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Excavations of a city wall belonging to the ancient city of Gan which existed near the modern-day city of Puyang in China. It was here that the bone slips were uncovered. Source: China News Service

Bone Slips Excavated in Central China Linked to Ancient Fortune-Telling

During excavations at a 2,500-year-old archaeological site in Puyang, China, a set of 10 polished and painted bone slips or sticks were unearthed, all of which were inscribed with an ancient Chinese...
Mayan Nose Ornament Made from Human Bone Found in Palenque Ruins

Mayan Nose Ornament Made from Human Bone Found in Palenque Ruins

In a groundbreaking discovery at the Palenque Archaeological Zone in Chiapas, Mexico, a Maya nose ornament was uncovered, showcasing an intricately carved scene. This adornment, crafted from human...
Prehistoric family. Source: Rawf8 / Adobe Stock.

Prehistoric Mothers and the Artifact that Ensured Our Survival (Video)

New research has shed light on the vital role that prehistoric mothers played in the Neolithic period, approximately 7,500 years ago. This era marked a significant shift in human civilization, with...
Prehistoric hunters. (anibal / Adobe Stock) Insert: The oldest known bone projectile point in the Americas. (Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University)

Oldest Bone Projectile Point in the Americas Found Stuck in a Mastodon’s Rib!

Analysis of a 13,900-year-old bone projectile point has led to two major discoveries. First and most importantly, it is the oldest known artifact of its kind in the Americas! This archaeological...
A beautifully restored medieval pendant has been discovered to contain bones, possible relics of a saint. Source: Sabine Steidl, LEIZA

Neutron Imaging Reveals Hidden Relics Inside Medieval Pendant

Scanning with a neutron beam has helped researchers crack the mystery of a gold-plated medieval pendant found in the German town of Mainz in 2008. The non-invasive and non-destructive technique has...
Striking the Right Note - Rare Bone Flute Unearthed in Kent

Striking the Right Note - Rare Bone Flute Unearthed in Kent

A pre-development dig by Cotswold Archeology at Herne Bay in Kent, England, has uncovered evidence of settlement from the Bronze Age to the Roman period and again in the medieval period. One of the...
Brown bear penis bones. Source: Didier Descouens / CC BY-SA 4.0

What Do Dogs and Other Mammals Have That Humans Don’t? A Penis Bone

In a place before time, life somehow emerged on Earth. It grew and flourished. It changed. It split, and some of it went its different ways. There was life in the water and life on the land. Some...
A closeup of the Tagar female grave (excavated in the Siberian steppe Minusinsk basin), which is an anomaly because the bone amulet next to her wrist is made with one piece of human bone, suggesting secondary burial grave manipulation.		Source: Evgeniy Bogdanov / Haaretz

Bronze Age Human Bone Amulet Found in Ancient Siberian Tagar Burial

How a culture buries its dead provides a crucial understanding of a culture across time periods, across historical divides, across geographical territories. Some of these ancient and prehistoric...
Archaeologist Ingeborg Hornkjøl unearthing an ancient stick with runic writing. Source: Tone Bergland / NIKU

Rare Runic Writing Unearthed in Norway

In December 2021, the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) announced that rare runic writing has been discovered in Oslo carved into the faces of a stick and a large animal bone...
Ireland’s oldest known ink pen made from bone and copper alloy. This writing instrument is unique because of its construction and because it was used for secular writing not for religious manuscripts.		Source: Dr Michelle Comber / Clare Herald

1,000-Year-Old Ink Pen Found in Ringfort is Ireland’s Oldest

An archaeologist excavating at an 11th century ringfort in Ireland has unearthed the oldest ink pen ever discovered in Ireland. What’s unusual, is that this artifact was a secular work tool used for...
Nestor’s Cup was discovered on the Italian island of Ischia in 1954. Source: Marcus Cyron / CC BY-SA 4.0

Reopening Cold Case of Nestor’s Cup Burial Solves a Mystery

Homer’s Iliad , a classical ancient Greek tale from the 8th century BC, contains a brief, 6-line description of the famous 2,800-year-old Nestor’s Cup, which was the subject of a great deal of...
Engraved giant deer phalanx from a late Middle Palaeolithic context (layer 4.5) at Einhornhöhle, Lower Saxony, Germany.

51,000-year-old Carving Reveals Neanderthals Produced Art

51,000 years ago, our Stone Age hominin cousins, the Neanderthals, left behind a thoughtfully carved and decorated deer toe bone. This piece of conceptual art found in northern Germany has just been...
Winklepickers are named for the supposed similarity to the tool used to extract winkles from their shells. Source: Rijksmuseum / CC0.

Medieval Winklepickers Really Were A Health Hazard, Study Shows

Pointy shoes or winklepickers worn by the upper classes caused a spike in bunions in medieval Britain, a study has found. Close your eyes and picture the classic court jester . His jingly hat and...
Does Bone Arrowhead Prove Biblical Account of Epic Battle of Gath?

Does Bone Arrowhead Prove Biblical Account of Epic Battle of Gath?

In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Kings tells a story about how an Aramean king named Hazael conquered and destroyed the famed Philistine city-state of Gath, the home of the legendary giant Goliath...
Medieval Cancer Rates Were Shockingly High, New Study Shows

Medieval Cancer Rates Were Shockingly High, New Study Shows

A team of University of Cambridge researchers have just released the results of their study of cancer incidence in medieval and pre-Industrial Revolution-era Britain. The scientists examined the...
Timeline of Human Activity in Ancient Ireland is 33,000 Years Old!

Timeline of Human Activity in Ancient Ireland is 33,000 Years Old!

Signs of early human activity in Ireland dating back to a stunning 33,000 years have been found on a bone fragment which was unearthed in cave over 100 years ago. This paradigm-changing discovery...
Copper tools from the Old Copper Culture of the Great Lakes region.		Source: Michelle Bebber / Kent State University Eren Laboratory

Native North Americans Were Making Copper Tools in 7,500 BC

Refinements in radiocarbon dating technology have caused archaeologists, anthropologists, and ancient historians to modify their beliefs about the timeline of copper tools and the metalworking of the...
The discovery of a long-forgotten woolly mammoth bone may prove that humans and woolly mammoths coexisted in the northeastern United States.

First Humans in New England May Have Met and Hunted Woolly Mammoths

Did humans and woolly mammoths share the same territory near the end of the last Ice Age in what is now the Northeastern United States? A new study from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire,...
10,000-Year-Old Dog Bone Supports Theory of Coastal Route to the Americas

10,000-Year-Old Dog Bone Supports Theory of Coastal Route to the Americas

Researchers have found the oldest known dog remains in the Americas and they believe the ancient dog bone fragment reveals how the canine and its brethren likely reached that part of the world. How...
Neolithic Maliq Man Had Oldest Known Case of Osteopetrosis

Neolithic Maliq Man Had Oldest Known Case of Osteopetrosis

Research on a 6,000-year-old skeleton has revealed the undeniable presence of the rare genetic disorder known as stone bone disease or osteopetrosis. This discovery will help us to understand the...
More Hope and Controversy Over Crucifixion Nails Linked to Jesus

More Hope and Controversy Over Crucifixion Nails Linked to Jesus

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is probably the central event in the Christian religion . Some researchers now believe that they may have found the crucifixion nails that were used in the death of...
Bronze Age death rituals sometimes included curated remains, such as this skeleton that was buried with skulls and long bones of three people who had died much earlier. Source: Tees Archaeology / Antiquity Publications Ltd

Bronze Age Death Rituals Included Curating Remains Of Predecessors

No two people deal with death in exactly the same way. Both on the individual and societal level we have to face the inevitable. These days many people turn to their religious, scientific, or...
Stone-Age mammoth bone cordage tool found at Hohle Fels cave in Germany that scientists now recognise as a rope-making tool from 40,000 years ago.                     Source: University of Tübingen

The True Purpose of The Ancient Mammoth Bone Artifact

In 2020, a team of scientists identified a Stone-Age cordage tool used to manufacture rope, which completely changed human life and productivity in prehistoric times. A series of slow advancements in...
A collection of the medieval bones at the chapel in Montella, Italy. Source: University of Southern Denmark

Bone Analysis Reveals Disturbing Habits of Medieval Danes and Italians

A fascinating, and exceptionally niche, new scientific study has looked at the mineral content of medieval bones of Danish and Italian people. The results paint a fresh picture of the lifestyle...

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