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Archaeology

Scientists tested 16 hearth locations inside Lazaret Cave near Nice, France, to determine how early humans used fire.

New Research

Why Early Humans Built Fires in the Center of Lazaret Cave

A new study suggests pre-Neanderthals carefully placed their hearths to minimize smoke exposure while maximizing room for activities

Detail from a 4th-century B.C. Persian sarcophagus, thought to depict a Greek-Anatolian battle scene, found in a tomb near Troy.

In Search of Troy

It wasn’t just a legend. Archaeologists are getting to the bottom of the city celebrated by Homer nearly 3,000 years ago

Archaeologists found a 5,000-year-old drum, a clay ball and a polished bone pin at a burial site in the English village of Burton Agnes. 

An Ornate, 5,000-Year-Old Stone Drum Is the U.K.’s Most Significant Prehistoric Art Find in a Century

Now on view in London, the chalk sculpture was buried alongside three children between 3005 and 2890 B.C.E.

Ruins of a 2,000-year-old Buddhist temple, one of the oldest discovered in Pakistan's Gandhara region.

Cool Finds

2,000-Year-Old Buddhist Temple Unearthed in Pakistan

The structure is one of the oldest of its kind in the Gandhara region

Scientists studied more than 1,500 beads made from ostrich egg shells from across 31 sites in Africa, and found that they were nearly identitical in shape and size, suggesting an early form of social networking. 

New Research

A 50,000-Year-Old Fashion Statement Could Be One of the World’s Oldest Social Networks

Nearly identical beads carved from ostrich eggshells, found over a large region of Africa, might have been a first in cool trends

An archaeologist examines a beheaded body found at an ancient Roman cemetery in England.

Cool Finds

Dozens of Decapitated Skeletons Found at Roman Cemetery in England

Uncovered at the largest burial site in Buckinghamshire, the bodies may have belonged to criminals or outcasts, researchers suggest

Neronian points found in Grotte Mandrin

Discovery of Ancient Baby Tooth Places Humans in Western Europe 10,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

The archeologists also uncovered a number of Neanderthal artifacts suggesting the two species coexisted in the area

A replica of Lt. James Cook's H.M.B. Endeavour docked in Sydney. Australian reserachers say they have identified the real shipwreck off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. 

New Research

Why Researchers Are Clashing Over Proposed Identification of Captain Cook’s ‘Endeavour’

Australian archaeologists say they’ve found the wreck of the British explorer’s research vessel. American scholars called the announcement “premature”

Christie accompanied her second husband, Max Mallowan, on digs in Egypt and Syria. During these expeditions, she helped catalog, illustrate and restore artifacts, in addition to managing everyday operations.

Based on a True Story

How Agatha Christie’s Love of Archaeology Influenced ‘Death on the Nile’

In the 1930s, the mystery writer accompanied her archaeologist husband on annual digs in the Middle East

A partial woolly rhinoceros mandible with several teeth still attached.

Cool Finds

Dozens of Extinct Ice Age Animal Remains Found During Construction of a New Town in England

Archeologists found bones from a woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, wolf, hyena, horse, reindeer, mountain hare, red fox and various small mammals

Archaeologist discovered a large number of ostraca, or inscribed fragments of pottery, at the ancient Egyptian temple of Athribis.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Uncover 18,000 Ancient Egyptian ‘Notepads’

Known as “ostraca,” the inscribed pottery shards document everyday life in the city of Athribis

Reserachers descend into a Yucatan sinkhole to examine sacred Maya cacao groves. 

Researchers Now Know Where the Ancient Maya Planted Their Sacred Cacao Groves

Sinkholes across the Yucatan Peninsula provided perfect growing conditions for the plant, used as currency in the Mesoamerican civilization

An ancient Roman amphitheater that may have been one of the last built was discovered during construction of a new boathouse on the Rhine River in Switzerland.

Cool Finds

A Gladiator Arena, Possibly the Last Ever Built, Discovered in Switzerland

Archaeologists unearth a fourth century amphitheater that stood on the far reaches of the Roman Empire more than 1,400 years ago

Roughly 500 years ago, vertebrae were arranged on sticks in Peruvian tombs.

Why Did 16th-Century Andean Villagers String Together the Bones of Their Ancestors?

Researchers suggest the practice was a response to Spanish conquistadors’ desecration of the remains

Scientists examine the first-known pregnant Egyptian mummy.

New Research

What Preserved This Pregnant Egyptian Mummy’s Fetus for Millennia?

The combined effects of decomposition and embalming basically “pickled” the fetus, sealing it in its mother’s womb

The head of one of the large sphinxes discovered in the funerary complex for Amenhotep III.

Cool Finds

Two Sphinxes Depicting King Tut’s Grandfather Discovered in Egypt

Archaeologists are restoring the huge stone statues found half-submerged in water at the burial site of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III

Ancient meets ultramodern in “Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs,” now on view in Houston.

An Immersive Celebration of Ramses II Transports Visitors to Ancient Egypt

Historic artifacts meet 21st-century technology in a blockbuster touring exhibition centered on the 19th-Dynasty pharaoh

The International African American Museum is slated to open in late 2022 in Charleston's Gadsden's Wharf.

The Most Anticipated Museum Openings of 2022

Scheduled to open this year are new institutions dedicated to African American history, electronic music and Nordic art

Reconstruction by an artist of the toilet room that stood in the garden of the Armon Hanatziv royal estate

Ancient Toilet Unearthed in Jerusalem Shows Elite Were Plagued by Intestinal Worms

Mineralized feces chock-full of parasitic eggs indicate that it wasn’t the lower classes alone who suffered from certain infectious diseases

Ancient people might have used these elongated tubes to drink beer from the same pot during ceremonial feasts or gatherings. 

New Research

Ancient People May Have Sipped Beer Through These 5,500-Year-Old Drinking Straws

Eight gold and silver tubes might be the oldest known drinking straws, according to a new study from the Russian Academy of Sciences

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