Archaeology

Mar 7th, 2025 - The ancient Mesopotamians created a massive, sophisticated network of canals to water their crops more than 3,000 years ago, a new study has revealed. Researchers found thousands of ancient irrigation canals up to 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) long carved into the landscape near Basra in Iraq, which at the time was the Eridu region of Mesopotamia . Mesopotamians occupied this region along the vast Euphrates river from the sixth millennium B.C. (8,000 to 7,000 years ago) to the early first millennium ... [Read More]

Mar 7th, 2025 - The 29,000-year-old bones of a child discovered in Thailand are the oldest human remains ever found in the country, archaeologists have announced. The child — nicknamed "Pangpond," after a Thai cartoon character — was likely living with their family of hunter-gatherers near the coast before their untimely death. Both the skeleton and the method of burial are revealing groundbreaking information about Stone Age Thailand. The discovery was announced last month at a news conference ... [Read More]

Mar 6th, 2025 - Re-dating of Flagstones monument to about 3,200BC came after analysis by Exeter University and Historic England A prehistoric burial site in Dorset is now thought to be the earliest known large circular enclosure in Britain prompting researchers to question whether current dating of Stonehenge may need revising. The Flagstones monument, near Dorchester in Dorset, has been re-dated to about 3200BC, approximately two centuries earlier than previously thought, following analysis by the University ... [Read More]

Mar 5th, 2025 - A 15th-century shipwreck off the coast of Sweden may be Scandinavia's oldest shipwreck built in the innovative "carvel" style — a design that gave it the strength to carry heavy cannons, archaeologists say. The wreck at Landfjärden, south of Stockholm, is one of five in the area that have been known since the 1800s. They were commonly thought to have been from ships dating to the Viking Age (A.D. 793 to 1066). But last year, maritime archaeologists at Vrak , the museum of wrecks in ... [Read More]

Mar 5th, 2025 - Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 2,600-year-old pot full of gold jewelry, including a rare statuette that depicts a family of gods and may have been worn as an amulet. A team found the pot at Karnak Temple, a complex near Luxor (ancient Thebes). The temple was initially built around 4,000 years ago and was continuously expanded, renovated and modified over millennia. A number of deities were worshipped at the site, including Amun, the chief god of Thebes. The finds include beads, ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2025 - Archaeologists have discovered rare, 2,400-year-old puppets in El Salvador that may have been used in public rituals to perform well-known events that were "mythical or real." The finding suggests that the people of El Salvador were more integrated into the wider Central American culture than previously thought, a new study finds. Archaeologists found the five ceramic figurines, depicting four females and one male, on top of a large pyramidal structure in 2022. The unexpected find, reported in ... [Read More]

Mar 3rd, 2025 - Archaeologists in northern Denmark have discovered the remains of a large timber circle that is thousands of years old and has parallels to England's Stonehenge. This open-air structure was likely part of a larger "ritual landscape" used by prehistoric people of the Late Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Early Bronze Age (2600 to 1600 B.C.). "This is an extraordinary find," Sidsel Wåhlin , curator at the Vesthimmerlands Museum and excavation co-leader, said in a statement . "The timber circle ... [Read More]

Mar 3rd, 2025 - Modern humans now permanently live on every continent except Antarctica, but it wasn't always this way. After our species, Homo sapiens , emerged in Africa at least 300,000 years ago , some eventually ventured out, trekking and voyaging across the world. So when did the first modern humans reach each of the seven continents? Out of Africa The accepted ideas about human evolution today are the "Out of Africa" theories, which propose that H. sapiens evolved in Africa and spread to the other ... [Read More]

Mar 2nd, 2025 - Egyptian officials recently announced the discovery of a 3,000-year-old mining complex, complete with remnants of ancient homes, workshops and even baths. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reported that excavation was conducted at Jabal Sukari, located southwest of the town of Marsa Alam in the Red Sea Governorate, according to a Facebook post published on Feb. 25. The statement explained that among the discoveries were the remains of a mining camp dating back three millennia. It ... [Read More]

Mar 2nd, 2025 - By David Nikel A Taste Of Ancient Egypt At London's British Museum From the stone that unlocked hieroglyphics to towering statues and eerie mummies, the British Museum's Ancient Egypt collection is a must-see for history lovers. David Nikel is a travel writer covering cruising and Scandinavia. Mar 02, 2025, 05:04am EST The grand monuments, enigmatic gods, and legendary rulers of Ancient Egypt have fascinated the world for centuries. From the pyramids to the mysteries of hieroglyphs and the ... [Read More]

Feb 27th, 2025 - An extremely rare cycle of paintings depicting a raucous ritual involving the god of wine has been unearthed in Pompeii , the ancient Roman city buried by volcanic ash and lava in A.D. 79, officials said Wednesday. The world-famous site said it had excavated in recent weeks a nearly life-size frieze depicting the procession of Dionysus, the god of wine, painted on three sides of a large banquet room. Known as a "megalography" from the Greek for "large painting," the frieze depicts a procession, ... [Read More]

Feb 3rd, 2025 - Roughly 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers completed an ambitious construction project: They built a circular, 40-foot-wide structure using the bones and tusks of more than 60 woolly mammoths. The mammoth-bone structure, located at a site in Russia some 300 miles south of Moscow called Kostenki 11 , has long perplexed archaeologists. Why were our Ice Age ancestors building things out of mammoth bones? What did they use the structure for? And where did they find so many skeletons? Researchers ... [Read More]

Jan 21st, 2025 - Skeletal remains and skull fragments of two Bronze Age women were found at a construction site in the U.K. Their remains were found in Kent at a building site slated for 41 homes along with animal bones, pottery and evidence of a Roman road while a required archaeological survey was being conducted,  the BBC first reported . One of the women — estimated to be about 30-35 years old  — was found in a crouch-burial position, the report said. The position has been ... [Read More]

Jan 16th, 2025 - Ancient Egypt was primarily ruled by men, with only a handful of women successfully coming to power. One of them was Hatshepsut , the sixth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, who reigned during the 15th century B.C.E. Hatshepsut was "by far the most successful" woman to rule Egypt as pharaoh, as Smithsonian magazine 's Elizabeth B. Wilson wrote in 2006. She insisted on being portrayed with male features, including "the broad, bare chest of a man and the pharaonic false beard," though scholars don't ... [Read More]

Jan 16th, 2025 - Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient complex of ruined  Byzantine -era buildings in Israel. The structures include a winepress, a large warehouse and what may be a monastery boasting a colorful mosaic floor. The floor features a Greek inscription from Deuteronomy : "Blessed are you when you come in and blessed are you when you go out." The ruins were discovered during excavations ahead of construction for a new neighborhood near the city of Kiryat Gat. According to a  statement ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2025 - CAIRO (AP) — Egypt unveiled several discoveries near the famed city of Luxor on Wednesday, including ancient rock-cut tombs and burial shafts dating back 3,600 years. They were unearthed at the causeway of Queen Hatshepsut's funerary temple at Deir al-Bahri on the Nile's West Bank, according to a statement released by Zahi Hawass Foundation for Antiquities & Heritage. It said it worked in tandem with the Supreme Council of Antiquities on the site since September 2022. Artifacts found at ... [Read More]