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Archaeology

An illustration of the Aztec calendar stone surrounds a young portrait of anthropologist Zelia Nuttall. “Mrs. Nuttall’s investigations of the Mexican calendar appear to furnish for the first time a satisfactory key,” wrote one leading scholar.

The Globe-Trotting Scholar Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aztecs

Anthropologist Zelia Nuttall transformed the way we think of ancient Mesoamerica

Crews painstakingly removed mud layer by layer to expose the vessel.

Cool Finds

Workers Unearth 19th-Century Shipwreck Beneath a Road in Florida

The 19-foot-long vessel was found alongside a kerosene lamp, leather shoes, coins and other artifacts

Archaeologists described the finds as "costume jewelry" that would've been worn by Bronze Age women around 3,500 years ago.

Cool Finds

Metal Detectorist Unearths Bronze Age Jewelry in Swiss Carrot Field

Researchers suspect the trove may have belonged to a “rich woman with a passion for collecting”

5000-year-old wine jars at the tomb of Queen Meret-Neith, some of which are still sealed

Cool Finds

Hundreds of Unopened Wine Jars Unearthed in Egyptian Queen’s Tomb

Archaeologists found the 5,000-year-old jars with well-preserved grape seeds and intact stoppers

Early humans in Europe snacked on seaweed and aquatic plants for thousands of years, though how they prepared and ate them is unclear.

New Research

Early Europeans Ate Seaweed for Thousands of Years

Researchers found biomarkers of seaweed and other aquatic plants in samples of dental plaque

One of the Jelling runestones that mention Queen Thyra

New Research

Runestones Reveal the Secrets of a Powerful Queen in Viking-Age Denmark

An analysis of the carvings on four runestones sheds new light on Queen Thyra’s influence

The sword had a bent blade, a straight hilt and an oval pommel. Researchers also found its scabbard.

Cool Finds

1,000-Year-Old Sword and Cemetery Unearthed in Finland

Researchers identified eight burials, but they say the graveyard may hold dozens—or even hundreds—waiting to be discovered

The gash that sank the Huronton in 1923 is still visible.

Cool Finds

100-Year-Old Shipwreck Discovered 800 Feet Below Lake Superior

The “Huronton” sank after colliding with a larger ship amid heavy fog and smoke in October 1923

The Pyramid Texts cover walls within the pyramids of King Unis (shown here) and other royals at the site of Saqqara.

Did Ancient Egyptians Know Meteorites Came From Space?

Hieroglyphic texts suggest they understood the rocks, which contained valuable iron, did not originate on Earth

A Herculaneum scroll being scanned at Institut de France by Brent Seales and his team

Cool Finds

This 21-Year-Old Used A.I. to Decipher Text From a Scroll That Hasn’t Been Read in 2,000 Years

The papyrus scroll is one of hundreds that were carbonized in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

Close examination of drill marks on the sculpture shows how carvers created surfaces to evoke the textures of the represented elements, such as skin, wool or linen.

Art Meets Science

Vibrant Paint Once Decorated the 2,500-Year-Old Parthenon Marbles

New research has revealed that ancient artists used color to create highly detailed designs

An illustration of the Homo erectus child with her mother in the Ethiopian highlands, two million years ago

Two Million Years Ago, This Homo Erectus Lived the High Life

Dating of a child’s fossilized jaw and teeth suggest our relatives lived at altitude earlier than once thought

The 36 coins date to between the late 1500s and the 1680s.

Cool Finds

300-Year-Old Coins Found Under Fireplace May Be Connected to the Glencoe Massacre

Archaeologists unearthed a trove of 36 coins at a site linked to Alasdair “Maclain” MacDonald, the clan chief who died in the 1692 attack

Shakespeare may have performed on floorboards recently discovered at a theater in England in 1592 or 1593.

Cool Finds

Did Shakespeare Perform on These Newly Discovered Floorboards?

A historic theater in England claims to have found the Bard’s only surviving stage

Archaeologists identified the finds as Viking-era brooches. 

Cool Finds

Norwegian Family Unearths 1,200-Year-Old Viking Artifacts in Their Yard

They had been looking for a lost gold earring when they stumbled upon two bronze brooches

Researchers have only discovered a small fraction of the pre-Columbian earthworks in the Amazon rainforest, according to new research.

The Amazon May Be Hiding More Than 10,000 Pre-Columbian Structures

Based on a new aerial survey and modeling study, archaeologists suggest at least 90 percent of sites known as earthworks remain undetected

The Cheddar brooch measures 9 centimeters (roughly 4.5 inches) in diameter and dates to between 800 and 900 C.E.

Cool Finds

Rare 1,000-Year-Old Brooch Goes on Display in England

A metal detectorist unearthed the silver and copper artifact on a farm in Somerset in 2020

Fossilized footprints in White Sands National Park

North America’s Oldest Known Footprints Point to Earlier Human Arrival to the Continent

New dating methods have added more evidence that these fossils date to 23,000 years ago, pushing back migration to the Americas by thousands of years

Smoke rises after a World War II-era aerial bomb was detonated at a construction site in Singapore on September 26, 2023.

Singapore Safely Detonates a World War II-Era Bomb Unearthed at a Construction Site

Historians say Japanese forces may have dropped it during a critical battle in 1942

The oldest hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe, dating to 9,500 years ago.

Archaeologists Uncover 9,500-Year-Old Woven Baskets and Europe’s Oldest Sandals

Items found in a Spanish cave are older than previously thought, a new study suggests, calling into question “simplistic assumptions” about early humans

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