Archeaology

An international team of scientists has discovered stylistically unique ancient drawings, including the only known prehistoric depiction of a now-extinct giant sloth lemur, on the walls of a rock shelter in western Madagascar. Photograph (top) and artist’s sketch (bottom) of the inferred hunting scene: hunter (background, left) extends weapon toward …

The Nebra sky disk, one of the oldest concrete depictions of cosmic phenomena, was created in the first millennium BCE, roughly 1,000 years later than previously assumed, according to new research by German scientists. The Nebra sky disk. Image credit: Dbachmann / CC BY-SA 3.0. The Nebra sky disk is …

New research pieces together the activities and movements of a group of Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood species of archaic humans that lived between 700,000 to 200,000 years ago, as they made tools, including the oldest bone tools documented in Europe, and extensively butchered a large horse at the 480,000-year-old …

A team of archaeologists from the United Kingdom has uncovered 15,000-year-old stone plaquettes extensively engraved with abstract designs at the Magdalenian site of Les Varines, Jersey, Channel Islands. The finds provide new evidence for technologies of abstract mark-making, and their significance within the lives of people on the edge of …

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered the ruins of a 3,200-year-old Canaanite fortress near Gal On, a kibbutz in central Israel. An aerial photo of the Canaanite fortress near Gal On in central Israel. Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority. “The fortress we found provides a …

An international team of archaeologists has found and studied 104 enigmatic stone structures called ‘mustatils’ in the southern part of the Nefud Desert in northern Arabia. They’ve also provided the first chronometric age estimate for this type of structure — a radiocarbon date of 5000 BCE — and described their landscape …

A team of archaeologists and volunteers has unearthed a hoard of 1,100-year-old Islamic gold coins near the city of Yavne in the Central District of Israel. A hoard of Islamic gold coins dating from the 9th century CE, found near Yavne in Israel. Image credit: Emil Aladjem / Israel Antiquities …

An international team of archaeologists reports the discovery of grass bedding used to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working by Paleolithic humans who lived in South Africa’s Border Cave at least 200,000 years ago. Vertical field section of 43,000-year-old bedding grass from Border Cave, South Africa. Scale bar – …

Torres Strait Islanders Cultivated Torres Strait Islanders CultivatedNew research suggests Indigenous people on the tiny island of Mabuyag in the western Torres Strait, Australia, practiced banana (Musa cultivars) cultivation as long ago as 145 BCE. Terraced banana cultivation site at Wagadagam, Mabuyag Island, Australia. Image credit: Australian National University. Various …

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Kinneret Academic College have uncovered the ruins of a 1,300-year-old church at the Circassian village of Kfar Kama in Israel. Mosaic floor of the Byzantine-period church at Kfar Kama, Israel. Image credit: Alex Wiegmann, Israel Antiquities Authority. “The church measures 12 by 36 …