradition helps restore relics in China's Forbidden City
It's highly technical work in what looks more like a lab than a museum: A fragment of a glazed roof tile from Beijing's Forbidden City is analyzed in a state-of-the-art X-ray diffraction machine that produces images, which ...
Archaeology
Mar 24, 2025
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How can we ethically display the dead in museums? What about resin casts of those who died violently in Pompeii?
We are used to seeing dead bodies in movies and TV shows, but how should we feel when presented with a dead person from the ancient past in a museum?
Archaeology
Mar 20, 2025
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Study suggests ancient hominins used unmodified volcanic rock spheres as tools
A new study by Dr. Margherita Mussi, published in Quaternary International, highlights how naturally occurring basalt spheres may have been used by hominin species as a type of tool for more than 1 million years.
Rarely seen cave art holds prehistoric secrets in France
Deep inside a labyrinthine cave in southwestern France, ancient humans who lived around 30,000 years ago carved horses, mammoths and rhinoceros into the walls, a fabulous prehistoric menagerie that has rarely been seen—until ...
Archaeology
Mar 19, 2025
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124
Why I'm training Colombian Amazonians to become archaeology tourist guides
Diana Vera, a passionate local guide from Serranía de la Lindosa, Colombia, leads a group of sweaty and panting European tourists through the hot, lush Amazonian rainforest. Together, they climb the flattop hill (known as ...
Archaeology
Mar 19, 2025
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Art historian solves riddle behind theft of famous portrait
The 70-year mystery surrounding the theft of an original oil sketch by renowned Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck from a stately home in Northamptonshire has been solved thanks to the research of an art historian.
Archaeology
Mar 18, 2025
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Investigating the psychedelic blue lotus of Egypt, where ancient magic meets modern science
Few plants are more celebrated in Egyptian mythology than the blue lotus, a stunning water lily that stars in some of archaeology's most significant discoveries. Researchers found its petals covering the body of King Tut ...
Archaeology
Mar 18, 2025
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Epi and Tongoa: How two cultures diverged after an island-splitting volcanic eruption
A recent study published in Archaeology in Oceania explores the oral, linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence surrounding the Tombuk volcanic eruption.
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