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Ancient Civilizations

A satellite view of a region of Buckingham, England where 42 skeletons were recently unearthed on a former farm situated near a cemetery (center)

Cool Finds

U.K. Developers Unearth 42 Bizarrely Buried Skeletons

The individuals, buried with their hands tied behind their backs, may be executed Anglo-Saxon prisoners or casualties of the English Civil War

The remains of Takabuti, a young woman who was murdered in the 7th century B.C. in Egypt

This 2,600-Year-Old Mummy Died in a Violent Backstabbing

Researchers concluded she was murdered by someone who forced a blade into her chest from behind

A statue of Pliny the Elder at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore in Como, Italy

Cool Finds

This 2,000-Year-Old Skull May Belong to Pliny the Elder

The Roman statesman launched a rescue mission when Vesuvius erupted but lost his life in the process

The remains of a pre-Hispanic temazcal recently found in Mexico City

Cool Finds

14th-Century Steam Bath Found in Mexico City

The discovery has helped archaeologists pinpoint the location of the ancient neighborhood of Temazcaltitlan

Nesyamun was a priest and scribe whose duties included ritualistic chanting and singing.

Education During Coronavirus

Listen to the Recreated Voice of a 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

Media outlets have likened the sound to a “brief groan,” a “long, exasperated ‘meh’ without the ‘m,’” and “rather like ‘eeuuughhh’”

Blazes at Budj Bim National Park in southeastern Australia unearthed a previously unknown channel.

Cool Finds

Australian Bushfires Reveal Hidden Sections of Ancient Aquaculture System

The eel-farming system of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is older than both Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids

Ninety-six sculptures from the Torlonia Collection will go on view in Rome later this year.

A Long-Hidden Collection of Ancient Sculpture Is Making Its Grand Debut

The statues are “surprising, rewarding and promising beyond belief,” says one expert of the private Torlonia Collection

The front of one of the barb-spring padlocks recovered from the Pictish settlement at Lair in Glenshee, Scotland

Cool Finds

Medieval Padlock Hints at Prosperity of Scotland’s Pictish Farmers

Archaeologists uncovered a thriving farming community whose members wanted to keep their valuables safe

Hernán Cortés had Aztec treasures melted into gold bars for easier transport back to Europe.

Cool Finds

Spanish Conquistadors Stole This Gold Bar From Aztec Emperor Moctezuma’s Trove

Forces led by Hernán Cortés dropped the looted treasure during a hasty retreat from the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in June 1520

Sweden's 1,200-year-old Rök stone is inscribed with more than 700 runes, some of which may discuss climate change.

New Research

Viking Runestone May Trace Its Roots to Fear of Extreme Weather

Sweden’s Rök stone, raised by a father commemorating his recently deceased son, may contain allusions to an impending period of catastrophic cold

Most of the graves were lined with stone curbs and closed with slabs.

Cool Finds

High-Status Roman Burials Found in Britain

The discovery provides insight on how Iron Age Britons adopted the Roman lifestyle

The inspector of measurements and weights, called the agoranomos, was a common job throughout the Roman Empire.

Cool Finds

2,000-Year-Old Measuring Table Points to Location of Ancient Jerusalem Market

The table ensured standard measurements for buying and selling in the first century A.D.

A scholar spotted the long-overlooked image (its horns and face are at left, its legs on the right) while conducting research at a Berlin museum.

Cool Finds

This Demon, Immortalized in 2,700-Year-Old Assyrian Tablet, Was Thought to Cause Epilepsy

The damaged drawing was hidden on the back of a clay cuneiform tablet

Most of the newly discovered warriors were sculpted into one of two positions: either clutching pole weapons, with their right arms bent and fists partially clenched, or carrying bows, with their right arms hanging at ease.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Excavate 200 More Chinese Terracotta Warriors

The clay figures are part of the vast subterranean army built to protect the formidable emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife

Otzi carried 14 arrows in his quiver, but only two had arrowheads and feather fletching.

What We Can Learn From Ötzi the Iceman’s Hunting Pack

The famed Copper Age mummy’s bowstring is the world’s oldest known specimen

John Addington Symonds, whose 1873 essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics" helped lay the foundation for the modern gay rights movement

Cool Finds

Researchers Recover an Early Copy of a 19th-Century Gay Rights Essay

This once-lost copy of “A Problem in Greek Ethics” is only the sixth of its kind

The floor of one of the coffins of Gua, a physician of the governor Djehutyhotep. The paintings, dated to 1795 B.C., show the “two ways”—land and sea—that the dead could use to navigate the afterlife. An even older “Book of Two Ways” has now been unearthed.

Cool Finds

4,000-Year-Old Guide to the Ancient Egyptian Underworld May Be Oldest Illustrated ‘Book’

Archaeologists recovered the remnants of an ancient “Book of Two Ways” from a sarcophagus

These are ten of the biggest strides made by scientists in the last ten years.

The Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the Decade

Breakthroughs include measuring the true nature of the universe, finding new species of human ancestors, and unlocking new ways to fight disease

This female warrior was buried with an elaborately engraved headdress during the fourth century B.C.

Cool Finds

Tomb Containing Three Generations of Warrior Women Unearthed in Russia

The four Scythians were buried together some 2,500 years ago

One of the pig jaws analyzed for the study

People Trekked Across Ireland to Eat Pork at This Ancient Site

A new study suggests travelers brought pigs from far-flung locations to the ceremonial feasting hub of Navan Fort

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