Category: Archaeology

The original mandible of Skhūl I and the CT scan-based images in anterior and left lateral view. Blue = bone; green = reconstruction, scale bar = 1 cm. Mount Carmel in the background. Credit: Dan David Center of Human Evolution, Tel Aviv University, image of Mount Carmel from Britannica. Adapted from Bouvier et al. 2025

The Ancient Child Who Blurs the Lines Between Humans and Neanderthals

University of Houston provost and archaeologist Diane Chase in newly discovered tomb of the first ruler of the ancient Maya city Caracol and the founder of its royal dynasty. Credit: Caracol Archeological Project/University of Houston

Ancient King Unearthed in Maya City After 1,700 Years of Silence

A scanning electron microscope micrograph depicting a mass of Yersinia pestis bacteria in the foregut of an infected flea. Credit: Wikipedia

Ancient DNA Reveals 6,500-Year-Old Secrets of Zoonotic Diseases and Their Impact on Humanity

Caligula. Copenhagen, New Carlsberg Glyptotek. Credit: Sergey Sosnovskiy CC BY-SA 2.0

Caligula’s Cruelty Wasn’t His Only Legacy He Was Also a Medicinal Plant Expert

$The refitting of Sc1982-345-25 and Sc1986-1278-160 allows for the reconstruction of a diaphysis fragment of a left tibia (A,B). The bifacial reshaping observed on the distal part (C,D) presents a polish (F) that occurred prior to the breakage of the bone as it is present on both side of the fracture. Combined with blow fractures observed on the proximal part (A,B), these are all indicators supporting the multifunctional use of this tibial fragment as an intermediate tool as suggested in the drawing by S. Lambermont (E), before the different fragments were used separately as retouchers as illustrated in Figs. 3A,B Credit: Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-08588-w$

Neanderthals Turned Cave Lion Bones Into Tools More Than 130,000 Years Ago

Marae with ahu (a central stone platform) on Mo’orea, Windward. Credit: Antiquity

Mysteries of the Moai: New Evidence Shows Easter Island Was Never Truly Alone

From complete bones to tiny fragments. At the Neumark-Nord 2/2B sites, imported bones were initially smashed open to extract marrow from the hollow cavities (see A; arrows indicate hammerstone impacts on an aurochs humerus). Afterward, the bones were crushed and chopped into smaller pieces (shown in B to F, again from a humerus as seen in A) to facilitate the extraction of grease from both the spongy and compact bone tissue. Approximately 2,000 tiny bone fragments accidentally came into contact with fire after boiling, resulting in typical coloration (ranging from dark brown and black to white) and texture commonly found in heated bones. Credit: Kindler, LEIZA-Monrepos

Neanderthals Had a Secret Fat Factory That Helped Them Survive the Ice Age

Facial reconstruction of the individual from Nuwayrat using 3D scan data of the skull and analysis of the bones. The skull and idea of his face are overlaid to create one image. Credit: Caroline Wilkinson, Liverpool John Moores University. As in Morez, A. (2025). Nature.

He Lived When the Pyramids Rose Now His DNA Tells a Forgotten Story

The stone tools discovered in Marathousa 1 demonstrate the targeted use of various techniques—depending on material and function. Credit: PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0324958

Ancient Humans Butchered Elephants with Stone Tools in Greece 430,000 Years Ago

The locations of Late Archaic/Terminal and Early Formative sites. Credit: Antiquity (2025). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2025.40

Hunter Gatherers Built Sacred Structures Thousands of Years Before Power Systems Emerged

Fish remains from the bottom of a salting vat, as they were found (a) and separated into spines (b), vertebrae (c) and scales (d). Credit: Archaeology Department of the University of Vigo, from Antiquity (2025). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2025.73. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.73

Ancient DNA from Roman Fish Sauce Reveals Secrets Hidden for Centuries

Bridge of the Roman aqueduct in Arles. Credit: Cees Passchier

Ancient Limescale Reveals Secrets of a Lost Roman Water Network

The cuneiform tablet with the newly discovered hymn. Credit: Anmar A. Fadhil, Department of Archaeology, University of Baghdad, with the permission of the Iraqi Museum and the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage

Babylon Speaks Again After a Thousand Years Through a Lost Hymn and AI

The seven ochre retouchers from the MSA layers of BBC. Artifact numbers are listed in the top left of each separate image. Credit: Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads2797

Early Humans Used Ochre as Precision Tools 70,000 Years Ago

Trelai Park. Credit: Vivian Thomas

Archaeologists Uncover 3,000-Year-Old Burials Beneath Trelai Park

Skeleton that yielded a 4,000-year-old M. lepromatosis genome. Credit: Oscar Eduardo Fontana-Silva & Anna Brizuela

Ancient DNA Reveals Leprosy Struck the Americas 4,000 Years Ago

Figurine from Ulucak Höyük in West Anatolia. Credit: Ulucak Höyük Excavation Archive

Ancient DNA Reveals How Farming Spread Across Anatolia in Surprising Ways

MS1 fossil. Credit: H. Berghuis

Ancient Human Fossils Discovered Beneath the Java Sea

The newborns from the West Mound at Çatalhöyük were buried between 5900 and 5800 BCE—laid on their stomachs with their head and legs turned to the left. The well-preserved skeleton was dug up by Jana Anvari in 2009. Eva Rosenstock and Peter F. Biehl led the excavations. Both skeletons were subjected to osteological analysis by Jennifer Byrnes. Credit: Çatalhöyük Research Project/Peter F. Biehl

New Genetic Evidence Shows Women Held Power in a 9000-Year-Old Society

The team set out in their handmade canoe, making the entire experience as authentic as possible. Credit: 2025 Kaifu et al. CC-by-ND

Ancient Humans Crossed One of Earth’s Strongest Currents Using Stone Tools and Star Maps

Early Agricultural period projectile point types. Credit: Sliva 2009

How a 4,500-Year-Old Migration Planted the Seeds of Agriculture in the Southwest

Photographs of the Site 23 midden with some of the faunal assemblage and the whistling arrow. Credit: Tal Rogovski

Bones in the Steppe Reveal Forgotten Lives at the Edge of an Empire

The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites near the south coast of Brittany in northwestern France. Credit: Bettina Schulz Paulsson

Scientists Finally Date Mysterious Stone Rows in Carnac and the Results Are Stunning

The newly discovered temple complex is located roughly 130 miles south of Tiwanaku’s established historical site, on top of a hill that was never explored in depth by researchers due to its unassuming location. Credit: José Capriles / Penn State.

Ancient Temple Discovered in Bolivia Reveals Secrets of a Lost Andean Civilization

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Ancient Humans Were Using Fire to Shape the Earth 50,000 Years Ago

The El Gigante Rockshelter is among a handful of archaeological sites in the Americas that contain well-preserved botanical remains spanning the last 11,000 years. Credit: Shelly Leachman, UC Santa Barbara

Ancient Avocados Unearthed in Honduras Reveal 11000 Years of Farming

The Newgrange prehistoric monument in Ireland is a large circular mound containing a chamber. Credit: TJP Finn CC BY-SA 4.0

Newgrange’s Ancient Dead Speak Again—And They Challenge the Myth of a Royal Elite

An artist’s view of what the area of the Zvejnieki cemetery (northern Latvia) might have looked like when animal parts were processed in the cooking pits. Credit: Tom Björklund

Stone Age Secrets Revealed in Ancient Tooth Jewelry

Sand dunes of Erg Chebbi in the Sahara Desert, Morocco.

Buried Beneath Sand and Legend: The Vanished Kingdoms of the Ancient World

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What Really Happened to the People of Atlantis?