Ancient Civilizations

Pueblo Bonito, a massive stone great house in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico

How Should Scientists Navigate the Ethics of Ancient Human DNA Research?

Paleogenomic research has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, igniting heated debate about studying remains

Researchers discovered an ancient tavern at Lagash in southern Iraq.

Cool Finds

5,000-Year-Old Tavern With Food Still Inside Discovered in Iraq

Archaeologists found benches, an oven and food remnants dating back to 2700 B.C.E.

Officials in Peru say that Machu Picchu is closing indefinitely, citing security concerns and damage to nearby railways.

Peru Closes Machu Picchu Amid Anti-Government Protests

More than 50 people have died as demonstrations escalate and police crack down on dissent

The animals were preserved in a different manner than most mummified crocodiles.

Archaeologists in Egypt Unearth 2,500-Year-Old Mummified Crocodiles

The remains include five reptile heads and five nearly intact specimens

The researchers' facial reconstruction shows a bearded, brown-eyed man in his 30s or 40s.

See the Face of a Neolithic Man Who Lived in Jericho 9,500 Years Ago

Prehistoric people modified a skull to create a rudimentary likeness of its owner. Now, scholars have produced a more accurate facial reconstruction

Egyptian officials with the ancient sarcophagus on January 2, 2023

U.S. Returns Looted Sarcophagus to Egypt

The "Green Coffin" had been at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences since 2013

Our ten-most read stories of the year featured the all-woman army of the African kingdom of Dahomey, mischievous felines, J.R.R. Tolkien and more.

Our Top Ten Stories of 2022

From a teen inventor to invasive fish to lost cities of the Amazon, these were our most-read articles of the year

Fascinating finds unveiled in 2022 ranged from a 2,000-year-old statue of a dog to colorful sarcophagi at Saqqara to a Qing dynasty vase.

Cool Finds

Ninety-Six Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2022

The year's most exciting discoveries included hidden portraits by Cézanne and van Gogh, sarcophagi buried beneath Notre-Dame, and a medieval wedding ring

Machu Picchu, a 15th-century Inca structure in the Andes Mountains

Helicopters Evacuate Travelers Stranded at Machu Picchu

Hundreds of tourists found themselves trapped at the site as protests spread through Peru

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass is leading a push to repatriate the Rosetta Stone, the Dendera Zodiac and the bust of Nefertiti to Egypt.

History of Now

Who Gets to Tell the Story of Ancient Egypt?

On the eve of the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, some of the country's artifacts, from the Rosetta Stone to the bust of Nefertiti, remain overseas

Israel isn’t the first country where fingerprints found during archaeological research have elicited curiosity and spurred questions about who left them behind.

What Fingerprints Tell Us About Jerusalem's Ancient Artisans

In an unusual collaboration, archaeologists in Israel are working with police to analyze prints left on fifth- or sixth-century pottery shards

Throne 1, KK'in Lakam Chahk (785)

Rarely Seen Ancient Maya Masterpieces Go on View at the Met

It's the first exhibition of its kind in the United States in a decade

If Yonatan Adler's theory proves correct, then Judaism is, at best, Christianity’s elder sibling and a younger cousin to the religions of ancient Greece and Rome.

Is Judaism a Younger Religion Than Previously Thought?

A new book by an Israeli archaeologist makes the stunning claim that common Jewish practices emerged only a century or so before Jesus

The comb is made of ivory and inscribed with the sentence: "May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard."

Scientists Translate the Oldest Sentence Written in the First Alphabet

Inscribed on a Canaanite comb, the words reveal a struggle with head lice

The burial chamber of King Tut's tomb

How Howard Carter Discovered King Tut's Golden Tomb

A hundred years after the legendary find, archival records tell the definitive story of the dig that changed the world

Put together, recent research on Tutankhamun—from new interpretations of X-rays and CT scans to studies of his footwear and mortuary temple—presents quite a different portrait from what is frequently seen in popular media.

Reimagining Tutankhamun as a Warrior

Recent research contradicts the image of the Egyptian boy-king as a frail, sickly pharaoh

Researchers excavating a large wooden post

Cool Finds

Ancient Maya Salt Makers Worked From Home, Too

Archaeologists in Belize have found 1,500-year-old salt kitchens attached to workers' homes

Moai statues on Easter Island

Fire Irreversibly Damages Easter Island Statues

The isolated island is home to hundreds of the mysterious monuments

The archaeological site at Himera in Sicily

Mercenaries Were More Common in Greek Warfare Than Ancient Historians Let on

New research finds that many soldiers who fought in the fifth-century B.C.E. battles at Himera were born outside of the empire

Fragments of the Hercules statue (left) and an archaeologist excavating the artwork (right)

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Greece Unearth 'Larger-Than-Life' Statue of Hercules

The team discovered the 2,000-year-old artwork in Philippi

loading icon