Archaeology News

2,070-Year-Old Roman Wall Built to Contain Gladiator Spartacus and His Army Discovered in Italy

The 2,070-year-old Roman wall in the Dossone della Melia forest in south-central Calabria, Italy. Image credit: University of Kentucky.
Sep 6, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have identified a 2.7-km- (1.7-mile) long Roman defensive wall and ditch — initially constructed by the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus to contain the Thracian gladiator and slave revolt leader Spartacus and his forces — in Calabria, southern Italy. The 2,070-year-old Roman wall in the Dossone della Melia forest in south-central Calabria, Italy. Image credit: University of Kentucky. Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator...

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The 5,600-year-old submerged stone bridge in Genovesa Cave, Mallorca, Spain. Image credit: R. Landreth.

5,600-Year-Old Stone Bridge Indicates Early Human Arrival in Spain’s Mallorca

Aug 30, 2024 by News Staff

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient submerged stone bridge in Genovesa Cave on Mallorca, the main island of the Balearic Archipelago and the sixth...

The 2,700-year-old stone seal found in Jerusalem, Israel. Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.

2,700-Year-Old Stone Seal Unearthed in Israel

Aug 29, 2024 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered a stone seal from the First Temple period near the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount...

The Battle of Orsha by Hans Krell.

Landscape of Fear: Fear of Violent Conflicts Influenced Development of Non-State Societies in Ancient Europe

Aug 28, 2024 by News Staff

The impact of inter-group conflict on population dynamics has long been debated, especially for prehistoric and non-state societies. In their work, scientists...

Clovis points with distinctive flute or channel flake scars. Image credit: S. Byram.

Study: Clovis People Used Planted Pikes for Hunting of Megaherbivores

Aug 21, 2024 by News Staff

Historical and ethnographic sources depict use of portable braced shaft weapons, or pikes, in megafauna hunting and defense during Late Holocene millennia...

Stonehenge. Image credit: Regina Wolfs.

Stonehenge’s Altar Stone Was Transported from Scotland, Archaeologists Say

Aug 14, 2024 by News Staff

The Altar Stone, a 6-ton sandstone megalith that sits at the center of Stonehenge’s iconic stone circle, was sourced at least 750 km from its current...

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

New Archaeological Site Sheds More Light on Hunting Abilities and Adaptability of Neanderthals

Aug 14, 2024 by News Staff

An archaeological sequence of the Abric Pizarro site in the southeast Pre-Pyrenees is centered on MIS 4 (around 71,000 years ago), a poorly known period...

Pillar 43 in Enclosure D, Göbekli Tepe. Image credit: Alistair Coombs.

Gobekli Tepe’s Carvings Represent World’s Oldest Solar Calendar, New Research Suggests

Aug 6, 2024 by News Staff

Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in southern Turkey, features several Neolithic temple-like enclosures adorned with many intricately carved symbols. Pillar...

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

Flores Hominins Most Likely Evolved from Early Asian Homo erectus

Aug 6, 2024 by News Staff

Recent discoveries of two diminutive hominin species, Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis, raise questions regarding how extreme body size reduction...

Map of the Saqqara plateau showing the water course from the Gisr el-Mudir dam (left) to the water treatment facility near Djoser pyramid. The water is then transferred to the pyramid’s network of pipes to power the hydraulic elevator. Image credit: Landreau et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306690.

Egypt’s Pyramid of Djoser May Have Been Built with Help of Unique Hydraulic Lift System: Study

Aug 6, 2024 by News Staff

The Pyramid of Djoser, also known as the Step Pyramid, is considered the oldest of the seven monumental pyramids built about 4,500 years ago. Map of the...

Map of Wallacea, delineating Birdsell’s northern and southern migration routes. The map also highlights the oldest Pleistocene sites on each island. Along the northern route, the following sites are indicated: 1) Leang Karampuang, Leang Tedongnge, and Leang Bulu Sipong 4, 2) Goa Topogaro, 3) Leang Sarru, 4) Daeo 2, 5) Golo, and 6) Kelo 6. On the southern route, the following sites are highlighted: 7) Liang Bua, 8) Lua Meko, 9) Makpan, 10) Laili, 11) Asitau Kuru, Lene Hara, Matja Kuru 2, 12) Here Sorot Entapa, and 13) Elivavan. The last two sites represent connections to Sahul: 14) Leang Lemdubu, currently in the Aru Islands but once connected to the mainland during the Pleistocene, and 15) Madjedbebe, the oldest known site in Sahul. Image credit: Kaharudin et al., doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108834.

New Archaeological Evidence from Tanimbar Islands Shows Human Occupation 42,000 Years Ago

Jul 19, 2024 by News Staff

Tanimbar is one of the main island groups in Wallacea (a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian...

Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont, a relative of the armadillo that lived during the Pleistocene epoch. By Heinrich Harder, 1920.

Archaeologists Find Stone Tool Marks on 21,000-Year-Old Glyptodont Bones in Argentina

Jul 17, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists in Argentina have analyzed the 21,000-year-old fossil remains with cut marks belonging to a specimen of the exinct glyptodont Neosclerocalyptus,...

Archaic hominins. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

Early Hominins First Arrived in Southern Europe around 1.3 Million Years Ago

Jul 15, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new study, published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews, helps resolve one of the longest controversies in paleoanthropology: when did early hominins...

The newly-discovered archaeological site, including carving of a mythological bird creature, at La Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas, Peru. Image credit: Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project.

Archaeologists Discover 4,000-Year-Old Temple and Theater in Peru

Jul 10, 2024 by News Staff

The newly-discovered structures predate the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu by roughly 3,500 years, and were made long before the Inca and their predecessors,...

A fragment of the Antikythera mechanism. Imager credit: National Archaeological Museum, Athens / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Astronomers Shed Light on Antikythera Mechanism’s Calendar Ring

Jul 10, 2024 by News Staff

The Antikythera mechanism is a multi-component device recovered from a shipwreck close to the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901. It is believed to be...

Located in the foothills of Mount Elgon near the Kenya-Uganda border, Kakapel Rockshelter is the site where Dr. Mueller and her collaborators have uncovered the earliest evidence for plant farming in east Africa. Image credit: Steven Goldstein.

Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Evidence for Plant Farming in East Africa

Jul 9, 2024 by News Staff

A trove of ancient plant remains excavated in Kenya helps explain the history of plant farming in equatorial eastern Africa, a region long thought to be...

The 51,200-year-old Leang Karampuang painting. Image credit: Griffith University.

51,200-Year-Old Painting in Indonesian Cave May Be Oldest Known Evidence of Storytelling in Art

Jul 8, 2024 by News Staff

Using a novel technique called laser ablation U-series (LA-U-series), archaeologists have re-dated some of the earliest cave art in the Maros-Pangkep region...

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

Denisovans Survived on Tibetan Plateau until 48,000-32,000 Years Ago

Jul 4, 2024 by News Staff

Archaeologists have found a new hominin rib specimen in Baishiya Karst Cave, one of the only two places where Denisovans are known to have lived. Dated...

Reconstruction of the Trypillian giant-settlement Maidanetske, Ukraine. Image credit: Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Trypillia Mega-Sites Avoided Wealth Inequalities between Individual Households, Archaeologists Say

Jul 2, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

The Trypillia culture flourished in western/central Ukraine, Moldova and eastern Romania for over two millennia from the end of the Neolithic to the Early...

Eyed needles are among the most iconic of Paleolithic artifacts, traditionally seen as rare indicators of prehistoric clothing, particularly tailoring. Image credit: Mariana Ariza.

Eyed Needles Were Invented around 40,000 Years Ago in Eastern Eurasia, Archaeologists Say

Jun 28, 2024 by News Staff

Eyed needles were a new technological innovation used to adorn clothing for social and cultural purposes, marking the major shift from clothes as protection...

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