We bring you all the latest historical news and archaeological discoveries relating to ancient human history. Read more history news from around the world here at Ancient Origins.
Laser scans of an alpine glacier reveal a climate catastrophe in the shadow of England’s Archbishop Thomas Becket’s murder. A team of researchers using lasers to read the levels of lead pollution in...
Scientists have determined Neanderthals had a fish and seafood diet as early as 80,000 years ago and benefited from the raised cognitive powers that up to now have only been attributed to Homo...
Archaeologists working in Iraq have made an intriguing discovery. They have found a sacred area that was dedicated to a Mesopotamian war god. The site is up to 5,000 years-old and is in one of the...
The pandemic of COVID-19 is often called “unprecedented” – and for many people cooped up in their homes in different countries, the experience is both unparalleled and challenging. But in late-...
Ten years since the Judean Date Palm was miraculously brought back to life following the chance discovery of seeds in the 2,000-year-old ruins of Masada, the male date palm tree named Methuselah, the...
The state of Maine in the United States is well-known for its many shipwrecks, but the stories behind some of the vessels are still unknown. A recent study on one of the mysterious American...
Digging at the site of an old Victorian brewery in the city of Leeds in the northern English county of Yorkshire, archaeologists discovered 19th-century bottles of beer neatly stacked under a...
The bones of a Polish saint that have been lost for centuries have been re-discovered by chance during restoration work in a Christian basilica in Silesia. Conservators were working on the tomb of St...
In 2020, archaeologists researching in Turkey discovered ancient homes containing their owners’ bones. Inhabited between 7500 BC and 5700 BC, Çatalhöyük was an important Neolithic and Chalcolithic...
Research in Spain reveals that the Romans loved miniature or toy dogs. In antiquity, many members of the elite had pampered pets. Just as today, many celebrities have ‘toy dogs’ such as chihuahuas...
Scientists unearth ancient Papua New Guinea artifacts in the highlands of the island that settle a longstanding archaeological argument regarding the emergence of complex culture on the island. About...
University of Massachusetts A study from an international team of researchers including UMass Amherst biologist John Rowan shows introduced species (e.g. hippos in Colombia) can restore a lost world...
An image of the Egyptian Sphinx at Giza on the Spring equinox could revolutionize our understanding of the ancient structure. An eminent archaeologist and former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities...
The coronavirus is concentrating our minds on the fragility of human existence in the face of a deadly disease. Words like ‘epidemic’ and ‘ pandemic ’ (and ‘panic’!) have become part of our daily...
A German research team has produced new nanosheets for near infrared imaging from ancient ‘Egyptian blue pigment’. In October 2018, I wrote an Ancient Origins article about Egyptian blue, a brilliant...
Scientists analyzing 2500-year-old baby teeth have revealed evidence of gender inequality during Bronze Age China. Feminism encompasses ideologies to achieve the social, political, and economic...
Radiocarbon dating, invented in the late 1940s and improved ever since to provide more precise measurements, is the standard method for determining the dates of artifacts in archaeology and other...
New Cornell University research is producing a more accurate historical timeline for the occupation of Native American sites in upstate New York, based on radiocarbon dating of organic materials and...
A majestic ponderosa pine, standing tall in what is widely thought to have been the "center of the world" for the Ancestral Puebloan people, may have more mundane origins than previously believed,...
Archaeologists in Scotland excavating a castle on the western isles have discovered a seal matrix forged in a time of great struggle between the clan Campbell and clan MacDonald. In the early 17th-...
The British Museum announced on Tuesday that in 2019 metal detectorists across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland discovered in excess of “80,000 ancient objects with 1,311 defined as treasure,”...
The COVID-19 or coronavirus outbreak has shaken many around the world. In Israel, a man with a guilty conscience, who fears the virus could result in the end of the world, gave back a Roman catapult...
By Michelle Langley , Adam Brumm , Adhi Oktaviana & Basran Burhan / The Conversation Archaeologists have unearthed two miniature stone engravings in Indonesia. These depict an anoa (dwarf buffalo...
A unique six limbed-rock carving has been identified in Central Iran as part human, part mantis, but other much more controversial theories exist. The Teymareh rock art site contains the country’s...
