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.
Excavations at a spectacular ancient Roman site in northern Italy have produced some significant finds during the most recent archaeological season. The latest of these remarkable discoveries in the...
Previous teams of archaeologists excavating in the former Roman city archive of Doliche, Turkey, discovered hoards of clay stamps used to seal official Roman documents. Now, another 2,000 of these...
Researchers have unearthed the earliest evidence of warfare and organized arming in the Southern Levant, dating back approximately 7,200 years. This finding, centered in what is now modern Israel,...
The third-century AD ruler, Elagabalus, has been declared transgender by a British Museum, which is set to relabel its display to accommodate the change. The decision has been taken by the North...
A monastery, where the earliest surviving Scots Gaelic text was once noted within the margins of a significant Scottish manuscript called the Book of Deer , disappeared from the pages of history...
When the Black Death or bubonic plague epidemic ravaged London between the autumn of 1348 and the spring of 1350, it may have wiped out as much as half the city’s population. While the victims of...
One of the last acts by Alexander the Great before dying at the tender age of 32 might have been dedicating a Greek temple to honor ancient gods and confirm his own divine status. This is according...
Directors of historical feature films face a difficult task. How can they make the characters familiar to an audience without reducing them to caricatures? How can they make sure that knowledge of...
An incredibly rare collection of 12th century silver pennies was recently unearthed by an unnamed metal detectorist exploring near the village of Wymondham in the county of Norfolk in eastern England...
Archaeologists have uncovered a previously unknown network of massive sites in the heart of Europe that could explain the emergence of the continent’s Bronze Age megaforts – the largest prehistoric...
The protective capacities of shoes are obvious, and would have been just as obvious in ancient times, when the earliest modern humans walked the earth. Nevertheless, researchers have long debated...
Drone mappers identified a 19 kilometer (12-mile) long canal in rural Iraq. Built over it, archaeologists excavated what was at first thought to be a bizarre-shaped temple. However, it turns out that...
During the Roman wars with the Celtic tribes of ancient Europe, when they acquired new lands, they built forts, defensive walls and temples. Now, a team of archaeologists in Germany have made the...
Many ancient festivals had elements that were far from innocent, often involving rituals, practices, and customs that might seem strange or even disturbing by today's standards. From bloodletting, to...
After much hemming and hawing, it seems that the Biblical kingdoms of Solomon and David did exist, as per groundbreaking new research that has been revealed in a new study. Fresh details of a...
The identification of a pre-Viking ship burial unearthed in Norway is helping rewrite history. A previously excavated mound, containing remnants of the oldest large ship ever buried, on the island of...
During excavations at Hattusa, capital of the Hittite kingdom during the late Bronze Age, archaeologists discovered a one-of-a-kind object crafted from Hattusa ivory, estimated to be around 2,800...
New research at the Viminacium site in eastern Serbia, once capital of the Roman province of Moesia Superior, has made a remarkable find. As soon as archaeologists began their latest exploration of...
A floor mosaic covering a whopping area of 600 square meters has been uncovered during excavations in Cappadocia, in the heart of Turkey. Ongoing excavations at the site, believed to be the remnants...
A massive cache of 100,000 ancient coins has been unearthed during construction activities in central Japan’s Maebashi City, including a rare example of the ‘Ban Liang’, China’s inaugural unified...
Archaeologists digging at Mexico’s Chichen Itza were removing landfill from the Casa Colorada Complex when they made their remarkable discovery. Not only is this sculpted warrior wearing a feathered...
On the shores of Lake Turkana in east Africa, about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, pastoralists buried their dead in communal cemeteries that were marked by stone circles and pillars. The north-west Kenya...
Researchers analyzing a woman’s skeleton unearthed from a Copper Age graveyard on the Iberian Peninsula discovered clear and unmistakable proof that this individual had undergone two surgeries to her...
Evidence of the bloodiest decapitation and head-hunting in Neolithic Asian history, has been unearthed from China, from 4,100 years ago. In total, 41 skeletons were recovered, all belonging to women...