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.
By Jenefer Metcalfe / The Conversation Centuries after the first golden coffins were taken to Europe, ancient Egyptian mummies still vividly capture people’s imaginations. Perhaps we’re awed by the...
An astonishing collection of gold and silver jewelry and coins, some of which are at least 1,000 years old, has just gone on display at the Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden (RMO) museum in the city of Leiden...
Two filmmakers detected a rare Ming Dynasty Buddha in Australia, which could “rewrite history.” Some thought it an elaborate hoax, but experts have now verified the honesty of the finders. Back in...
Archaeologists in Denmark are celebrating the discovery of the oldest inscription mentioning the god Odin. This story begins with the 2021 discovery of a 5th century collection of Norse treasures at...
Excavations at Leicester Cathedral, a building constructed by the Normans over 900 years ago, have been under archaeological scrutiny since the digs began in October 2021. Long believed to be a site...
Unique skeletal signatures identified on 5,000 years old bodies from modern Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, provide the earliest evidence of horse riding ever discovered. A team of researchers has...
Archaeologists in southern Egypt have uncovered a remarkable miniature sphinx statue, sporting a rare feature of a smiling face with two dimples. The artifact was found near the Hathor Temple in a...
A captivating question has long intrigued historians and archaeologists: why did some ancient cities last for centuries or even millennia, while others vanished rapidly or were forgotten over time?...
New research has revealed evidence that gladiatorial combat took place in Roman Britain in the late second century AD. The evidence of these bloody battles was found on a vase discovered in a Roman...
The ancient city of Eleusis in Greece was the site of one of the most mysterious and revered religious rites of ancient Greece, the Eleusinian Mysteries . The exact nature of the rituals performed...
While sorting through some 280,000 artifacts excavated from land reserved for a highway construction project running from Cambridge to the village of Huntingdon in eastern England, archaeologists...
Minoan civilization may have been heavily dependent on celestial star paths up above to help them navigate their way throughout the Mediterranean. A study has found that Minoan palaces were even...
Egyptologists have announced the discovery of a secret chamber located right above the main entrance to the Great Pyramid of Egypt. However, what it was created for is still a mystery. On Thursday,...
While metal detecting in a field, a British couple thought they found an ancient cart wheel piece, but it turned out to be a small human figure with a large bronze, hinged penis. Noonans auction...
During a recent archaeological press conference in Xinjiang, known as the birthplace of skiing, experts announced the discovery of ice skates made of animal bone that are believed to be 3,500 years...
Was this German silver mine really defended by two Roman forts and a line of "spike defenses”? Or, were the Romans protecting something even more valuable than silver? Having spent several months in...
In the news last October for the damage inflicted by a forest fire over 100 hectares, Easter Island is now in the news again – for the discovery and addition of a new Moai statue on the Chilean...
A man exploring along a riverbank in northern Kent recently discovered the oldest shoe ever found on United Kingdom soil. Carbon dating tests proved the decayed but still recognizable leather...
Archaeologists have been able to take a closer look at one of the United Kingdoms most famous shipwrecks. Stunning underwater footage has provided up-to-now unknown vistas of the abandoned remains of...
Archaeologists in Russia have discovered a rare embroidered Deisis depicting Jesus Christ in a Christian medieval burial ground containing 46 graves from the Mongol period. One of the graves...
New research reveals Boris Johnson’s mummified Swiss ancestor did not die of syphilis , as has long been believed, but of an unknown pathogen. In 1787, at 68 years old, a woman called Anna Catharina...
As the permafrost in Siberia melts, it has revealed a mummified brown bear that lived more than three millennia ago. Scientists are now planning to conduct an autopsy on the bear, with the hope of...
A collection of ancient tombs from the Persian, Roman, and Coptic eras has been unearthed by archaeologists in the Minya governorate of Egypt, situated about 150 miles (245 km) to the south of Cairo...
While digging at a site called Pakaytambo in the southern Peru highlands, anthropologists and archaeologists from the University of Illinois—Chicago (UIC) unearthed an ancient Wari ritual complex...
