Archaeology News

Magdalenian Hunter-Gatherers Created Art by Firelight, Archaeologists Say

Photographs and digital tracings of two plaquettes from the Montastruc site, France. Scale bars - 10 cm. Image credit: Needham et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266146.
Apr 21, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists have examined the engraved limestone plaquettes excavated from Montastruc, a rockshelter site in southern France. These plaquettes are likely to have been made using stone tools by Magdalenian people, an early hunter-gatherer culture dating from between 23,000 and 14,000 years ago. The Montastruc plaquettes were incised with artistic designs around 15,000 years ago and have patterns of heat damage which suggests they were carved close...

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Huayna Picchu is Original Name of Inca City Now Known as Machu Picchu

Apr 4, 2022 by News Staff

Machu Picchu, one of the most recognized archaeological sites in the world, is located high (2,430 m above sea level) above the Urubamba River on a narrow...

Kuitems et al. provide evidence that the Norse were active on the North American continent in the year 1021 CE. Image credit: Oscar C.R.

Increasingly Dry Conditions Contributed to Norse Abandonment of Southern Greenland, Study Shows

Mar 23, 2022 by News Staff

Declining temperature has been thought to explain the abandonment of Norse settlements in southern Greenland in the early 15th century CE, although limited...

Wattle and other acacias were found at the oldest archaeological site on the land of the Martu in the Australian Western Desert. Image credit: University of Western Australia.

New Study Offers Insight into Earliest Uses of Firewood in Australia

Mar 18, 2022 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Western Australia and Curtin University has examined charcoal from ancient rock shelters to learn about the...

Saffron, the world’s most expensive spice, is extracted from the flowers of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus). Image credit: Johan Puisais.

Saffron Crocus was First Domesticated in Ancient Greece

Mar 10, 2022 by News Staff

In a review paper published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, researchers followed ancient arts and recent genetics to trace the evolutionary...

Stonehenge. Image credit: Sally Wilson.

Stonehenge was Designed as Solar Calendar, Archaeologist Says

Mar 7, 2022 by News Staff

Scholars have long seen in the monumental composition of Stonehenge evidence for prehistoric time-reckoning — a Neolithic calendar. Exactly how such...

View of Grotte Mandrin, France. Image credit: Ludovic Slimak.

54,000-Year-Old Molar is Earliest Known Evidence of Anatomically Modern Humans in Western Europe

Feb 11, 2022 by News Staff

In a new paper published this week in the journal Science Advances, paleoanthropologists report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal...

The temple of Athribis, Egypt. Image credit: Marcus Müller / Athribis-Project Tübingen.

Inscribed Pottery Fragments Document Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

Feb 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists from the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Tübingen and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities...

The Paleolithic settlement at Abu Hureyra in what is now Syria may have been destroyed 12,800 years ago because of a comet. Image credit: Jennifer Rice, Comet Research Group.

Near-Earth Comet Exploded over North America about 1,500 Years Ago

Feb 2, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists have found meteorites, microspherules, iridium and platinum anomalies, and burned charcoal-rich habitation surfaces at 11 archaeological...

Dr. Chris Balzotti climbs an ancient staircase discovered in a sinkhole near Coba, Mexico. Image credit: Richard Terry.

Ancient Maya Tended Sacred Groves of Cacao Trees in Humid Microclimates of Karst Sinkholes

Feb 1, 2022 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists from the United States and Mexico has found several biomarkers of cacao in soil from karst sinkholes that dot the...

Panicum miliaceum (left) and Echinochloa crus-galli. Image credit: Otto Wilhelm / Biolib.de.

Archaeologists Unearth Earliest Evidence of Multi-Cropping

Jan 13, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed the earliest micro-botanical evidence of the summer grain broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in Mesopotamia, identified...

A medieval knight on a warhorse.

Study: Medieval Warhorses Were No More Than Pony-Sized by Modern Standards

Jan 11, 2022 by News Staff

Popular culture presents a deep-rooted perception of medieval warhorses as massive and powerful mounts, but medieval textual and iconographic evidence...

The wooden artifact with text in both Norse and Latin found at the Medieval Park in Oslo, Norway. Image credit: Tone Bergland, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research.

Two Medieval Artifacts with Runic Inscriptions Found in Norway

Jan 10, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists excavating the Medieval Park in Oslo, Norway, have unearthed two objects — pieces of bone and wood — inscribed with runes. The...

The 800-year-old Arabic-inspired chess piece is richly decorated with circles. Image credit: Lars Haugesten, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research.

Norwegian Archaeologists Find 800-Year-Old Arabic-Inspired Chess Piece

Jan 6, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists have found a richly decorated ‘knight’ chess piece at a medieval site in Tønsberg, the oldest city in Norway. The 800-year-old Arabic-inspired...

The five Viking longhouses found near the Gjellestad ship in Norway. Image credit: Lars Gustavsen, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research / Arild L. Teigen, Viken fylkeskommune.

Archaeologists Find Five Viking Longhouses in Norway

Jan 4, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar have detected five longhouses in Østfold county, Norway. One of the ancient buildings is approximately 60...

The 800-year-old figurine found in the medieval town of Oslo, Norway. Image credit: Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research.

Archaeologists Find 800-Year-Old Figurine of Falconer in Norway

Jan 3, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists excavating the medieval town of Oslo in Norway have unearthed a finely carved figurine of a king or a queen with a falcon perched on his/her...

Curtin et al. provide unequivocal evidence for human arrival and livestock disturbance in the Faroe Islands centuries before Viking settlement in the 9th century CE. Image credit: T.H. Jensen.

Faroe Islands Were Settled Before Vikings Arrived, New Research Shows

Dec 30, 2021 by News Staff

The Faroe Islands, a North Atlantic archipelago between Norway and Iceland, were settled by Viking explorers in the mid-9th century CE. However, several...

Surface of a section of undisturbed block of sediment from Denisova Cave. Image credit: Mike Morley / Flinders University.

Scientists Find Ancient Hominin and Animal DNA in Cave Sediments

Dec 28, 2021 by News Staff

A research team led by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Flinders University scientists has successfully extracted ancient DNA from...

An underwater archaeologist holds a gold ring with a green gemstone. Image credit: Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Spectacular Artifacts Found in Two Ancient Shipwrecks

Dec 23, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have discovered hundreds of silver and bronze coins, silver and...

El Sidron Neanderthals taste wild mushrooms, pine nuts and forest moss. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Study: Neanderthals Transformed Landscapes 125,000 Years Ago

Dec 21, 2021 by News Staff

According to an analysis of paleoenvironmental and archaeological data from the 125,000-year-old Neanderthal site of Neumark-Nord in Germany, our closest...

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