Ancient Civilizations News

June 13, 2025

Top Headlines

New Method Provides the Key to Accessing Proteins in Ancient Human Remains

May 28, 2025 — A new method could soon unlock the vast repository of biological information held in the proteins of ancient soft tissues. The findings could open up a new era for palaeobiological ...

Leprosy Existed in America Long Before Arrival of Europeans

May 29, 2025 — Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, ...

Earliest Use of Psychoactive and Medicinal Plant 'Harmal' Identified in Iron Age Arabia

May 23, 2025 — A new study uses metabolic profiling to uncover ancient knowledge systems behind therapeutic and psychoactive plant use in ancient ...

Ancient DNA Used to Map Evolution of Fever-Causing Bacteria

May 22, 2025 — Researchers have analyzed ancient DNA from Borrelia recurrentis, a type of bacteria that causes relapsing fever, pinpointing when it evolved to spread through lice rather than ticks, and how it gained and lost genes in the ...

Vast Aztec Trade Networks Behind Ancient Obsidian Artifacts

May 12, 2025 — Researchers analyzed 788 obsidian artifacts from Tenochtitlan, revealing that the Mexica (Aztec) Empire sourced this important material from at least eight different locations, including regions outside their political control. While 90% of ...

Researchers Map 7,000-Year-Old Genetic Mutation That Protects Against HIV

May 9, 2025 — Modern HIV medicine is based on a common genetic mutation. Now, researchers have traced where and when the mutation arose -- and how it protected our ancestors from ancient ...

Ancient Andes Society Used Hallucinogens to Strengthen Social Order

May 5, 2025 — Snuff tubes uncovered at Chavin de Huantar in Peru reveal how leaders used mystical experiences to cement their ...

Skeletal Evidence of Roman Gladiator Bitten by Lion in Combat

Apr. 23, 2025 — Bite marks found on a skeleton discovered in a Roman cemetery in York have revealed the first archaeological evidence of gladiatorial combat between a human and a ...

Phoenician Culture Spread Mainly Through Cultural Exchange

Apr. 23, 2025 — Ancient DNA analysis challenges our understanding of the ancient Phoenician-Punic civilization. An international team of researchers analyzing genome-wide data from 210 ancient individuals has found that Levantine Phoenician towns contributed little ...

Extreme Drought Contributed to Barbarian Invasion of Late Roman Britain, Tree-Ring Study Reveals

Apr. 17, 2025 — Three consecutive years of drought contributed to the 'Barbarian Conspiracy', a pivotal moment in the history of Roman Britain, a new study reveals. Researchers argue that Picts, Scotti and Saxons ...

Wealth Inequality's Deep Roots in Human Prehistory

Apr. 14, 2025 — Wealth inequality began shaping human societies more than 10,000 years ago, long before the rise of ancient empires or the invention of writing. That's according to a new study that challenges traditional views that disparities in wealth emerged ...

New Computer Model Reveals How Bronze Age Scandinavians Could Have Crossed the Sea

Apr. 2, 2025 — People living in Bronze Age-era Denmark may have been able to travel to Norway directly over the open sea, according to a new study. To complete this study, the research team developed a new computer ...

Latest Headlines

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2,000 Miles Through Rivers and Ice: Mapping Neanderthals’ Hidden Superhighways Across Eurasia

June 10, 2025 — Neanderthals may have trekked thousands of miles across Eurasia much faster than we ever imagined. New computer simulations suggest they used river ...

Drone Tech Uncovers 1,000-Year-Old Native American Farms in Michigan

June 7, 2025 — In the dense forests of Michigan s Upper Peninsula, archaeologists have uncovered a massive ancient agricultural system that rewrites what we thought we knew about Native American farming. Dating ...

Researchers Recreate Ancient Egyptian Blues

June 2, 2025 — Researchers have recreated the world's oldest synthetic pigment, called Egyptian blue, which was used in ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ...

Footprints Reveal Prehistoric Scottish Lagoons Were Stomping Grounds for Giant Jurassic Dinosaurs

Apr. 2, 2025 — Jurassic dinosaurs milled about ancient Scottish lagoons, leaving up to 131 footprints at a newly discovered stomping ground on the Isle of Skye in ...

Ancient Amphibians as Big as Alligators Died in Mass Mortality Event in Triassic Wyoming

Apr. 2, 2025 — Dozens of amphibians perished together on an ancient floodplain around 230 million years ago, according to a new ...

Ancient Tools from a South African Cave Reveal Connections Between Prehistoric People

Apr. 9, 2025 — In a cave overlooking the ocean on the southern coast of South Africa, archaeologists discovered thousands of stone tools, created by ancient humans ...

In Guatemala, Painted Altar Found at Tikal Adds New Context to Mysterious Maya History

Apr. 8, 2025 — Just steps from the center of Tikal, a 2,400-year-old Maya city in the heart of modern-day Guatemala, a global team of researchers has unearthed a ...

The Lush Past of the World's Largest Desert

Apr. 7, 2025 — The vast desert of the Arabian Peninsula was not always an arid landscape. A recent study reveals that this region was once home to a vast lake and river system. These favorable conditions fostered ...

World's Oldest Impact Crater Found, Rewriting Earth's Ancient History

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have discovered the world's oldest known meteorite impact crater, which could significantly redefine our understanding of the origins of life and how our planet was shaped. The team found ...

Giant Ice Bulldozers: How Ancient Glaciers Helped Life Evolve

Feb. 25, 2025 — New research has revealed how massive ancient glaciers acted like giant bulldozers, reshaping Earth's surface and paving the way for complex life to flourish. By chemically analyzing crystals in ...

Near-Complete Skull Discovery Reveals 'Top Apex', Leopard-Sized 'Fearsome' Carnivore

Feb. 17, 2025 — A rare discovery of a nearly complete skull in the Egyptian desert has led scientists to the 'dream' revelation of a new 30-million-year-old species of the ancient apex predatory carnivore, ...

Ancient Egyptian Mummified Bodies Smell 'Woody,' 'Spicy' and 'Sweet'

Feb. 14, 2025 — Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell 'woody,' 'spicy' and 'sweet', finds a new study, revealing new details about mumification ...

New Study Unravels the History of the Largest Pastoral Population in Africa

Feb. 11, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered the origins and genetic diversity of the Fulani, one of Africa's largest pastoral populations. The study reveals a complex genetic ancestry with influences from both ...

Missing Link in Indo-European Languages' History Found

Feb. 5, 2025 — Where lies the origin of the Indo-European language family? Researchers contribute a new piece to this puzzle. They analyzed ancient DNA from 435 individuals from archaeological sites across Eurasia ...

Lead Contamination in Ancient Greece Points to Societal Change

Jan. 30, 2025 — Studies of sediment cores from the sea floor and the coastal regions surrounding the Aegean Sea show that humans contaminated the environment with lead early on in antiquity. Geoscientists conducted ...

Archaeologists Find 'Lost' Site Depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

Jan. 27, 2025 — Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that a house in England is the site of a lost residence of Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, and shown in the Bayeux Tapestry. By reinterpreting ...

Ancient Genomes Reveal an Iron Age Society Centred on Women

Jan. 15, 2025 — A groundbreaking study finds evidence that land was inherited through the female line in Iron Age Britain, with husbands moving to live with their wife's community. This is believed to be the ...

Ancient Artifacts Unearthed in Iraq Shed Light on Hidden History of Mesopotamia

Jan. 14, 2025 — Researchers made the new discoveries during field work at the Bronze Age site of Kurd Qaburstan. The research provides insights into regional heritage and fills gaps in knowledge about how ancient ...

DNA Adds New Chapter to Indonesia's Layered Human History

Jan. 7, 2025 — A new study has outlined the first genomic evidence of early migration from New Guinea into the Wallacea, an archipelago containing Timor-Leste and hundreds of inhabited eastern Indonesian ...

Lead Pollution Likely Caused Widespread IQ Declines in Ancient Rome, New Study Finds

Jan. 6, 2025 — Lead exposure is responsible for a range of human health impacts, with even relatively low levels impacting the cognitive development of children. Scientists have previously used atmospheric ...

Ancient DNA Unlocks New Understanding of Migrations in the First Millennium AD

Jan. 1, 2025 — Waves of human migration across Europe during the first millennium AD have been revealed using a more precise method of analysing ancestry with ancient DNA, in research led by the Francis Crick ...

Unique Insights Into Lives of People Who Lived Over 5,600 Years Ago Near Kosenivka, Ukraine

Dec. 11, 2024 — A new study sheds light on the lives of people who lived over 5,600 years ago near Kosenivka, Ukraine. Researchers present the first detailed bioarchaeological analyses of human diets from this area ...

Getting to the Bottom of Things: Latrine Findings Help Researcher Trace the Movement of People and Disease

Dec. 6, 2024 — A researcher has uncovered evidence of intestinal parasites in a 500-year-old latrine from Bruges, Belgium, and while the finding may induce queasiness in some, it is expected to provide important ...

Iberian Neolithic Societies Had a Deep Knowledge of Archery Techniques and Materials

Dec. 5, 2024 — A research team has made exceptional discoveries on prehistoric archery from the early Neolithic period, 7,000 years ago. The well organic preservation of the remains of the Cave of Los Murcielagos ...

DNA of 1,000 Year-Old Maize Sheds Light on Origins of Globally Important Food Crop

Dec. 5, 2024 — Researchers have tested ancient DNA from corn found at archaeological sites in Arkansas, shedding new light on the dispersal of one of the world's most important food ...

How Did Humans and Dogs Become Friends? Connections in the Americas Began 12,000 Years Ago

Dec. 4, 2024 — A new study sheds light on how long humans in the Americas have had relationships with the ancestors of today's dogs -- and asks an 'existential question': What is a ...

We Might Feel Love in Our Fingertips But Did the Ancient Mesopotamians?

Dec. 4, 2024 — A multidisciplinary team of researchers studied a large body of texts to find out how people in the ancient Mesopotamian region (within modern day Iraq) experienced emotions in their bodies thousands ...

Herodotus' Theory on Armenian Origins Challenged by First Whole-Genome Study

Nov. 25, 2024 — Armenians, a population in Western Asia historically inhabiting the Armenian highlands, were long believed to be descendants of Phrygian settlers from the Balkans. This theory originated largely from ...

Innovating Archaeology: Scholars Utilize Immersive 3D Tech to Document and Study the Human Past

Nov. 21, 2024 — Archaeology studies the human past through the excavation of things people made and used thousands of years ago -- from architecture to objects like pottery bowls and animal bones from meals. ...

Scientists Use Ancient DNA to Shed Light on Adaptation of Early Europeans

Nov. 19, 2024 — Leveraging a unique statistical analysis and applying it to ancient DNA extracted from human skeletal remains, a team of researchers has revealed new insights into how ancient Europeans adapted to ...