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.
How old is the art of embalming the dead and where did it originate? This is one of those eternal archaeological questions that is constantly reinforced and altered with the arrival of new evidence...
A new study published in the journal Nature by an international team of archaeologists has provided fascinating new insights into hunter-gatherer lifestyles 40,000 years ago in north China, and Homo...
Many scholars have suspected that the monuments of Stonehenge were carefully arranged to function as some type of calendar. Proof of this concept has been hard to come by, however, as even the most...
During an archaeological dig near the village of Willendorf in Lower (Eastern) Austria in 1908, a laborer dug up a small statue that proved to be one of the most important pieces of prehistoric art...
The Sinai Peninsula, the only part of Egypt located in Asia, sandwiched between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, is a land bridge between Asia and Africa. This peninsula has been the subject of...
Black Death is said to have killed over half of Europe’s population. However, a new pollen study suggests many parts of Europe were not affected by the bacterial onslaught. Black Death was a bubonic...
The 5,000-year-old remains of a man unearthed from a mass burial in northern Chile have been identified as having belonged to a Neolithic fisherman who died by drowning. The details of the man’s life...
Ancient Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology are characterized by a burial practice known as kurgan burials, wherein mounds of earth and stone are raised over a single or multiple graves...
In an intriguing discovery, the remains of an African man who died just 350 years ago have been found buried in a prehistoric shell midden in Amoreira in Portugal. The middens in Amoreira and other...
Back in 2014, a pair of pants were discovered in the Tarim Basin in China. Believed to be the oldest pair of trousers in the world, they were made between 3,000 and 3,300 years ago. Dating back to...
A highly-skilled 3D artist has brought back to life a 4,000-year-old Stone Age woman’s skull. This story can only be written after 300 grueling hours of work by archaeologist and artist Oscar Nilsson...
A team of Norwegian scientists have been tracking the evolution of diseases in medieval bodies. Not only have they added to the understanding of how diseases become pandemics, but they’ve revealed...
A construction crew working at a residential building site in northern Gaza in Palestine unearthed a most unexpected and historically significant find. While digging deep into the bedrock, the...
A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists have found an exceptionally well-preserved and intact Neolithic shrine at a remote prehistoric hunting campsite in Jordan’s eastern desert that dates...
An archaeological dig prior to the demolition of the Old Berwick Hospital site, built in 1874 in the town of Berwick in Northumberland, continues to unveil interesting discoveries about the town’s...
Entombed inside two large barrows (burial mounds) located on an open plain in northern Serbia, a team of scientists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (...
Modern science has lent a certain sophistication to human history, allowing for various genetic and acquired deficiencies to be addressed. Today, our eyes and ears can be repaired with simple and...
Archaeologists excavating near London Bridge have discovered the largest Roman mosaic to have been unearthed in 50 years. Dating back to the Roman period when the city was called Londinium, it was in...
It’s all changed in the ancient history of Cyprus, thanks to the discovery by archaeologists that the copper-rich island was a significant trader during the fall of empires in 1200 BC. The keys to...
Subject of many studies and investigations, Egyptian King Tut’s dagger has already been proven to have been made from meteorite iron. A recent study has now added a new dimension to exactly where...
The University of Nottingham is leading a collaborative study that aims to identify the place of origin of iron Viking weapons, using their chemical fingerprints. For example, Viking weapons made...
Archaeology on the Croatian island of Hvar in the Adriatic Sea is proceeding at a pace likely not exceeded anywhere else in the world. Just within the past two weeks, researchers affiliated with a...
Archaeologists in England have discovered a monumental ancient building. Not only was this the burial site of a powerful female clan leader, but it represents the largest illegal silver production or...
The Cerne Abbas Giant, a crude, naked, male-giant figure, drawn on an English hillside with chalk, measuring a whopping 180 feet (55 meters) tall has obviously been an eternal source of fascination...
