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The ancient fingerprints of a worker who helped build a wall in ancient Al Ain. Source: Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi / Fair Use.
29 May, 2019 - 22:56 Ed Whelan

Fingerprints of Ancient Masons Reveal Advanced Iron Age Construction Technique

Sometimes a discovery really brings the past alive. One such is the recent discovery of 3000-year old fingerprints that have been found in the United Arab Emirates . This discovery is allowing...
Guédelon Castle in France has been constructed from scratch using only medieval techniques.
6 May, 2019 - 18:57 Ed Whelan

Can Medieval Artisans From Guédelon Help Rebuild Notre-Dame?

The world was shocked by the sight of Notre Dame Cathedral burning . It prompted many people to think about their heritage and reminded them of how we take the great works of the past for granted...
The design experiment created by MIT scientists Credit: Brandon Clifford & Johanna Lobdell in collaboration with Davide Zampini
19 April, 2019 - 14:22 ashley cowie

Is this How Ancient Megalithic Structures Were Made? MIT Scientist Move 25-Ton Blocks by Hand!

Ancient cultures in Peru, China and Egypt, to name only a few; quarried, lifted, transported and crafted vast megaliths, some weighing several hundred tons. Until now, theories as to how these stones...
The Great Wall of China near Beijing
11 December, 2018 - 23:00 dhwty

The Great Wall of China Construction Project that Spanned Generations, Centuries and Dynasties

The Great Wall of China (known also as the ‘Wanli Changcheng’ or ‘10000 Li Wall’) is one of China’s most iconic structures. This is the longest wall in the world, and one of the largest construction...
How were the pyramids built? The discovery of a quarry ramp may finally provide a consensus on this debate.
1 November, 2018 - 23:28 Ed Whelan

Archaeologists Say They’ve Solved Mystery of How Pyramids were Built After Unearthing 4,500-Year-Old Ramp

Has the riddle of how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids finally been solved? A multi-national team of experts say yes, after they unearthed an ancient ramp, which they say was used to haul...
Egyptian blue shabti figures on display in the Egyptian exhibit at the Louvre in France in 2006.
17 October, 2018 - 13:57 ashley cowie

Eco-Architecture in Egyptian Blue: Scientists Discover Modern Usage for the 4000-Year-Old Pigment

Egyptian blue was a brilliant blue color first created in ancient Egypt over 4000 years ago. Now, scientists have found it to hold unique qualities that can “reduce building energy consumption and...
Stonehenge
3 August, 2018 - 01:59 ancient-origins

Ground-breaking Science Reveals People Buried at Stonehenge Came from Way Out West

Despite over a century of intense study, we still know very little about the people buried at Stonehenge or how they came to be there. Now, a new University of Oxford research collaboration,...
Aerial view of the ruins of a Roman library found in Cologne, Germany.
2 August, 2018 - 18:52 Ed Whelan

The Truth is in its Walls: Excavated Ruins in Germany Have Been Identified as a Roman Library

Workers have made an extraordinary discovery in the German city of Cologne. It is believed that they have unearthed the walls of a large Roman library. The ruins are those of the oldest known public...
Restored statue platform with standing moai on the south coast of Rapa Nui. Note that one of the moai is adorned with a red scoria pukao.
6 June, 2018 - 01:55 ancient-origins

How the Easter Island Statues Received Their Hats: Final Report

How do you put a 13-ton hat on a giant statue? That's what a team of researchers is trying to figure out with their study of Easter Island statues and the red hats that sit atop some of them. "Lots...
The magnificent Boat of Khufu, Solar Boat Museum, Giza
3 May, 2018 - 19:01 Istvan Soros

The Great Boat of Khufu: The ‘Black Box’ to the Construction of the Pyramids

Perhaps this is not the first time that the reader will have heard of how in 1954 the Great Boat of Khufu was discovered, practically intact, at the southern face of the Kheops Pyramid, and how it is...
An illustration depicting the construction of the Egyptian pyramids
11 March, 2018 - 14:23 ashley cowie

Demystifying the Egyptian Pyramids with Hard Facts

It has always fascinated, and worried me at the same time, how many people I meet that are still mesmerized by aspects of the pyramids in Egypt that archeologists solved many years ago. The when, how...
A Liangzhu period structure of the Meirendi bank with wooden planks still standing upright.
6 December, 2017 - 01:48 Alicia McDermott

5,100-year-old Hydraulic System Found in China is the Oldest in the World

Four years of excavations have unearthed an immense water engineering project created in China about 5,100 years ago. This predates the oldest known comparable system; which is from Mesopotamia and...
Great Pyramid of Egypt. Source: BigStockPhoto
24 September, 2017 - 14:58 aprilholloway

Archaeologists Announce that New Discoveries Solve Mystery of How the Great Pyramid Was Built

A new set of investigations in ancient Egypt have led to some startling discoveries – the translation of an ancient papyrus, the unearthing of an ingenious system of waterworks, and the discovery of...
Drawing of an obelisk.
3 September, 2017 - 23:05 Caleb Strom

Constructing an Obelisk: How the True Rocks of Eternity were Made

Since Classical antiquity, the West has had a fascination with ancient Egypt. Even Roman tourists would regularly visit Egypt in droves and all but one of the Egyptian obelisks were removed at some...
Urmes Stave Church, Norway
23 July, 2017 - 23:04 Riley Winters

Urnes Stave Church: A Final Vestige of Viking Innovation

At the edge of the world lies the last trace of Viking Christianity. Urnes Stave Church (c. 1130 AD) stands tall in Sognefjord in the west of Norway, yet it represents as much of an end as it does a...
A Step Closer to Finding the Recipe for Ancient Rome’s Rock-Solid Super-Concrete
5 July, 2017 - 22:57 Theodoros Karasavvas

A Step Closer to Finding the Recipe for Ancient Rome’s Rock-Solid Super-Concrete

New studies of ancient concrete could teach us more about the amazing techniques of ancient Roman engineering and the secrets behind the incredible longevity of many of their concrete harbor...

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