Archaeology (Page 6)

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

Latest in Archaeology

the stone remains of a castle, revealing an archway, wall, and a tower

In a global crisis, working harder isn’t the best solution

By Laura Baisas

a step pyramid built with stone above several smaller buildings

Apex predators were sacrificed nearly 2,000 years ago in Teotihuacán

By Laura Baisas

Sforza Castle and fountain

Da Vinci was right: Secret tunnels found in Italian castle

Quill pen on old journal with parchment background and handwriting.

Know how to read cursive? The National Archives wants you.

By Laura Baisas

two stones with depictions of the sun engraved on them

Neolithic Europeans sacrificed stones to beg the sun to return

By Laura Baisas

an archeologist wearing a hard hat digs in a hole alongside skeletal remains

British Iron Age burial grounds reveal women had power

By Laura Baisas

The bow of the RMS Titanic as it sits under the water.

‘Titanic’ artifact salvage efforts paused indefinitely

The 3D map on the Ségognole 3 cave floor in the Paris Basin in northern France.

Oldest-known 3D map also celebrated the female form

By Laura Baisas

a line of gold coins, which feature emperors, on a black background.

Rare Roman gold coins discovered in Luxembourg

By Laura Baisas

several dark dots on mummified skin. the skin appears to be white since it is under a strong white light

Intricate tattoos on 1,200-year-old mummy revealed by lasers

By Laura Baisas

a skull next to a yellow note that reads: "Skull from Ephesus.”

Sorry, this skull does not belong to Cleopatra’s sister

By Laura Baisas

Atmospheric photo of the site at dusk, showing the location at the convergence of two gorges. 2023 excavations of inner fortress are visible in foreground.

Drone reveals ancient fortress is 40x larger than archaeologists once thought

By Mack DeGeurin

a tomb in a desert

Archaeologists find the 4,000-year-old tomb of an overachieving Egyptian magician

By Laura Baisas

A general view of (L-R) the church of Santi Luca e Martina, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the ruins of the Temple of Saturn and - in the background - the Amphitheatrum Flavium, commonly known as Colosseum (in Italian: Colosseo), on March 31, 2024 in Rome, Italy.

Ancient lead pollution may have lowered IQs across the Roman Empire

By Lauren Leffer

Roman stone coffin being excavated in England

Construction crew discovers Roman stone coffin under British road

Statue of Emperor Liu He

Researchers make brandy in replica of disgraced emperor’s 2,000-year-old tomb distillery

Lamborghini Miura junkyard auction car

10 of the year’s most interesting auctions: Dinosaurs, coins, and Einstein’s love letters

a mummy with a necklace of cheese

10 fascinating archeological discoveries of 2024

By Laura Baisas

Pyramids in Giza

Bubonic plague discovered in ancient Egyptian mummy DNA

Aerial shot of Viking grave site

Viking women’s gravesites unearthed to find jewelry, coins, and a ‘vulva stone’

Chaunacops fish with 2024 Look Back article headline

Ghost ships to ghost sharks: 10 wildest underwater discoveries of 2024

Stonehenge in Wiltshire of the Great Britain. It is a prehistoric monument, in Wiltshire in South West England. It is under protection of UNESCO.

Archeologists think they solved a 4,500-year-old Stonehenge mystery

four human bones that show evidence of being chewed on by other humans

Bronze Age butchery and cannibalism unearthed in England

By Laura Baisas

The 5,600-year-old teeth and other bones from this study were found near Kosenivka, Ukraine and are some of the only human remains found that are associated with the Cucuteni-Trypilla culture.

Fire likely killed a group of Stone Age humans uncovered in Ukraine

By Laura Baisas

San Miguel pyramid excavation near highway in Hidalgo, Mexico

Ancient pyramid uncovered during highway construction

Germanic warrior taking stimulants imagined by Stanislav(Stanisław) Kontny, especially for the Praehistorische Zeitschrift. Credit: Stanisław Kontny for Praehistorische Zeitschrift

Roman-era Barbarians snorted stimulants in battle, tiny spoons suggest

Bashlemi inscription tablet with mystery language on black background

Mystery language on ancient stone tablet stumps archeologists

two twisted bowstrings uncovered from a cave

Europe’s oldest known bowstrings found in a cave in Spain

By Laura Baisas

a siberian husky sits in the snow. it has piercing blue eyes and its ears are perked up

Humans gave dogs treats 12,000 years ago, new archeological evidence suggests

By Laura Baisas

Researchers have developed a hydrogel that melts into and preserves ancient waterlogged wooden artifacts. Without the gel, the artifacts need to be dried, and that risks damaging the relics.

New goo preserves 800-year-old wooden shipwreck samples

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