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.
A flint flake from the Middle Paleolithic of Crimea was likely engraved symbolically by a skilled Neanderthal hand, according to a study published May 2, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by...
Archaeologists have made an extraordinary find that shows that early humans occupied the Philippines much earlier than thought. According to a report in scientific journal Nature , archaeologists...
Experimental archaeology can be a very useful asset when we are trying to gain a better insight on how things were done in the past. One way it helps us is to gain some understanding of the...
In Israel, experts believe that they have found a long-lost citadel from the time of King David. Some argue, according to Breaking Israel News , that the building is the Canaanite stronghold of Eglon...
About 3,600 years ago, someone decided to bury a collection of sharpened turkey bones and mussel shells. The items were unearthed in 1985 and then forgotten for almost three decades. However, a...
450 Stolen Sumerian tablets are being repatriated to Iraq with a ceremony in Washington D.C. on May 2. Many of the cuneiform texts come from a mysterious city called Irisagrig – a land from which...
Baboons and monkeys were an inalienable part of the religious and artistic landscape in ancient Egypt. A wealth of depictions of these animals exists in varied media spanning all dynasties. But it is...
Among the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, archaeological excavations have revealed the skeleton of a child who died in a volcanic eruption. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and destroyed the...
The ancient Egyptians populated their vast pantheon of gods and goddesses with an incredible menagerie of animals and birds. These deities served as protectors, law-givers, healers, patrons of the...
A rare manuscript has become a unique one thanks to the eagle eyes of a French scholar. Dr. Eléonore Cellard noticed that there was barely visible text beneath an 8th century copy of holy scripture...
Irish citizens will go to the polls at the end of May and decide if their Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which bans abortion, should be repealed or not. The topic is a heavy one, with both sides...
Prized as symbols of a warrior’s strength, prestige, and power, bone daggers were once widespread artistic and functional tools in New Guinea. New research on the subject shows that not all the bones...
Matt Gibbs / The Conversation Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world; it is also the most popular drink after water and tea . In the modern world, however, little consideration is...
The acknowledgement of the diversity of Neanderthal knowledge and skills has been growing. Tool making , caring for each other , dentistry , jewelry making , language , and elaborate burial rites...
3,000 years ago, a small community on a Vietnamese island disappeared. No one is certain why, but even their very existence is a surprise. Luckily for archaeologists, it seems that their traditional...
Recent discoveries at two of the major ancient sites in Egypt emphasize the diversity of culture and power that existed in the region over time. In Aswan, the head of a marble statue of the Roman...
Homo sapiens , Neanderthals and other recent human relatives may have begun hunting large mammal species down to size -- by way of extinction -- at least 90,000 years earlier than previously thought...
Medical usage? Ritual practice? Or perhaps the drugs served both purposes? Researchers are asking what the recently recovered psychoactive drug residues from ancient Mesopotamia mean. But not...
Egyptological scholars are divided over whether a right-hand turn to the burial chamber in an Eighteenth Dynasty tomb signifies that it belonged to a female pharaoh. With this feature present in the...
One of the greatest enigmas in all of Egyptology is the location of the final resting place of Queen Nefertiti, a powerful royal personage of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. Barring pieces of a votive...
There is something unique about the Bronze Age tombs in the Novosibirsk region of Siberia. The Andronovo burials, as they have been called, include dozens of skeletal remains of couples clutching...
Taking political control is often a violent affair, but tactics, knowledge of local customs and beliefs, and trickery can also be used to get an ambitious leader’s foot in the door. New research on...
A 16th century Scottish castle survived decades of battles, attacks, civil war and treason but has been forced to close due to one very angry badger, which has taken up residence in Cellar Tunnel...
Over one thousand years ago, Danish King Harald Bluetooth had to flee his homeland. He would have taken whatever treasured possessions he could as he sought safety in distant lands. Fast forward to...
