Beringia

First Americans, photo of mural in the Page Museum, Los Angeles, by Travis S (CC BY-NC 2.0)

12 October, 2021 - 01:05 Michelle Freson

The Chumash: The Seashell First People Of North America

The question of how people first came to North America is as complicated as when they arrived. With new evidence comes new theories and the dates are being revised constantly. While the colonization...

This undated photo made available by the National Park Service in September 2021 shows fossilized human footprints at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. ( National Parks Service )

27 September, 2021 - 16:31 jim willis

Ancient Ancestors Walking All Over Clovis First Academics

21st Century man is very conscious of the carbon footprint he leaves behind, but footprints of people who lived about 23,000 years ago have just walked all over modern man’s Clovis First Theory. The...

The ancient New Mexico footprints found at White Sands National Park, which could be dated because the footprints were embedded with native plant seeds. Source: Bennett et al. / Science

24 September, 2021 - 22:20 Nathan Falde

23,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found In New Mexico Are Revolutionary

Multiple patches of human footprints found alongside a long-vanished Ice Age lake in New Mexico have finally been dated, many years after they were first discovered. Scientists used radiocarbon...

13 August, 2021 - 14:54 dhwty

Swan Point Alaska’s Unique Stone Tools Are Proof of Beringia Theory

Swan Point is an archaeological site located in the Tanana Valley, in the US state of Alaska. The site is notable for containing evidence of human occupation dating as far back as 14000 years ago,...

Ancient horse populations crossed over the Bering Land Bridge in both directions between North America and Asia multiple times during the Pleistocene.

21 May, 2021 - 23:03 Nathan Falde

Revealing Study Tracks DNA of Horse Populations Across the Land Bridge

The genetic connections between ancient horse populations living on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean were more extensive than previously believed, new research has revealed. Past theories had...

Original position of the skeletal remains inside submerged cave of Muknal. Source: Jerónimo Avilés /© 2020 Hubbe et al CC BY 4.0

30 January, 2020 - 18:55 ashley cowie

First Americans Were More Diverse Than Thought

Scientists are claiming current theories “over-simplify” how the Americas were populated. Most of us were taught that the Americas were void of humans until around 13,000 years ago and authors like...

Two men found at the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site in northern Siberia in Russia date to about 32,000 years ago, providing the earliest direct evidence of humans in the region. Source: Elena Pavlova

6 June, 2019 - 14:05 ashley cowie

Ancient Origins Of North Americans Settled - And Hard Evidence Of “Russian” Collusion Unearthed

For at least the last century archaeologists and anthropologists have generally agreed that the first humans arrived in North America having struggled across the icy wastes of Beringia, a vast land...

Finger bone fragment containing Denisovan DNA. Source: Thilo Parg / CC BY-SA 3.0.

18 May, 2019 - 18:49 Glenn Dahlem

Did the Denisovans Walk to North America?

For a people from whom one 41,000 year old finger bone fossil from a nine year old girl, along with a bracelet she wore, were (until recently) the only authenticated known artifacts, the mysterious...

Stolbovoy Island, it would have been connected to the mainland. Source: Ilya Kravchenko (via Siberian Times)

17 August, 2018 - 14:00 ancient-origins

Are These Tools Left by Paleolithic Travelers on the Beringia Land Bridge?

By The Siberian Times reporter Excavations are to be made after the discovery of evidence indicating the world’s most northerly paleolithic site on this remote island off the Arctic coast of Yakutia...

Map of the Americas circa 1619. Insert: Paleoamerican skull from Burial 1, Lapa do Santo site, Brazil.

23 February, 2017 - 22:48 Mark Miller

Skull Analysis Concludes the Americas Were Settled by More than One Wave of Migrants

Has there ever been a more exciting adventure than when humans spread out across the globe with their primitive tools and not so much as a hand-drawn map? A new study of cranial shapes of prehistoric...

16 January, 2017 - 14:47 aprilholloway

24,000-Year-Old Butchered Bones Found in Canada Change Known History of North America

Archaeologists have found a set of butchered bones dating back 24,000 years in Bluefish Caves, Yukon, Canada, which are the oldest signs of human habitation ever discovered in North America. Until...

Illustration of Paleoindians during a burial.

11 December, 2016 - 03:40 Kerry Sullivan

Children of the Upward Sun River: 11,500-Year-Old Remains Shed Light on Alaska’s Earliest Inhabitants

Upward Sun River is the name of an archeological site found in the Tanana River Valley in the interior of Alaska. The site was made famous in 2010 with the discovery of the remains of a young girl...

Deriv; Dramatic view from Mount Saint Helena, California (CC BY-SA 4.0), and photo of a Pomo native in a tule boat, circa 1924.

12 November, 2016 - 03:51 Gene Paleno

Ancient Age: The Coming of the Amerindians

A hundred and forty million years ago, Lake County, a part of Northern California, began with another of the ear-splitting rumbles that were a part of a continuing grand archaeological planet-wide...

DNA, land bridge, Beringia, Ice Age, Americas, genetics, South America, humans, Paleoamerican, Naia, Luzia, skeletons, archaeology

5 September, 2016 - 03:50 Clyde Winters

Did Paleoamericans Reach South America First?

In “ Textbook Story of How Humans Populated America is Biologically Unviable, Study Finds ” , recently published in Ancient Origins, it was noted that DNA studies indicate that people could not have...

"The Last Days of Tenochtitlan, Conquest of Mexico by Cortez", a 19th-century painting by William de Leftwich Dodge.

3 April, 2016 - 00:44 ancient-origins

Genes of 92 prehistoric Native Americans give further evidence of a terrible holocaust

The genocide of Native Americans is considered by many to be the worst of any in history—outstripping the later Jewish and Roma Holocaust by as much as an order of magnitude. Now a study of the...

The tiny remains were found at the ancient Upward Sun River site in Alaska, USA.

27 October, 2015 - 20:45 lizleafloor

Rare Bones and DNA of tiny children surprise scientists, support ideas about migration into the Americas 11,000 years ago

The small bodies of infants buried in an ancient campsite in the wilds of Alaska have given researchers a surprising and unprecedented look into the lives of prehistoric peoples and the ancient...

Pages

Myths & Legends

The Dunvegan Cup, Fairy Flag, and Sir Rory Mor's Horn are heirlooms of the MacLeods of Dunvegan. This photo was taken sometime before 1927.

The Mysterious Fairy Flag of Clan MacLeod and its Legendary Protective Powers

The Fairy Flag is one of the treasures kept by the chief of Clan MacLeod, a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. Today, the flag resides in Dunvegan Castle, the seat of the clan’s...

The Menehune of Hawaii – Ancient Race or Fictional Fairytale?

Unidentified Flying Objects – The Reality, the Cover-Up and the Truth

The great and powerful Xiongnu

The Erlking: The Powerful Germanic Mythical Snatcher of Children

Haunted Mirrors, Bloody Mary and Superstitious Mirror Mythology

Human Origins

The Faces of Ancient Hominids Brought to Life in Remarkable Detail

Several years ago, a team of scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, set out to put a human face to ancient hominid species that once walked the Earth.

The Water of Life: Alcohol as Medicine Through the Ages

3: The Perfect Number - Trinity Symbolism in World Religious Traditions

Translation of 5,500-Year-Old Babel Text from China Reveals Oldest Known Map of Inner Solar System

Top Ten Giant Discoveries in Ancient Britain

The Faravahar: The Ancient Zoroastrian Symbol of Iran

Ancient Technology

Understanding the Stonehenge calendar is easy if you follow Stephen Childs’ thinking in this article and in his book “Stone Circles Explained.” This image shows sunrise at this ancient site. Source: Gail Johnson / Adobe Stock

The Stonehenge Calendar: A Prehistoric Approach to Time’s Passing

Readers will probably know that Stonehenge’s design highlights the longest and shortest days of the year, but it is not always understood that its strange configuration was designed to enable every day

Medical Mystery of Usermontu: Why the Discovery of 2,600-Year-Old Knee Screw Left Experts Dumbfounded

150,000-Year-Old Pipes Baffle Scientists in China: Out of Place in Time?

6 Advanced Ancient Inventions Beyond Modern Understanding

The Indian Sage who developed Atomic Theory 2,600 years ago

Anatolian Neolithic Weavers At Çatalhöyük Used Trees to Make The Oldest Cloth

Ancient Places

The mummies of Qilakitsoq and the Inuit baby that captured hearts around the world

His little face still stares upwards, as if eternally waiting for his mother. From the moment he was discovered, the little Inuit baby captured hearts with his photograph plastered on magazines and...

The Carnac Stones: A Centuries-Old Enigma Solved Using Ancient Science

Enormous Underwater Structure in the Sea of Galilee is a Mystery to Archaeologists

Naples Necropolis Reveals Room-Like Tombs and Rare Greek Art

Remarkable Rock Art at California’s Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons

Drying Peatland Endangers Hadrian’s Wall and Other Archaeology Sites

Opinion

Curse of the Buried Pearl: Tomb Curses, Spirits and the Hunt for Ancient Treasures – Part I

Curse of the Buried Pearl: The Hunt for Ancient Treasures – Part I

In economics one hears talk of the curse of oil – and one might say wherever there is buried treasure there will be a curse, hyper-real or real. The most famous of all curses is of course that supposedly attached to the mummy of Tutankhamen

The Enigma of the Shugborough Inscription

Palatkwapi-Sedona: City of the Star People

The Icelandic Theory: Experts Challenge Establishment Dogma to Reveal History of Ivory Vikings

Winter Solstice Resurrection At Saqsayhuaman and Newgrange

Buddhism in Ancient Egypt and Meroe – Beliefs Revealed Through Ancient Script

Our Mission

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exist countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe.

We’re the only Pop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives.

By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings.