Ancient Places

Ancient places can be found all over the world. Their fascinating histories and impressive artifacts open intriguing glimpses to times past, and visiting such ancient places in the world can be an unforgettable experience.

Science is constantly discovering new archaeological places and uncovering more evidence into what we once thought we knew about our history, therefore offering new pieces to the ever changing puzzle of humanity’s past and altering how we interpret it. This section will present the most interesting archaeological sites all over the world, as well as new discoveries of ancient places that are worth paying a visit.

Flotation survey at the Ek Way Nal Maya salt making site in Belize, with flags marking the locations of wooden posts below the sea surface. Source: Heather McKillop / Ancient Mesoamerica journal

19 November, 2021 - 21:57 Nathan Falde

Maya Salt Makers in Belize Worked From Home, Reveals Study

A fresh analysis of artifacts collected from a salt-making facility submerged beneath a lagoon in Belize has revealed enlightening details about the organization and functioning of the Maya salt...

Old image of Parramatta River by Broadhurst, William Henry, 1855-1927 Source: Public Domain

19 November, 2021 - 17:57 ashley cowie

Meta-Study of Parramatta Reveals All About Sydney’s Pre-Historic Past

A team of archaeologists asked if Aboriginal population recovery in Australia was delayed after the Last Glacial Maximum? For answers, they analyzed archaeological evidence from Australia’s...

The ancient site of Stonehenge

19 November, 2021 - 00:48 mariaw

Secret Stonehenge: Mounds, Artifacts, and Intrigue

Stonehenge stands within a vast ritual landscape. Encircling the towering stones, over 800 round mounds once added to the temple’s splendour. From within these enigmatic mounds some of the finest...

The outlines of the legendary but lost royal pavilion of Kyoto known as the Tokaden pavilion, which was built in ways that were still different from Tang dynasty Chinese foundations. Source: Kyoto City Archaeological Research Institute

18 November, 2021 - 21:57 ashley cowie

Five Post Holes Reveal Legendary Japanese Empress’s Royal Pavilion.

A team of Japanese archaeologists have discovered what they consider to be the remains of is the legendary Tokaden royal pavilion. Until the early 8th century the Japanese court was peripatetic,...

Amy Bailey as Queen Cynethryth in the TV series Vikings. Source: The HISTORY Channel

17 November, 2021 - 13:57 Meagan Dickerson

Queen Cynethryth of Mercia: Victim of a Medieval Smear Campaign?

The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia was unique because the queens of Mercia left enough of an impact on their world as to be worthy of remembrance. History has not been so kind, however, to some of...

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...

Cropped section of the cover of The Giants of Stonehenge and Ancient Britain by Hugh Newman and Jim Vieira. Source: Author provided.

16 November, 2021 - 17:57 Hugh Newman

Top Ten Giant Discoveries in Ancient Britain

Did giants ever really exist in the British Isles? Can legends of giants building Stonehenge really be true? Why does the establishment deny that giants of Great Britain ever existed? Here is a...

Remains of the wooden wharfs of the French medieval port being excavated at the base of Chateau Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, Vendée, France. Source: Emmanuelle Collado / Inrap

16 November, 2021 - 13:57 ashley cowie

Surprise 10th Century Medieval Port Discovered In Western France

Archaeologists in western France have been up to their elbows excavating enormous oak ship timbers at a “surprise” 10th-century medieval port, where evidence of wine production, fishing trade, and...

Statue of Romulus and Remus suckling on a she wolf. Their famous story was one of attempted Roman infanticide but were saved by the she wolf, now a major symbol of the Roman Empire. Source: borzywoj / Adobe Stock

15 November, 2021 - 21:57 Sahir

Does Roman Infanticide Explain the Mass Infant Burial Discovered in England?

Between 43 AD and 410 AD, huge swathes of Britain were under the control of the Roman Empire and funerary practices were mostly Christian, but also included the practice of Roman infanticide...

Ancient Olympia Source: Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic

15 November, 2021 - 17:57 ashley cowie

Microsoft AI Recreates Ancient Greece’s Olympia as it Stood 2,000 Years Ago

Ancient Olympia has been recreated by Microsoft. This means that from the comfort of your own armchair, you can login, and take a spectacular augmented reality 3d tour of this iconic ancient site...

Abu Gorab is the site where Egypt’s 3rd Fifth Dynasty sun temple has been discovered beneath a younger sun temple! Source: National Geographic / Windfall Films / MCPR

15 November, 2021 - 14:03 Sahir

Lost Egyptian Sun Temple Found Near Cairo: 'Biggest Find in 50 Years'

In a thrilling new find, archaeologists have found the remains of what they believe is one of six sun temples ever built by the Fifth Dynasty pharaohs. The discovery made in Abu Gorab, south of Cairo...

Capuchin Catacombs and the 'Sleeping Beauty' mummy

12 November, 2021 - 18:00 dhwty

The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo and Their Most Famous Mummy

Human beings have always had a fascination with death. In some cultures, the dead are never left alone, but continue to interact with the living. For instance, some set up ancestor cults to...

The recently discovered elite Chan Chan mass grave burial ground near Trujillo, Peru. Source: Peru News Agency - ANDINA

11 November, 2021 - 21:57 Nathan Falde

25 Elite Skeletons Unearthed From Chan Chan Mass Grave, Peru

Archaeologists exploring the ancient Peruvian city of Chan Chan have uncovered the skeletal remains of 25 people in one medium-sized burial site. The men, women, and children interred there would...

An aerial photo of the Tel Lachish in central Israel, which was quickly conquered by the Assyrians with their powerful siege ramp in 701 BC. The Assyrian siege ramp is the focus of a new study published in Oxford Journal of Archaeology. Source: The Lachish Expedition / Southern Adventist University

10 November, 2021 - 17:57 Sahir

New Study Reveals How Legendary Assyrian Siege Ramp Overcame Lachish

Israeli archaeologists have revealed the secrets behind the Assyrian siege ramp that conquered the ancient Judean town of Lachish. A recent study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology shows...

A view of Shibam’s mudbrick skyscrapers for which Yemen’s ancient mudbrick structures have earned the moniker “the Manhattans of the Desert.” Source: Jialiang Gao / CC BY-SA 3.0

10 November, 2021 - 13:56 dhwty

Ancient Skyscrapers: The Mudbrick Towerblocks of Yemen

Skyscrapers are a common sight in today’s cities. These modern structures trace their history to the late 19th century. Nevertheless, skyscrapers have precedents in earlier times, one of which being...

“Litany of Ra” scene in the tomb of King Merenptah (KV8), Valley of the Kings, Luxor; design by Anand Balaji

10 November, 2021 - 00:59 anand balaji

Echoes of Eternal Egyptian Art: Masters of Form and Finesse—Part I

The ancient Egyptians were pioneers of various forms of art and architecture. Down the millennia, the world has been left awestruck by the design and purpose of their grandiose monuments, their...

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...

The ‘slave room’ found in Villa Civita Giuliana in Pompeii. Source: Pompeii Archaeological Park

6 November, 2021 - 21:58 ashley cowie

Horrific Slave Room Discovered in Pompeii’s Civita Giuliana

A well-preserved slave room has been discovered at Villa Civita Giuliana , a wealthy suburb of Pompeii located about 700 meters (2296.59 ft.) northwest of the city walls. This large and exuberant...

6 November, 2021 - 17:57 Sahir

Lost Mongol Capital of Karakorum Mapped Properly for the First Time

The city of Karakorum, the 13th century capital of the great Mongol empire was established initially as a camp by Genghis Khan in the Orkhon Valley in 1220, and would be developed by his son and...

The skull of the Homo naledi child named Leti found in the lowest levels of South Africa’s Rising Star cave system. Source: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

5 November, 2021 - 21:58 Nathan Falde

Skeleton of an Archaic Homo naledi Child Found in Rising Star Cave

A team of South African and American archaeologists exploring the Rising Star cave system in central South Africa discovered something that seems quite anomalous. In the deepest, darkest recesses of...

A photo composition of the nearly 14 known megalithic stone slabs from the site of San Miguel Ixtapan. Source: Marco M. Vigato

5 November, 2021 - 17:58 Marco M. Vigato

Precision Stone Carvings of San Miguel Ixtapan – the Mexican Tiwanaku?

Over the past century, dozens of carved megalithic stone slabs of unknown origin and function have been uncovered in the southern part of the state of Mexico and the north of Guerrero, mostly around...

Pillar in Gobekli Tepe (Deriv.) (sebnemsanders) with a starry night sky. (CC0) What can be discerned about the site from Gobekli Tepe archaeoastronomy?

5 November, 2021 - 17:08 Freddy Silva

Gobekli Tepe Archaeoastronomy and the Second Hill of Osiris

The naming of places in the ancient world was a serious affair, particularly with regard to temples. A name enshrined the purpose for which the site was intended, or reflected a truth about its...

The La Tene culture Laténium landing stage in Hauterive on Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Source: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra / CC BY 2.0

5 November, 2021 - 13:58 Aleksa Vučković

How the Great La Tene Culture Changed Iron Age Europe

Speaking of the Iron Age, most people first think of wild barbarian tribes wielding their crude swords and tools made from iron. But the truth is often very far from this. This important age in world...

Al Brown of the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center talks about the stone ring that makes up one of the different sites in the Gungywamp property in the woods of Groton, Connecticut. Photo source: Tim Cook / The Day

4 November, 2021 - 21:58 dhwty

Connecticut’s Gungywamp: Old Stone Chambers That Are Still A Mystery

Gungywamp is an archaeological site located in Groton, Connecticut, USA. The site is best known for its various stone structures. There is no consensus about the age and function of these structures...

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