Archaeology News

Ancient DNA Provides New Insights into Early Stages of Maize Domestication

A 5,310-year-old maize cob from Tehuacan, Mexico. Image credit: Bruce Smith.
Nov 23, 2016 by News Staff

According to an international team of scientists who have sequenced the genome of a 5,310-year-old maize cob from the Tehuacan Valley, the maize (Zea mays) grown in central Mexico more than five millennia ago was genetically more similar to modern maize than to its wild counterpart. A 5,310-year-old maize cob from Tehuacan, Mexico. Image credit: Bruce Smith. Scientists have long debated how and why ancient people domesticated maize, in large part...

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Female wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) with young, from Birds of America by John James Audubon.

Ancient Zapotecs Kept and Bred Turkeys for Meat, Eggs, Religious Purposes

Nov 22, 2016 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists excavating the Mitla Fortress, a Zapotec site in Oaxaca, Mexico, dating to the Classic to Early Postclassic period (300-1200 CE),...

C.D. Spiteri et al discovered widespread evidence of prehistoric milk production in southern Europe. Image credit: Samuel Daniell.

Early Evidence of Dairying Discovered along Mediterranean Coast

Nov 16, 2016 by News Staff

An international research group has found evidence that humans have been utilizing milk and dairy products across the northern Mediterranean region from...

Sampling of a pine trunk with a hand-powered saw; the tree protrudes from the organic-rich sediment ridge seen to the left and is partly covered by sand. Image credit: Arne Sjöström.

Swedish Researchers Find Submerged Mesolithic Settlement

Nov 15, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers headed by Lund University’s Professor Dan Hammarlund has uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Mesolithic site off the Baltic...

Inner wall with preserved section of vault and remnants of the brick packing in situ on the exterior. Image credit: Josef Wegner.

Archaeologists Find Pharaonic Boat Burial at Abydos

Nov 9, 2016 by News Staff

Archaeological excavations at Abydos, Egypt, have revealed the remains of a subterranean boat burial dating to the reign of the pharaoh Senwosret III (c....

The mound of ruins at Bassetki, Iraq, with the broad area of the lower town where sheep now graze. Image credit: Peter Pfälzner.

Archaeologists Unearth Bronze Age City in Iraq

Nov 6, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the remains of a large Bronze Age settlement not far from the town of Dohuk in northern Iraq. The...

Nan Madol ruins on the island of Pohnpei. Image credit: C.T. Snow / CC BY 2.0.

Nan Madol: Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Evidence of Chiefdom in Pacific

Nov 4, 2016 by News Staff

Nan Madol, an ancient administrative and the former capital of the Micronesian island of Pohnpei, was the earliest among the Pacific islands to be ruled...

This papyrus, found in one of the Judean Desert caves, was dated to the seventh century BC. Image credit: Shai Halevi / Israel Antiquities Authority.

First Temple-Period Papyrus Mentioning ‘Jerusalem’ Found

Nov 1, 2016 by News Staff

Archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered a papyrus fragment that includes the earliest reference to Jerusalem in an extra-Biblical...

Cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea) by Heinrich Harder, 1920.

Stone Age Humans Hunted Cave Lions for Their Pelts, Research Suggests

Oct 26, 2016 by News Staff

According to a new study, Stone Age humans may have hunted Eurasian cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea) for their pelts, perhaps contributing to their extinction. Cave...

This image shows heated silcrete artifacts made by Middle Stone Age humans at Klipdrift Shelter, South Africa. Image credit: Katja Douze / University of the Witwatersrand.

Middle Stone Age Humans Used Innovative Heating Techniques to Make Tools

Oct 20, 2016 by News Staff

Early humans living in southern Africa in the Middle Stone Age after 65,000 years ago used advanced heating techniques to produce silcrete blades, according...

Lachish gate-shrine. Image credit: Guy Fitoussi / Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Unearth First-Temple Period Gate-Shrine

Oct 18, 2016 by News Staff

Archaeologists excavating at the site of the ancient Biblical city of Tel Lachish have unearthed a gate-shrine dating to the 8th century BC (First Temple...

Higgs Bison: Mysterious Hybrid of Bison and Cattle Hidden in Ice Age Cave Art

Oct 18, 2016 by News Staff

A study led by University of Adelaide researcher Julien Soubrier has revealed that prehistoric European cave artists recorded a previously unknown hybrid...

Peristylium (open courtyard) of the House of Caecilius Iucundus. Image credit: Emanuel Demetrescu et al.

Archaeologists Virtually Recreate House of Caecilius Iucundus in Pompeii

Oct 4, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Lund University archaeologists has virtually reconstructed a large house of the Pompeian banker Lucius Caecilius...

Sample of stone tools (scrapers, flakes and bipolar cobble) found at the Arroyo Seco 2 site. Image credit: G.G. Politis et al.

Ancient Tools, Bones Reveal Humans Arrived in South America Earlier than Thought

Oct 3, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Early Homo sapiens arrived in South America earlier than believed, new research shows. Sample of stone tools (scrapers, flakes and bipolar cobble) found...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Researchers Identify Archaic Hominins Associated with Chatelperronian Tool Technology

Sep 23, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has demonstrated that Neanderthals were responsible...

Completed virtual unwrapping for the En-Gedi scroll. Image credit: William Brent Seales et al.

En-Gedi Scroll Finally Deciphered

Sep 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers led by University of Kentucky scientist Prof. Brent Seales has unlocked the text in the early Leviticus scroll from...

image_4210f-Antikythera-Shipwreck

Underwater Archaeologists Find Ancient Human Skeleton in Antikythera Shipwreck

Sep 21, 2016 by News Staff

An international group of archaeologists led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports has discovered...

8,000-year-old female figurine from Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia, Turkey. Image credit: Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

8,000-Year-Old Female Figurine Found at Çatalhöyük

Sep 19, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists digging at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia, Turkey, have discovered an ancient female figurine, about 8,000 years...

Prof. Parker, sitting far right, and students examine a statue of Aphrodite, discovered during a 2016 excavation in Petra, Jordan. Image credit: Tom Parker.

Archaeologists Unearth Two Marble Statues of Aphrodite in Petra

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from North Carolina State University and East Carolina University has discovered two marble statues of Aphrodite, the Greco-Roman...

The crocodile stone discovered by a Field Museum-led team of archaeologists. Image credit: Linda Nicholas / Field Museum.

Crocodile Stone Yields New Clues about Ancient Zapotec City of Lambityeco

Sep 5, 2016 by News Staff

An international team led by Field Museum archaeologists Gary Feinman and Linda Nicholas recently unearthed a carved stone crocodile at an excavation site...

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