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.
About 8,000 years ago, Stone Age people built a large number of what seem to be ancestor and fertility cult sites in the Negev Desert in Israel. A new archaeological survey of 95 sites has turned up...
Neanderthals on speed 60,000 years ago; Paleolithic art inspired by psilocybin or Amanita muscaria mushroom trips; and alcohol-fueled religious worship all over the world down through the ages –...
A stone with mysterious carvings, possibly dating from the Anglo-Saxon or Viking era, had been on sale as a garden ornament when television host and archaeologist James Balme bought it recently,...
Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a vaulted Mycenaean tomb near Amfissa, central Greece, containing human remains and a hoard of treasures. The 3,300-year-old tomb is the first of its...
Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans in what is now West Texas drew more than a thousand glyphs in red pigment on rocks on a cliff. Every winter solstice at noon, the sun strikes the center of one...
Several mummies complete with sarcophagi were retrieved from dirty water where they’d been found floating near El Minya, Egypt. According to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, two...
The prehistoric religious temples of Hawaii are being dated by researchers with the help of small sea creatures. Indigenous temples of Hawaii, known as heiau , can be found across the islands. Dr...
New research has revealed that the gardens of the Taj Mahal, and the structures within it, align with the rising and setting sun during the summer and winter solstices. While the reason for...
Russian scientists are examining ancient human skulls and testing bronze tools on a modern skull to see how doctors in Siberia more than 2,000 years ago performed brain surgery on three adults. It is...
Japanese archaeologists have made a surprising discovery beneath ancient ruins in Japan. An arrangement of coin-filled clay pots aligned to the cardinal directions have been found buried beneath the...
Scientists have discovered four more tattooed lines on ‘Ötzi the Iceman’, a 5,300-year-old mummy, bringing the total number of tattoos to 61. Researchers are still divided over whether the tattoos...
Militants of the Islamic State have destroyed a large portion of the ancient Nineveh wall in Mosul, which dates back some 2,700 years. The tragic loss adds to a series of archaeological, historical,...
An archaeologist working with a brewery is recreating ancient beers from around the world, including Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Denmark, Honduras and China. Alcohol archaeologist Patrick McGovern thinks...
Scientists know little about a pre-Columbian child mummy of Peru on display in Ohio, but that may soon change as the body of the toddler has just undergone CT scans at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital...
Archaeologists are working in a huge necropolis in Poland where remains of people who lived from about 100 to 400 A.D. are buried. They have found two gigantic tombs that they call “princely graves...
Archaeologists have discovered that the Maya made offerings to Chaak, the rain god, at a newly discovered water temple complex alongside the sacred pools of Cara Blanca in Belize. The sacrifices...