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History & Archaeology

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.

Reconstruction to the front left garden area of Frewin Hall has revealed Oxford’s lost college, St. Mary’s College, destroyed by King Henry VIII’s dissolution policies.		Source: Simon Gannon / Oxford Mail

“Lost College” of Oxford University Found In Reconstruction Project

Oxford University’s “lost Augustinian college,” i.e., medieval St. Mary’s College, which existed for 106 years in the days of the Tudors (1485-1603). The ancient outlines of the lost college of...
Pictorial ostracon with a baboon and an ibis, the two sacred animals of Thoth, the god of wisdom, one of 18,000 pottery fragments unearthed at the ancient northern Egyptian city of Athribis.		Source: Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

18,000 Pottery Fragments Speak of Life in Ancient Athribis, Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have interpreted the text and images on 18,000 pottery fragments. Not only do they tell of ancient Athribis trading culture, but they also detail school punishments. The 18,...
A ceramic Chuiwan golf ball (R) and a modern golf ball (L) displayed in an art gallery at Pingdingshan University, Henan Province, China.	Source: Li An / Xinhua

1,000-Year-Old Chuiwan Golf Balls Discovered In China

Mainstream history would have you believe the modern game of golf originated in 15th-century Scotland. Golf's first major, and the world's oldest tournament in existence, was The Open Championship (...
The remnants of the ancient Maya cacao groves in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Researcher Chris Balzotti climbs an ancient staircase discovered in a sinkhole near Coba, Mexico.		Source: Richard Terry / Brigham Young University

Chocolate Trail: Sacred Maya Cacao Groves Found In Mexico’s Yucatan

As divine gift, money and a source of power, cacao, the plant that feeds the present-day chocolate obsession, was even more precious to the ancient Maya of the northern Yucatan. While historians have...
Polish diplomat Robert D. Rokicki points to where he believes the ancient city of Thebasa is located.		Source: Anadolu Agency

Amateur History Sleuth Finds Long-Lost City of Thebasa in Turkey

A Polish diplomat assigned to his country’s embassy in Ankara, Turkey has helped solve an archaeological and historical riddle that has puzzled scholars for more than two centuries. Accomplishing a...
Covesea Caves with screenshot of one of the bones discovered inside.  Source: Society for Antiquaries of Scotland

Mystical Mummification: Latest Secret of Scotland’s Covesea Caves

The Covesea Caves range just short of Inverness on Scotland’s northeastern coast have been known to archaeologists since 1929, but each round of exploration and analysis throws up fresh surprises...
Analysis of 23,000-year-old hunter camp shows that Ice Age Galileans thrived. Source: denissimonov / Adobe Stock

Ice Age Galileans Thrived During Global Ice Melts

A team of researchers have analyzed the remains of 22,000 animal bones discovered at a hunter camp dating back 23,000 years. Their new study shows how Ice Age Galileans, fisher-hunter-gatherers in...
The Medieval Brooch found in Wiltshire. Credit: Solent News and Photo Agency

Thrilled Detectorist Finds 800-Year-Old Brooch with Magical Words to Ward off Illness

Metal detectorists have become important allies to the archaeology community. Over the past few years, several exciting finds of ancient coins, jewelry, tools, weapons, and other assorted metallic...
In this 17th-century depiction of Stonehenge from the Atlas van Loon one wonders where the Scotsman Stonehenge architect of Dr John Hill’s convincing theory is working and on what. 	Source: Blaeu, J / Public domain

The Scottish Stonehenge Architect and His Aberdeenshire Stone Circles

Sooner rather than later I hope that my fellow archaeologists will accept the fact that Stonehenge was designed by a very small number of exceptional Neolithic architects and one of those Stonehenge...
Blue glowing ball lightning, a phenomenon that was reported in medieval times, with the earliest English reference now confirmed to be 450 years before the previous known mention in an English historical text. 		Source: sakkmesterke / Adobe Stock

English Benedictine Monk Describes Ball Lightning in 1195 AD Text!

A pair of academics from Durham University in the United Kingdom have discovered an 827-year-old reference to an unusual weather-related phenomenon in an obscure medieval English text. While...
A limestone plaque with Phoenician writing was uncovered in archaeological digs at Kition, Cyprus, Greece this past year that took place, in part, under a former tennis court. 	Source: Department of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus

Phoenician Plaque One of Many Finds Unearthed at Kition Harbor, Cyprus

A four-week project under the supervision of the French Archaeological Mission at the ancient dockyard of Kition (Larnaka-Pampoula) in Cyprus has unearthed a wealth of artifacts and architectural...
Drone shot of the last Roman amphitheater ever unearthed in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland.		Source: Canton of Aargau

The Last Roman Amphitheater Ever Built Found Near Basel Switzerland!

An archaeological team accompanying construction workers building a new boathouse for the Basel Rowing Club in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland in December last year unexpectedly stumbled upon the remains of...
Deriv; The Sutton Letter, courtesy authors, and a human skull. Representational image only.

The Giants of Doddridge County: Burials of a Vanished Race – Part I

(Author’s Note: This article contains reference to an anonymous source. Although we have a rule of not using anonymous sources in our published work, we have made an exception in this case, since we...
At the end of 2021 Turkish archaeologists found 14 incredible artifacts from the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602-628 AD in the ancient city of Uzuncaburç, in Mersin Province.		Source: Anadolu Agency

Southern Turkey Artifacts Dated to 7th-century Byzantine-Sassanid War

In February of 2021, a restoration project was launched under the aegis of Ümit Aydınlıoğlu, associate professor at Mersin University, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General...
Pictured here is another example of Roman shoes found at Vindolanda, alongside Hadrian's Wall in peatland.		Source: Vindolanda Trust

Drying Peatland Endangers Hadrian’s Wall and Other Archaeology Sites

In the year 122 AD, workers laid the first stones on Hadrian’s Wall, the imposing Roman-era defensive fortification that would run horizontally across northern England from sea to sea. When completed...
The Temple of Allat in Hatra, Iraq. Right: camel relief comparisons.	Source: Photograph courtesy of the Aliph-ISMEO project at Hatra / Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Evidence of Camel Hybridization Found in Ancient Temple in Hatra, Iraq

The Temple of Allat is a well-preserved 2,000-year-old monument located at the site of the ancient market city of Hatra in northern Iraq. Allat was a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess who was widely...
A small stretch of the ancient Naples necropolis known as the Ipogeo dei Cristallini or the Hypogeum of Cristallini Street is set to open to the public in mid-2022, shedding new light on the Italian city’s Greek history and Greek cultural origins.		Source: Ipogeo dei Cristallini

Naples Necropolis Reveals Room-Like Tombs and Rare Greek Art

The Ipogeo dei Cristallini or the “Hypogeum of Cristallini Street” is part of an ancient necropolis in Naples dated 2,300 years ago. It is uniquely Greek, or Hellenistic and will open to the public...
Fragments of a colossal pair of limestone statues depicting Pharaoh Amenhotep III as a sphinx have been found at an ancient Egyptian temple in Luxor. Source: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Two Huge Sphinx Statues of Amenhotep III Found in Luxor

A fantastic discovery of two unique limestone statues in Luxor has been added to the recent flurry of archaeological findings in Egypt spearheaded by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. In a...
One of the skulls from the Nahal Hemar Cave. KEYWORD Source: Clara Amit / IAA

Fascinating Asphalt-Coated Skulls Excavated in Israel Date to 7,000 BC

Nahal Hemar cave in Israel’s southern Judean Desert has proven to be one of the most artifact-rich excavation sites in the region. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has provided details of a new...
Aerial photo of the Daisenryo Kofun , the largest of the Mozu tombs, a group of megalithic tombs located in Sakai, Japan. Source: TM / Adobe Stock

Satellite Images Reveal Japanese Kofun Tombs all Aligned to Rising Sun

A team of scientists has mapped the alignments and orientations of hundreds of ancient Japanese Kofun keyhole-shaped burials, only to discover that not some of them, but all of them, face towards the...
The Henry III gold coin was found in a Devon field.	 Source: Spink & Son

Henry III Gold Coin Sells for $729,000!

An amateur metal detectorist prospecting on farmland in Hemyock, Devon, in the southwest of England, made a staggering windfall find of what is believed to be one of England’s first gold coins. The...
The final reconstruction of the Swiss mummy known as Shep-en-Isis. Source: FAPAB Research Center / Cicero Moraes

Famous Swiss Mummy is Given a Face Thanks to Forensic Technology

Shep-en-Isis (also known as Schepenese), an Egyptian mummy housed since 1820 at the São Galo Abbey Library, in St. Gallen, Switzerland, has had a facial makeover. Scientists from the FAPAB Research...
Cannabis in China has a long history, the longest in the world, and its flowers and seeds were used for stimulation and nutrition, respectively.		Source: Aleksandr / Adobe Stock

Evidence Of Cannabis Consumption Found In Tang Warrior’s Tomb

Archaeologists in China have discovered a 1,300-year-old tomb containing big cannabis seeds that are unlike any of today’s strains. A new study has revealed that cannabis in China was not only grown...
Left, inside view of the entrance to the Greco-Roman tomb at the Aga Khan Mausoleum. Right, Patrizia Piacentini and other researchers in the tomb.	Source: Egyptian-Italian Mission (EIMAWA)

New Greco-Roman Tomb with 20 Mummies Found in Aswan

With Egypt’s recent tilt towards resurrecting its historical importance and looking for new avenues of research and archaeological digs, another find has been added to the mix this time from Aswan. A...

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