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Artifacts

There are undoubtedly millions of ancient artifacts from the past that have served to shed light on the lives of our ancestors from many millennia ago. But some ancient mystical artifacts stand out for their uniqueness, their intrigue, or their ability to expand our knowledge about previously unknown aspects of our history. Here we feature many such ancient history artifacts, from amazing examples of ancient technology, to artistic masterpieces, unexplained objects, ancient texts, and mysterious artifacts that shed light on the daily lives of our ancestors.

Figurine head found at the Aztec altar site at Garibaldi Plaza, Mexico City, which is a representation of the Aztec goddess Cihuacóatl. Source: Mauricio Marat / INAH
3 December, 2021 - 17:57 ashley cowie

Post-Conquest Aztec Altar With A Burned Human Unearthed In Mexico City

Archaeologists in Mexico have excavated a 16th-century Aztec altar surrounded by sacred artifacts. While abstract trinkets and incense burners reflected the structure of the cosmos, a giant clay jar...
The Bronze Age hoard of axe heads and Milly Hardwick from a photograph by her mother Claire in the Royston Crow news. Source: Claire Hardwick / Cambridgeshire County Council / Royston Crow
2 December, 2021 - 13:57 ashley cowie

Metal Detectorist Milly Hardwick Finds Bronze Age Hoard of Axe Heads

Her metal detector went crazy. Milly Hardwick, the 13-year-old English girl, had discovered ancient treasure. This September, Milly identified a rare archaeological Bronze Age hoard in a field near...
Denisovan fossils look a bit unremarkable, but these bone fragments, mostly from animals, were perfect for Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectroscopy and DNA analysis, which were used in the recent study. Source: Samantha Brown / Nature Ecology & Evolution
1 December, 2021 - 21:57 Nathan Falde

New Denisovan Fossils From Siberian Cave Are The Oldest Ever Found

Researchers from the Max Planck Society and the Universities of Vienna and Tübingen have found new fossilized human-like remains mixed in an assortment of bone samples taken from Siberia’s famed...
Detail of ‘The warriors Kumagai Naozane and Taira no Atsumori.’ One of the warriors is brandishing a Japanese war fan called a Tessen.
30 November, 2021 - 17:59 Samurai Swords Store

A Japanese Fan Became a Deadly Weapon in the Right Hands

In ancient Japan, the Samurai utilized a wide range of weaponry other than swords, bows, and spears. These weapons were used in places where swords were not allowed to be carried, for self-defense...
Small female figurines left as votive offerings to the goddess Hathor. Source: M. Jawornicki / PAP
26 November, 2021 - 13:57 ashley cowie

Trash Pile At Temple of Hatshepsut Yields A Heap Of Hathor Artifacts

Polish archaeologists in Egypt were supporting a tomb ceiling when they realized that beneath their feet lay an unknown treasure trove. They had inadvertently discovered an ancient temple dump and...
Huaca Pucllana pyramid, an example of adobe building using adobe bricks in Miraflores district in Lima City, Peru. Source: videobuzzing / Adobe Stock
26 November, 2021 - 00:57 ashley cowie

Adobe Brick Building Used In Peru As Early As 5,000 Years Ago

A recent study in pre-Hispanic northern Peru shows previously unacknowledged use of adobe brick building as early as 5,000 years ago. What’s more, these adobe bricks were created by annual El Niño...
Dorsal and ventral views of the mammoth ivory pendant discovered in Stajnia Cave in southern Poland in 2010. Scale bar is 1 cm (0.4 inches). Source: © Antonino Vazzana - BONES Lab / Nature
25 November, 2021 - 16:00 Nathan Falde

40,000-BC Ivory Pendant is the Oldest Eurasian Jewelry, Says Study

A skillfully decorated mammoth ivory pendant found in Stajnia Cave in southern Poland in 2010 has been radiocarbon dated to approximately 40,000 BC, as is detailed in a new study published in the...
Volunteer Liel Krutokop with the rare silver Second Temple coin she found at the City of David National Park. Source: Yaniv Berman / City of David
25 November, 2021 - 13:57 Sahir

Rogue Priest Second Temple Silver Coin Found By Girl in Jerusalem

A rare silver Second Temple coin belonging to the second year of the Great Jewish Revolt (67-68 AD) against the Romans was found by volunteers sifting through dirt from an archaeological dig...
Deriv; Sculpture depicting the King Tutankhamun as a child, gold plate with Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun.
25 November, 2021 - 01:00 anand balaji

The Twin Tragedy of Tutankhamun: Death of a Dynasty

Tossed away callously in a dark corner of the lavish Treasury in the subterranean tomb of Tutankhamun was possibly the most poignant remnant of the boy king’s short life. Positioned next to the...
A Turkish archaeologist holding up the 1800-year-old iron Roman cavalry mask found at the ancient garrison town of Hadrianopolis, Turkey. Source: YouTube screenshot / DHA
24 November, 2021 - 17:57 ashley cowie

Rare Iron Roman Cavalry Face Mask Discovered At Hadrianopolis, Turkey

An 1,800 year old Roman soldier's cavalry face mask has been discovered at a 3rd century AD military site in Turkey. But this site isn’t located in the heart of the Roman empire, but at a far flung...
5th century Bohemian gold ring. Source: Central Bohemia Region - Regional Authority
23 November, 2021 - 13:57 ashley cowie

Stunning 5th Century Bohemian Jewelry Discovered in Czech Republic

Archaeologists from the Czech Republic’s Rakovník Museum have announced the discovery of a rare Bohemian gold ring and clasp or buckle dating back to the 5th century. Unearthed last summer by amateur...
The Bizmoune Cave sea snail shell beads have been dated to at least 142,000 years ago, according to the latest research study, making them the oldest jewelry
22 November, 2021 - 23:57 Sahir

Were Bizmoune Cave Shell Beads A Form Of Ancient ID?

Humans were adorning their persons to make fashion statements 142,000 to 150,000 ago, according to a new analysis of the sea snail shell jewelry beads found in Morocco’s Bizmoune Cave. Conducted by a...
A Han-era bì , 16 centimetres (6.3 in) in diameter (CC by SA 3.0).
20 November, 2021 - 18:01 Joanna Gillan

The Mysterious Dropa Stones – Fact or Fiction?

The Dropa stones are said to be a set of 716 circular stone discs dating back 12,000 years on which tiny hieroglyphic-like markings can be found. Each disc is said to measure up to 1 foot in diameter...
Yacouba Sawadogo planting.
20 November, 2021 - 00:17 dhwty

The Man Who Stopped a Desert Using Ancient Farming

Desertification is a serious problem facing numerous countries in the world today. Various measures have been taken to counter the negative effects, with some providing better results than others. A...
Huge Roman Silver Hoard Unearthed in Augsburg, Germany
17 November, 2021 - 17:53 Sahir

Huge Roman Silver Hoard Unearthed in Augsburg, Germany

A massive stash of Roman silver dating to the first and second centuries AD has been discovered in the Bavarian city of Augsburg in Germany. The cache, which includes 15 kg (33 pounds) of silver...
Anastasiia Stupko-Lubczynska documenting reliefs in the Chapel of Hatshepsut. Source: Agnieszka Makowska / Antiquity Publications Ltd
16 November, 2021 - 23:03 Sahir

Chapel of Hatshepsut Reliefs Uncover Master-Apprentice Relationship

Scientists have published fascinating new research into the reliefs found within the Chapel of Hatshepsut, an ode to the 5th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who ruled between 1479 and 1458. Each of these...
This Stone Age piece of cloth is the oldest cloth in the world ever, but it took 60 years for science to figure out the material used for the oldest textile known to man, which have recently been published in the Antiquity journal. Source: Antoinette Rast-Eicher / University of Bern
16 November, 2021 - 21:57 Nathan Falde

Anatolian Neolithic Weavers At Çatalhöyük Used Trees to Make The Oldest Cloth

A new study published in the journal Antiquity has revealed some surprising information about the inhabitants of the ancient city of Çatalhöyük, an early Neolithic settlement located in southern...
Garden of the Hesperides
16 November, 2021 - 19:01 Robert Bowie Johnson

Garden of Eden Depicted in Ancient Greek Religious Art

If the early chapters of the Book of Genesis present a true account of human origins, then ancient secular human history must connect in significant ways to that account. In fact, ancient Greek...
The 16th century astrolabe recovered from Bay of Biscay in Galicia, Spain. Source: La Voz de Galicia
12 November, 2021 - 21:57 ashley cowie

Spanish Divers Discover the World’s 108th Ancient Astrolabe

In 2012, a team of divers in Spain discovered two 16th century cannons, and that was huge news. But nobody could have dreamed that an ancient astronomical compass, known as an astrolabe, would...
Selection of the Persian clay tablets that were reevaluated in the study. Source: ILNA
12 November, 2021 - 13:57 ashley cowie

Clay Tablets Reveal Persians Paid with Silver Coins… But is it News?

A new research paper claims to reveal new facts about the ancient Persian (Achaemenid) Empire. While headlines tell of the 33 Achaemenid clay tablets determining that Persian laborers were paid wages...
Mummy portrait, an ancient Egyptian style of post mortem portrait, of a woman from Egypt now housed in the Landesmuseum Württemberg Stuttgard. Source: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 November, 2021 - 00:57 Aleksa Vučković

Preserving Memories Through Time: The History of Post Mortem Portraits

People and cultures around the world have always understood death - the unavoidable part of everyone’s existence – in a multitude of ways. Some saw it as a gateway to a new life, while others viewed...
Ancient Greek science and technology represented by a 3D image of Athens landmark the Parthenon emerging from a smartphone screen. Source: scaliger
11 November, 2021 - 17:57 Evaggelos G. Va...

Ancient Greek Science and Technology – From Antikythera to Pharos

The Antikythera computer was the culmination of advanced mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy and engineering. It incorporated the philosophy and science of Aristotle, the gears of Ktesibios, the...
Team members entering the Chiquihuite cave, where the purported prehistoric manmade artifacts were found, which a recent study has claimed were naturally produced. Source: Devlin A. Gandy
8 November, 2021 - 21:57 Nathan Falde

Debate Erupts Over Alleged 33,000-Year-Old Tools Found in Chiquihuite Cave

In 2020, a team of Mexican and British archaeologists announced in the journal Nature that they’d discovered a rich cache of stone artifacts that proved Chiquihuite cave in Zacatecas, Mexico had been...
Buffy and Ian Bailey and the miniature gold bible that Buffy found with her metal detector in North Yorkshire, England. Source: Buffy Bailey / Norgie Pal Twitter
8 November, 2021 - 17:57 ashley cowie

Medieval Miniature Gold Bible Found Near King Richard III’s Castle

A tiny gold Bible associated with England’s 15th century King Richard III has been recovered by a metal detectorist in York. The discoverer, however, was no seasoned explorer or dirty nailed...

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