A five-pound jade head pendant has been found at Ucanal, an archaeological site in what was once the Maya city of K’anwitznal. The massive jade pendant, the heaviest of its kind ever found, once hung...
A monumental Maya royal tomb has been explored in the ancient Maya city of Copán, in the Copán Valley of modern-day Honduras, containing the reminds of elusive jungle predators including crocodile...
Five hundred years ago at a remote temple in Guatemala, sacrificial blood was spilled during cutting ceremonies using razor-sharp obsidian arrowheads. Archaeologists say this ritual was done to feed...
Broken stones buried 12,000 years ago have been found at Arene Candide, a cave that was used as a graveyard during the last Ice Age. In the Paleolithic era, Arene Candide was a sort of early...
Archaeologists discovered traces of hallucinogenic substances used over 3,000 years by the Philistines living in ancient Yavneh, Israel, revealing a drug culture that is believed to have revolved...
Archaeologists digging in Mexico's Palenque ruins have uncovered a mask believed to represent the 7th-century Maya ruler K'inich Janaab Pakal, commonly known a ‘Pakal the Great’ - one of ancient...
In a now barren landscape lies the Neolithic archaeological site at Wadi Faynan, in Jordan. British researchers have just announced a major discovery of human remains in a number of graves in the...
Although the vast majority of archaeologists agree that ‘Paleoindian’ cultures were well-established throughout the Americas dating to the end of the last glacial period (about 12000 BC), when their...
Head-hunting, as a way of establishing power and veneration of the head as the throne of the soul and the body’s spiritual engine, began in Europe as far back as Mesolithic times, approximately 13,...
Mysterious stone circles dot the landscape of Ireland captivating travelers with their spiritual presence. Grange Stone Circle is one of the finest and it sits in the beautiful landscape of Lough Gur...
Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery is a prehistoric site located on the Cúil Irra Peninsula, not far from the county town of Sligo in Ireland. With up to 60 megalithic monuments recorded by...
When was circumcision first practiced? How did it evolve? Why was it practiced? The earliest literary evidence of the practice of circumcision goes back to ancient Egypt. There are many hypotheses...
Two thousand years ago, funerals weren’t the quiet, somber affairs we have today. They were loud, boisterous shows that started with a massive procession of people parading down the streets, pounding...
The ancients knew him well. He was as powerful as a god, as dangerous as a demon. He generously gave life – and he ruthlessly took it away. He appeared to all, from the darkest and most bone-chilling...
Deer skulls with carved eyeholes dating to 11,000 years ago have been discovered at Star Carr Mesolithic archaeological site about five miles (8.0 km) south of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England...
The 4,300 year old woodhenge of Pömmelte in Germany is finally beginning to give up its secrets - and some of the information we’re learning is quite grisly. The battered skeletons of women and...
The Aragonese Castle is a castle built on top of a rocky islet next to Ischia, a small Italian island on the northern end of the Gulf of Naples. Whilst a stronghold is said to have already been built...
Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark have made a remarkable discovery concerning the human remains of Alken Enge, Jutland. A study published by PNAS that the size of barbarian armies in Iron...
An appointee of the Pharaoh himself, the role of the sem priest carried immense political and religious weightage. In many ways, this class of priest served as the bridge between the ruler and the...
The office of sem or setem priest of Ptah, the patron god of the craftsmen in Memphis, Lower Egypt, was a prestigious one. Considered a sacred feline with a connection to the Heliopolitan cult via...
3,000 years ago, a small community on a Vietnamese island disappeared. No one is certain why, but even their very existence is a surprise. Luckily for archaeologists, it seems that their traditional...
Medical usage? Ritual practice? Or perhaps the drugs served both purposes? Researchers are asking what the recently recovered psychoactive drug residues from ancient Mesopotamia mean. But not...
Golden rings discovered in a sea cave once adorned a dead child in a bizarre ancient funerary ritual, in Scotland. We might expect to read such a headline in a Peruvian or Chinese archaeological...
Ten ancient skeletons have been unearthed in Mexico this week including a baby of around one-month-old! Ritualistically deformed, in that their skull shapes and teeth had been altered, they were...
