Archaeology News

Ancient Maya Used Zeolite and Quartz to Filter Drinking Water

The ancient Maya city of Tikal in northern Guatemala. Image credit: Gerd Eichmann / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Oct 23, 2020 by News Staff

Tikal, an ancient Maya city in what is now northern Guatemala, is one of the largest political, economic and military centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. The metropolis was inhabited from the 6th century BCE to the 10th century CE, and had a population of up to 90,000 people in its heyday. A large reservoir called the Corriental reservoir was an important source of drinking water for the city. A team of archaeologists from the University...

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This image shows the figure of a feline on a hillside in the Nazca Desert, southern Peru. Image credit: La Oficina de Comunicación e Imagen, Ministerio De Cultura, Gobierno del Perú.

Archaeologists Discover Cat Geoglyph at Nazca Lines Site

Oct 21, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists with the Nazca-Palpa Management Plan of Peru’s Ministry of Culture have discovered a 2,100-year-old figure of a relaxing feline in the...

During its zenith, the Hittite empire rivaled and threatened ancient Egypt.

Ancient Hittite Farmers Paid Taxes in Barley and Wheat

Oct 20, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of archaeologists from the United Kingdom and Germany has carried out an archaeobotanical analysis of plant remains recovered from the 3,500-year-old...

12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in New Mexico

Oct 15, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered a long prehistoric human trackway at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, the United States. The...

Polo scene from the tomb of Li Yong, Fuping county, Shaanxi province, China. Image credit: P. Wertmann.

Archaeologists Find 3,000-Year-Old Balls in China

Oct 12, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of archaeologists has found three ancient leather balls in tombs of the prehistoric Yanghai cemetery near the modern city of Turfan...

Copper slag from Horvat Beter, Beer Sheva, southern Israel. Image credit: Anat Rasiuk, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists Unearth 6,500-Year-Old Copper-Smelting Workshop in Israel

Oct 6, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Geological Survey of Israel have excavated a Chalcolithic-period (5th...

This aerial photo shows the 2,000-year-old mikveh (lower right) at the site of the ancient agricultural farm near Hannaton in northern Israel. Image credit: Abd Elghani Ibrahim / Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Unearth 2,000-Year-Old Ritual Bath

Oct 1, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered a magnificent ritual bath (mikveh) at the site of the 2,000-year-old agricultural...

Archaeologists Find 13,000-Year-Old Engraved Mammoth Tusk in Siberia

Sep 25, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 13,000-year-old partial tusk of an adult mammoth found in western Siberia has four images of two-humped camels engraved on it. The 13,000-year-old...

Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall

Vikings Weren’t All Scandinavian, Ancient DNA Study Shows

Sep 24, 2020 by News Staff

In the popular imagination, Vikings were fearsome blonde-haired warriors from Scandinavia who used longboats to carry out raids across Europe in a brief...

Crucible slag adhering to the interior of a crucible sherd. Image credit: Alipour et al, doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2020.105224.

Chromium Crucible Steel was First Made in Persia, Archaeologists Say

Sep 23, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists from University College London, the Cyprus Institute and the University of Cambridge has analyzed finds from the...

Human track and its digital elevation model. Image credit: Klint Janulis, University of Oxford.

120,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in Saudi Arabia

Sep 21, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has found ancient human and animal footprints on the surface of an ancient lakebed in...

Reconstruction of the wine press at Tell el-Burak, looking from the south-east. Image credit: O. Bruderer / Tell el-Burak Archaeological Project.

Archaeologists Unearth Phoenician Wine Press in Lebanon

Sep 16, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed the well-preserved remains of a 2,700-year-old wine press at the Phoenician site of Tell el-Burak, 9 km south of Sidon in...

These jars were unearthed in a palace in the Canaanite city of Tel Kabri. Image credit: Eric Cline / George Washington University.

Earthquake Destroyed Canaanite Palace 3,700 Years Ago, Archaeologists Say

Sep 15, 2020 by News Staff

The Canaanite palatial site of Tel Kabri in Israel was severely damaged by a large earthquake around 1700 BCE, which led to its abandonment soon thereafter,...

Ink inscriptions on clay (ostraca) from Arad. These documents are dated to the latest phase of the First Temple Period in Judah, around 600 BC. Image credit: Michael Cordonsky / Tel Aviv University / Israel Antiquities Authority.

Biblical-Period Kingdom of Judah Had Higher Literacy Rate Than Expected

Sep 10, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University and Duke University and an expert from Israel Police has analyzed 18 ancient inscriptions dating back to...

Left: Linear A fraction signs and their standard transcription. Right: Linear A clay tablet HT 104. Image credit: Heraklion Archaeological Museum and the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport, Archaeological Resources Fund / Corazza et al, doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2020.105214.

New Research Sheds Light on Fraction Signs of Still Undeciphered Minoan Linear A Script

Sep 10, 2020 by News Staff

Minoan Linear A is still an undeciphered script mainly used on the island of Crete from 1700 to 1400 BCE. A new study published in the published in the...

The 2,600-year-old royal stone capital found in the City of David, Jerusalem, Israel. Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Unearth Ruins of 2,600-Year-Old Royal Building

Sep 8, 2020 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority has found several dozen adorned architectural details from an ancient royal building at...

Researchers Find Unique Ancient Rock Drawing of Extinct Sloth Lemur

Sep 7, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of scientists has discovered stylistically unique ancient drawings, including the only known prehistoric depiction of a now-extinct...

The Nebra sky disk. Image credit: Dbachmann / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Nebra Sky Disk Could Be Younger than First Thought

Sep 4, 2020 by News Staff

The Nebra sky disk, one of the oldest concrete depictions of cosmic phenomena, was created in the first millennium BCE, roughly 1,000 years later than...

An artistic rendering of the Horse Butchery Site and the Boxgrove people; it shows how the site was situated in front of towering chalk cliffs on the edge of an intertidal lagoon; the cliffs to the north provided all the flint used in tool making at the site and, within a few hours, the tide would have begun to cover the site in fine silt, preserving evidence of the day’s activity. Image credit: Lauren Gibson / Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

Homo heidelbergensis was Extremely Resourceful, New Research Shows

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

New research pieces together the activities and movements of a group of Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood species of archaic humans that lived...

A stone plaquette engraved with abstract designs from the Magdalenian site of Les Varines, Jersey, Channel Islands. Image credit: Bello et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236875.

15,000-Year-Old Abstract Art Found in Channel Islands

Sep 2, 2020 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the United Kingdom has uncovered 15,000-year-old stone plaquettes extensively engraved with abstract designs at the Magdalenian...

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