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Archaeology

This recreated wooden building resembles one that may have housed enslaved people on John Dickinson's Dover, Delaware, plantation.

Graves of Enslaved People Discovered on Founding Father’s Delaware Plantation

A signee of the U.S. Constitution, John Dickinson enslaved as many as 59 men, women and children at one time

Archaeologists confirmed the find in late 2019 but only announced the news now due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This drawing shows what the St. Mary's Fort may have looked like.

Cool Finds

Researchers Discover Ruins of Maryland’s Earliest Colonial Site, a 386-Year-Old Fort

A team used ground-penetrating radar to identify the outlines of a defensive outpost at the St. Mary’s settlement

The intricately crafted ornament, which depicts a knight emerging out of a snail shell perched atop of a goat, measures less than an inch long.

Cool Finds

Was This Ornament of a Knight Emerging From a Snail Shell a ‘Medieval Meme’?

The unusual image “may be a satirical reference to cowardly or non-chivalric behavior of opponents,” says curator Beverly Nenk

Fragment of a gold mask unearthed at Sanxingdui, an archaeological site in southwest China

3,000-Year-Old Gold Mask, Silk Linked to Enigmatic Civilization Found in China

The state of Shu left behind few written records. A trove of 500 newly excavated objects may offer insights on the mysterious kingdom

Bulls, like horses, were important animals to the ancient Greeks.

Cool Finds

Rare Bronze Bull Sacrificed to Zeus Found at Site of the Ancient Olympic Games

The 3,000-year-old figurine was probably a votive offering made at the Greek god’s altar in Olympia

The tool is between 3,800 and 5,300 years old.

Cool Finds

Rare Ancient Tool Found in Australia May Have Been Made With Kangaroo Bone

The rare find is helping archaeologists piece together Indigenous technologies used thousands of years ago

Teeth with dental inlays from a nonroyal elite Mayan tomb.

Archaeologists Uncover a 1,300-Year-Old Skeleton of a Maya Diplomat

The remains revealed that the government official was wealthy as an adult, but he had a difficult childhood

Researchers have developed this theoretical model to explain the workings of the Antikythera mechanism, the 2,000-old ancient Greek device that is often referred to as the "first computer."

New Research

Scientists May Have Discovered How the Ancient Greeks’ ‘First Computer’ Tracked the Cosmos

Researchers proposed a new theoretical model for the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old device used to chart the universe

Overhead view of the mass grave, which contains the remains of at least 41 Copper Age people

Analysis of 6,200-Year-Old Grave Raises New Questions About Neolithic Massacre

Researchers in Croatia extracted DNA from 38 victims of a fifth-millennium B.C. mass killing

The fragments contain Greek translations of verses from the books of Zechariah and Nahum.

Cool Finds

Dozens of Dead Sea Scroll Fragments Found in Israeli Cave

The pieces of parchments are the first of their kind discovered during archaeological excavations in 60 years

The site is comprised of six sectors, the last of which was recently excavated.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover Traces of Early Christian Community in Egypt

Active between the fourth and eighth centuries A.D., the vast site housed multiple churches, monastic cells and other structures

Builders found the ruins beneath 81-year-old Charles Pole's back garden.

Cool Finds

Ruins of Medieval Palace Found Beneath English Retiree’s Garden

Beginning in the 13th century, the castle in Somerset County served as a residence for local bishops

The team used DNA analysis to determine the brothers' hair and eye color. Top: Spytihněv I and bottom: Vratislav I

Art Meets Science

3-D Reconstructions Reveal the Faces of Two Medieval Dukes

Researchers used a variety of techniques to visualize what Czech rulers Spytihněv I and Vratislav I might have looked like

This silver diadem was one of around 30 valuable artifacts buried with a Bronze Age woman.

Cool Finds

Silver Diadem Found in Spain May Point to Bronze Age Woman’s Political Power

Researchers say the crown—and the trove of ornate objects buried alongside it—could have belonged to a female ruler of La Argar

The amulet probably dates to the fifth or sixth century B.C.

Cool Finds

Eleven-Year-Old Boy Discovers Ancient Fertility Amulet in Israeli Desert

The 2,500-year-old ceramic figurine was likely created to provide protection and promote conception

Medieval women viewed birthing girdles, or long pieces of parchment inscribed with religious invocations and drawings, as protective talismans.

A Medieval Woman Wore This ‘Birthing Girdle’ to Protect Herself During Labor

Researchers found traces of bodily fluids, as well as milk and other materials associated with pregnancy, on the ten-foot long parchment

Can You Dig It volunteers took part in excavation work at Little Wood Hill in 2019.

Cool Finds

Hazelnut Shell Sheds Light on Life in Scotland More Than 10,000 Years Ago

Amateur archaeologists discovered the shell, along with evidence from an Iron Age structure, in 2019

Researchers posit that the helmet's owner was a Greek soldier who fought in the fifth-century B.C. Persian Wars.

Was This Helmet Worn by an Ancient Greek Soldier During the Persian Wars?

Found in Haifa Bay, Israel, in 2007, the bronze headgear boasts an intricate, peacock-like pattern

Researchers unearthed three Polish nuns' remains at a municipal cemetery in Orneta.

Researchers Uncover Remains of Polish Nuns Murdered by Soviets During WWII

As the Red Army pushed the Nazis out of Poland in 1945, soldiers engaged in brutal acts of repression against civilians

Wreckage uncovered in Thorpeness, along England's Suffolk coast, may belong to an 18th-century collier, or coal-carrying vessel.

Cool Finds

Storms Reveal Two Historic Shipwrecks on England’s Eastern Coast

Archaeologists have only gotten a “tantalizing glimpse” of the vessels, which are currently inaccessible due to Covid-19 restrictions

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