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.
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...
Did the very first humans that reached Europe hunt with bows and arrows? A new study appearing in the journal Science Advances claims that they did, and that this happened 54,000 years ago in...
In ancient Megiddo, a city on the crossroads of major trade routes, two upper-class brothers underwent "angular notched trephination," the earliest example of its kind found in the Ancient Near East...
A huge cache of stolen crown jewels dating back to Cambodia’s legendary Khmer (Angkorian) Empire resurfaced in London last summer, and have now been returned to Cambodia, the BBC has announced . Some...
The exciting discovery of a 16-meter-long (52.5 ft) ancient papyrus found in a sarcophagus in Egypt's Saqqara region has now been unveiled. A papyrus of this size and quality had not been discovered...
Egypt’s Public Prosecution office just issued an arrest warrant for a group of crafty criminals who cooked up an ingenious scheme to swindle antiquities traffickers. These daring fraudsters went all...
Archaeologists in France have found evidence of a 6,300-year-old fortified compound and residential site belonging to Europe’s first megalithic builders! These builders constructed impressive...
It’s not the first time archaeologists in Norway have discovered ancient arrows melting out of mountainsides. But it is the first time arrows made from mussel shells have been found. Another Treasure...
In what is perhaps the oldest sex toy ever found in Britain, a 2,000-year-old Roman phallus is the subject of a new study. Found in 1992 near the Roman fort of Vindolanda near Hadrian’s Wall , the...
