A new paper by archaeologists at the University of California, Davis, highlights that our extinct cousins, the Denisovans, reached the "roof of the world" about 160,000 years ago -- 120,000 years earlier than previous estimates for our...
MINYA, EGYPT— Ahram Online reports that researchers from the University of Barcelona are investigating two tombs in Upper Egypt at the site of El-Bahnasa, which is also known as Oxyrhynchus. The tombs have been dated to the 26th Dynasty,...
OSLO, NORWAY—The Associated Press reports that an exploration of the 100-acre area surrounding the site of southeastern Norway’s Gjellestad ship with ground-penetrating radar has detected a cluster of Iron Age longhouses and...
ADIYAMAN, TURKEY—According to an Anadolu Agency report, excavations at the site of the ancient city of Perrhe, which is located in southeastern Turkey, have uncovered a Roman fountain, aqueducts, dwellings, and public buildings. “Based...
DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY— Hürriyet Daily News reports that a 1,600-year-old flute made from a small cattle bone and a bronze ring with a key has been uncovered in southeastern Turkey, at the site of Zerzevan Castle, a structure first built in...
LA LIBERTAD, PERU—According to an Andina report, researchers led by Henry Tantaleán of the National University of San Marcos are investigating a site in northwestern Peru’s Chicama Valley where members of the Chimu culture practiced...
ATHENS COUNTY, OHIO— Live Science reports that a new analysis of five consecutive fossilized footprints at the site of Laetoli in northern Tanzania suggests they may have been left behind by an unknown hominin with an unusual...
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND—According to a CNN report, researchers led by Martin Häusler of the University of Zurich think the Neanderthal individual known as the “Old Man of La Chapelle” may have suffered from brucellosis in addition to...
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO— BBC News reports that an altar and a pot containing human ashes and 13 incense burners have been found some 13 feet below ground level in Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi by Mara Becerra of Mexico’s National Institute...
GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN—According to a statement released by the University of Gothenburg , the four-year excavation of two Bronze Age tombs at the site of Hala Sultan Tekke in Cyprus has yielded the remains of more than 150 people and some...
New research provides interdisciplinary support for the 'Farming Hypothesis' of language dispersal, tracing Transeurasian languages back to the first farmers moving across Northeast Asia beginning in the Early Neolithic -- roughly...
Referred to as 'China's Venice of the Stone Age', the Liangzhu excavation site in eastern China is considered one of the most significant testimonies of early Chinese advanced civilization. More than 5000 years ago, the city already had...
A new study has revealed the death rate of babies in ancient societies is not a reflection of poor healthcare, disease and other factors, but instead is an indication of the number of babies born in that era.
The recovery of new lumbar vertebrae from the lower back of a single individual of the human relative, Australopithecus sediba, and portions of other vertebrae of the same female from Malapa, South Africa, together with previously...
Maya archaeologists have excavated salt kitchens where brine was boiled in clay pots over fires in pole and thatch buildings preserved in oxygen-free sediment below the sea floor in Belize. But where these salt workers lived has been...
'Plague sceptics' are wrong to underestimate the devastating impact that bubonic plague had in the 6th to 8th centuries CE, argues a new study based on ancient texts and recent genetic discoveries. The same study suggests that bubonic...
Archaeologists have discovered remains of a Roman arched aqueduct during excavation work on the Hellenistic royal city of Artashat-Artaxata in ancient Armenia. It is the easternmost arched aqueduct in the Roman Empire.
Ancient Indigenous fishing practices can be used to inform sustainable management and conservation today, according to a new study. Working with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and using new palaeogenetic analytical techniques, the results of...
By triangulating data from linguistics, archaeology and genetics, a new study by an international team of researchers proposes a 'Farming Hypothesis' for the spread of Transeurasian languages, tracing the origins of Japonic, Koreanic,...
Researchers have revealed the first partial skull of a Homo naledi child that was found in the remote depths of the Rising Star cave in Johannesburg, South Africa. The team announced the discovery of parts of the skull and teeth of the...
Many Dutch ships passed the West Australian coast while enroute to Southeast Asia in the 1600s -- and the national heritage listed shipwreck, Batavia, has revealed through its timbers the history of the shipbuilding materials that...
New research reveals ancestral puebloans in ancient Chaco Canyon interacted with local ecosystem to thrive for more than a millennium, but unsustainable deforestation practices likely contributed to destabilizing environmental impact...
Thirty years ago, archeologists excavated the tomb of an elite 40--50-year-old man from the Sicán culture of Peru, a society that predated the Incas. The man's seated, upside-down skeleton was painted bright red, as was the gold mask...
In 1545, King Henry VIII's favorite ship, the Mary Rose, capsized and sank in the Battle of the Solent defending England and Portsmouth from a French invasion fleet. The wreck remained on the seabed until 1982 when it was salvaged in a...
Researchers have determined the genetic origins of Asia's most enigmatic mummies. Once thought to be Indo-European speaking migrants from the West, the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies are revealed to be a local indigenous population with...
The cremation process destroys a lot of information that can usually be obtained from the human skeleton. Especially diseases are difficult to observe. Researchers have now found a way to reveal some of the information. For the first...
While analyzing some of the world's oldest colored gemstones, researchers discovered carbon residue that was once ancient life, encased in a 2.5 billion-year-old ruby.
The Vikings were active in North America in the year 1021 AD. This now represents the earliest -- and only -- known year in which Europeans were present in the Americas prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1492 AD. It also represents a...
Archaeological sites like the Great Wall of China and the pyramids can be seen with the naked eye from space, but for ancient societies that did not build, their traces on the landscape are more difficult to find. Now researchers have...
Human feces don't usually stick around for long -- and certainly not for thousands of years. But exceptions to this general rule are found in a few places in the world, including prehistoric salt mines of the Austrian UNESCO World...
A widely accepted theory of Native American origins coming from Japan has been attacked in a new scientific study, which shows that the genetics and skeletal biology 'simply does not match-up.'
Scientists report new evidence that some 5,000 years ago, a sloth smaller than a black bear roamed the forest floor of what is now the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Sea, living a lowland life different from its cousins on the other...
In distant past, people did not think about such issue as the humane treatment of criminals. Quite on the contrary, people would invent most sophisticated types of torture to make suspects speak. Executions would be conducted in public...
Researchers have presented evidence that a Middle Bronze Age city called Tall el-Hammam, located in the Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea, was destroyed by a cosmic airburst.
Over time, concrete cracks and crumbles. Well, most concrete cracks and crumbles. Structures built in ancient Rome are still standing, exhibiting remarkable durability despite conditions that would devastate modern concrete. One of these...
Researchers uncover the evolution of the hepatitis B virus since the Early Holocene by analyzing the largest dataset of ancient viral genomes produced to date.
New dating of an archaeological site in the Thar Desert to 177,000 years ago shows the use of stone handaxes persisted for over 1 million years in India, and may have endured until the arrival of Homo sapiens.
Palaeobiologists have unearthed the earliest evidence yet of hippos in the UK. Excavations at Westbury Cave in Somerset have uncovered a million-year-old hippo tooth which shows the animal roamed Britain much earlier than previously...
At the beginning of the last century, the news about the death of Afghan Emir Abdur-Rahman made headlines all over the world. It was reported that his death could lead to most unpleasant consequences for both Russia and England, and,...
Why did some ancient Khmer and Mesoamerican cities collapse between 900-1500CE, while their rural surrounds continued to prosper? Intentional adaptation to climate changed conditions may be the answer, suggests a new study.
In the Middle Bronze Age (about 3600 years ago or roughly 1650 BCE), the city of Tall el-Hammam was ascendant. Located on high ground in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, the settlement in its time had become the...
The newly discovered structures provide game-changing evidence that the imperial power of Teotihuacan exerted considerable influence on Tikal, an ancient Maya capital, as part of a campaign of conquest.
Researchers present comprehensive ancient DNA data retrieved from peoples culturally affiliated with the iconic Etruscans, settling a long-lasting debate on the origins of this highly skilled and enigmatic culture.
Footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico confirm human presence over at least two millennia, with the oldest tracks dating back 23,000 years, say scientists.
Researchers used ancient DNA analysis to identify a member of a population expelled from medieval Spain known as the 'Segorbe Giant'. The results have shed light on the brutal political decision that led to a dramatic change in...
Shell beads found in a cave in Morocco are at least 142,000 years old. The archaeologists who found them say they're the earliest known evidence of a widespread form of human communication.
Using oxygen stable isotope analysis of tooth enamel from animals butchered by humans at the site of Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria, researchers show that human groups belonging to an early wave of dispersal of our species into Europe were...