Archaeology News

April 19, 2024

Top Headlines

First Evidence of Human Occupation in Lava Tube Cave in Saudi Arabia

Apr. 17, 2024 — New research has highlighted an area in Arabia that once acted as a key point for cultural exchanges and trades amongst ancient people -- and it all took place in vast caves and lava tubes that have remained largely untapped reservoirs of ...

Early Medieval Money Mystery Solved

Apr. 8, 2024 — Byzantine bullion fueled Europe's revolutionary adoption of silver coins in the mid-7th century, only to be overtaken by silver from a mine in Charlemagne's Francia a century later, new tests reveal. The findings could transform our understanding of ...

In the Evolution of Walking, the Hip Bone Connected to the Rib Bones

Apr. 5, 2024 — A new reconstruction of the 375-million-year-old fossil fish Tiktaalik -- a close relative of limbed vertebrates -- used micro-CT to reveal bones still embedded in matrix. The reconstruction shows that the fish's ribs likely attached to its pelvis, ...

Ancient DNA Reveals the Appearance of a 6th Century Chinese Emperor

Mar. 28, 2024 — What did an ancient Chinese emperor from 1,500 years ago look like? A team of researchers reconstructed the face of Chinese Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou using DNA extracted from his remains. The study suggests the emperor's death at the age of 36 ...

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Uncovering the Mystery of Dorset's Cerne Giant

Mar. 25, 2024 — For centuries, the Cerne Giant, a figure carved into a hillside in Dorset, has fascinated locals and visitors to the area. A new paper proposes that the Cerne Giant can in fact be dated to the early ...

Persian Plateau Unveiled as Crucial Hub for Early Human Migration out of Africa

Mar. 25, 2024 — A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location ...

Tudor Era Horse Cemetery in Westminster Revealed as Likely Resting Place for Elite Imported Animals

Mar. 22, 2024 — Archaeological analysis of a near unique animal cemetery discovered in London nearly 30 years ago has revealed there was an international horse ...

Scientists Uncover Evidence That Microplastics Are Contaminating Archaeological Remains

Mar. 22, 2024 — A team of archaeologists discovered tiny microplastic particles in deposits located more than seven meters deep, in samples dating back to the first ...

Researchers Name Prehistoric Amphibian Ancestor Discovered in Smithsonian Collection After Kermit the Frog

Mar. 21, 2024 — Scientists have uncovered the fossilized skull of a 270-million-year-old ancient amphibian ancestor in the collection of the Smithsonian's National ...

Study Reveals 'Cozy Domesticity' of Prehistoric Stilt-House Dwellers in England's Ancient Marshland

Mar. 20, 2024 — Detailed reports on thousands of artifacts pulled from 'Britain's Pompeii' reveals the surprisingly sophisticated domestic lives of Bronze Age Fen ...

Lost Tombs and Quarries Rediscovered on British Military Base in Cyprus

Mar. 7, 2024 — Archaeologists rediscovers 46 sites at the Eastern Sovereign Base Area at Dhekelia, Cyprus. Archaeologists located sites from archive records, a number of which were thought to have been 'lost.' They ...

Slimming Down a Colossal Fossil Whale

Feb. 29, 2024 — A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same ...

Plant Seed and Fruit Analysis from the Biblical Home of Goliath Sheds Unprecedented Light on Philistine Ritual Practices

Feb. 26, 2024 — While many aspects of Philistine culture are well-documented, the specifics of Philistine religious practices and deities have long remained shrouded ...

Ancient DNA Reveals Down Syndrome in Past Human Societies

Feb. 20, 2024 — By analysing ancient DNA, an international team of researchers have uncovered cases of chromosomal disorders, including what could be the first case of Edwards syndrome ever identified from ...

Last Chance to Record Archaic Greek Language 'Heading for Extinction'

Apr. 2, 2024 — A new data crowdsourcing platform aims to preserve the sound of Romeyka, an endangered millennia-old variety of Greek. Experts consider the language to be a linguistic goldmine and a living bridge to ...

Scandinavia's First Farmers Slaughtered the Hunter-Gatherer Population, Study Finds

Feb. 8, 2024 — Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, according to a new study. The results, which are ...

Thailand's Iron Age Log Coffin Culture

Feb. 6, 2024 — A mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture characterizes the Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha in northwestern Thailand. Between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, individuals were buried in large wooden ...

Prehistoric Mobility Among Tibetan Farmers, Herders Shaped Highland Settlement Patterns, Cultural Interaction, Study Finds

Feb. 2, 2024 — Using advanced geospatial modeling to compare environmental and archaeological evidence, researchers found evidence that connects ancient mobility and subsistence strategies to cultural connections ...

Did Dementia Exist in Ancient Greek and Rome?

Jan. 31, 2024 — Did the ancient Greeks and Romans experience Alzheimer's? Medical texts from 2,500 years ago rarely mention severe memory loss, suggesting today's widespread dementia stems from modern ...

Neanderthals and Humans Lived Side by Side in Northern Europe 45,000 Years Ago

Jan. 31, 2024 — Archaeologists have debated whether Neanderthals or modern humans made stone tools that are found at sites across northern Europe and date from about 40,000 years ago. A new excavation at one site in ...

How Did Humans Learn to Walk? New Evolutionary Study Offers an Earful

Jan. 29, 2024 — A new study, which centers on evidence from skulls of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape, Lufengpithecus, offers important clues about the origins of bipedal locomotion courtesy of a novel method: ...

Ancient Brown Bear Genomes Sheds Light on Ice Age Losses and Survival

Jan. 24, 2024 — The brown bear is one of the largest living terrestrial carnivores, and is widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. Unlike many other large carnivores that went extinct at the end of the ...

Stalagmites as Climate Archive

Jan. 17, 2024 — When combined with data from tree-ring records, stalagmites can open up a unique archive to study natural climate fluctuations, a research team has demonstrated. The researchers analyzed the isotopic ...

Woolly Mammoth Movements Tied to Earliest Alaska Hunting Camps

Jan. 17, 2024 — Researchers have linked the travels of a 14,000-year-old woolly mammoth with the oldest known human settlements in Alaska, providing clues about the relationship between the iconic species and some ...

Oldest Known Fossilized Skin Is 21 Million Years Older Than Previous Examples

Jan. 11, 2024 — Researchers have identified a 3D fragment of fossilized skin that is at least 21 million years than previously described skin fossils. The skin, which belonged to an early species of Paleozoic ...

Ancient Cities Provide Key Datasets for Urban Planning, Policy and Predictions in the Anthropocene

Jan. 11, 2024 — A new study shows how state-of-the-art methods and perspectives from archaeology, history, and palaeoecology are shedding new light on 5,500 years of urban ...

Prehistoric Person With Turner Syndrome Identified from Ancient DNA

Jan. 11, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new technique to measure the number of chromosomes in ancient genomes more precisely, using it to identify the first prehistoric person with mosaic Turner syndrome ...

The Extinction of the Giant Ape: Long-Standing Mystery Solved

Jan. 10, 2024 — The largest ever primate Gigantopithecus blacki went extinct when other Asian great apes were thriving, and its demise has long been a mystery. A massive regional study of 22 caves in southern China ...

Nine New Snail Species Discovered in Papua New Guinea, a Biodiversity Hot Spot at Risk

Jan. 9, 2024 — A new study describes nine new species of carnivorous land snails, all of which are so small they could fit together on a U.S. nickel. They present a rare opportunity to study a group that in many ...

Cult Mentality: Monumental Discovery in Italy

Jan. 5, 2024 — Researchers have discovered an ancient Roman temple that adds significant insights into the social change from pagan gods to Christianity within the Roman ...

Researchers Rely on Earth's Magnetic Field to Verify an Event Mentioned in the Old Testament

Jan. 4, 2024 — A new study scientifically corroborates an event described in the Second Book of Kings -- the conquest of the Philistine city of Gath by Hazael King of Aram. The method is based on measuring the ...

First High Mountain Settlers at the Start of the Neolithic Already Engaged in Other Livestock Activities Apart from Transhumance

Dec. 21, 2023 — An archaeological find in the Huescan Pyrenees allowed researchers to identify for the first time livestock management strategies and feeding practices which demonstrate how the first high mountain ...

Viking Dentistry Was Surprisingly Advanced

Dec. 14, 2023 — Widespread caries and toothache -- but also some dental work and filing of front teeth. Viking Age teeth from Varnhem bear witness to surprisingly advanced ...

'A Ticking Clock': First Ground-Based Survey of Damage to Ukrainian Cultural Sites Reveals Severity, Need for Urgency

Dec. 13, 2023 — And after nearly two years of fighting, war is destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage on a scale not seen since World War II, according to new ...