Archaeology

The latest digs, ideas, and discoveries about our past, from ancient cities to our prehistoric ancestors.

Latest in Archaeology

Group of Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) on haulout, Vaygach island, Barents sea
Science

Walrus DNA suggests meetings between Vikings and Indigenous Inuit

By Andrew Paul

This oil painting by the Belgian marine artist François Etienne Musin (1820–1888) refers to HMS ‘Erebus’s’ Arctic venture under the command of Sir John Franklin in 1845. For Franklin’s last journey she had been fitted with a steam engine and a screw propeller and was accompanied by HMS ‘Terror’. In 1848 both vessels were abandoned in the ice.
Science

Crew of ill-fated Franklin Expedition cannibalized their commander, archeologists prove

By Andrew Paul

A mummy from an Early Bronze Age cemetery of Xiaohe (1980–1450 BC) in Xinjiang, China and very old cheese.
Science

World’s oldest cheese found in necklaces on mummies in China

By Lauren Leffer

A possible painting of the dicynodont made by the San in the early 1800s.
Science

The perplexing puzzle of a ‘Horned Serpent’ cave painting

By Tom Hawking

Skeletal remains of child buried in vampire grave
Science

Medieval child ‘vampire burial’ exhumed near Polish cathedral

By Andrew Paul

a long bronze sword
Science

Egyptologists find ancient sword possibly wielded against the mysterious ‘Sea Peoples’

By Laura Baisas

neanderthal teeth in a cave
Science

Neanderthals’ social isolation may have sped up their extinction

By Laura Baisas

Lasius emarginatus
Science

This immigrant ant is taking New York City by storm

By Popular Science Team

Titanic bow wreckage underwater
Science

The famous railing from ‘Titanic’ has broken off from Titanic

By Andrew Paul

Various artifacts recovered from Temple of Buto
Science

Egyptologists uncover 2,500 year-old observatory full of precise tools

By Andrew Paul

X-ray of skull pointing to region with evidence of cocaine use
Science

Mummified brains show cocaine arrived in Europe far earlier than we thought

By Andrew Paul

Mastodon skull in Iowa creek bed
Science

Huge mastodon skull found in a rural Iowa creek

By Andrew Paul

several sharp clovis points of varying size
Science

Ice Age humans may have used pikes to hunt mammoths

By Laura Baisas

seven circular pieces of silver dating back to the viking age
Science

Metal detector enthusiast finds Viking silver in a field

By Laura Baisas

a large, domed rock formation
Science

Geologists find solid evidence of ancient ‘snowball Earth’

By Laura Baisas

An old ink drawing of Sweden’s Forsa Ring with the runic inscription.
Science

Even Vikings had to pay fines

By Laura Baisas

stonehenge. these large neolithic standing stones are arranged in a circle
Archaeology

Geologists crack a major Stonehenge mystery

By Laura Baisas

In Scandinavia, early people adorned rocks with thousands of images of boats.
Science

Scandinavia’s missing Bronze-Age boatyards

By Richard Kemeny / Hakai Magazine

A sample location from the Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE), Square 03 in the starboard Maintenance Work Area of the International Space Station. An open crew berth is visible at right. The yellow dotted line indicates the boundaries of the sample area.
Archaeology

Astronauts conduct the first archeological study in space

By Andrew Paul

human bones belonging to an small, extinct, early human secies
Archaeology

New ‘Hobbit’ fossils discovered on Indonesia’s Flores island

By Laura Baisas