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Statuettes recovered from the Chapultepec Forest site, Mexico City.	Source: Mauricio Marat / INAH

Oldest Artifacts In Mexican Basin Were Walked Over Daily at Chapultepec

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a layer of tools, utensils, and otherworldly figures in an ancient ceramic layer. For more than three thousand years, the artifacts remained undisturbed under...
Erotic Mochica artifact, a ceramic ceremonial vessel representing the sexual union between a man and a woman.  Source: Museo Larco / Google Art Project

Erotic Peruvian Artifacts Being Used to Prevent Cancer in Men

Health authorities in Peru are teaching men how to inspect their genitals to catch early cancers. To achieve this goal they are using ancient Mochica artifacts depicting sexual scenes. Would you...
Large ceramic funerary urns discovered within a mound found in the Los Ríos province of Ecuador. Source: Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural/YGV Prensa Digital

Ancient Indigenous Funerary Urns Unearthed in Ecuador [Images]

This week an unassuming Ecuadorian hacienda became a site of archaeological interest. Workers accidentally discovered a mound containing multiple Pre-Hispanic ceramic funerary urns while using heavy...
Oldest Known Saltworks in Britain Found on North Sea Coast

Oldest Known Saltworks in Britain Found on North Sea Coast

New excavations at an old Neolithic site in North Yorkshire have uncovered something truly remarkable. Under the direction of independent archaeologist Dr. Stephen Sherlock, a team of researchers...
More than 650 priceless ancient Roman coins have been unearthed at the Aizanoi archaeological site in Turkey. Source: Andalou Agency

Jug of Priceless Ancient Roman Coins Discovered in Special Turkish City

A “very special and unique collection” of ancient Roman coins have been unearthed at an equally special 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Turkey. More than 650 priceless coins were found at...
Marine archaeologists diving at the site of the Roman sea fortress.    Source: Sevastopol State University

Russian Divers Discover Ancient Roman Sea Fortress at Tartus

Dmitry Tatarkov, director of the Institute of Social Sciences and International Relations, recently told Almasdar News that Russian scientists from Sevastopol State University have made a series of...
Maya Drug Secrets Revealed in Ancient Plant Residues

Maya Drug Secrets Revealed in Ancient Plant Residues

For the first time ever, scientists have identified a non-tobacco plant in ancient Maya drug containers. The researchers say the plant residues suggest that the Maya found a way to make tobacco...
Ancient Oil Lamp Find Sheds Light on Middle Eastern History

Ancient Oil Lamp Find Sheds Light on Middle Eastern History

Archaeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority have announced an intriguing new discovery . In the city of Beit Shemesh, just 22 kilometers (14 miles) west of Jerusalem in Israel , they unearthed...
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...
Ceramics in Heuneburg, Germany show Iron Age Celts of all social classes drank Mediterranean wine. Source: 9parusnikov /Adobe Stock

Even Low-Class Iron Age Celts Sipped Fine Mediterranean Wine

A new study reveals Mediterranean wine was enjoyed by ‘all classes’ of Iron Age Celts 2,700 years ago. Archaeologists excavating at the prehistoric Heuneburg hillfort in southern Germany, just north...
Ruins of Mehrgarh. (M. Thoury et al./CC BY 4.0) Insert: Detail of a female figure made of terracotta from Mehrgarh, circa 3000 BC. (Denis Biette/CC BY SA 1.0)

A Treasure in Ruins: Ancient Mehrgarh Lost to Thieves and Violence

Mehrgarh is an archaeological site situated in the Balochistan, in the southwestern part of Pakistan. In the native Balochi language, ‘mehr’ is said to mean ‘love’, and ‘garh’ means heaven. Thus, the...
Example of a typical Valdivia ceramic figurine. (Alicia McDermott)

Curious Ceramics: Traces of Mysterious Pre-Hispanic Culture Emerge in Ecuador

Archaeologists working at the pre-Hispanic site of Real Alto near the coast of Ecuador have discovered the remnants of a mysterious culture dating to the earliest stages of inhabitation in the...
Excavations of ancient households and study of fingerprints in New Mexico reveal that men and women were equally involved in domestic pottery production. Source: John Kantner / UNF.

Fingerprints Overturn Ideas On Women In Ancient Native American Society – But What About The Third Sex?

Fingerprints are very important in criminal investigations , but it seems they are also increasingly important when it comes to archaeological studies . By studying 1000-year-old fingerprints ,...
Excavating one of the Pre-Inca tombs.

Newly Unearthed Pre-Inca Tombs Show Ancient Chimú Practiced Child Sacrifice

12 children have been identified amongst the 50 individuals buried in 47 Pre-Inca tombs at a recently unearthed site in Peru. Archaeologists believe the children were sacrificial offerings. A wealth...
Reconstruction of a Beaker burial, (National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid).

90% of the Neolithic British Gene Pool Was Replaced by Beaker Immigrants

Scientists once could reconstruct humanity's distant past only from the mute testimony of ancient settlements, bones, and artifacts. No longer. Now there's a powerful new approach for illuminating...
This is base of Neolithic jar being prepared for sampling for residue analysis.

Discovery of 8,000-year-old Residue in the Middle East is the Earliest Evidence Yet of Winemaking

Gadachrili Gora Regional Archaeological Project Expedition (GRAPE), a joint undertaking between the University of Toronto (U of T) and the Georgian National Museum, have uncovered evidence of the...
7,000-Year-Old Ceramic Fragment with Signs, Symbols and Swastika May Be One of the Oldest Examples of Writing

7,000-Year-Old Ceramic Fragment with Signs, Symbols and Swastika May Be One of the Oldest Examples of Writing

While excavating the ancient Roman site of Ad Putea in modern Riben, Bulgaria, researchers made a startling discovery – an artifact that they believe may be one of the earliest attempts of writing in...
Closeup Image of Orion's Belt (Public Domain) and Vucedol Pot (oocities.org)

The Oldest Known Calendar in Europe is based on the Orion Constellation

In the late 1970s during the construction of an atomic bomb shelter, a shattered pot was found amongst the rubble. Archeologists were baffled by the strange patterns on the vessel, which dates back...
Photograph of some of Pre-Hispanic incense burners recently recovered in Mexico.

Sending Smoke Signals to the Gods: Pre-Hispanic Incense Burners Discovered in Mexico

About 30 Pre-Hispanic perfume or incense burners (sahumadores) have been discovered by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) at the historic site of Cuautitlan...
: Discovery of the vessel.

Wine used in Ritual Ceremonies 5000 Years Ago in Georgia, the Cradle of Viticulture

A Georgian-Italian archaeological expedition has discovered vine pollen in a zoomorphic vessel used in ritual ceremonies by the Kura-Araxes population. In the archeological site of Aradetis Orgora,...
New Archaeological Method Finds Children Were Skilled Ceramists During the Bronze Age

New Archaeological Method Finds Children Were Skilled Ceramists During the Bronze Age

Artisanal interpretation of ceramics from the Bronze Age shows that a nine-year-old child could be a highly skilled artisan. This was one of the discoveries presented in a new thesis from Lund...
Celadon: Appreciating Pottery for its Aesthetic Value and Magical Qualities

Celadon: Appreciating Pottery for its Aesthetic Value and Magical Qualities

Celadon pottery (also known simply as ‘celadon’) is a type of ceramic that originated in ancient China. Celadon is well-known for its jade-like color, which it obtains due to the glaze that is...
19th century watercolor of the Tomb of the Dancers.

Ancient Burial Rituals Prove You Can Take it With You ... and What You Take Says a lot

Death is inevitable, but what death shows us about the social behaviors of the living is not. And recent University of Cincinnati research examining the ancient bereavement practices from the Central...