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Archaeology

The park's unique rock formations were formed by an ancient volcanic eruption.

Arizona’s Otherworldly ‘Wonderland of Rocks’ Is Now America’s Newest National Park

Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona is now Chiricahua National Park, the 64th national park in the United States. Its striking geologic landscape and biodiversity have drawn humans for thousands of years

The Roman sarcophagus is on view in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey.

Archaeologists May Have Solved the Mystery of a Roman Sarcophagus Excavated at Westminster Abbey in 1869

New research suggests that the ancient coffin was repurposed in the 10th or 11th century to hold the remains of an abbot who had overseen the London monastery

The archaeologists were thrilled when they found the human remains.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Searching for Evidence of a Norse Church in Greenland Have Found ‘the Smoking Gun’ Near Erik the Red’s Settlement

The site was first identified as a possible church decades ago, but researchers did not confirm that hunch until they found human remains there this summer. It could offer another clue to the Viking’s unexplained 15th-century disappearance

Archaeologists and volunteers took part in excavating the dike near Glasgow.

Cool Finds

When a 19th-Century Scottish Landowner Blocked a Public Footpath, Locals Rebelled. Now, Archaeologists Have Unearthed Parts of His Controversial Wall

The rebellion against “Harvie’s Dyke,” a pair of stone walls erected in the 1820s, was a triumph for the workers and middle classes of Glasgow, who used riots, boycotts and lawsuits to win back access to the River Clyde

Authorities think one of the statues might have originally stood nearly 28 feet tall.

Cool Finds

A Farmer in Egypt Stumbled Upon a Pink Stone and Called the Authorities. They Found the Remains of Two Colossal Statues of Ramses II Beneath the Property

Archaeologists recovered the head of one statue that might have measured nearly 28 feet tall. It could point to a major building site commissioned by the pharaoh

A coin bearing the likeness of the fourth-century C.E. Western Roman emperor Magnus Maximus, overlaid atop a page from a medieval manuscript of the Mabinogion

Cool Finds

Legend Has It That This Roman Emperor Established a Camp in Wales. A Newly Discovered Fort May Offer Proof That It Really Existed

An archaeologist has uncovered an ancient fortification linked to Magnus Maximus, a fourth-century ruler who is immortalized in the medieval “Mabinogion” stories as Macsen Wledig

The North Dakota governor's residence in Bismarck was constructed between 2016 and 2018.

Cool Finds

Construction Work on the North Dakota Governor’s Residence Accidentally Unearthed Seven Coffins Dating Back to the State’s Early Settlement

The cemetery site was established in 1872, when the state capital Bismarck was a small frontier community called Edwinton. Most, but not all, of its gravesites were exhumed five years later to make way for a railroad

A diver handles a container during underwater archaeological excavations near Kekova Island in Turkey.

Cool Finds

A New Contender for the World’s Oldest Shipwreck Has Been Discovered Off the Coast of Turkey. Its Ancient Cargo Is a ‘Time Capsule’ From 4,700 Years Ago

The ship was likely transporting huge jars of olive oil or wine across the Mediterranean when it sank to the seafloor. One archaeologist “could not believe how much” residue remained inside

The tomb's entrance is inscribed with protective funerary spells.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Egypt Discover a Mud-Brick Tomb Featuring a Heartbreaking Elegy to an Ancient Man’s Father

The 19-line poem was inscribed on a stone slab in the Bir al-Shaghala necropolis. The lament “is a highly literary and original epigram,” a scholar says

The tettina was found broken into pieces in 2011.

Cool Finds

Mourners Placed an Ancient Sippy Cup in a Roman Toddler’s Grave. It May Have Been Meant to Sustain the Child on the Journey to the Afterlife

Fragments of the spouted cup, known as a “tettina,” were unearthed in England over a decade ago. It has recently been restored and put on display for the first time

Archaeologists excavating near the crash site

After an American Bomber Crashed Into an English Moor During World War II, a Corporal Was Declared Missing in Action. Archaeologists Have Now Revived the Search for His Remains

Corporal Clarence Watson was among 10 American airmen aboard a B-24H Liberator when it crashed under foggy conditions. The crew was training for Operation Carpetbagger, a top-secret effort to fly deep into Nazi-occupied Europe

Neanderthals may have used wooden objects as hunting weapons, trays, plates and more.

An Unprecedented Trove of Ancient Wooden Tools Uncovered at a Rock Shelter in Spain Shows Neanderthals Were Skilled Woodworkers

Wooden objects usually decompose quickly, but periodic flooding and minerals in the water helped preserve those at a site called Abric Romaní. Archaeologists documented nearly 600 wooden objects—or their imprints—and 13 were clearly shaped by human hands

"Time Team" archaeologist Carenza Lewis helped supervise the dig.

Cool Finds

Volunteers Are Helping Unearth One of England’s Oldest Leprosy Hospitals, Giving a Glimpse Into How Victims of the Disease Were Treated in Medieval Times

Researchers believe that the Hospital of the Holy Innocents, founded in the 11th or 12th century, may have had “little houses with a little yard” for up to 20 people with leprosy. “You’d need to have resources to get in here,” one archaeologist says.

An underwater archaeologist examines a bronze signet ring discovered off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt.

Cool Finds

This One-of-a-Kind Bronze Ring Offers a Tantalizing Glimpse at the Lighthouse of Alexandria, a Lost Wonder of the Ancient World

Archaeologists in Egypt discovered the signet ring while conducting excavations on the island of Antirhodos, which once housed a lavish Ptolemaic palace

An aerial view of the archaeological trenches dug around Lismore's parish church, a 13th-century cathedral

Cool Finds

A Community-Led Archaeology Dig on a Tiny Scottish Isle Has Unearthed a Medieval Monastery of ‘International Importance’

The settlement, founded by an early Christian saint in the 500s, is “far more than a small island church.” It may have played a larger role in the Christianization of Britain than historians once realized

Archaeologists have been digging at the Kapersburg fort for many years.

Cool Finds

Just Inches Below the Forest Floor, Archaeologists in Germany Unearthed a Roman Temple Likely Dedicated to Mars, the God of War

Researchers found the structure’s remains, as well as fragments of statues, while excavating near the Kapersburg fort, an ancient Roman military fortification on the outskirts of modern-day Frankfurt

The dishes were packed carefully, and many remained intact.

Cool Finds

A Ship Carrying Stacks of Ancient Dishware Sank Off the Coast of Turkey 2,100 Years Ago. Its Ceramic Cargo Is Still Remarkably Intact

Researchers believe that the vessel’s plates and bowls were made in the ancient city of Rhosus, once praised by Roman statesman Cicero for its “fine pottery”

Twenty coins discovered in Rome may be the first physical evidence of a "Little England" enclave.

Cool Finds

What Are Medieval English Coins Doing in Rome? They Could Be Rare Evidence of a ‘Little England’ Enclave That Received Special Papal Privileges

Researchers argue that the tenth-century coins provide new evidence of a bustling English community located next to the Vatican that was permitted to use its own currency

The tomb of King Djer in Abydos

New Research

New Research Shows That These Ancient Egyptian Servants May Have Been Brutally Sacrificed and Buried Alongside Their Pharaohs

Forensic research has identified deliberate and fatal wounds on skulls from simple grave sites near First Dynasty royal tombs in Upper Egypt

The canoe is submerged 15 feet deep in Wisconsin’s Pewaukee Lake.

Cool Finds

A Diver Volunteered to Clean Up Trash From a Wisconsin Lake. He Discovered a 1,000-Year-Old Dugout Canoe at the Bottom Instead

Indigenous communities near present-day Milwaukee likely hand-carved the white-oak vessel before shaping it with fire between roughly 992 and 1049 C.E.

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