Archaeology News

Researchers Sequence Genome of 200,000-Year-Old Denisovan

An artist’s concept of a Penghu Denisovan walking under the bright Sun during the Pleistocene of Taiwan. Image credit: Cheng-Han Sun.
Jan 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team led by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology scientists has generated the high-quality genome assembly of a Denisovan using DNA from an ancient molar found at Denisova Cave. It belonged to a man who lived roughly 200,000 years ago — more than twice as long ago as the only previously sequenced Denisovan individual. The new genome is forcing the researchers to rethink when and where early human groups met, mingled...

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Ancient humans. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

European Homo sapiens May Have Been Hunting with Bow and Arrow Earlier than Previously Believed

Dec 30, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a new paper published this month in the journal iScience, researchers from the University of Tübingen and elsewhere present a multidisciplinary analysis...

The 3,000-year-old pottery workshop of Gird-i Bazar at the Dinka Settlement Complex in Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq. From this perspective, the walls of the buildings are clearly visible, along with the kilns. Image credit: Andrea Squitieri.

3,000-Year-Old Pottery Workshop Unearthed in Iraqi Kurdistan

Dec 29, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the University of Tübingen and the LMU Munich have unearthed the ruins of an ancient pottery workshop at the early Iron Age Dinka...

Reconstruction of Mezhirich’s mammoth bone structure in the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan. Image credit: Momotarou2012.

18,000-Year-Old Circular Dwellings Made of Mammoth Bones Unearthed in Ukraine

Dec 25, 2025 by Sergio Prostak

The Upper Paleolithic site of Mezhyrich, located in Cherkasy oblast, central Ukraine, is home to four remarkable mammoth bone structures. Ranging from...

The facial depiction of the Beachy Head Woman. Image credit: Face Lab, Liverpool John Moores University.

‘Beachy Head Woman’ Originated from Southern England, Ancient DNA Study Shows

Dec 23, 2025 by News Staff

The skeletal remains of an individual colloquially referred to as Beachy Head Woman were re-discovered in the Eastbourne Town Hall collection in 2012,...

Photo of caulking fragment showing fingerprint on the left and high-resolution X-ray tomography scan of fingerprint region on the right. Image credit: Erik Johansson / Sahel Ganji.

Archaeologists Find Fingerprint of Ancient Seafarer on 2,400-Year-Old Boat

Dec 19, 2025 by News Staff

In the 4th century BCE, at least four wooden plank boats the island of Als off the coast of Denmark. The unknown attackers were defeated, with the defenders...

An artist’s impression of fire at Barnham around 400,000 years ago. Image credit: Craig Williams / The Trustees of the British Museum.

Archaeologists Discover Earliest Evidence of Fire-Making

Dec 10, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed 400,000-year-old heated sediments and fire-cracked flint handaxes alongside two fragments of pyrite — a mineral used...

3D model of Rano Raraku quarry. Image credit: Lipo et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0336251.

Archaeologists Create First 3D Model of Easter Island’s Primary Moai Quarry

Dec 2, 2025 by News Staff

Ethnohistoric and recent archaeological evidence suggest that Easter Island (Rapa Nui) was a politically decentralized society organized into small, relatively...

An artist’s reconstruction of the gateway and drain at the ancient city of Harappa. Image credit: Chris Sloan.

Study: Severe and Persistent River Droughts Led to Collapse of Indus Valley Civilization

Dec 2, 2025 by News Staff

Severe and persistent river droughts, each lasting longer than 85 years, affected the Indus basin between 4,400 and 3,400 years ago, according to new research....

The genomes of ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia (circles in the map) revealed that domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at 2,000 years ago, several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe; African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a distinct wildcat population in Northwest Africa. Image credit: De Martino et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adt2642.

Domestic Cats Were Introduced to Europe around 2,000 Years Ago, Probably from North Africa: Study

Nov 28, 2025 by News Staff

The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica). Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Ancient Humans Introduced Wolves to Remote Baltic Sea Island 5,000 Years Ago

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

Wolves, the wild ancestor of dogs, are the only large carnivores that have undergone domestication by humans. Yet, it remains unclear if this process took...

New research indicates the importance of sweet potato to the Easter Island diet prior to European contact in 1722. Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Invasive Polynesian Rats Played Key Role in Deforestation of Easter Island, Study Suggests

Nov 20, 2025 by News Staff

The ecological transformation of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) has become among the most paradigmatic yet contested case studies in environmental archaeology....

Monte Sierpe. Image credit: Charles Stanish.

Monte Sierpe: Thousands of Mysterious ‘Holes’ in Peru May Have Been Ancient Barter Marketplace

Nov 11, 2025 by News Staff

Monte Sierpe (translated as ‘serpent mountain’ and known colloquially as the ‘Band of Holes’) is located in the Pisco Valley of southern Peru and...

Itiner-e is the most detailed and comprehensive open digital dataset of roads in the entire Roman Empire. Image credit: de Soto et al., doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-06140-z.

New Map Reveals 300,000 Kilometers of Roman Empire’s Road System

Nov 6, 2025 by News Staff

The new map and digital dataset, named Itiner-e, increase the known length of the Roman Empire’s road system by over 110,000 km. Itiner-e is the most...

The 2.58-million-year-old stone tool from the site of Namorotukunan in Kenya. Image credit: Braun et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-64244-x.

Archaeologists Find 2.75-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools in Kenya

Nov 4, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Archaeologists have discovered Oldowan stone tools in three distinct archaeological horizons, spanning approximately 300,000 years (2.75 to 2.44 million...

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

45,000-Year-Old Crimean Neanderthal Reveals Long-Distance Connections across Eurasia

Nov 3, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine contains key Middle to Upper Paleolithic transitional archaeological sites, including the site of Starosele, where archaeologists...

Carl P. Lipo & Terry L. Hunt confirmed via 3D modeling and field experiments that the ancient people of Rapa Nui ‘walked’ the moai statues. Image credit: Carl Lipo.

New Research Confirms ‘Walking’ Moai Hypothesis

Oct 7, 2025 by News Staff

The transport of Rapa Nui’s (Easter Island) monumental moai statues has been debated for over a century. Based on a systematic analysis of 962 moai,...

A view over the smaller pyramids on the eastern side of Plaza de la Luna from Piramide de la Luna towards Piramide del Sol at Teotihuacan. Image credit: Daniel Case / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists May Have Solved Mystery of Teotihuacan’s Written Language

Oct 7, 2025 by News Staff

The culture that thrived at Teotihuacan in the Classic period has a unique place in Mesoamerican history. Today, it is held as an emblem of the Mexican...

Rock art panels at Jebel Arnaan. Image credit: Maria Guagnin.

Humans Thrived in Arabian Desert 12,000 Years Ago, Monumental Rock Art Illustrates

Oct 1, 2025 by News Staff

During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (around 12,000 years ago), humans exploited a network of seasonal water bodies in the interior of northern Arabia,...

The three areas of blue residue present on the sandstone layer of the stone artifact from Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. Image credit: Wisher et al., doi: 10.15184/aqy.2025.10184.

Archaeologists Find Traces of Blue Pigment on 13,000-Year-Old Stone Artifact in Germany

Sep 30, 2025 by News Staff

Blue pigments are absent in Paleolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues....

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