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A pit filled with heat stones from the rescue excavation in Heimberg. Source: Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern / Guy Jaquenod

Bronze Age Pits in Switzerland Reveal Secrets of Clay Production

Ahead of a new road building project in Switzerland, archaeologists excavated what they assumed was a Roman settlement. However, it was only when they discovered a series of pits filled with hearth...
Two of the Roman seals discovered at the site of Doliche in Turkey. Source: Forschungsstelle Asia Minor

Roman Seals Showing Hundreds of Gods Unearthed in Turkey

Previous teams of archaeologists excavating in the former Roman city archive of Doliche, Turkey, discovered hoards of clay stamps used to seal official Roman documents. Now, another 2,000 of these...
Mesopotamian clay balls have been unearthed in Iran. Source: Fair use

Mesopotamian Clay Balls: Ancient Relics or Prehistoric Hard Drives?

Research conducted in late 2013 offered intriguing clues to decoding the secrets of the Mesopotamian clay balls, which date back 5,500 years. The study, which used CT scanning to look inside the clay...
The clay figurine suspected to be a water deity discovered in Unkenbach, Germany. Source: Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments

Weird Hooded Prehistoric Water Deity Unearthed in Germany

For as long as humans have prayed, water has been a focus of divine adoration. Even the sight of water can spark wonder, terror and joy depending on whether it's a bubbling spring, the destructive...
Flat throwing stones with sharpened corners, an early form of ninja weapons, unearthed at the ruins of the Owada jinya administrative headquarters in Saitama, Japan.		Source: (Saitama Prefectural Ranzan Historical Museum

Ninja Weapon Prototypes Found in Japan

After analyzing artifacts collected from three locations in the Saitama Prefecture, which is located just north of Tokyo, a Japanese archaeologist has announced findings that shed new light on the...
The white pipeclay Roman Venus figurine after cleaning and how it was found. 		Source: GloucestershireLive / Cotswold Archaeology

1,800-year-old Roman Venus Figurine Found In England Was A Home Deity

A 17-centimeter (6.7 inch) tall Roman Venus figurine has been discovered by archaeologists in the city of Gloucester, England. This 1,800-year-old find has created considerable excitement in the...
Paleolithic Age Footprints of Children Discovered in La Garma Cave

Paleolithic Age Footprints of Children Discovered in La Garma Cave

Cantabria in northern Spain is famous for its cave systems that are adorned with deeply-ancient prehistoric drawings . In archaeological terms National Geographic calls the Museo de Altamira “the...
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...
Golem of Prague and Rabbi Loew

Golem: A Legendary Clay Beast Created to Protect Jewish People

The gothic horror novel, Frankenstein , is one of the most well-known stories in which man tries to play god by attempting to manufacture a living being. A similar story, that of the golem, exists in...
5,300-Year-Old Textile Impressions Unearthed in Scotland

5,300-Year-Old Textile Impressions Unearthed in Scotland

The colorful threads, strings, yarns, twines, and ropes that wove together the Neolithic world have greatly rotted back to whence they came, leaving archaeologists and anthropologists only grey stone...
The Minoan cup, shown here next to a modern throwaway container that washed up in the Pacific.    Source: Trustees of the British Museum

3500-Year-Old Minoan Cup Proves Ancients Weren’t Green Either

A disposable Minoan cup forged by the early Mediterranean civilization will be displayed in a “stunning showcase,” which evaporates the cultural myth that ‘single-use’ crockery is a modern creation...
Babylonian relief carving. Credit: Andrea Izzotti / Adobe Stock

Eat Like a Mesopotamian: Experts Reconstruct 4000-Year-Old Recipes

Mesopotamia is considered to be home to one of the first civilizations and it decisively shaped world history. Now thanks to some of the oldest culinary recipes, inscribed on clay tablets, we now...
Left: The clay horse head from the Hellenistic period. Right: The Iron Age clay horse head

Riders On The Storm: Ancient Clay Horse Heads Emerge After Heavy Rain In Israel

Many important archaeological finds are a result of chance events and good fortune. In Israel, two clay horses’ heads which once were part of equine sculptures have been found by sheer luck. They...
A clay tablet with an engraved inscription has been discovered at the archaeological site of Olympia in Greece. It contains 13 verses of a rhapsody from Homer’s Odyssey.

Clay Tablet Found at Olympia May Be the Oldest Excerpt from Homer’s Odyssey

Archaeologists excavating the ancient site of Olympia, one of the largest archaeological sites in Greece, have found a rare and important artifact – a clay tablet inscribed with 13 verses of a...
This 2,700-year-old seal impression contains the Hebrew name for "Isaiah" and may refer to the biblical prophet who lived at the same time.

The Mark of a Prophet? This May Be the Signature of Isaiah

Back in 2009, archaeologists working near Temple Mount came across a collection of clay seals. One was identified in 2015 as belonging to King Hezekiah, an 8th century BC biblical king. Now, another...
60 of the almost 100 cuneiform clay tablets were found at the archaeological site of Bassetki in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

Almost 100 Cuneiform Clay Tablets Unearthed and Archaeologists Cannot Wait to Decipher Them

The discovery of ancient writing is always exciting for researchers. Documented events, letters, lists, literature – it is all helpful in reconstructing the story of our predecessors. Thus, the...
relief at the ancient Persian city of Persepolis (now in modern Iran), including inscriptions in cuneiform, the world’s oldest form of writing.

The Controversial Road to the Recovery of Cuneiform Texts

It is a little-known piece of history that Saddam Hussein was a great fan of ancient Mesopotamian literature. His enthusiasm for epics written in cuneiform – the world’s oldest known form of writing...
The 3700-year-old Babylonian tablet with the ‘Pythagorean theorem.’

3700-year old Babylonian Tablet Confirms Pythagoras Did Not Invent the Theorem Bearing His Name

An unknown Babylonian mathematician beat Pythagoras to the discovery of trigonometry by more than 1000 years, claim experts studying the piece. That Babylonian genius marked down the famous theorem...
Clay accounting ball with calculi, counters, and evolution of cuneiform. Exhibit in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

The Solution to the 5,500-year-old Mesopotamian Clay Ball Enigma

In late 2013, interesting fresh evidence dating back five and a half millennia was found, giving insights into the enigma of the Mesopotamian clay balls. Through use of CT scanning to peer into the...
Nampa Image or figurine

The Nampa Figurine: 2-million-year-old Relic or Just a Hoax?

In 1889, a group of workers was searching for water near the town of Nampa in southwestern Idaho. To create a well, they drilled a borehole down about 295 feet (90 meters), at which point their steam...
The Tărtăria Tablets

Are the Tărtăria Tablets Actually Written in Hungarian?

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have found writing that dates back 5000 years. This writing, found inscribed in clay, is called the Tărtăria Tablets by M.R. Reese. Reese makes it clear for Ancient Origins...
Leaving an Impression: Revealing the Intricate Story of Sumerian Cylinder Seals

Leaving an Impression: Revealing the Intricate Story of Sumerian Cylinder Seals

A cylinder seal is a small cylindrical object with images, words, or both, engraved onto it. Sumerian cylinder seals would be rolled over wet clay to make an impression. When the clay dried, a seal...
Chancay burial dolls.

Chancay Burial Dolls: Ancient Peruvian Grave Goods of a Lost Culture

Chancay burial ‘dolls’ are a type of grave goods that were used by the Chancay culture, a pre-Columbian civilization located in modern day Peru. This civilization was based mainly in the valleys of...
The Clay Tablet that reveals the Babylonians were using calculus to track the path of Jupiter.

Clay Tablet Reveals Ancient Babylonians Used Calculus to Track Jupiter 1,500 Years before Europeans

A new analysis of a set of ancient clay tablets has revealed that ancient astronomers of Babylonia used advanced geometrical methods to calculate the position of Jupiter – a conceptual leap that was...

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