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Between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago, diverse European cultures from the Gravettian period utilized marine shells, teeth, beads, and other ornaments for personal adornment, shown here. Source: J. Baker, et al/Nature

Prehistoric Jewelry Unveils 9 Distinct Paleolithic European Cultures

A fascinating new study has explored the cultural behavior of prehistoric humans in Europe from tens of thousands of years ago, and learnt that our ancestors adorned themselves with a diverse array...
Within Chinese medicine, dragon bones or long gy have long been prescribed to treat a variety of ailments. Source: Nu / Adobe Stock

Thanks to the ‘Dragon Bones’ Malaria Cure, China Unearthed its Earliest Writing

Believe it or not, but the intriguing discovery of China's earliest writing was thanks to an unlikely ally— malaria . When the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, Wang Yirong, contracted malaria, he...
Illustration based on osteobiography generated through analyses of remains excavated at cemetery of Cambridge hospital which offered what was, in essence, a medieval social benefit system Source: Mark Gridley / After the Plague

Cemetery Reveals Medieval Equivalent of Social Benefits System

Archaeologists from several universities in England teamed up to analyze the skeletal remains of more than 400 individuals who were buried in a medieval cemetery that belonged to St. John the...

Neanderthal Hunters Were Stalking Cave Lions 48,000 Years Ago

A international team of paleoanthropologists has just published research supposedly proving that Neanderthals were hunting and eating cave lions nearly 50,000 years ago in Europe. Until now experts...
Votive offerings have been unearthed in the Valley of Temples in Sicily, Italy. Source: Sicilian Regional Institutional Portal.

Huge Votive Deposits Emerge From Sicily’s Valley of Temples, Shed Light on the Exodus of 406 BC

An excavation campaign in the historic Valley of Temples (Agrigento) in Sicily has stumbled upon a huge votive deposit consisting of 60 terracotta statuettes, protomes and female busts, fragments of...
Representative image of human skulls in one of the famous catacombs around the world. Source: mila103 / Adobe Stock

Tales from the Crypt: Exploring the World's Most Famous Catacombs

Beneath the streets and buildings of many of the world's most historic cities lie mysterious and ancient catacombs. These underground burial sites hold the remains of thousands of people and have...
Male skull with tabular deformation found amongst Maya burials at the Moral-Reforma Archaeological Project. Source: INAH

Archaeologists Uncover 2,000-Year-Old Maya Burials with Decapitation Marks in Mexico

Archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have made an exciting discovery at the Moral-Reforma Archaeological site in Balancán, Tabasco: 13 human burials at...
Curious bone growth on the femur of an adult female in Constância, Portugal. Source: ©Sandra Assis/International Journal of Paleopathology

Curious Bone Growth Found on Portuguese Skeleton Buried Centuries Ago

The skeletal remains of a woman who lived in Portugal between the 14th and 19th centuries show that she suffered a physical injury so severe that it caused an extraordinarily large growth to appear...
Details at Sedlec Ossuary Interior, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. Source: diegograndi / Adobe Stock

The Eerie Charm of Sedlec Ossuary: A Gothic Masterpiece of Human Bones

Deep beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, Czech Republic, a chilling monument to human mortality has been carefully crafted over the centuries. Decorated with the bones of over 40,000...
Archaeologists found a selection of animal skulls at the Neanderthal cave in Spain, including this bison skull. Source: Nature Human Behaviour / CC BY 4.0

Neanderthals Filled This Spanish Cave with Animal Skulls. But Why?

As the data continues to accumulate, it becomes more and more clear that Neanderthals were highly intelligent hominins who built their own unique and remarkable culture. Some of the latest...
Human skeletal remains (representational image). Source: Thanakrit / Adobe Stock

11,000-Year-Old Human Remains Found in British Cave

An astounding discovery in the Heaning Wood Bone Cave in northern England has revealed the oldest human remains found in the region, dating back 11,000 years. A team from the University of Central...
Representation of the modes of locomotion practiced by Sahelanthropus in Chad, Africa 7 million years ago, which is one million years earlier than current biped origins. (Sabine Riffaut, Guillaume Daver, Franck Guy / PALEVOPRIM / CNRS – University of Poitiers)

Human Ancestors Were Already Bipeds 7-Million Years Ago

It took millions of years for modern humans to evolve from apelike creatures to today’s Homo sapiens, ie. you and me. At various points along this long and arduous journey certain important...
These knucklebones from the Hellenistic period, from roughly 2,300 years ago, were recently unearthed in central Israel in an area closely connected with the First Temple period. Source: Israel Antiquities Authority

2,300-year-old Knucklebones Used for Divination Found In Israel

Scientists in Israel have discovered ancient animals' knucklebones used to foretell the future and as a form of spiritual protection in the wild and unpredictable ancient world. They were also the...
A closeup of the 37,000-year-old New Mexico mammoth bones discovered during excavations at the site. This random mix of ribs, broken cranial bones, a molar, bone fragments, and stone cobbles is a refuse pile from mammoth butchering. Source: Timothy Rowe / The University of Texas at Austin.

New Mexico Mammoth Bones from 37,000 years ago “Upend” Clovis Theory

A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Texas have uncovered compelling evidence to prove human beings settled in North America much earlier than had once been believed. That...
Part of the earliest European face, a 1.4-million-year-old jawbone recently excavated from Sima de Elefante cave, Spain. Source: Atapuerca Foundation

Breakthrough: Excavators Find the Oldest European Face Ever Discovered

The discovery of a 1.4-million-year-old human ancestor in Spain was in itself a history changing moment. But to discover it looked like us, “forces us to rewrite the books on human evolution,” claims...
Grave 69, of an adult male, on the island of Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, who had human bone jewelry in his grave. Human and animal bone pendants were found together with an elk tooth pendant. Source: Tom Björklund / University of Helsinki

Finnish Study Reveals Human Bones Were Used to Make Jewelry in 6,000 BC

During the Late Stone Age, our prehistoric ancestors regularly constructed and presumably wore pendants covered with symbolic images. These pendants were often made out of animal bones and teeth, but...
This is an image of the mass grave found beneath an Irish pub in Cork, Ireland, which a noted bone expert concluded was an extremely violent mass death! Source: © John Cronin & Associates

‘Bone Collector’ Sleuth Says Violent Deaths Evident in Mass Grave Under Irish Bar!

A bone expert investigating a mass grave in Ireland has found clear evidence of hyper-violence, including smashed bones and bound limbs. Last year, beneath Nancy Spain’s Public House, Barrack Street...
Chicken domestication seems obvious today. For the longest time we have believed chickens were a domesticated food source since the dawn of civilization, but recent archaeological scientists have proven otherwise in a big way!		Source: Robert May/ Antiquity Publications Ltd

Before Chicken Domestication, The 'Exotic' Birds Were Revered, Not Eaten

Remarkable and extensive new research has shed light on one of the true mysteries of animal domestication. This breakthrough research has revealed important new information about chicken...
Left: An unknown Egyptian mummy.  Right: Modern equivalent of Mummy Brown pigment. Source: michal812 / Adobe Stock

Mummy Brown – 16th Century Paint Made from Ground Up Mummies

Most people today would probably associate Egyptian mummies with museums. This is unsurprising, as this is probably where most of us have seen them, especially in Europe. Yet, if I were to say that...
Ice Age animal bones, such as this woolly rhinoceros jaw, have been discovered in Devon. Source: AC Archaeology

Menagerie of Ice Age Animal Bones Found in Cave in Devon, England

Archaeological explorations undertaken in anticipation of an upcoming housing project have produced a significant find near the city of Plymouth in Devon county in southwest England. While excavating...
Covesea Caves with screenshot of one of the bones discovered inside.  Source: Society for Antiquaries of Scotland

Mystical Mummification: Latest Secret of Scotland’s Covesea Caves

The Covesea Caves range just short of Inverness on Scotland’s northeastern coast have been known to archaeologists since 1929, but each round of exploration and analysis throws up fresh surprises...
Analysis of 23,000-year-old hunter camp shows that Ice Age Galileans thrived. Source: denissimonov / Adobe Stock

Ice Age Galileans Thrived During Global Ice Melts

A team of researchers have analyzed the remains of 22,000 animal bones discovered at a hunter camp dating back 23,000 years. Their new study shows how Ice Age Galileans, fisher-hunter-gatherers in...
The strange Merman of Banff, Alberta (Canada).

The Strange Merman of Banff: Legendary Lake Monster or Just a Trading Post Treasure?

As a researcher of unusual historical phenomena, I investigate strange stories, but I had no intention of doing so in Alberta, Canada. Nevertheless, I came across something that was truly odd in the...
Denisovan fossils look a bit unremarkable, but these bone fragments, mostly from animals, were perfect for Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectroscopy and DNA analysis, which were used in the recent study.		Source: Samantha Brown / Nature Ecology & Evolution

New Denisovan Fossils From Siberian Cave Are The Oldest Ever Found

Researchers from the Max Planck Society and the Universities of Vienna and Tübingen have found new fossilized human-like remains mixed in an assortment of bone samples taken from Siberia’s famed...

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