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.
Since the 1960s, archaeologists in Central Asia have found rocks carved with a mysterious unknown language. Now, a team from the University of Cologne has deciphered the unknown script, revealing it...
Ancient photoshopping? Hidden details of ancient Egyptian paintings, along with artistic processes and alterations made to historical masterpieces over 3,000 years ago, have been uncovered by...
Mexican archaeologists excavating in the central square of the ancient Maya city of Kulubá identified a curious cubic stone with all the hallmarks of having served as a sacrificial altar. Cementing...
In Te’omim Cave in the Jerusalem Hills of central Israel, excavations that took place between 2010 and 2016 recovered a huge collection of Roman oil lamps, weapons, pieces of pottery and actual human...
Halfway up a near-vertical ravine in the Andes, someone carved an inverted V-shaped entrance into the mountainside. Then they sliced the bedrock with great precision to create a shallow door that...
A Kentucky farmer was digging in his corn field earlier this year when he discovered over 700 coins. About 95% of the unexpected stash dated back to the American Civil War. This chance finding of a...
Around 2,000 years ago, grave robbers would place a wolf skull on top of a burial site, in a bid to protect themselves from the vengeful spirit of a deceased individual buried in a mound. No, this is...
During recent excavations in the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq, a team of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology uncovered an exciting...
In 2021, the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania was identified as the oldest human occupational site in North America, dated to at least 16,000 radiocarbon years old, or 19,000 calendar years...
While exploring in the remote Negev Desert in southern Israel in 2021, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) stumbled upon something quite unexpected. Right along the route of a...
An archaeological expedition from the University of Gothenburg has announced the finding of underground tombs in Cyprus. Initially, the Swedish archaeologists identified a set of mysterious chambers...
In 2008, in southwest Spain’s Valencia, the skeletal grave of an ‘important person’ was undoubtedly found, with an array of precious artifacts. This included an elephant's tusk, an ivory comb, a...
Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) recently announced the completion of a study of a rare and unusual Maya artifact. During an underwater dive into a...
Researchers from the UCL Institute of Archaeology have discovered some of the largest ever prehistoric stone tools unearthed in Britain. A thorough excavation conducted in Kent unveiled ancient...
A Phoenician trading vessel that sank off the coast of Spain around 2,500 years ago has been rendered in high-resolution 3D maps. As a precursor of plans to rescue the shipwreck, piece-by-piece, in...
A ‘significant hoard’ of Roman items discovered in England last year by an amateur detectorist has gone on display, much to the delight of history enthusiasts and archaeologists involved in the dig...
Little did Oddbjørn Holum Heiland know what he would find when he embarked on a Friday night project, commencing excavation work behind his 1740 Setesdalshouse alongside his wife, Anne. Long story...
During a pair of separate excavations that took place in Linmere, Bedfordshire in 2019 and 2021, stunned archaeologists unearthed 25 monumental pits that date back far into prehistory. Radiocarbon...
Archaeologists in Serbia, excavating in the center of the city of Belgrade, have discovered a Roman necropolis filled with elaborate stone tombs, and a section of a Roman aqueduct system. However,...
Recent examination of ancient stone tools reveals that as early as 40,000 years ago, the early inhabitants of the Philippines were crafting ropes and baskets from plant fibers. This discovery pushes...
The victims of an earthquake that struck the Chinese community of Lajia in Qinghai Province on the Upper Yellow River were put on display by the Lajia Ruins Museum in 2015. It’s a scene that the...
For eight decades, farmers in China’s Henan province have been picking up 3,000-year-old Shang Dynasty jade treasures from their fields. Until now, the origin of these artifacts was unknown, but a...
The Turko-Mongol Golden Horde was one of history’s most powerful empires, sweeping across the plains of Asia and East Europe, subjugating many kingdoms by their sheer might. And although the Mongols...
Excavations in 1998 and 2019 unearthed hoards of ancient stone armor in and around the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, offering insights into the emperor's military achievements and life. Now, a new...