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Archaeology news
No more giants, no more heavy handaxes: Why early humans downsized their stone tools
For more than 1 million years, early humans in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean used a range of heavy tools, such as massive handaxes and stone balls, for important tasks, including processing animal carcasses. ...
Ancient Māori remains point to largely plant-based diets before colonization
New research led by the University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, in close partnership with mana whenua, is shedding new light on Māori diet and burial practices in Aotearoa New Zealand prior to European colonization. The ...
Archaeology
10 hours ago
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Ancient architecture shows public opinion influenced Maya divine kings
Excavation of a council house at the major Lowland Maya center of Ucanal, Guatemala, reveals how the public gained some influence over Maya politics more than 1,000 years ago. These colonnaded, open halls were likely council ...
Archaeology
Apr 8, 2026
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DNA evidence reveals a Stone Age population collapse in France
By analyzing DNA of ancient skeletons at a Neolithic burial site near Paris, an international team of researchers has uncovered evidence of a dramatic population replacement 5,000 years ago. The findings indicate that the ...
Archaeology
Apr 8, 2026
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Unique double baptistery and mysterious marble block uncovered at Byzantine cathedral in Israel
In a new article published in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly, researchers Dr. Michael Eisenberg and Dr. Arleta Kowalewska describe a recently excavated Byzantine-period cathedral at Hippos. Archaeologists revealed a ...
Seal tooth pendant reveals ancient human culture and long-distance trading
The identity of a mysterious artifact found in Devon almost 160 years ago has finally been revealed. New research has identified it as a pendant made from the tooth of a gray seal, which would have been worn by an ancient ...
Archaeology
Apr 8, 2026
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Neanderthals in Central Europe hunted pond turtles—not for food, but likely for their shells
Neanderthals hunted European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) in Central Europe, though probably not for food. The careful cleaning of carapace elements at Neumark-Nord indicates that shells were reused, perhaps as small containers ...
Archaeology
Apr 8, 2026
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Giant jars, ancient bells, buried bones and a mystery that endures
Helping to preserve artifacts, some potentially 2,000 years old, was an irresistible privilege. Since 2016, an Australian-Lao team led by Louise Shewan, Dougald O'Reilly and Thonglith Luangkhoth has conducted archaeological ...
Archaeology
Apr 8, 2026
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Ancient Romans were obsessed with a plant said to be a contraception and an aphrodisiac. Then one day, it went extinct
Roman leader Julius Caesar is said to have kept a stock of it in the treasury. Ancient writer Pliny the Elder says Rome's Emperor Nero owned the last stalk of it. And some have suggested rampant extramarital sex in elite ...
Archaeology
Apr 8, 2026
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Who got the meat? What 10,000 years of European bones suggest about diet inequality
Access to nutritious food is a fundamental pillar of human success, but such access has been unequal throughout history. In pre-industrial European societies, meat was a highly sought-after food, and access to it was often ...
Archaeology
Apr 7, 2026
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Early humans in South Africa were quarrying stone as far back as 220,000 years ago
As long as 220,000 years ago—far earlier than previously thought—people quarried rocks for their tools in places they specifically sought out. An international research team led by the University of Tübingen has demonstrated ...
Archaeology
Apr 7, 2026
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How an eye physician who translated classical Greek medicine into Arabic helped form Western medical thought
A medieval ophthalmologist who translated Greek works by Galen, Hippocrates, and Plato into Arabic played a pivotal role in shaping Western medical scholarship, according to a study published in the journal Cogent Arts and ...
Archaeology
Apr 6, 2026
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How to eat an elephant: Fossil find in Tanzania shows oldest signs of butchering these giant mammals
Imagine a creature nearly twice the size of a modern African elephant, which can weigh up to 6,000 kg. This was Elephas (Paleoxodon) recki, a prehistoric titan that roamed the landscape of what is now Tanzania nearly two ...
Archaeology
Apr 6, 2026
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Scientists discover a 1,200-year-old Fijian island likely built from discarded shellfish remains
Located off the coast of Culasawani, in the Fiji archipelago, is an island that is made up of materials that might be part of someone's dinner. A recent study took a closer look at the 3,000-square-meter island and discovered ...
Archival records reveal prevalence of sexually transmitted infections during Otago's gold rush less than purported
Sexually transmitted infections in Otago's gold rush era were less common than popular culture books portray, University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research has found. The first-of-its-kind study, published in the Journal ...
Archaeology
Apr 2, 2026
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New evidence challenges assumptions of mass feasting at ancient Mongolian burial mounds
Khirigsuurs are Late Bronze Age monuments found across Mongolia and parts of southern Siberia. They are typically thought to be burial monuments or ritual spaces, consisting of a burial mound surrounded by satellite features ...
Native Americans were making dice, gambling, exploring probability millennia before their Old World counterparts
A new study in American Antiquity presents evidence that the earliest known dice in human history were made and used by Native American hunter-gatherers on the western Great Plains more than 12,000 years ago at the end of ...
Archaeology
Apr 2, 2026
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Thirty previously unpublished verses by Empedocles discovered on a papyrus from Cairo
A 2,000-year-old papyrus fragment, discovered in the archives of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, reveals 30 previously unpublished verses by Empedocles, a pre-Socratic philosopher of the fifth century ...
Archaeology
Apr 1, 2026
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Tracking the footsteps of West Africa's prehistoric metalworkers
The discovery of a 2,400-year-old metalworking workshop in Senegal provides new insights into the history of iron production in Africa. Despite decades of archaeological research, the origins of iron metallurgy in sub-Saharan ...
Archaeology
Mar 31, 2026
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The Earth is rearranging history
Deep below the surface of Murujuga, soil expands and contracts from the passage of water. Each wetting cycle is like a sodden breath from lungs holding fragments of stone and shell. Stone artifacts from millennia of Aboriginal ...
Archaeology
Mar 31, 2026
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What if dark matter came in two states?
Hidden ocean feedback loop could accelerate climate change
