Archaeology(Page 5)

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

Latest in Archaeology

Micro-CT scans of bone needle and needle specimens and the species they were compared with.

Ice age humans made needles from animal bones, archeologists discover

By Laura Baisas

Bronze cannon linked to Coronado expedition next to ruler for scale

The oldest known firearm in the U.S. unearthed in Arizona

Focaccia baked in kiln

Focaccia likely originated in Mesopotamia, not Rome

Marine fossils found at Neanderthal cave site

Neanderthals may have enjoyed collecting tchotchkes—just like us

Inhumation grave 26, shown in the original field photograph (left), with bones in anatomical articulation lying on their right side with flexed legs.

This ancient skeleton turned out to have eight different people in it

By Popular Science Team

a side by side of a rare gold coin from 1870

Rare California Gold Rush coin fetches $1.44 million at auction

By Laura Baisas

a silver coin minted before the american revolution. one side has the letters NE on it for new england and the other has the roman numeral 3 for its value

Colonial silver coin found in cabinet sells for $2.5 million

By Laura Baisas

Various images of Bes mugs

Ancient Egyptian ritual potion included hallucinogens and bodily fluids

two bodies from pompeii preserved in white plaster

DNA reveals new stories about Pompeii’s victims

By Laura Baisas

Remains of 28 Civil War soldiers identified in funeral home storage

Two perfectly articulated skeletons of the sheep-size dinosaur Psittacosaurus, found in China's Yixian Formation. New research suggests they died in burrow collapses, not via volcanism, as previously thought.

Dinosaurs discovered in ‘Chinese Pompeii’ actually died in extremely boring ways

By Mack DeGeurin

a metal cylinder with various markings on it and what those markings look like on a clay tablet

6,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts linked to the dawn of writing

By Laura Baisas

View of the bow of the RMS Titanic photographed in June 2004 by the ROV Hercules during an expedition returning to the shipwreck of the Titanic.

A hunk of coal from the Titanic could fetch $780 at auction

Side by side of mummy entering CT scanner with two images of a mummy's skull scan

3D scans reveal secrets of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy’s coffin

a 900 year old skeleton

Tooth powder unlocks clues to an 800-year-old mystery of man thrown into well

By Laura Baisas

Nine Iranian swords analyzed in this study.

Iron Age swords revealed as ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ black market forgeries

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

Walrus DNA suggests meetings between Vikings and Indigenous Inuit

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.

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

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

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.

The perplexing puzzle of a ‘Horned Serpent’ cave painting

Skeletal remains of child buried in vampire grave

Medieval child ‘vampire burial’ exhumed near Polish cathedral

a long bronze sword

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

By Laura Baisas

neanderthal teeth in a cave

Neanderthals’ social isolation may have sped up their extinction

By Laura Baisas

Lasius emarginatus

This immigrant ant is taking New York City by storm

By Popular Science Team

Titanic bow wreckage underwater

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

Various artifacts recovered from Temple of Buto

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

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

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

Mastodon skull in Iowa creek bed

Huge mastodon skull found in a rural Iowa creek

several sharp clovis points of varying size

Ice Age humans may have used pikes to hunt mammoths

By Laura Baisas

seven circular pieces of silver dating back to the viking age

Metal detector enthusiast finds Viking silver in a field

By Laura Baisas

a large, domed rock formation

Geologists find solid evidence of ancient ‘snowball Earth’

By Laura Baisas

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

Even Vikings had to pay fines

By Laura Baisas

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

Geologists crack a major Stonehenge mystery

By Laura Baisas

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

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.

Astronauts conduct the first archeological study in space

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

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

By Laura Baisas

Pyramid of Djoser with camel

Egypt’s oldest pyramid may have been built using a hydraulic lift

two ancient gold coins with the image of an archer carved into them

Archeologists uncover hoard of gold coins linked to ancient mercenaries

By Laura Baisas

Close up of Screaming Woman mummy's face

‘Screaming woman’ may solve a 3,500-year-old mummy mystery

various bird bones out on a table

Neanderthals ate birds. But how?

By Laura Baisas

plaster cast of human remains in Pompeii

Two Pompeii skeletons reveal a new story of death at mega disaster

By Laura Baisas

a 3D rendering of three early humans butchering a giant armadillo

Early humans butchered enormous armadillos

By Laura Baisas

several stone circles marking gravesites in a field in norway

Stone circles unearthed in Norway mark ancient children’s graves

By Laura Baisas

Located in the foothills of a rock emerging from a green field

Iron Age plant remains tell new agricultural story in east Africa

By Laura Baisas

cone shaped skull

These viking ladies tried to start a trend for pointy heads, but it didn’t take off

By Popular Science Team

Breakdown of Antikythera mechanism

The world’s oldest mechanical computer used a lunar calendar to study the stars

Ritual sticks uncovered in Cloggs Cave date back 10,000 to 12,000 years.

Evidence of 12,000-year-old cultural ritual unearthed in Australia

By Laura Baisas

five statues depicting the high dignitary Nefer and his wife (Abusir, Egypt).

Ancient Egyptian scribes suffered bone damage from working long hours in hunched positions

By Laura Baisas

the wreckage of an ancient greek shipwreck underwater, with two divers exploring it

Nuts, bones, and wood help date a 2,000-year-old Greek shipwreck

By Laura Baisas

eight catapult stones on grass

Archeologists uncover 800-year-old stone catapult shots used in English Civil War

By Laura Baisas

The ancient oak circle which emerged from the shifting sands at Holme next the Sea in Norfolk. The ring of oak tree trunks with a large upturned tree at its centre is believed to be 4,000 years old & is said to be of great archaeological importance.

What is ‘Seahenge’? Bronze Age worshipers may have used the structure to try to extend the summer

By Laura Baisas

The world’s oldest wine contains a cremated Roman aristocrat

Bronze Age ruins on the Greek island Aegina, surrounded by sparkling blue waters and mountains

Ancient, surprisingly well-preserved purple dye uncovered in Greece

By Laura Baisas

Detail from the reconstructed stone tzompantli, or skull rack, at Chichén Itzá.

Ancient Mayan human sacrifices involved twins

Five mysterious ancient artifacts that still puzzle archaeologists

Five mysterious ancient artifacts that still puzzle archaeologists

By Natasha Harlow / The Conversation

yaks and sheep grazing on grassland with mountains in the distance

Bronze Age nomads used cauldrons for blood sausage and yak milk

By Laura Baisas

Visualisation of the central grave/main burial of the Grafenbühl mound

DNA suggests ancient Celtic royalty was matrilineal

steam rising over blue water in a pool built by ancient romans

What Britain’s famed Roman Baths could teach us about microbes

By Laura Baisas

a human skull on a dark background with E270 printed on it

4,000 year-old Egyptian skulls show attempts at brain surgery to treat cancer

By Laura Baisas

The Red Pyramid at the Dahshur necropolis, constructed during the Fourth Dynasty.

Long-lost Nile branch may explain landlocked pyramids

Assyrian mural image of lion

Ancient mystery code was probably Sargon II’s name

a hollow 12-sided object with knobs on each face on display at a musuem.

Ancient, mysterious 12-sided object still baffles archeologists

By Laura Baisas

a ring affixed to a wall in the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza

Plants detected in ancient Mayan ‘ballcourts’ point to a sacred spot

By Laura Baisas

Statue of Plato in Greece

A ‘bionic eye’ scan of an ancient, scorched scroll points to Plato’s long-lost gravesite