Archaeology

Nov 18th, 2024 - A researcher says he has deciphered an ancient, heavily damaged inscription carved on a 2,600-year-old monument in Turkey. The monument, which is engraved with images of lions and sphinxes, is known as Arslan Kaya (also spelled Aslan Kaya), which means "lion rock" in Turkish. The inscription spells out the name "Materan," a goddess of the Phrygians, who flourished in what is now Turkey from roughly 1200 to 600 B.C. They knew her "simply as the Mother," Mark Munn , a professor of ancient Greek ... [Read More]

Nov 13th, 2024 - Polish archaeologists who found the grave of a German soldier discovered even more historic artifacts amid the exhumation of the remains.  The grave was found in Wdecki Landscape Park, a nationally protected area with multiple nature preserves in northern Poland. The soldier was buried near a lake, and likely died in February 1945 while fighting for control of a bridge in Grzybek, Poland, according to a news release from the park on social media . Efforts began to recover the body.  ... [Read More]

Nov 13th, 2024 - A structure in southwest England that's associated with King Arthur isn't medieval as scientists had long thought. Instead, it dates back more than 5,000 years, to the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, archaeologists say — thousands of years before the mythical king and his knights are said to have lived. The scientists who were involved in recent excavations at "King Arthur's Hall," an unusual rectangular structure on the Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, used several dating techniques to establish ... [Read More]

Nov 13th, 2024 - Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a "unique" prehistoric ceremonial site in southern Sweden that dates back to the Neolithic period, or New Stone Age. The unusual site, located in the municipality of Hammar in Skåne province, consists of a causewayed enclosure—a type of large, prehistoric earthwork—and a number of artifacts thought to be between 5,500 and 5,000 years old. These remains include intact ceramic vessels and large quantities of flint tools, not to ... [Read More]

Nov 12th, 2024 - Archaeologists in Germany have discovered an impeccably preserved wooden burial chamber at the center of an enormous burial mound from the early Celtic period. The 2,600-year-old grave, uncovered near the town of Riedlingen, is only the second well-preserved Celtic burial chamber to be uncovered in Germany. Wood buried underground in dry or normal conditions usually decomposes within decades, at most. This makes such discoveries rare, prompting experts to call this Celtic burial a finding of ... [Read More]

Nov 11th, 2024 - The 3,900-year-old tomb of priestess Idy is revealing new insights into women's roles in Egypt's Middle Kingdom. After 20 years of fieldwork in the mountains of Gebel Asyut al-Gharbi near the city of Asyut, a team of archaeologists has revealed an extraordinary finding from a little-known time period of ancient Egypt: the 3,900-year-old burial chamber of a priestess named Idy. Among the grave goods, the team uncovered two elaborately decorated wooden coffins with inscriptions identifying Idy as ... [Read More]

Nov 2nd, 2024 - Egyptian officials announced that archaeologists from Egypt and the United States have uncovered a historic burial site featuring 11 sealed interments near the famous city of Luxor, as stated by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in an official announcement on Friday. The ministry revealed that the burial site, dating to the Middle Kingdom period (1938 BC-1630 BC), was discovered in the South Asasif necropolis, adjacent to the Temple of Hatshepsut on Luxor's West Bank of the Nile. ... [Read More]

Nov 2nd, 2024 - Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.  . For more than 1,000 years, dense forests in the Mexican state of Campeche concealed the region's ancient human history. Scientists called Campeche an archaeological "blank spot" in the Maya Lowlands, an area spanning what is now Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and southeastern Mexico, and which the Maya inhabited from about 1000 BC to AD 1500. But part of that region is blank no longer. Archaeologists have found thousands of ... [Read More]

Oct 18th, 2024 - A tomb dating back 5,000 years, which archaeologists believe may belong an early Chinese king, has been discovered in central China. The grave of what archaeologists believe may be the king of a prehistoric society have been discovered at the Wangzhuang ruins in the city of Yongcheng in Henan province, with over 350 artifacts unearthed to date. "The newly discovered tomb might belong to a ruler of this kind of complex society in western Henan," Li Xinwei, Professor of the Institute of ... [Read More]

Oct 18th, 2024 - Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known Christian church in Armenia. Shaped like an octagon with cross-shaped extensions, the structure's foundations are more than 1,600 years old, also making it one of the earliest known Christian churches in the world. "The fourth-century building [offers] sensational evidence for early Christianity in Armenia," says Achim Lichtenberger , an archaeologist at the University of Münster in Germany, in a statement . Researchers from the University of ... [Read More]

Oct 17th, 2024 - Archeologists in Denmark have made one of the most notable discoveries in recent history: a group of 50 skeletons found in a burial ground, believed to be from the Viking Era. The skeletal remains could help scientists unearth some of the , and provide new answers about this centuries-old civilization. The skeletons were reportedly preserved due to favorable conditions near the burial site; they were discovered in mid-October near the village of Åsum, a remote settlement located three ... [Read More]

Oct 4th, 2024 - The Israeli Antiquities Authority touts the value of a stone ring from the era of the First Temple, roughly the 7th or 8th BCE. (Video: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.) Sanxingdui Ruins is an archaeological site located in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. The site has undergone heavy exploration through the years, with thousands of notable artifacts coming out of excavations.  The Sanxingdui Ruins lie in Guanghan City. The site was first discovered in 1929 by a farmer who ... [Read More]

Oct 4th, 2024 - Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Egyptian burial chamber featuring two "intricately painted" wooden coffins, among other finds. A joint Egyptian-German mission discovered the tomb during an excavation at the archaeological site of Asyut, an ancient city that was an important cultural center about 4,000 years ago during Egypt's Middle Kingdom, the country's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said. "This new discovery in Asyut will add more to what we know about the Middle Kingdom, which ... [Read More]

Sep 19th, 2024 - Egyptian archaeologists unearthed a sword earlier this month which was marked by ancient pharaoh Ramses II, Egypt's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said .  The bronze sword with engravings of the cartouche of the Egyptian king was buried for more than 3,000 years in an ancient military fort known as Tell Al-Abqain, located in the Beheira Governorate in northeast Egypt, south of Alexandria, the Egyptian government said in a Sept. 6 news release.  Known as Ramses the Great, the pharaoh ... [Read More]

Sep 17th, 2024 - Archaeologists have unearthed the ancient remains of an Egyptian army barracks and the artifacts left there, including a still-shiny bronze sword engraved with the name of King Ramses II in hieroglyphics. The complex consisted of warehouses to store weapons and food, as well as barracks to house soldiers at a strategic point in the northwest of the country, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Alexandria, according to a statement released by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. From ... [Read More]

Sep 16th, 2024 - Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed the 3,200-year-old remains of a military barracks containing a wealth of artifacts, including a sword with hieroglyphs depicting the name of Ramesses II. The structure contains a series of storerooms used to hold grain and ovens for baking. The team also found the remains of pottery containing the bones of animals, including fish. Multiple cow burials were also unearthed at the site, Ahmed El Kharadly , an archaeologist with the Egyptian Ministry of ... [Read More]