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Archaeology

Contrary to popular beliefs, Neanderthals lived in complex societies and hunted prey cooperatively.

New Research

Neanderthals Hunted in Groups, One More Strike Against the Dumb Brute Myth

The skeletons of deer killed 120,000 years ago offer more evidence of cooperative behavior and risk-taking among our hominin relatives

The charred papyrus scroll recovered from Herculaneum is preserved in 12 trays mounted under glass. Here is PHerc.118 in tray 8. The scroll was physically unrolled in 1883-84, causing irreparable damage.

Buried by the Ash of Vesuvius, These Scrolls Are Being Read for the First Time in Millennia

A revolutionary American scientist is using subatomic physics to decipher 2,000-year-old texts from the early days of Western civilization

The bones were discovered at a very shallow depth, indicating that they had been disposed of in a hurry, and with little ceremony.

Newly Unearthed Civil War Bones Speak Silently to the Grim Aftermath of Battle

What the amputated limbs and full skeletons of a Manassas burial pit tell us about wartime surgical practices

New Research

Where Did the Aztecs Get Their Turquoise?

New analysis shows the blue-green mineral found in Aztec art was likely mined in Mexico, not the American Southwest as previously believed

Double burial of two plague victims in the Samara region, Russia

Bacteria in Ancient Teeth Push Back Origins of the Bubonic Plague

The deadly disease may have been transmitted to humans at least 800 years earlier than previously believed

New Research

Inca Skull Surgeons Had Better Success Rates Than American Civil War Doctors

Survival rates among later Inca cultures was significantly higher. However, the 19th-century soldiers were facing trauma caused by industrial-age warfare

Cool Finds

Construction Workers Find Rare Intact Roman Tomb

‘The Tomb of the Athlete’ includes four bodies, a coin, offerings of chicken, rabbit and lamb and strigils, the symbol of Roman sportsmen

An example of a moai wearing a red scoria pukao.

New Research

The Clever Way the Easter Island Statues Got Hats

A new analysis of the 13-ton red stone pukao show the carvings were likely rolled up ramps to the leaning statues

Top contenders include King Ahab of Israel, King Hazael of Aram-Damascus and King Ethbaal of Tyre

Could This Sculpted Head Depict a Little-Known Biblical King?

Archaeologists uncovered the enigmatic two-inch head at Abel Beth Maacah, site of an ancient crossroads

How Bad Weather Delayed the Norman Invasion of England

It’s 1066 and William of Normandy and his massive army of 14,000 men are preparing to cross the English Channel and invade England

Painting of four species of rat, including the Polynesian rat (right).

New Research

Rat Bones Reveal How Humans Transformed Their Island Environments

Rodent remains prove an ideal tool for investigating changes on three Polynesian island chains

The Violent 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge

The 1066 battle of Stamford Bridge was said to be so violent that a giant mountain of bones remained a half century later

Cool Finds

This 4,000-Year-Old Jar Contains Italy’s Oldest Olive Oil

Traces of oleic and linoleic acid found on a central Italy jar pushes the timeline of the substance in the region back an estimated 700 years

The Startling Alternative Theory of How Humans Arrived in America

On an island off the east coast of Maryland, a stone spearpoint sticking out of a coastal cliff stuns archaeologists

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Uncover 20,000-Year-Old Kangaroo Cook Out

The site in Pilbara is one of many helping to define human movements in Australia

New Research

How a Copper Coin Mummified a Baby’s Hand

The preemie was buried in a jar in an medieval cemetery with a coin to “pay” for passage into heaven

Zhao Kangmin, the Archaeologist Who Pieced Together China’s Terracotta Warriors

Kangmin, who died earlier this month, was one of the first archaeologists on the scene when the famed relics were discovered in 1974

Ceramic box base with a Chinese inscription that mentions a place, Jianning Fu, which dates from AD 1162 to 1278. From the Java Sea Shipwreck.

New Research

An 800-Year-Old Shipwreck Helps Archaeologists Piece Together Asia’s Maritime Trade

A new date for the Java Sea shipwreck could shed light on the politics of Chinese trade routes

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover They’ve Been Excavating Lost Assyrian City

Cuneiform tablets revealed the site in Iraqi Kurdistan is the legendary city of Mardaman

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Oaxaca’s Pre-Hispanic Monte Albán Ruins to Be Restored

World Monuments Fund raised $1 million to help repair 15 structures at the World Heritage Site that were impacted by a 2017 earthquake

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