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Archaeologists have discovered something as valuable as the Roman Pompeii.
More than twice the age of the Stonehenge, the Shigir Idol has been recently dated to 11,000 years ago, which makes it the oldest wooden object in existence by far. The idol is also covered with some drawings which may actually be a written language that no one understands.
In a cave in France, three bisons stand next to each other, modeled from the clay from the walls of the cave. They’ve been standing there alone for 14,000 years, propped against a small boulder in the darkness. The craftsmanship and durability is remarkable, up to the point where you’d almost think they’re modern; one can […]
Archaeologists working at NOAA made a surprising discovery - they found the remains of a century-and-a-half old whaling ship
Many ancient civilizations made astronomical notes, but according to researchers, this is the earliest historical document of naked eye observations on a variable star – Algol. Variable stars are stars with a varying brightness (as seen from Earth), and they probably held a special place in Egyptian astronomy – they made careful notes on these […]
Partial femur bones found in the renowned Red Deer Cave seems to show that other species of humans overlapped with our own species during the ice age.
This summer in Poland, two treasure hunters discovered what they believe was a WWII Nazi train filled with treasure, in a buried tunnel. Poland’s Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said authorities were led to the spot and that he was 99% convinced that the treasure had been located. But according to scientists Krakow’s AGH University of Science […]
Christianity is currently the world's largest religious movement, with an estimated 2.2 billion followers. And because he plays such a huge role in christian mythos and practice, and because of the influence he's had on the course of history (we even date our years after his birth), we all know how Jesus Christ looks like. We've seen it in paintings. on tv, in church, on Christmas; he's white, long haired and wears something thorny. Right?
Archaeologists believe they have found the he tomb of sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled over the Ottoman empire from 1520 to 1566, near the fortress of Szigetvar in southern Hungary.
Despite it being studied for many decades, there are still many things we don’t understand about the Stonehenge. Scientists have now identified the original quarries where the bluestones were mined: 225 km away in Wales, and 500 years before the Stonehenge was built! This could indicate that perhaps a proto-version of the Neolithic monument could […]
A ship missing for over 300 years has been rediscovered, according to Colombian authorities – a boat with an estimated $17 billion in loot. San José was a 60-gun, 3-masted galleon of the Spanish Navy. It was launched in 1698, and was sunk in the battle off the coast of Cartagena in 1708, during a […]
While many people are probably consulting Google these days with searches for “easy turkey dinner” or “last minute side dishes”, it’s pretty safe to say there’s no shortage of websites offering answers to those queries. But there is a shortage of recipes thousands of years old. The Yale Babylonian Collection now allowed us to take dinner as humans did […]
Archaeological diggings at the First Nations in Canada unearthed, among others, a small, 800 year old pot - and inside it, squash seeds!
Even inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, outside of Cairo, researchers have found something interesting.
Archaeologists have discovered fossils of rats 10 times bigger than modern rats. Working with the Australian National University (ANU), the team made the findings in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony in south-east Asia. Dr Julien Louys of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language said these are the largest rat fossils ever to be found, and by […]
The fossils were discovered in the Parnaiba Basin of north-eastern Brazil, and are some 278 million years old, corresponding to the Permian period, when all the continents we know today were still fused together.
It could only happen in Norway: a hiker traveling a historic route found a 1,200 year old Viking sword in excellent shape.
The Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq uncovered 20 new lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the nearly 3000 years old Mesopotamian poem, considered to be one of the world's first great works of literature. They belong to a passage in which Gilgamesh enters a cedar forest and slays a demigod named Humbaba, with the setting and the demigod himself described differently and in more detail, writes Ted Mills for Open Culture.
Sure, we’ve all heard of Egypt’s pyramids, but have you heard of Sudan’s pyramids? Well, you really should have – they’ve survived in the African desert for 3,000 years, and they’re absolutely spectacular, as we can all see, thanks to this National Geographic drone footage. These pyramids were built by Nubians, the rulers of the ancient […]
The ancient Greek shipwreck that produced the awesome Antikythera mechanism, hailed as the world's first analog computer (being almost two millenia old), had archaeologists' collective pants full of ants and it seems that their enthusiasm was well placed. The shipwreck is slowly yielding new artifacts, offering a glimpse into the lifestyles of the ancient "1%" in the Hellenic peninsula.
A new species of plant-eating dinosaur was discovered in Alaska, a variety of hadrosaur -- duck-billed dinos that roamed in herds, said Pat Druckenmiller, earth sciences curator at the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks. Researchers named the creature Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis (oo-GROO'-nah-luk KOOK'-pik-en-sis), meaning "ancient grazer," chosen by scientists with assistance from speakers of Inupiaq, the language of Alaska Inupiat Eskimos.
Middle Age Europe was a place ruled by superstition and mythical beliefs - at least some parts of it were. Now, researchers are trying to figure out what made some people in Poland believe there was an 'outbreak of vampires' in the 17th and 18th century.
The humble bean is the first thing some of us reach for in the mornings, it's our companion during breaks and comes to warm us up on cold winter days. We've come to rely on coffee, due to the caffeine it contains, to wake us up when the night is short and full of terrors, and keep us going when the going gets rough. A new study from the University of New Mexico's researchers however shows how the people of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico were drinking caffeinated beverages as early as 750 AD, over 1,200 years ago.
Is there anything you can't buy in today's shopping malls? The list must be pretty short already, but now we can cut artifacts off it. Archaeologists in Redmond US., working on a routine survey to get the green light for a construction site near a mall in the area, found thousands of stone tools estimated to be at least 10,000 years old, "The Seattle Times" reported.
While analysing starch grains on ancient stone grinding tools from southern Italy, Marta Mariotti Lippi at the University of Florence in Italy and her colleagues were able to date the earliest known human consumption of oats as far back as 32,000 years ago – way before farming took root.
Ongoing excavations at a site in the southern Peloponnese are offering rare insight into the ancient past of Laconia, about which very little physical evidence exists. The Greek Ministry of Culture released several photographs yesterday showing the newly unearthed ruins of an ancient palace likely built during the 17th-16th century BC.
Anthropologists have discovered the oldest known fossil of a bone resembling that of humans; the 1.85 million year old bone is the oldest evidence of a ‘modern’ hand and suggests that ancient humans may have been much larger than previously thought. A key feature that distinguishes humans from other species is the ability to create and use […]
Russian archaeologists have unearthed a trove of warrior jewelry of historical significance: the tomb of a Sarmatian woman warrior who worshiped fire.
The loving embrace of a mother and her child lasts for 4,000 years, Chinese archaeologists reported after finding their interlocked skeletons. The mother was trying to shield her child from a massive earthquake that struck China in 2000 BC and triggered massive floods; the event is sometimes referred to as ‘China’s Pompeii’. The site is […]
Society has changed a lot in 2,000 years, but you know what hasn’t really changed? Cats. Cats don’t really care about much today, and they didn’t really care about much 2,000 years ago – and now archaeologists have evidence of that. Paw prints made by a cat 2,000 years ago have been found on a […]
Zvi Ben-Avraham of Tel Aviv University and Emanuele Lodolo of the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Trieste, have discovered a monolith in deep water, resting on a spot that was once an island off the coast of Sicily. Their study has been published in the Journal of Archeological Science.
William Shakespeare – universally praised as one of the best writers in history, eminent dramatist and England’s national poet, is still a controversial figure. There is speculation about the authorship of his works, with some scholars claiming they were written by someone else; there’s also speculation about his sexuality, his religion, and even his looks. Contrary […]
Archaeologists have uncovered an enigmatic monolith deep off the coast of Sicily, Italy. The 15 tonne Stonehenge-like monolith is at least 10,000 year old and may shed new light on ancient Mediterranean civilizations.
A half a million year old human tooth was discovered in France in a place called Tautavel, one of Europe's most important prehistoric caves. Anthropologists hailed the discovery as an extremely important one, with chief researcher Tony Chevalier calling it a "major discovery".
A team of archaeologists working in Denmark have made a puzzling discovery: they found nearly 2,000 spectacular gold spirals dating from the Bronze age. The reason why they were made, especially in such a large number, is a mystery and the trove baffled scientists. The spirals are made from pure gold, hammered down to just 0.1 millimeters […]
Hikers discovered Ötzi the Iceman in the Ötztal Alps of Tyrol, Austria in 1991. Forensic analysis showed that he died around 5,300 years ago, making his the oldest intact human body every found. Ötzi had been preserved by glacier ice and was found with his tools, clothes, and weapons – a time capsule of Copper […]
Just as today -or a little less often, as we tend to abuse our teeth quite a bit nowadyas – early humans had to deal with cavities. An infected 14,000 year old molar may give us a glimpse into how they treated such afflictions, and is the oldest known evidence of dentistry.
Norwegian Archaeologists have unearthed a unique Viking grave dated 1040 AD. Within the grave they found coins, a battle ax with a shaft coated in brass and a magnificent sword with intriguing silver and golden decorations. The sword almost certainly belonged to a wealthy man in the late Viking Era, quite possibly one that fought in […]
Archaeologists used innovative techniques to gain new insights about the third-millennium urban crisis in Mesopotamia some 4,000 years ago. This marked the fall of the Akkadian Empire – the very first empire in the world. The researchers also drew a comparison to modern-day Syria where current events in the wake of climate change and a violent […]
Archaeologists working in Bulgaria have confirmed that they uncovered the oldest prehistoric town in Europe. The town was likely home to some 400 people and dates back to between 4700 and 4200 BC - about 1,500 years before the emergence of the Greek civilization.
We tend to think of the Stonehenge as a lone giant, huge blocks of rock towering over the quiet British landscape. But as a new study has revealed, Stonehenge was likely a diverse and vibrant place, a complex of different religious and cultural settings. Painting Stonehenge in New Light Using geophysical techniques (mostly Ground […]
Two apparent bongs likely used by Scythian tribal chieftains have discovered by archaeologists in Russia. But unlike modern bongs, these ones are made of solid gold.
In 1921, archaeologists found the remains of a Bronze Age priestess, dubbed the Egtved Girl. Now, a new study reveals that the priestess, who was found in Denmark, likely traveled hundreds of kilometers and was born somewhere in Germany. The Egtved Girl was, according to all clues, an extraordinary person. She only lived to be […]
Archaeologists have uncovered a silver ring with an Arabic inscription in a Viking grave, adding support to the theory that the two cultures had fascinating connections. Different Cultures “I have never seen bodies as nearly perfect as theirs. As tall as palm trees, fair and reddish, they wear neither tunics nor kaftans. Every man wears […]
Megafloods likely wiped out one of the most significant American civilizations, a new study has concluded. Until now, the reason of their demise remained a mystery.
In most cultures, men are typically regarded as handy and it’s usually up to them to do the handy work – it’s quite a stereotype actually, but I think it’s among the few that really stick; but a new study reveals that women may actually be much more well suited for that job. Female chips […]
Homo is the genus of hominids that includes modern humans, as well as other species closely related to them… I mean us. The genus is estimated to be about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old and it features several species (though it’s still not clear how many). Here are the modern (<0.6 million years) Homo species […]
In December 1994, three explorers made a surprising discovery in southern France - a rumble of stones blocking the entrance to a spectacular cave, over 400 meters long and covered with archaeological and palaeontological remains, including the skulls and bones of cave bears, which hibernated there, along with the skulls of an ibex and two wolves. But it was the human traces that were most interesting...
Recent archaeological and anthropological research showed that Neanderthals weren't the mindless brutes we once thought they were - they were smart, organized, they had their own speech and interbred with early humans. Now, a new study has found evidence that 130,000 years ago, Neanderthals also designed elaborate jewelry, a degree of sophistication never seen before for that time.
A study conducted on 2000 year old tooth enamel found that ancient farmers traveled to the grassy plains southern Africa to develop herding away from the dangerous tsetse fly.
