Archaeology

Dec 2nd, 2025 - A vast network of prehistoric walled settlements reshapes the story of early China Archaeologists working in the mountains near Yulin, in China's Shaanxi Province, have found 573 ancient stone fortresses clustered along river valleys. The oldest date to about 2800 B.C.E., while others were built during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which ended 3,000 and 2,200 years ago respectively. The discovery shows how people in northern China built fortified communities that grew more complex over ... [Read More]

Nov 29th, 2025 - Scientists uncover a human population that thrived in Argentina for 8,000 years At an archaeological site in central Argentina, scientists have uncovered traces of a human lineage that had gone unnoticed for thousands of years. A new study published in Nature reveals that a distinct group of early humans lived in this region for at least 8,000 years, maintaining their genetic identity despite cultural and environmental changes. This lineage, unique to central Argentina, endured largely in ... [Read More]

Nov 28th, 2025 - It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news. A new study of nearly 2,500 genomes may have finally settled the debate about when modern humans arrived in Australia. Using a diverse database of DNA from ancient and contemporary Aboriginal people throughout Oceania, researchers have determined that people began to settle northern Australia ... [Read More]

Nov 28th, 2025 - Pit diggers may have been trying to connect with the underworld, archaeologist Vincent Gaffney says Archaeologists have confirmed that a series of deep pits discovered near Stonehenge in Wiltshire, UK—some of which are five metres deep—were carved out by humans more than 4,000 years ago. The circle pits at Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, around 2 miles north-east of Stonehenge, are set at regular intervals, ten metres in diameter and more than five metres deep, making this the ... [Read More]

Nov 26th, 2025 - It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news. Archaeologists in France have discovered a Roman-period cremation tomb richly furnished with silver coins, gold jewelry, and a ring inscribed with what is likely the last name of the deceased. The grave was found unexpectedly during excavations at a medieval settlement in ... [Read More]

Nov 26th, 2025 - Reading time 2 minutes Archaeologists working in the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis have revealed a funerary mystery: hundreds of figurines with the name of an unexpected pharaoh. A French archaeological mission headed by Sorbonne University's Frédéric Payraudeau found 225 funerary statuettes of King Shoshenq III, but not in his tomb—in King Osorkon II's. The finding confirms that the pharaoh expected quite the pampered afterlife and hints at a potential musical-chairs ... [Read More]

Nov 25th, 2025 - It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news. November 2025 marks 100 years since archaeologists first examined Tutankhamun 's mummified remains. What followed wasn't scientific triumph — it was destruction. Using hot knives and brute force, Howard Carter's team decapitated the pharaoh, severed his limbs and dismembered his torso. ... [Read More]

Nov 4th, 2025 - After two decades and an estimated cost of $1bn, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, just a few days after the official opening ceremony on Saturday. Regarded as the world's largest archaeological facility for a single civilisation, the museum is located 2km (1.2 miles) from the pyramids of Giza and 8km (5 miles) from the capital, Cairo. The complex spans nearly 500,000sq metres (5,381,900sq ft) and will house more than 100,000 ancient artefacts from the ... [Read More]

Oct 30th, 2025 - For the first time since the boy king's tomb was discovered in 1922, all the items will stored in one place, a museum director told NBC News. GIZA, Egypt — They're the crown jewels of the Grand Egyptian Museum — two galleries devoted to the ancient pharaoh Tutankhamun . Showcasing more than 5,300 objects from the young king's tomb, including his iconic death mask and glittering royal regalia, the new section of the vast museum here on the outskirts of Cairo is expected to draw ... [Read More]

Oct 5th, 2025 - CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian antiquities officials on Sunday said a Pharaonic painting has disappeared from the famed Saqqara necropolis just outside of Cairo, becoming the latest artifact to disappear in a country known for its rich history. Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the limestone painting was in the tomb of Khentika in the Saqqara necropolis. The mastaba tomb, which housed the painting, was found in the 1950s, and hasn't opened since 2019, he ... [Read More]

Oct 4th, 2025 - LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — Egypt on Saturday opened a tomb of a pharaoh for visitors after more than two decades of renovation in the southern city of Luxor, as it prepares for the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The huge tomb of Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt between 1390 B.C. and 1350 B.C., is located on the western side of the famed Valley of the Kings. It was found in 1799 by two people and its contents were looted, including the sarcophagus, Egyptian ... [Read More]

Sep 26th, 2025 - You can now listen to Fox News articles! Egyptian archaeologists recently uncovered a hidden harbor at an ancient temple connected to Cleopatra VII – an unexpected find for historians.  The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of the harbor on Sept. 18. It was found at the Temple of Taposiris Magna, about 30 miles west of Alexandria. The temple, built in the Ptolemaic era, was dedicated to Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife. Though the temple ... [Read More]

Sep 23rd, 2025 - It all used to be so simple. The story of how we – that is Homo sapiens , today's humans – emerged from Africa and spread across what's become Europe and Asia was a neat, straightforward narrative. It began around 50,000 years ago when our brains experienced a lightbulb moment of advancing cognition and creativity, stimulating our ancestors to journey beyond our cradle continent. When they reached Eurasia, around 40–30,000 years ago, they encountered another group of humans, a ... [Read More]

Sep 22nd, 2025 - Hundreds of coins depicting Cleopatra VII, an Egyptian pharaoh who was a lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, have been discovered at Taposiris Magna, a temple site from ancient Egypt . On top of that, the same team recently found a submerged port on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt and say that it's possible that her tomb could be located underwater near the port. Both finds are part of "Cleopatra's Final Secret," a new documentary that premieres on the National Geographic channel Sept. 25 ... [Read More]

Sep 21st, 2025 - The ancient Egyptians took a number of measures to safeguard the pyramids. But did they ever resort to booby traps? The answer, Egyptologists told Live Science, is an emphatic no. "No, they didn't use booby traps in the pyramids, but they could make it damn difficult to get in!" Reg Clark , an independent scholar and Egyptologist who has written extensively about ancient Egyptian tomb security, told Live Science in an email. It's not clear where the idea of booby traps inside Egypt's pyramids ... [Read More]

Sep 18th, 2025 - The 14,000-year-old smoked mummies in Southeast Asia are rewriting burial history By the time the ancient Egyptians were wrapping their dead in linens and sealing them in golden tombs, a very different kind of preservation was already widespread across tropical Southeast Asia. Thousands of years earlier, hunter-gatherers there had discovered a way to cheat decay, not with desert air, but with fire and smoke. Now, an international team of archaeologists has traced that practice back more than ... [Read More]