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Ancient Civilizations

The Typos on This Dead Sea Scroll Don’t Mean It’s Fake

When the Dead Sea copper scroll was unveiled, doubts were quickly raised about its authenticity. For one thing, it was riddled with spelling errors

A detailed image of the baby crocodiles inside the mummy.

Cool Finds

Crocodile Mummy Found Packed With Dozens of Smaller Crocodile Mummies

The little critters escaped notice until high-powered modern scanners tackled the mummified remains

Stern of an Ottoman Wreck

Cool Finds

Over 40 Ancient Ships Discovered on the Bottom of the Black Sea

Researchers on a geology survey in Bulgarian waters ended up discovering vessels from the Ottoman, Byzantine and Venetian empires

Cool Finds

This 6,000-Year-Old Amulet Is an Ancient Metal Marvel

Lost-wax casting is still used in modern manufacturing

Sarah Parcak

American Ingenuity Awards

Space Archaeologist Sarah Parcak Uses Satellites to Uncover Ancient Egyptian Ruins

The Indiana Jones of low Earth orbit harnesses 21st-century technology to uncover long-buried treasures

American soldiers in Nimrud in 2008, with the Ziggurat in the background.

Trending Today

ISIS Has Destroyed a Nearly 3,000-Year-Old Assyrian Ziggurat

The ziggurat of Nimrud was the ancient city’s central temple

Armenia

In One of the World’s Oldest Winemaking Regions, a New Generation Revives an Ancient Tradition

An Armenian wine expert highlights the best places to experience the rebirth of a wine culture stifled under Soviet rule

New Research

Did the Greeks Help Sculpt China’s Terra Cotta Warriors?

New analysis and DNA evidence suggests the 8,000 life-sized figures in emperor Qin Shi Huang’s necropolis owe their inspiration to the Greeks

Gold signet ring showing five elaborately dressed female figures gathered by a seaside shrine

New Research

Gold Rings Found in Warrior’s Tomb Connect Two Ancient Greek Cultures

Analysis of four gold rings and some 2,000 other recently uncovered objects points to the exchange of ideas and goods between two ancient peoples

New Research

New DNA Analysis Shows How Cats Spread Around the World

Felines spread in two waves including moving around Europe on Viking ships, according to researchers

Cool Finds

World’s Oldest Fish Hooks Discovered in Okinawa

The 23,000-year-old barbs are made from snail shell. The discovery shows that early people had the resources to survive on the isolated island

Cool Finds

Amateur Archaeologist Discovers Significant Amount of Scotland’s Ancient Rock Art

Musician and avid walker George Currie has catalogued 670 pieces of prehistoric rock art in the Highlands

This image shows a scrap of the indigo-dyed fabric (right) and a diagram of the cloth (left), highlighting the blue stripes.

New Research

Earliest Evidence of Indigo Dye Found at Ancient Peruvian Burial Site

The dyed fabrics represent the earliest known use of indigo in the world, predating Egyptian samples by about 1,600 years

A death god holds a prisoner captive in this page from the Grolier Codex.

New Research

New Analysis Shows Disputed Maya “Grolier Codex” Is the Real Deal

Archaeologists long thought the document was forged, but a recent study suggests otherwise

Aleppo, Syria, in 2010. Since 2012, the city has been home to a fierce battle in Syria's civil war.

Trending Today

Five Times Aleppo Was the Center of the World’s Attention

Will the once-regal city survive this moment in the spotlight?

Cool Finds

Ancient Egyptian Stories Will Be Published in English for the First Time

Translated from hieroglyphics on monuments, tombs and papyri, the book will present tales few outside of academia have read

This 2,000-year-old scroll is covered with mysterious words in Aramaic.

Cool Finds

A Guide to Ancient Magic

In antiquity, love or revenge was just a spell away

New Research

Tree Rings Help Circle in on Dating Pre-History Events

Solar flares create spikes in the Carbon-14 of woody plants that can provide anchor years for more accurate dating of artifacts

One of the dig sites at Durrington Walls where researchers have uncovered a post that once held a large, prehistoric timber post.

Cool Finds

The So-Called “Superhenge” Was Made of Wood, Not Stone

New research shows that the ancient structure was also taken down in a hurry

The remains of a teenage boy found near an altar dedicated to Zeus at Mt. Lykaion

Cool Finds

Did the Ancient Greeks Engage in Human Sacrifice?

The remains uncovered at an altar to Zeus on Mount Lykaion may confirm legends about human sacrifice at the shrine

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