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Ancient Civilizations

Scientists claim that the rock used to carve the Venus of Willendorf statue likely came from Italy.

New Research

3-D Scans Show 30,000-Year-Old Stone Sculpture Dug Up in Austria Likely Came From Italy

Scientists suspect an ancient limestone carving known as the Venus of Willendorf traveled hundreds of miles across the Southern Alps

New research shows that mass migration of ancient peoples from the south were essential to bringing maize cultivation to Maya communities in Central America. Scientists previously thought knowledge of farming techniques were shared by word of mouth between neighboring communities. 

New Research

New Study Finds Migrants Brought Maize to the Maya

DNA analysis of skeletal remains in Belize helps piece together how corn cultivation came to thrive in Central America

The finds suggest that the islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi weren't "arid and inhospitable" thousands of years ago, but rather a "fertile coast" ripe for settlement.

The United Arab Emirates’ Earliest Buildings Are 8,500 Years Old

Found off the coast of Abu Dhabi, the structures likely served as houses for Ghagha Island’s Neolithic inhabitants

Four lead ingots found in a shipwreck off the coast of Israel feature Cypro-Minoan markings but actually originated in Sardinia.

New Research

Imported Lead Ingots Offer Evidence of Complex Bronze Age Trade Networks

A new analysis of shipwrecked metals inscribed with Cypro-Minoan markings suggests the objects originated in Sardinia, some 1,550 miles away from Cyprus

Analysis of historical documents showed no evidence of the site being called Machu Picchu until 1911.

Have We Been Calling Machu Picchu by the Wrong Name?

Historical records suggest the Inca called the 15th-century citadel Huayna Picchu, before an American explorer who “discovered” the site in 1911 renamed it

French culture minister officials visits the site of the discovery where an ancient human-shaped sarcophogus was found, among other objects, including sculptures, carvings and a 13th-century altar screen. 

Cool Finds

Notre-Dame Repair Crews Discover an Ancient Graveyard With a Sealed Sarcophagus

France’s culture ministry describes the finding as being “of remarkable scientific quality”

Ochre, an iron-rich rock, has been used as paint pigment by humans for hundreds of years in various applications, such as body paint, sunscreen and as a component in adhesives.  

Researchers Discover Oldest-Known Ochre Workshop in East Asia

Tools and pieces of the clay earth pigment found in northern China date to about 40,000 years old, and introduce new theories about early human migration

An aerial view of a ten-foot-long section of the newly discovered mosaic

Cool Finds

See Dazzling Photos of a Roman Mosaic Floor Unearthed in London

The ancient artwork is the largest of its kind found in the English capital in 50 years

Votive offering found at the Sikait site

Did Ancient Nomads Seize Control of a Roman Emerald Mine in Egypt?

Recent excavations suggest the Blemmyes assumed power of the Sikait mining site between the fourth and sixth centuries C.E.

The bowls were probably created in what is now Iraq between the fourth and eighth centuries C.E.

1,500-Year-Old ‘Magic Bowls’ Seized in Jerusalem Raid

Ancient Mesopotamians used the vessels, which were inscribed with incantations, to ward off demons, disease and other misfortune

The mummified remains of eight children, who may have been sacrificed, was found near the tomb of an elite individual of pre-Incan society.

Cool Finds

Eight Mummified Children Found in Peru May Have Been Sacrificed in an Ancient Funeral Ritual

The remains were discovered in the tomb of an elite member of a pre-Inca city buried 1,200 years ago

The chamber pot stands about 12.5 inches tall and measures 13.5 inches wide at the rim.

New Research

Parasite Eggs Help Archaeologists Identify Ancient Roman Chamber Pot

The ceramic vessel contained whipworm eggs found in human feces, debunking the theory that it simply served as a storage jar

Detail from a 4th-century B.C. Persian sarcophagus, thought to depict a Greek-Anatolian battle scene, found in a tomb near Troy.

In Search of Troy

It wasn’t just a legend. Archaeologists are getting to the bottom of the city celebrated by Homer nearly 3,000 years ago

Archaeologists found a 5,000-year-old drum, a clay ball and a polished bone pin at a burial site in the English village of Burton Agnes. 

An Ornate, 5,000-Year-Old Stone Drum Is the U.K.’s Most Significant Prehistoric Art Find in a Century

Now on view in London, the chalk sculpture was buried alongside three children between 3005 and 2890 B.C.E.

Toyin Ojih Odutola (above) “flips the script in every aspect," she says of her 40 charcoal and pastel drawings depicting a story about a strong race of women, called the Eshu, who rule over humanoid men made to work in the mines or to cultivate food.

Women Warriors Ran the Ancient World in Artist Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Imagined Past

The Hirshhorn’s show, “A Countervailing Theory,” posits a society where gender roles are reversed

Christie accompanied her second husband, Max Mallowan, on digs in Egypt and Syria. During these expeditions, she helped catalog, illustrate and restore artifacts, in addition to managing everyday operations.

Based on a True Story

How Agatha Christie’s Love of Archaeology Influenced ‘Death on the Nile’

In the 1930s, the mystery writer accompanied her archaeologist husband on annual digs in the Middle East

Archaeologist discovered a large number of ostraca, or inscribed fragments of pottery, at the ancient Egyptian temple of Athribis.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Uncover 18,000 Ancient Egyptian ‘Notepads’

Known as “ostraca,” the inscribed pottery shards document everyday life in the city of Athribis

Reserachers descend into a Yucatan sinkhole to examine sacred Maya cacao groves. 

Researchers Now Know Where the Ancient Maya Planted Their Sacred Cacao Groves

Sinkholes across the Yucatan Peninsula provided perfect growing conditions for the plant, used as currency in the Mesoamerican civilization

Chalcidian helmets such as this one were often worn by ancient Greek warriors.

Cool Finds

These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago

Archaeologists in southern Italy discovered the headgear along with pottery, fragments and a shield near the likely remains of a temple to goddess Athena

An ancient Roman amphitheater that may have been one of the last built was discovered during construction of a new boathouse on the Rhine River in Switzerland.

Cool Finds

A Gladiator Arena, Possibly the Last Ever Built, Discovered in Switzerland

Archaeologists unearth a fourth century amphitheater that stood on the far reaches of the Roman Empire more than 1,400 years ago

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