Archeaology

An ornamented bâton percé, or pierced rod, unearthed at the archaeological site of Go??biewo in Poland, may provide evidence of interregional contact in the European Mesolithic, according to a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE. An ornamented artifact from the Go?ebiewo site, Poland. Image credit: J. Kuriga. The …

Sorghum was domesticated from its wild ancestor more than 5,000 years ago, according to archaeological evidence uncovered by University College London archaeologist Dorian Fuller and colleagues in Sudan. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). Image credit: Pethan, Botanical Gardens, Utrecht University / CC BY-SA 3.0. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a native African grass …

Arizona State University archaeologist Michael E. Smith has conducted a comparative analysis of Teotihuacan with earlier and later Mesoamerican urban centers and proved, for the first time, the uniqueness of the ancient city. A view over the smaller pyramids on the eastern side of Plaza de la Luna from Piramide …

The Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient Indian mathematical manuscript written on more than 70 leaves of birch bark, is notable for having a dot representing ‘zero’ in it. The date of the manuscript has intrigued scientists for years, with many believing it dated from the 9th century CE. Now researchers from …

The Ancient Greeks may have built their sacred sites deliberately on land previously affected by earthquake activity, according to University of Plymouth Professor Iain Stewart. General view of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi; the implication is that the oracular chamber below the temple complex lies on a line of …

Geometrical earthworks found in the Amazon rainforest — dubbed the Geoglyphs of Acre — were once important ritual communication spaces, says a duo of researchers from the São Paulo University in Brazil and the University of Helsinki in Finland. Sa and Seu Chiquinho sites featuring circular, square, and U-shaped earthworks. …

Australian National University anthropologist Garrick Hitchcock has stumbled across a clue to resolving one of the most enduring mysteries of Pacific history — the fate of Jean François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, a French naval officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in 1788. Dr. Hitchcock believes the last …

Plimpton 322, the most famous of Old Babylonian tablets (1900-1600 BC), is the world’s oldest trigonometric table, possibly used by Babylonian scholars to calculate how to construct stepped pyramids, palaces and temples, according to a duo of researchers from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New …

Copper Age people living in Sicily, Italy, were making wine nearly 4,500 years ago, according to a team of archaeologists led by Dr. Davide Tanasi of the University of South Florida. Chemical traces of wine were found on these storage jars from the Bellitti gallery, Monte Kronio, Sicily. Image credit: …

Underwater archaeologists using a new state-of-the-art technology are mapping out the submerged portion of the 17th-century town of Port Royal in Jamaica. Underwater archaeologists explore the submerged portion of Port Royal. Image credit: Texas AM University. Port Royal was the English mercantile capital of the New World, and as such, …