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Roman dodecahedra

The Enigma of the Roman Dodecahedra

The Roman dodecahedron is a small, hollow object made of bronze or (more rarely) stone, with a geometrical shape that has 12 flat faces. Each face is a pentagon, a five-sided shape. The Roman...
Ancient Roman Marble Used As A Step Is Worth Thousands

Ancient Roman Marble Used As A Step Is Worth Thousands

A carved Roman marble slab that was used as a step to mount a horse for twenty years is expected to fetch up to £15,000 ($20,400) at auction this February. The 25 inch (63.5 cm) high slab of marble...
The unexpected find of the Dixon pyramid relic was discovered in Aberdeen within a cigar box. The cedarwood fragments were originally discovered in 1872 by British engineer Waynman Dixon, before being misplaced and seemingly lost to history. Source: University of Aberdeen

Lost Great Pyramid Relic Surfaces In A Cigar Box in Scotland!

It is something of a reporter’s dream when a press release comes in saying that a rare wooden artifact from the Great Pyramid of Egypt has been discovered in a cigar box in Scotland. And as if this...
Petroglyphic Features of Portable Rock Art

Petroglyphic Features of Portable Rock Art

Paleo rock art from around the world ranges in style, method, and age, and includes cave paintings, petroglyphs, pictographs, polished and engraved stones such as effigies, stone sculptures, and...
Skeleton of a 30–40 year-old woman with a decorated  ivory button on her chest, from the first tomb

Unique Cyprus Death Cult Treasures Uncovered at Mass Burial Site

Excavators in Cyprus have discovered a series of “sensational finds” of death cult artifacts dating to 3,500 years ago, during the Bronze Age. A vessel used as a cult funerary object, a seal with...
Did Romulus, the legendary first king of Rome, (neurobite /Adobe Stock) really exist? (samott /Adobe Stock)

The Romulus Riddle: Did the Legendary First King of Rome Really Exist?

Recent excavations in Rome have re-ignited the debate over whether the legendary first king of Rome, Romulus, was a historical character or just a fanciful work of fiction. In fact, earlier this year...
Maya Animation? Breathing Newfound Vitality into Ancient Maya Art

Maya Animation? Breathing Newfound Vitality into Ancient Maya Art

This article presents a major breakthrough in Maya art and archaeology, revealing the sophisticated way that Maya artists animated ancient artworks. There is a lot of excitement surrounding the...
Stolen Roman Marble Fragment Returned by Regretful Thief

Stolen Roman Marble Fragment Returned by Regretful Thief

Tourists from all over the world visit the Italian capital to see its remarkable Roman remains, such as the Colosseum. However, one tourist was so impressed with the ruins that she stole an ancient...
Rapidly Melting Norwegian Ice Exposes Land Littered with Ancient Arrows

Rapidly Melting Norwegian Ice Exposes Land Littered with Ancient Arrows

Dozens of ancient arrows dating from the Neolithic to the Viking Era have melted out of the Langfonne ice sheet in Norway. In 2014 and 2016, reindeer bones and antlers, stone and river shell...
Prof. Vasil Nikolov and his team of archaeologists at the Provadia-Saltworks found the ceramic artifact, believed to be a salt god, while excavating the bottom of a salt evaporation pool. Source: Provadia-Solnitsata

Unidentified Salt God Emerges from Ancient Bulgarian Cult Site

In the ancient world salt was so valuable that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid with salt instead of money . A monthly salt allowance was a salarium , and this Latin word seeds both the French word...
Found amongst almost 1,500 artifacts conserved from a group of buildings at Cape Adare, this Antarctic fruitcake made by Huntley & Palmers was discovered wrapped in paper within the rusted remains of its original tin. It was probably left behind by Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. Source: Antarctic Heritage Trust

This Fruitcake Is Still Good After a Century in the Antarctic!

A traditional English fruitcake is not what researchers in the Antarctic expected to find inside an explorer’s camp. Having survived over a century of snow, ice and wind on what is regarded as one of...
Researchers have re-evaluated a helmet discovered in the 1950s in Yarm, Stockton-on-Tees. Known as the Yarm helmet, this is the first Anglo-Scandinavian helmet to have been discovered in Britain and is the second nearly complete Viking-era helmet discovered in the world to date. Source: Durham University.

First Ever Viking Helmet Discovered in Britain

A re-evaluation of a helmet discovered in Yarm has led experts to believe that it is the earliest Anglo-Scandinavian helmet ever to have been found in the British Isles. The remarkable Yarm helmet is...
A professor of archaeology has made a controversial claim that a 3,000-year-old clay head, found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in Israel, is a Yahweh idol representing the Jewish god Yahweh. Source: Clara Amit / Israel Antiquities Authority

Professors Clash Over Controversial 3,000-Year-Old ‘Yahweh’ Idol

A professor of archaeology has claimed a 3,000-year-old clay head idol represents the Jewish god Yahweh. However, two other archaeologists have challenged this interpretation by pointing out why this...
Thor's hammer amulet

How a Viking Amulet Solved the Mystery of Thor's Hammer

In 2014, archaeologists solved a long-running mystery through the discovery of a 10th century Viking artifact resembling Thor’s Hammer. Before then, they were only working with a hunch about the 1,...
Bladelets and flakes with two pairs of notches interpreted as Neolithic figurines. Source: Kharaysin archaeological team / Antiquity Publications Ltd

10,000-Year-Old Neolithic Figurines Discovered in Jordan Burials

The historical time period for the mid-9th millennium BC onwards is known as the early Neolithic . At this time in the Near East human iconography began expanding, but archaeological theories to...
The bird figurine is the oldest-known sculpture to be found in East Asia.         Source: Francesco d'Errico/Luc Doyon / PLOS ONE

Oldest Example of East Asian 3D Art Discovered in Waste Pile

Examination of a tiny bone object extracted from a pile of waste material from digging a well in China revealed it to be what the experts think is the oldest example of three-dimensional art ever...
Artifact recovered from the Williams Lake area and believed to be an arrowhead from the early Nesikep period.          Source: Sugar Cane Archeology

6,000-year-old ‘Arrowhead’ Found in British Columbia

An ancient pointed chert stone dating to the early Nesikep period is believed to be the oldest arrowhead ever recovered in the Williams Lake area. But is this interpretation accurate? Lake Williams...
Ribchester Helmet, discovered in the summer of 1796 by the son of Joseph Walton who was playing behind his father’s house in Ribchester, Lancashire, England

The Sinister Roman Cavalry Helmet of the Ribchester Hoard

The Ribchester Helmet is a cavalry helmet dating to the Roman period in Britain. As indicated by its name, the helmet was found in Ribchester, Lancashire, in the northwest of England. The Ribchester...
The pipe decorated with the image of the extinct Tasmanian Tiger.    Source: Darren Watton / ABC News

Tiger Design Pipe is ‘Holy Grail’ of Tasmanian Archaeology

A rare 200-year-old clay pipe depicting a Tasmanian tiger is being called the “holy grail” of Tasmanian archaeology. Discovered in a bottle dump in Launceston, in the north of Tasmania , Australia,...
Representation of a female Viking magic practitioner

Vestiges of the Vikings: Magic Buried in a Viking Woman's Grave

Murky, elusive and undefined, the religion of the pre-Christian Vikings has long been subject to debate. Contemporary texts of their spiritual worship do not survive, and the later records that do...
Statue was reportedly illegally smuggled to Mexico.  Source: INAH

Experts Claim Artifact Ceremonially Returned to Nigeria is Fake

A bronze sculpture seized at a Mexican airport last week, and hastily returned to Nigeria, is now claimed to be fake. Last week the BBC reported on a supposedly ancient artifact believed to have been...
The newly discovered medieval chess piece, one of the Lewis Chessmen, had been missing for almost 200 years. Source: Courtesy of Sotheby's .

Lewis Chessman Bought for £5 Sells at Auction for £735,000

In the early 1800s, an ancient treasure washed up on the Isle of Lewis in westernmost Scotland – 78 ornately-carved chess pieces made from walrus ivory dating back to the 12 th century. The Lewis...
The brown quartzite King Tut statue for auction. Source: Christie's.

3,000-Year-Old Egyptian God Whips Up A Sand Storm Of Legal Battles

On July 4th, Christie’s auction house in London will sell a rare 3,000 years old, , statue of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun’s head, portrayed as the god Amun , which according to Christie’s listing “...
The wooden arm was found at the bottom of an ancient Roman well. Source: Oxford Archaeology

Wooden Arm Found in Roman Well in England Is a Real Oddity

Archaeologists in England have made an unusual discovery in a Roman well. They found a wooden arm at the bottom that is remarkably well-preserved and remarkably skillfully carved . This find is one...

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