Archaeology News

2,000-Year-Old Shrine with Blue-Painted Walls Unearthed at Pompeii

The 2,000-year-old sacrarium found at Pompeii, Italy. Image credit: Parco Archeologico di Pompei.
Jun 10, 2024 by News Staff

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed a so-called sacrarium at Pompeii, an ancient Roman city frozen in time after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The 2,000-year-old sacrarium found at Pompeii, Italy. Image credit: Parco Archeologico di Pompei. The newly-discovered sacrarium — an ancient shrine devoted to ritual activities and the storage of sacred objects — is about 8 m2 in size. The room was unearthed by in the...

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Librado et al. found that reproductive control of the modern domestic lineage emerged around 2,200 BCE. Image credit: Vera Khramova.

Domestication of Modern Horse Didn’t Occur before 2,700 BCE, DNA Study Suggests

Jun 7, 2024 by News Staff

Horses revolutionized human history with fast mobility. However, the timeline between their domestication and widespread integration as a means of transportation...

A volunteer marine soldier in simulated combat wearing the Dendra armor replica during the empirical study. Image credit: Andreas Flouris / Marija Marković.

Ancient Mycenaean Armor Was Suitable for Extended Combat, Research Confirms

May 23, 2024 by News Staff

A 3,500-year-old suit of Mycenaean bronze armor from the Greek village of Dendra may have been used in battle, not just for ceremonial purposes as previously...

The site of Taguatagua 3 in Chile: (A) combustion feature spatially associated with gomphothere cervical vertebrae and skull fragments; (B) sacral and caudal vertebrae, vertebral discs, and unfused coxal portions; note the distance between the first sacral vertebra and its vertebral disc; (C) end scraper in situ; (D) core debitage in situ spatially associated with gomphothere remains. Image credit: Labarca et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302465.

12,500-Year-Old Settlement Discovered in Chile

May 22, 2024 by News Staff

Around 12,440-12,550 years ago, hunter-gatherers returned regularly to Tagua Tagua Lake in Chile to hunt ancient elephant relatives called gomphotheres...

The water course of the ancient Ahramat Branch of the Nile. Image credit: Ghoneim et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01379-7.

Majority of Egyptian Pyramids Was Built along Long-Lost Branch of Nile, Archaeologists Say

May 21, 2024 by News Staff

Archaeologists in Egypt have identified segments of a 64-km-long extinct branch of the river Nile, which they name the Ahramat Branch, running at the foothills...

The Hitra man was around 169 cm tall, fair-haired and blue-eyed. Image credit: Thomas Foldberg / Åge Hojem / NTNU University Museum.

Norwegian Archaeologists Unveil Face of Stone Age Hitra Man

May 20, 2024 by News Staff

The 4,000-year-old skeletal remains of a Scandinavian man were found in 1916 on the island of Hitra, Norway. The Hitra man was around 169 cm tall, fair-haired...

Using the latest archaeological data, hindcasted climate projections, and age-structured demographic models, Bradshaw et al. demonstrate evidence for early arrival (14,257 to 13,182 years ago) to Cyprus and predicted that large groups of people (1,000 to 1,375) arrived in 2 to 3 main events occurring within less than 100 years to ensure low extinction risk. Image credit: Bradshaw et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2318293121.

Hunter-Gatherers Settled in Cyprus Thousands of Years Earlier than Previously Thought

May 20, 2024 by News Staff

Because of persisting narratives of isolation, inaccessibility, and unattractiveness, the initial peopling of one of the eastern Mediterranean islands...

Painted rock art at a site around Gebel Nahoganet in the Sudanese Eastern Desert. Image credit: Cooper et al., doi: 10.1177/03075133231211.

New Rock Art Sites Discovered in Sudanese Eastern Desert

May 8, 2024 by News Staff

Archaeologists from Macquarie University and Polish Academy of Science’s Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Culture have discovered 16 new rock...

Map of the sites surveyed by the ROOTS team. Image credit: Fynn Wilkes / EU.

7,000-Year-Old Settlement Discovered in Serbia

May 4, 2024 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists with the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence has discovered a Late Neolithic settlement near the Tamiš River in the northernmost...

Map of the Helena complex showing the location of the excavation in relationship to the structures of the ballcourt (structures H-4 through H-7). Image credit: Lentz et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301497.

Researchers Find Traces of Psychoactive and Other Ceremonial Plants beneath Ancient Maya Ballcourt

Apr 29, 2024 by News Staff

A research team led by University of Cincinnati archaeologists has discovered found evidence of a collection of four ceremonial plant species beneath the...

Photographs of Umm Jirsan Cave and its interior sections. Image credit: Stewart et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299292.

Humans Occupied Lava Tube Cave in Saudi Arabia for 7,000 Years, Archaeologists Find

Apr 17, 2024 by News Staff

New archaeological excavations have revealed repeated phases of human occupation of Umm Jirsan lava tube in the Harrat Khaybar, north-western Saudi Arabia,...

The 8,600-year-old bread found at Çatalhöyük in Türkiye. Image credit: Necmettin Erbakan University.

8,600-Year-Old Bread Found in Türkiye

Apr 15, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

Archaeologists from Necmettin Erbakan University say they have discovered the world’s oldest known bread, dating back to 6600 BCE, at Çatalhöyük,...

A group of Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Study: Just Like Homo sapiens, Neanderthals Organized Their Living Space in Structured Way

Apr 11, 2024 by News Staff

Because it is often assumed that fundamental behavioral differences distinguish Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, the ability to structure space within the...

Ceramic fragments found on Jiigurru, northeast Australia. Image credit: Steve Morton.

Early Aboriginal Pottery Unearthed in Australia

Apr 10, 2024 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from James Cook University and elsewhere reports the oldest securely dated ceramics found in Australia from archaeological excavations...

The upper (a) and lower (b) surfaces of the purported sand sculpture from South Africa. Image credit: Helm et al.

120,000-Year-Old Stingray Sand ‘Sculpture’ Found in South Africa

Apr 9, 2024 by News Staff

Nelson Mandela University researcher Charles Helm and his colleagues have found an intriguing rock about 30 km (18.6 miles) east of the South African Blombos...

A selection of coins analyzed by Kershaw et al.: Early Period coins - (a) series A early penny, (b) series E early penny, (c) Frankish denarius, Rheims; Late Period coins - (d) penny of Offa (757-796 CE), (e) denarius of Charlemagne (768-814 CE), Mainz (after 792/3 CE), (f) denarius of Charlemagne, Quentovic (after c. 812 CE). Image credit: Fitzwilliam Museum.

Researchers Solve Mystery of Early Medieval Silver Coins

Apr 9, 2024 by News Staff

Between 660 and 750 CE, Anglo-Saxon England witnessed a profound revival in trade involving a dramatic surge in the use of silver coins. Scientists have...

The wooden spears from the Schöningen site, Germany. Image credit: Minkusimages / Matthias Vogel, NLD.

Study: Woodworking Played Important Role in Human Evolution

Apr 8, 2024 by News Staff

Wooden tools rarely survive in the Paleolithic record limiting our understanding of Pleistocene hunter-gather lifeways. With 187 wooden artifacts, the...

The 2,800-year-old amulet-seal from the site of Tel Rekhesh, Israel. Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority.

Ancient Assyrian Scarab-Shaped Seal Found in Israel

Apr 3, 2024 by News Staff

The rare amulet-seal is at least 2,800 years old (First Temple period), according to a team of experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the University...

A compilation of evidence for ancient chickens in Central Asia: SEM images of a Bash Tepa egg shell, emphasizing morphologically distinct breathing pores at magnifications x30 (a), x150 (b), x750 (e, f); (c) a ceramic egg with clay balls from Bukhara dating between the tenth and twelfth centuries CE; (d) the Sophytes coin from Bactria in 300 BCE; (g) a fragment of an ossuary from Bash Tepa dating to the last centuries BCE, with an apparent chicken on the top; (h) a selection of eggshells from the Bukhara site, showing color (essentially all white) and burning, which was evident on many of the shells. Image credit: Peters et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46093-2.

Study: Chickens Were Widely Raised across Southern Central Asia as Early as 400 BCE

Apr 2, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The origins and dispersal of the chicken (Gallus gallus) across the ancient world is one of the most enigmatic questions regarding Eurasian domesticated...

The facial reconstruction (left) and the portrait (right) of the Chinese Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou dynasty. Image credit: Du et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.059.

Scientists Sequence Genome, Reconstruct Face of Chinese Emperor Wu

Mar 28, 2024 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Fudan University and elsewhere has successfully generated a genome of the Chinese Emperor Wu (Wudi) of the Xianbei-led Northern...

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