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Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Neanderthals May Have Used Manganese Dioxide to Light Fires

Mar 4, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Neanderthals living in what is now France may have used powdered manganese dioxide for fire making purposes, according to a new study published in the...

A glass counter decorated with twisted colorful strands was found at the site. Image credit: University of Sheffield.

UK Archaeologists Unearth Previously Unknown Anglo-Saxon Settlement

Mar 3, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of professional, student and volunteer archaeologists led by the University of Sheffield has unearthed evidence of a nearly 1,350-year-old Anglo-Saxon...

11,000-year-old pendant. Image credit: Milner, N. et al. / Internet Archaeology, doi: 10.11141/ia.40.8.

Archaeologists Find 11,000-Year-Old Engraved Pendant in Britain

Feb 26, 2016 by News Staff

An 11,000-year-old engraved shale pendant has been found during excavations at the Early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, UK. 11,000-year-old engraved shale...

A fine wool textile dyed red and blue, found at Timna. The textile used the various colors of natural animal hair to create black and orange-brown colors for decorative bands. Image credit: Clara Amit / Israel Antiquities Authority.

3,000-Year-Old Textiles Found in Archaeological Dig in Timna Valley

Feb 24, 2016 by News Staff

Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority have uncovered an extensive fabric collection in the ancient copper mines...

Remains of a Natufian building at NEG II: the wall of this structure is 90 cm high and is the best preserved wall excavated thus far; it is composed of 5 courses of limestone and basalt stones; the wall tilts slightly away from the structure to the northwest and two large stones mark its base at the top of the Natufian occupation level; only the western side of the structure survived, yet the contour of the curve suggests a diameter of at least 5 m. Image credit: Grosman L. et al.

12,000-Year-Old Natufian Village Unearthed in Jordan Valley

Feb 18, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists excavating the Nahal Ein Gev II site in the Jordan Valley, Israel, have discovered the remains of an ancient settlement of the Natufian...

Dr. Lupo next to the remains of a Chalcolithic period building. Image credit: Assaf Peretz / Israel Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists Uncover Chalcolithic Period Settlement in Jerusalem

Feb 18, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists working in Israel have uncovered the remains of a settlement from the Chalcolithic period (fifth millennium BC). Dr. Lupo next to the remains...

Archaeologists discovered the remains of a large-scale storage for fermented fish dating back to 7,200 BC: a view of the gutter after 50 percent of it had been removed; notice the stark contrast with the surrounding clay under the gutter as well as between the stakeholes and the surrounding clay. Image credit: SHMM / Adam Boethius / Lund University.

Archaeologists Unearth Earliest Evidence of Fish Fermentation

Feb 9, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists in Sweden say they have uncovered the remains of a 9,200-year-old storage for fermented fish. Archaeologists discovered the remains of a...

Fresco on the wall of an early Christian church in an ancient underground city near Nevsehir, Cappadocia, Turkey. Image credit: Nevsehir Castle Urban Transformation Project / Nevsehir Municipality / Turkey’s Housing Development Administration.

Early Christian Church Found in Turkey

Feb 4, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of Turkish archaeologists have found an early Christian church in an ancient underground settlement near modern-day Nevsehir, the capital district...

Cut marks on tortoise humerus from Qesem Cave. Image credit: Ruth Blasco et al.

Early Humans Ate Tortoises 400,000 Years Ago

Feb 2, 2016 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists in Israel has uncovered evidence of tortoise bones at the Middle Pleistocene (420,000 to 300,000 years ago) site of Qesem Cave,...

The hummingbird glyph and its surroundings in the Nasca site as seen by standard photography, top, and by NASA’s UAVSAR radar. Dark areas in the UAVSAR image are where the site has been disturbed. Image credit: Google, Digital Globe / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA Airborne Radar ‘Sees’ Nasca Lines

Jan 29, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), an airborne radar developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, proved...

BM 34757, one of the Babylonian cuneiform tablets translated by Prof. Ossendrijver. Image credit: Mathieu Ossendrijver, Humboldt University / British Museum.

Babylonian Astronomers Used Geometry to Calculate Jupiter’s Position

Jan 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

According to Prof. Mathieu Ossendrijver of Humboldt University in Germany, Babylonian astronomers used geometry to calculate the position of Jupiter —...

Leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). Tambako The Jaguar / CC BY-ND 2.0.

Ancient Chinese Domesticated Leopard Cats 5,500 Years Ago

Jan 27, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 5,500 year old cat remains found more than a decade ago in China have been identified as the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) by an international...

The marble ram unearthed in Caesarea, Israel. Image credit: Vered Sarig / Caesarea Development Corporation.

Magnificent Marble Ram Unearthed in Caesarea

Jan 21, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

In the ruins of the ancient port city of Caesarea, Israeli archaeologists have discovered a magnificent marble statue of ram. The marble ram unearthed...

Aerial view of the 2,700-year-old farmstead. Image credit: Griffin Aerial Photography.

2,700-Year-Old Farmstead, Byzantine Period Monastery Unearthed in Israel

Jan 18, 2016 by News Staff

In Rosh Ha-Ayin, a city in the Center District of Israel, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have unearthed the remains of a 2,700-year-old...

Finds from Talepu excavations: flakes (a-f, j-m), cores (g, h, i). All artifacts shown are silicified limestone. Scale bars -10 mm (a-i), 20 mm (j-m). Image credit: Gerrit D. van den Bergh et al.

Archaeologists Unearth 118,000-Year-Old Stone Tools on Indonesian Island of Sulawesi

Jan 14, 2016 by News Staff

New archaeological evidence published online in the journal Nature has pushed back the accepted earliest human occupation of Sulawesi to more than 110,000...

Cambridge Archaeological Unit scientists have unearthed the charred wooden roof structure of a 3,000-year-old round house. Image credit: Cambridge Archaeological Unit.

Archaeologists Uncover Best-Preserved Bronze Age Dwellings Ever Found in Britain

Jan 13, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A group of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge’s Archaeological Unit (CAU) has unearthed well-preserved Bronze Age dwellings during an excavation...

Knossos was the capital city of Minoan Crete and the center of Minoan civilization which flourished from 2000 BC until at least 1380 BC. Image credit: Bernard Gagnon / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Early Iron Age Knossos Was Much Larger Than Originally Thought

Jan 11, 2016 by News Staff

Recent excavations at the archaeological site of the ancient city of Knossos find that during the early Iron Age, the city was rich in imports and was...

Text of Cairo Calendar page rto VIII; inside the superimposed rectangle is the hieratic writing for the word Horus. A passage in this document dates it to the reign of Ramses II in the Nineteenth Dynasty. Image credit: Jetsu L. / Porceddu S., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144140.s001.

3,200-Year-Old Papyrus Contains Astrophysical Information about Variable Star Algol

Dec 23, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

Ancient Egyptians wrote Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky Days that assigned astronomically influenced prognoses for each day of the year. The best preserved...

Stonehenge Bluestones Came from Two Quarries in Wales, Scientists Say

Dec 8, 2015 by News Staff

Enormous standing stones at Stonehenge are of sarsen, a local sandstone, but the smaller ones, known as bluestones, came from two prehistoric quarries...