Archaeology News

Easter Islanders Didn’t Cause Ecological Disaster on Their Island, New Research Finds

Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Image credit: Yerson Retamal.
Jul 12, 2017 by News Staff

New research provides evidence contrary to the widely-held belief that the prehistoric population of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) caused an ecological disaster through rapid deforestation and over-exploitation of natural resources. Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Image credit: Yerson Retamal. The new findings, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology,...

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This image shows the Trelleborg-type Viking fortress of Fyrkat. Image credit: Heritage Agency of Denmark.

Borgring Fortress Discovery: Dendrochronological Dating Results

Jul 7, 2017 by News Staff

In September 2014, archaeologists from Aarhus University and the Museum of South East Denmark announced the discovery of a Viking ring fortress at Borgring,...

Portus Cosanus pier, Orbetello, Italy. Image credit: J.P. Oleson.

New Research Shows How Natural Chemistry Strengthened Ancient Roman Marine Concrete

Jul 4, 2017 by News Staff

While modern marine concrete structures crumble within years, ancient Roman piers and breakwaters endure to this day, and are stronger now than when they...

Dr. Louderback stands behind large stone metates, the grindstones on which ancient Native Americans processed their food. Image credit: University of Utah.

Researchers Discover Earliest Evidence of Wild Potato Use in North America

Jul 3, 2017 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists and anthropologists, led by the University of Utah, has discovered potato starch residues in the crevices of a 10,900-year-old...

Monumental round-oval buildings with their characteristic T-shaped monolithic pillars at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. Image credit: Nico Becker, Göbekli Tepe Archive, German Archaeological Institute.

Modified Skulls from Gobekli Tepe Provide Evidence of Neolithic ‘Skull Cult’

Jun 29, 2017 by News Staff

Three carved skull fragments uncovered at Göbekli Tepe, a Neolithic site in southeast Turkey known for its impressive megalithic architecture with characteristic...

Prof. Darnell examines the hieroglyphs from atop a tall scaffold. Image credit: Yale University.

Archaeologists Find Earliest Monumental Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Jun 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from Belgium, the United States and Egypt has uncovered some previously unknown rock inscriptions, which include 5,200-year-old...

The ruins of a 12th-century mosque in Harlaa, eastern Ethiopia. Image credit: Timothy Insoll, University of Exeter.

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient, Forgotten City in Eastern Ethiopia

Jun 19, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by University of Exeter archaeologists has discovered the ruins of an ancient city — once thought to be...

The recto (upper image) and the verso (lower image) of the ostracon Arad 16: color images, multispectral images and manual drawings of the proposed reading. In red: team’s alterations and additions with respect to the original publication. Image credit: Faigenbaum-Golovin et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178400.

Advanced Imaging Technology Reveals 2,600 Year-Old Hebrew Inscription

Jun 15, 2017 by News Staff

Using multispectral imaging, a team of Israeli researchers has discovered a hitherto invisible text on the back side of an ostracon (ink-inscribed pottery...

A suspected speartip made from material sourced more than 60 miles (100 km) east of Pod Hradem Cave. Image credit: Miroslav Kralik.

Cave Discoveries in Czech Republic Hint at How Humans Outlasted Neanderthals

Jun 14, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has provided a window into one of the most exciting periods in human history — the transition between Neanderthals...

Huaca Prieta mound situated on the Sangamon Terrace: buried terrace surface with Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene cultural deposits is indicated by dotted line below the mound; arrows show location of individual units excavated from the top of the mound down through and to the buried cultural deposits in the terrace. Scale shown by humans standing on the mounds. Image credit: Tom D. Dillehay, Vanderbilt University / Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1602778.

Coastal Peru was Rest Stop for Early Americans, Archaeologists Say

May 25, 2017 by News Staff

A Vanderbilt University-led team of archaeologists has made a remarkable discovery in Peru: thousands of 15,000- to 10,000-year-old artifacts, including...

A 21st-century view looking east across the River Trent to the prominent bluff and the Viking winter camp. Image credit: Dawn Hadley & Julian Richards / Antiquaries Journal, doi: 10.1017/S0003581516000718.

Archaeologists Uncover Viking Army Camp in England

May 19, 2017 by News Staff

A long-held archaeological mystery has been solved as researchers have revealed the exact location, extent and character of a huge winter camp of the Viking...

Barrow Island. Image credit: University of Western Australia.

Barrow Island’s Cave Reveals Earliest Australians Lived on Coast 50,000 years ago

May 19, 2017 by News Staff

Archaeological deposits from a cave on Barrow Island, a large limestone continental island located 60 km off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, reveal...

Ploughing with a yoke of horned cattle in Ancient Egypt.

Did Hunter-Gatherers Intentionally Domesticate Wild Plants?

May 18, 2017 by News Staff

New research from the University of Sheffield, UK, has shed light on how hunter-gatherers adopted agriculture and how crops were domesticated to depend...

First Humans Arrived in North America 116,000 Years Earlier than Thought: Evidence from Cerutti Mastodon Site

Apr 27, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers digging at the Cerutti Mastodon site, an archaeological site from the early late Pleistocene epoch near San Diego, California, found animal...

An underground chamber near the city of Beit Shemesh, Israel. Image credit: Assaf Peretz / Israel Antiquities Authority.

Ancient Settlement Unearthed in Israel

Apr 3, 2017 by News Staff

Israeli archaeologists excavating near the city of Beit Shemesh have unearthed an extensive complex of ritual baths and underground refuges used by Bar...

The raven bone fragment from the Zaskalnaya VI rock shelter. Scale bar - 1 cm. Image credit: A. Majkic et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173435.

38,000-Year-Old Decorated Bone from Crimea May Provide Insight into Neanderthal Cognition

Mar 31, 2017 by News Staff

Neanderthals’ cognitive abilities are a hotly debated topic, but a bird bone fragment found at a Middle Paleolithic site in Crimea, Ukraine, features...

Neolithic rock art in Tassili n’Ajjer National Park, Sahara, Algeria. Image credit: Patrick Gruban, Munich, Germany / CC BY-SA 2.0.

African Neolithic Populations Helped Create Sahara Desert, Research Suggests

Mar 15, 2017 by News Staff

The desertification of the Sahara — the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world — has long been a target for researchers...

The 4,000-year-old ‘multi-dolmen,’ the Shamir Dolmen Field, Israel. Image credit: Gonen Sharon, Tel Hai College.

4,000-Year-Old ‘Multi-Dolmen’ Found in Israel

Mar 13, 2017 by News Staff

A rare megalithic structure, dating back 4,000 years, has been discovered at the Shamir Dolmen Field on the western foothills of the Golan Heights. The...

The 850-year-old carved wooden boat from Ørland, Norway. Image credit: Åge Hojem, NTNU University Museum.

Archaeologists Find Viking Age Toy Boat in Norway

Mar 7, 2017 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) University Museum have uncovered a toy dating back as far as 1153 CE...

Pro.f Braswell holds a replica of the Maya jade pendant. Image credit: Erik Jepsen, University of California, San Diego Publications.

Remarkable Maya Pendant Unearthed in Belize

Feb 28, 2017 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists led by Geoffrey Braswell, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, has found a remarkable artifact...

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