Archaeology News | Sci.News

Dr. Daron Duke speaks with visitors to an archaeological site on the Utah Test and Training Range, July 18, 2022. Image credit: R. Nial Bradshaw, U.S. Air Force.

12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Discovered in Utah

Aug 9, 2022 by News Staff

A team of researchers has discovered 88 fossilized human footprints in Utah’s West Desert, the United States. Dr. Daron Duke speaks with visitors to...

A bedroom in the House of the Lararium in Pompeii, Italy. Image credit: Parco Archeologico di Pompei / Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism.

New Pompeii Finds Shed Light on Life of Middle-Class Romans

Aug 8, 2022 by News Staff

Italian archeologists have unearthed four new rooms in the House of the Lararium in Pompeii filled with various everyday household objects, such as amphorae,...

Small-shell version of octopus lures. Upper image: an ethnographic example from Tonga, made with two cowrie shell plates (Cypraea tigris), each with drilled holes, bound onto a gray stone sinker, using plaited sennit fiber, in the collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, England. Middle and bottom rows: exterior and interior views of three cut and drilled dorsum pieces of Cypraea spp. shells of octopus lures (the ‘early from’ in the Marianas), excavated from the Mariana Islands, specifically from 1100 to 500 BCE at House of Taga (left), 1500 to 1100 BCE at Unai Bapot (center), and 1500 to 1100 BCE at House of Taga (right). Image credit: Carson & Hung, doi: 10.1080/00438243.2021.1930134.

3,500-Year-Old Octopus Lures Found on Mariana Islands of Tinian and Saipan

Aug 2, 2022 by News Staff

Starting as early as 1500 BCE in the Mariana Islands, people used distinctive rigging of cut and drilled pieces of cowrie shells, as parts of compound...

This mix of ribs, broken cranial bones, a molar, bone fragments, and stone cobbles is a refuse pile from the butchered mammoths; it was preserved beneath the adult mammoth’s skull and tusks at the site of Hartley in New Mexico, the United States. Image credit: Timothy Rowe / University of Texas at Austin.

Humans Lived in New Mexico 37,000 Years Ago, New Study Claims

Aug 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have found butchered bones from a mother mammoth and her calf and signs of controlled fire at the Hartley locality, an open-air site on...

Citrullus seeds from Uan Muhuggiag, Libya. Scale bar - 1 mm. Image credit: A. Bieniek.

Study: 6,000-Year-Old Watermelon from Libya Was Used for Its Nutritious Seeds, Not Its Flesh

Aug 1, 2022 by News Staff

Iconographic evidence from Egypt suggests that watermelon pulp was consumed there as a dessert as early as 4,360 years ago. The oldest known watermelon...

The 1,850-year-old zodiac drachm, reverse. Image credit: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists Find Rare Zodiac Coin in Israel

Jul 28, 2022 by News Staff

According to archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority, this bronze drachm was struck at the mint of Alexandria in Egypt by the Roman emperor...

Delsol et al. support early colonial accounts that suggest Spanish Andalusia was the source of the first horses brought to the Caribbean.

Researchers Sequence DNA of Post-Columbian Domestic Horse

Jul 27, 2022 by News Staff

Species of the horse genus Equus first appeared on the North American continent during the Pliocene era and spread to and across Eurasia beginning around...

Mount Piramagrun, showing the location of the main Rabana and Merquly settlements. Image credit: Michael Brown / Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project.

Archaeologists Find Parthian-Era Fortress in Iraqi Kurdistan

Jul 20, 2022 by News Staff

The mountain fortress of Rabana-Merquly was one of the major regional centers of the Parthian Empire, according to new research led by Heidelberg University. Mount...

Drought may have led to an increase in civil conflict followed by political collapse in Mayapan, the capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula in the 13th and 14th centuries CE. Image credit: Bradley Russell.

Study: Prolonged Drought Played Key Role in Collapse of Mayan Capital City

Jul 20, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Mayapan emerged as a regional Maya capital on the Yucatán Peninsula, following the demise of Chichen Itza between 1000 and 1100 CE. Drought may have...

The ancient rural mosque in Rahat, Israel. Image credit: Emil Elgam / Israel Antiquities Authority.

1,200-Year-Old Luxurious Estate and Mosque Unearthed in Israel

Jul 6, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have unearthed the ruins of a Byzantine-period luxurious estate and a rare rural mosque in Rahat,...

A group of Australopithecus afarensis. Image credit: Matheus Vieeira.

Australopithecus Fossils from Sterkfontein Caves are Much Older Than Previously Thought

Jun 28, 2022 by News Staff

The chronology and taxonomy of the ancient hominin genus Australopithecus in South Africa have long been controversial, with the Sterkfontein cave system...

A head of a marble statue found at the Antikythera shipwreck. Image credit: Nikos Giannoulakis.

Antikythera Shipwreck Yields New Trove of Artifacts

Jun 22, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Marine archaeologists have recovered a number of new artifacts, including a head of a Marble statue and numerous items from the ship’s equipment, from...

The Wreck of H.M.S. Gloucester off Yarmouth, 6 May 1682, by Monamy Swain, c. 1780. Image credit: National Maritime Museum, London.

340-Year-Old Wreck of British Frigate Gloucester Found

Jun 21, 2022 by News Staff

A team of professional divers has discovered the wreck of Gloucester — which sank on May 6, 1682 while carrying James Stuart, duke of York, later...

The village of Tel Tsaf, Israel: an overview of Area C with courtyard buildings, comprising rectangular and rounded rooms and rounded silos. Image credit: Y. Garfinkel.

New Evidence Suggests Olive and Fig Trees Were Cultivated as Early as 7,000 Years Ago

Jun 16, 2022 by News Staff

Archeologists excavating at the Chalcolithic site of Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley, Israel, have discovered one of the earliest examples of fruit tree...

Aerial view of the excavations at the site of Kemune in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Image credit: Universities of Freiburg and Tübingen, KAO.

Extreme Drought Reveals Submerged City of Mitanni Empire in Iraq

Jun 8, 2022 by News Staff

The 3,400-year-old settlement with a palace and several large buildings could be the ancient city of Zakhiku, believed to have been an important center...

The ancient carved stone with the image of a phallus and graffiti found at the site of Vindolanda in Northumberland, England. Image credit: Vindolanda Trust.

1,700-Year-Old Graffiti Found at Vindolanda

Jun 7, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient carved stone with the image of a phallus and graffiti at the site of Vindolanda, an ancient Roman military fort...

Excavation area in Cueva de Ardales with evidence from the Middle Paleolithic period. Image credit: Ramos-Muñoz et al. / CC-BY 4.0.

Study: Spain’s Cueva de Ardales Was Used by Ancient Humans for Over 50,000 years

Jun 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Cueva de Ardales is a hugely important Paleolithic site in Malaga, Spain, owing to its rich inventory of rock art. According to new research, Neanderthals...

The ruins of the ancient agricultural farmstead at Horbat Assad in the Galilee region, Israel. Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Unearth 2,100-Year-Old Farmstead

May 30, 2022 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has uncovered the 2,100-year-old ruins of an agricultural farmstead in the Galilee...

Researchers Sequence First Pompeian Human Genome

May 27, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists from the United States, Italy, Denmark and Brazil have successfully sequenced the genome of a 35-40 year-old male who died in the ancient city...