We bring you all the latest historical news and archaeological discoveries relating to ancient human history. Read more history news from around the world here at Ancient Origins.
Archaeologists in Peru made a monumental discovery when they found dozens of tombs with up to 40 mummies in each at a 1,200-year-old ceremonial site in Cotahuasi Valley. So far 171 mummies have been...
Almost 6,000 years ago, the man was placed behind the woman with his arms around her body, and their legs were intertwined. They were buried. Why they were interred in this manner is not yet...
The Divje Babe flute, discovered in a cave in Slovenia in 1995, has long been heralded as the oldest musical instrument ever discovered. The item is a fragment of the femur of a cave bear which had...
Though the tombs of two ancient Egyptian priests excavated recently had been vandalized and their bones scattered across the burial chamber many centuries ago, beautiful paintings on the walls and...
Previous studies have established that people of numerous pre-Columbian civilizations in northern Chile suffered from chronic arsenic poisoning between 500 and 1450 AD, through consumption of...
Scholars in Wales have discovered that parts of one of the most important books in Welsh history was erased and some of the texts on its animal-skin pages overwritten. The book is titled The Black...
A father and son buried together about 2,000 years ago in Linlithgow, Scotland, have been unearthed in the course of an archaeological dig. Archaeologists excavating the tomb say the pair were...
Archaeologists in the state of Karnataka, in South West India, have discovered a set of ancient tablets with inscriptions that reveal a family of six people underwent the sacrificial rite of...
Archaeologists have discovered an enormous medieval cemetery containing an estimated 1,300 burials beneath St John’s College, Cambridge, thought to be among the largest medieval hospital burial...
A painting that was considered a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art may have been faked in the 1870s by an archaeologist excavating the pharaonic family tomb in which the painting was found. Live...
Approximately 200 mysterious stone circles dot the landscape in the hot and unforgiving Gobi Desert. These man-made stone formations sitting atop the sand near Turpan City in northwestern China may...
Ancient Greeks, Vikings, Caucasians, prehistoric Siberians and Mongolians, and ancient Chinese emperors were all taken with the medicinal properties of the wild herb Rhodiola rosea (golden root or...
In a mountain valley in Serbia around 300 AD, Romans built a palace complex to honor the Emperor Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximianus, who was born in the area. In this palace, called Felix Romuliana,...
Over a dozen pits used to store ancient beer have been found by archaeologists in Tel Aviv. This archaeological find from approximately 5,000 years ago is reportedly the first evidence of an “...
Archaeologists studying a cave in southeast Italy with remains of people who died 7,500 years ago say they have identified the first known cases in New Stone Age Europe of people scraping the flesh...
The ancient fortress site of Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) in western Bolivia is still revealing secrets thousands of years after its peak as capital of an empire, and home to one of the most important...
The remains of a woman who died around the late 12 th or early 13 th century were excavated under the foundation a Welsh church that has been converted into a museum. The church was built over an...
Many centuries ago on the border of Belize and Guatemala, Maya people built a large city surrounded by a cultivated jungle garden that was home to around 20,000 people, which archaeologists call El...
A new look into a Thracian temple buried beneath Roman baths is challenging what researchers once thought about the worship of deities in the ancient city of Odessus, now the Bulgarian Black Sea city...
Excavations at a medieval port and fortress in Bulgaria have led archaeologists to discover several artifacts of significance. A lead vessel containing ashes from the alleged grave of John the...
A 4,200-year-old skeleton that shows signs of deterioration from cancer is the earliest known case of breast cancer, according to the Spanish anthropologists who uncovered her remains in a necropolis...
The prevailing theory among archaeologists holds that prehistoric people settled down as they began to grow crops and manage livestock and then built progressively more advanced civilizations with...
Throughout its 2,500-year history, the ancient ruins of the Acropolis in Greece managed to survive many earthquakes where other, more modern constructions have fallen. How is this possible? Experts...
Poisons are ubiquitous in the plant and animal world – some snakes and frogs are venomous, and various trees and plants are lethally toxic. This was well-known by our ancient ancestors, and they...