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Kisar cave painting of figures gesturing to sundrum. Image credit: Australian National University.

Archaeologists Discover Cave Paintings on Small Indonesian Island

Dec 18, 2017 by News Staff

A total of 28 rock art cave sites have been discovered on the Indonesian island of Kisar, which measures just 81 km2 and lies north of Timor-Leste. A paper...

Icon of St Nicholas, unknown icon painter, 13th or 14th century.

Could Ancient Remains Suggest Santa Claus was Real?

Dec 6, 2017 by News Staff

New research by University of Oxford scientists has revealed that bones long venerated as relics of Saint Nicholas, the 4th century Orthodox Christian...

Three iron beads from Gerzeh, Egypt, are the oldest known example of metalworking. Image credit: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology / Gianluca Miniaci.

Bronze Age Iron Artifacts Likely Made from Meteoric Iron: Study

Dec 4, 2017 by News Staff

The production of iron from its ore only started in the 2nd millennium BC, but a number of iron artifacts from the preceding Bronze Age are known to exist....

Professor Smith (left) and Professor Landau take a closer look at the Greek fragment identified as the First Apocalypse of James. Image credit: Geoffrey Smith, University of Texas at Austin.

Biblical Scholars Find Copy of Jesus’ Secret Revelations to His Brother James

Dec 1, 2017 by News Staff

Biblical scholars from the University of Texas at Austin have found the first-known original Greek copy of a heretical Christian writing describing Jesus’...

An aerial shot of the Glenfield Park roundhouse. Image credit: University of Leicester Archaeological Services.

Rare Collection of Iron Age Metal Artifacts Discovered in England

Nov 27, 2017 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the University of Leicester have unearthed a rare collection of Iron Age metal artifacts, including decorated cauldrons, a complete...

Huge Trove of Medieval Gold and Silver Coins Unearthed in France

Nov 15, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A hoard of 21 Islamic gold dinars, 2,200 silver coins, and gold artifacts dating to the 12th century CE has been unearthed by archaeologists digging at...

Early Neolithic jar, circa 6000-5000 BC, from Khramis Didi-Gora in the Republic of Georgia. Note the probable grape cluster motives encircling the mouth of the vessel, and the small base, which would have been inadequate for a free-standing vessel. The latter feature suggests that the jar was once partly or wholly buried underground, like modern qvevris (Georgian, ‘large jars’). This specimen is nearly a meter (3.3 feet) tall and a meter (3.3 feet) broad, with a volume exceeding 80 gallons. Image credit: Mindia Jalabadze / National Museum of Georgia.

Ancient Georgian Pottery Reveals World’s Oldest Wine

Nov 14, 2017 by News Staff

8,000-year-old pottery fragments from two sites in the Republic of Georgia, South Caucasus, have revealed the earliest biomolecular archaeological and...

Excavated corner of room with the remains of the Sasanian loom between the wall (top) and a bench of six mudbricks. The round loom weights made from clay are particularly visible, as are slabs of mud once forming some kind of shelving. Image credit: Lanah Haddad.

Archaeologists Unearth Sasanian-Period Loom in Iraq

Nov 8, 2017 by News Staff

A team of Near Eastern archaeology students led by Goethe University Professor Dirk Wicke has uncovered the burnt remains of a Sasanian loom, about 1,500...

The Pylos Combat Agate. Image credit: University of Cincinnati.

Archaeologists Find Unique Minoan Sealstone in Greece

Nov 7, 2017 by News Staff

An international group of archaeologists led by the University of Cincinnati has found a Minoan sealstone in the treasure-laden tomb of a Bronze Age Greek...

Pyramids at Giza in Egypt. Image credit: Catharina.

Muon Detectors Reveal Hidden Chamber in Great Pyramid of Giza

Nov 3, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of archaeologists, physicists and engineers has found a 100-foot (30 m) long space deep inside the Great Pyramid, or Khufu’s Pyramid,...

Cave art on Mona Island, Puerto Rico. Image credit: University of Leicester.

Advanced Dating and Characterization Methods Shed New Light on Caribbean Cave Art

Oct 31, 2017 by News Staff

A paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science presents the first results of the dating of indigenous pre-Columbian cave art in the Caribbean,...

Using a combination of the Biblical text and an ancient Egyptian text, Professor Humphreys and Dr. Graeme Waddington were able to refine the dates of the Egyptian pharaohs. Image credit: Pete Linforth.

Annular Solar Eclipse of 1207 BC Helps Date Egyptian Pharaohs

Oct 30, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published on October 1 in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics, independent scholar and astrophysicist Graeme Waddington and University of...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare). Image credit: Cliff.

Cereal Domestication May Have Started 10,000 Years Earlier than Scientists Thought

Oct 24, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, ancient peoples began to systemically affect the evolution...

3,250-year-old cuneiform tablets were found inside a clay vessel at the archaeological site of Bassetki in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Image credit: Peter Pfälzner, University of Tübingen.

Archaeologists Find Cache of Assyrian Cuneiform Tablets in Iraq

Oct 23, 2017 by News Staff

Excavations led by a University of Tübingen archaeologist at the site of a recently-discovered Bronze Age settlement in the Kurdistan region of Iraq have...

This piece of papyrus from the mid-third century BC describes a period of famine in Egypt that occurred when the Nile River failed to flood for several years in a row. It was collected from the Egyptian city of Edfu. Image credit: Department of Papyrology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw.

Massive Volcanic Eruptions Linked to Revolts in Ptolemaic Egypt

Oct 18, 2017 by News Staff

A Yale University-led study suggests that abrupt shifts in climate caused by massive volcanic eruptions helped to trigger poorly understood revolts —...

A bulla of ‘Achiav ben Menachem.’ Image credit: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Unearth Astonishing Collection of Ancient Seals

Oct 16, 2017 by News Staff

Archaeologists digging in the City of David, the Old City of Jerusalem, have found dozens of ancient clay seals, also known as bullae. A bulla of ‘Achiav...

Luwian hieroglyphic inscription by Kupanta-Kurunta, the Great King of Mira, composed at about 1180 BC. Image credit: Luwian Studies.

3,180-Year-Old Luwian Hieroglyphic Inscription Tells of Mysterious ‘Sea People’

Oct 12, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Switzerland and the Netherlands has rediscovered and deciphered a 95-foot (29 m) long Luwian inscription found in the late 19th...

An ornamented artifact from the Gołebiewo site, Poland. Image credit: J. Kuriga.

8,800-Year-Old Ornamented Artifact Uncovered in Poland

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

An ornamented bâton percé, or pierced rod, unearthed at the archaeological site of Gołębiewo in Poland, may provide evidence of interregional contact...

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). Image credit: Pethan, Botanical Gardens, Utrecht University / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Earliest Evidence of Domesticated Sorghum Discovered

Sep 28, 2017 by News Staff

Sorghum was domesticated from its wild ancestor more than 5,000 years ago, according to archaeological evidence uncovered by University College London...