Archaeology

Sep 6th, 2024 - Stone Age people buried over a span of 800 years at a mass grave in France mostly belonged to the same male lineage, DNA extracted from skeletons reveals.  The findings emphasize the importance of patrilineality in the social structure of these 5,000-year-old communities, researchers say.  The site — located in Aven de la Boucle, a limestone cave in southern France — contained the remains of roughly 75 individuals, the majority of whom were adults when they died. ... [Read More]

Sep 6th, 2024 - Since the catastrophic pandemics of the Middle Ages, one disease has almost proverbially symbolized contagion and death: the plague. It is now known that the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis has been present in Central and Northern Europe for more than 5,000 years. However, it is still uncertain whether it also led to pandemics and mass deaths in its early forms. Researchers from Kiel, Münster, Schleswig and Hamburg have now analyzed bones from late Neolithic farmers within the framework ... [Read More]

Sep 5th, 2024 - Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed five gold coins dating to the time of the emperor Justinian the Great (ruled from A.D. 527 to 565). Although it is not unusual to discover coins during excavations, these ones were located on the floor of a 10th-century house — suggesting the dwelling's medieval occupants may have kept the coins as a kind of heirloom or artifact. The coins were found in August during an archaeological dig in the village of Debnevo in northern Bulgaria. Excavations ... [Read More]

Sep 5th, 2024 - Archaeologists in Germany have discovered the 1,700-year-old burial of a "barbarian" who lived on the edge of the Roman Empire and was given valuable grave goods, including glassware, pottery and a fine-tooth comb. The grave, which is thought to date to the first half of the fourth century, holds the remains of a man who died at around age 60. It was found in May during excavations ahead of the construction of new homes in the center of the village of Gerstetten, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) ... [Read More]

Sep 4th, 2024 - New analysis reveals that a 1,100-year-old silver vessel, discovered in Scotland ten years ago, is actually from Asia. The ancient artifact is part of the Galloway Hoard, the most valuable collection of Viking-era treasures ever found in Britain or Ireland. The hoard was uncovered by a metal detectorist near the Church of Scotland in Balmaghie, Kirkcudbrightshire. According to National Museums Scotland , the collection includes over 11 pounds of silver, gold and other materials, with artifacts ... [Read More]

Sep 4th, 2024 - Isolated community marked by inbreeding, violence, and devout worship. In a new study , we have sequenced DNA from a Christian community in medieval Spain that lived in artificial caves carved into a rocky outcrop. This is one of several medieval cave communities known to have lived on the Iberian Peninsula—which includes both Portugal and Spain. Why these groups favored caves over more conventional village dwellings is a subject of longstanding debate for archaeologists. While it may be ... [Read More]

Sep 4th, 2024 - Viking age people who lived in what is now Norway were far more likely to be violently killed than Viking age people who lived in Denmark, a new analysis reveals. The findings were surprising to the research team, as "rates of violence in Viking Age Norway and Denmark were long believed to be comparable," the researchers said in a statement . For the study, the team compared two groups ofViking Age skeletons: 30 found in Norway and 82 found in Denmark. They found that "11 of the 30 studied ... [Read More]

Sep 4th, 2024 - History is haunted by mythical lands. From the homes of legendary kings to the earthly abodes of gods and monsters, civilizations have always dreamed of extraordinary places hiding in plain sight. But while it's unlikely that either Atlantis or Shangri-La was real, there may be more truth to some myths than anyone realized. A growing body of archaeological research suggests certain places—the Minotaur's maze from Greek mythology; Vinland, the first North American Viking settlement ... [Read More]

Sep 4th, 2024 - Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have discovered 10 centuries-old burial mounds, known as kurgans, dating to the Middle Ages. Found in the Ulytau region of central Kazakhstan, three of the kurgans are what archaeologists call "mustached kurgans" or "mustache kurgans" Zhanbolat Utubaev , an archaeologist at the Margulan Institute of Archaeology who led the team that discovered the kurgans, told Live Science in an email. These are burial mounds with ridges of stone going across them, Utubaev said. ... [Read More]

Sep 3rd, 2024 - The remains of a possible Roman "mega" fort that would have housed hundreds of soldiers have been unearthed under a tract of farmland in Wales. The new finding could offer evidence that this region was more fortified than previously thought. Mark Merrony — a local archaeologist and the editor-in-chief of Antiqvvs, an online archaeology and history magazine — discovered the remnants of the fort in Pembrokeshire, a county in southwest Wales, according to his GoFundMe page . "I had ... [Read More]

Sep 2nd, 2024 - An "extremely rare and unusual" ancient stone artifact—thought to be around 2,700 years old—has been discovered in Jerusalem. The artifact in question, a seal made of black stone, was uncovered during an excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the City of David organization near the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount (also known as Al-Aqsa)—a site in Jerusalem's Old City that is considered holy by Jewish people, Muslims and Christians. The stone seal bears ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2024 - Three mortuary houses in Norway dating to the Iron Age and Viking Age are slowly revealing ancient funerary rituals. The sites were discovered in 2019 and 2020 when a road was being constructed in the village of Vinjeøra, central Norway. They date between 500 and 950 CE. Excavations confirmed a pre-Christian cemetery, first seen in a test pit dug in 1996. But more recently, alongside the flattened burial mounds, excavators made the surprising discovery of 3 mortuary houses. Mortuary ... [Read More]

Aug 22nd, 2024 - On November 4, 1922, workers led by British archaeologist Howard Carter noticed a single stair peeking out from beneath the shifting Egyptian sand. Within three weeks, Carter and his team had excavated enough limestone debris and soil to reveal a stairwell that led to the antechamber of an ancient tomb. After five long years of searching, Carter had found the tomb of Tutankhamun, deep beneath the Valley of the Kings , a site west of the Nile River. Boring a tiny hole in the second door to the ... [Read More]

Aug 15th, 2024 - What's the Story Behind Mysterious Stonehenge? You have all heard about the marvelous Stonehenge which shocks everyone and raises questions like how and why Stonehenge came into existence. These giant stones, which weigh 25 to 30 tons, are located in Wiltshire, England. With its massive structure and secretive origin, Stonehenge has fascinated the eyes and hearts of many historians, archaeologists, and travelers for centuries. These stones were raised on the land of Wiltshire even before the ... [Read More]

Aug 14th, 2024 - The stone's chemical fingerprint closely matches old red sandstone from Orkney region. The largest of the "bluestones" that comprise the inner circle at Stonehenge is known as the Altar Stone. Like its neighbors, scientists previously thought the stone had originated in western Wales and been transported some 125 miles to the famous monument that still stands on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. But a new paper published in the journal Nature came to a different conclusion based on ... [Read More]

Aug 6th, 2024 - A new study reports the discovery of extremely rare early human fossils from the Indonesian island of Flores, including an astonishingly small adult limb bone. Dated to about 700,000 years old, the new findings shed light on the evolution of Homo floresiensis, the so-called 'Hobbits' of Flores whose remains were uncovered in 2003 at Liang Bua cave in the island's west. A paper out today in Nature Communications reports the discovery of extremely rare early human fossils from the Indonesian ... [Read More]