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.
East of Jerusalem lies the historic Judean Desert and the hilltop fortress of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada was the setting of the mass suicide of almost 1,000 Jewish zealots, including men...
The remains of a spectacular banquet hall from the Second Temple period in Jerusalem were unveiled by archaeologists as they announced that the site will soon be opened to the public for the first...
A team of French and Polish archaeologists exploring ancient ruins in Paphos, Cyprus have discovered a ceremonial seating area carved into the bedrock next to the foundation of a now-destroyed...
Ancient makeup from the Stone Age, a time of hunters and gathers. Really? The world’s media is buzzing with a story about prehistoric Europeans “using makeup,” 6,000 years ago. This discovery could...
Archaeologists working in the province of Muğla, Turkey are celebrating an exciting archaeological find. During routine excavations and restoration work at the Temple of Zeus Lepsynos in the ancient...
Archaeologists digging in the Aziza hills area of the Beheira governate in northern Egypt have recovered the remains a pottery workshop dating to the Graeco-Roman period, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism...
A known Egyptian priest mummy, from over 3,000 years ago, has recently been transferred from Italy’s famous Museum of Civil Archeology in Bergamo to the Policlinico of Milan hospital to conduct a...
The remains of an ancient mountain fire temple have been discovered in Iran. While archaeology knows of almost 200 fire temples around the world this one is special because it displays a rare ancient...
The lost tomb of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, has finally been discovered. Recent excavations in the Tomb of Korinos in northern Greece have resulted in what amounts to a massive...
Archaeologists working in China’s Zhejiang Province recently unearthed something ancient and extraordinary. While performing excavations at a site near the city of Ningbo on Hangzhou Bay, they found...
The long-lost Great Sacristy of Henry III, built nearly eight centuries ago and rediscovered in 2020, will be open to the public for the first time this summer. The 13th century king ordered this...
A group of Polish children digging in a playground sandpit made the unexpected, and quite morbid, discovery of a Bronze Age Lusatian grave. The children are fine, but we adults should be asking if...
An Italian national treasure, and one of the greatest poets and writers to emerge from the Italian Middle Age (indeed, ever), Dante Alighieri was a 13th century and early 14th century writer who was...
Sudanese Islamic burial sites are not randomly located as was traditionally believed. Quite the opposite. Thanks to satellite technology , it has been discovered that contrary to the belief that...
Evidence has emerged that the common cold virus has been around for longer than previously believed. A lot longer, in fact. In a study published online in the open access journal bioRxiv , a team of...
What is being described by one Shetland islander as a “hugely significant discovery " has reached the press. While nobody is just yet sure what the five ancient circular structures found on the...
A new study of fossils from the genus Homo from all over the world has concluded that human body size is linked to differences in climate and temperature. In essence they have found that cold...
It is now known elite members of an ancient culture living around Africa’s deep and inaccessible Iroungou Cave in Gabon mutilated their faces by removing selected teeth, which changed the shape of...
After years of work, researchers have now completed their exhumation of all the artifacts of the Second Khufu Ship found next to the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) in Giza. The next steps are restoration...
In Sigtuna, Sweden, just north of Stockholm, seven well-preserved Viking tombs have been discovered, including the graves of two possible infant twins. As per the Swedish press release on this...
A team of French, Australian, and Israeli scientists has collected evidence proving there was an active and thriving silver trade network in the eastern Mediterranean region in the Late Bronze Age...
Two Italian historians have announced they have found the “lost descendants” of Leonardo da Vinci after a 10-year-long quest into the family tree of the famous polymath, inventor, and artist. Italian...
51,000 years ago, our Stone Age hominin cousins, the Neanderthals, left behind a thoughtfully carved and decorated deer toe bone. This piece of conceptual art found in northern Germany has just been...
A stash of 29 “out of place” 80-million-year-old shark teeth have been discovered at a 2,900-year-old site in the City of David neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel. The find has challenged scientists...
