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Ancient hunters stalked wildebeest and gazelle 2 million years ago. Source: frilled_dragon /Adobe Stock

Researchers Discover Evidence That Humans Hunted Two Million Years Ago

Early humans began hunting prey animals two million years ago. A team of US scientists have proved ancient hunters ‘killed creatures for meat rather than having to scavenge from big cats.’ Animal...
Arctic explorer Bernard Buigues contemplates the Jarkov woolly elephant tusks emerging from the frozen landscape in Siberia, 1998. These tusks are about three meters (10ft) and over 45kg (100lbs) each.  There is a growing body of evidence that overhunting is the main cause of the extinction of the mammoths. (Francis Latreille / ©The World As It Once Was)

The World As It Once Was: The Shifting Baseline In Iconic Megafauna

Centuries of trophy and commercial hunting, isolation in captivity and poaching, have caused a baseline shift in the perception of iconic megafauna such as Asian and African elephants, which should...
Fossils of almost 70 mammoths have been found at the future site of a Mexican airport. Source: INAH

Here Come the Mammoths, 60 of Them, Unearthed at Mexican Airport

Bones of more than 60 mammoths have been unearthed at the location of a new Mexican international airport. Last November I wrote an Ancient Origins news article about anthropologists from Mexico ’ s...
Hungarian Vizsla out hunting with a pheasant in its mouth.   Source: oroszgy / Adobe stock

Link Between the Huns and Vizsla Dogs Unravels an Ancient Enigma

The history of the Vizsla or Hungarian Pointer breed goes hand in hand with that of the Huns’ (later called Hungarians’ or Magyars’) and even the history of their language. Recent DNA analysis...
Walrus carving from medieval Trondheim. Viking colonies in Greenland relied on walrus ivory for trade. Source: Credit: Åge Hojem NTNU University Museum

Viking Colonies Collapsed Through Over Hunting Walruses

The mysterious disappearance of Greenland's Norse colonies sometime in the 15th century may have been down to the overexploitation of walrus populations for their tusks, according to a study of...
The Indonesian cave art hunting scene panorama. Source: Credit: Adam Brumm, Agus Oktaviana

Indonesian Cave Art Demands Human Cultural Evolution Overhaul

A major discovery has been made in a limestone cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia - the earliest known hunting scene in the world has been identified on a hard to reach cliff face. At least 43,900 years ago...
Native American parents crafted mini weapons to teach their children vital life skills. Source: mmilliman /Adobe Stock

Mini Weapons Taught Children Survival Skills in Oregon

Researchers believe that some weapons found at the Par-Tee site in Oregon, USA were purposely made for little hands to train children and youth life skills. These weapons for children were carefully...
The mammoth traps were found in Tultepec, Mexico. Source: Edith Camacho, INAH

The World’s First 'Mammoth Traps' Found in Mexico?

Anthropologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement on Wednesday that a pair of hunting pits, essentially mammoth traps, were discovered during...
Example of a Bayaka woman hunting in southern Central African Republic in 2014. Source: Max Chiswick/CC BY SA 4.0

Hunter Gatherer Society Has a Time-Tested, Secret Method to Traverse the Rainforest

How do human foragers find food or the way home in rainforests, where heavy vegetation limits visibility, without a map, compass, or smartphone? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for...
Neolithic hunters used domesticated dogs as their hunting companions in Jordan.

In Jordan, Neolithic Hunters Used Domesticated Dogs as Small Prey Hunting Companions

11,500 years ago in what is now northeast Jordan, people began to live alongside dogs and may also have used them for hunting, a new study from the University of Copenhagen shows. The archaeologists...
Glösa rock art.

The Glösa Rock Art in Sweden Provides a Peek Into the Lives of Stone Age Hunters

One of the most interesting and enjoyable historic sites in the Scandinavian country of Sweden is Glösa. This is an area with remarkable prehistoric petroglyphs, excavated hunting pits, and a center...
Point of a throwing spear used by an indigenous hunter 1,000 years ago. It was discovered in a Yukon ice patch.

Archaeologists in the Yukon find a Remarkably Intact Dart Lost by an Indigenous Hunter 1,000 Years Ago

Local belief says that the Yukon ice patches have been a preferred caribou hunting ground for the ancestors of Carcross/Tagish First Nation Citizens for at least 9000 years. Just recently, an...
One of the three Mesolithic deer skull headdresses from the new Star Carr exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

11,000-year-old Spiritualized Deer Masks Whisper Tales Of A Forgotten World

Deer skulls with carved eyeholes dating to 11,000 years ago have been discovered at Star Carr Mesolithic archaeological site about five miles (8.0 km) south of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England...
Artists impression of a giant sloth being confronted by human hunters. Credit: Alex McClelland, Bournemouth University

How to Hunt a Giant Sloth – Ancient Tactics Revealed in Human Footprints

Rearing on its hind legs, the giant ground sloth would have been a formidable prey for anyone, let alone humans without modern weapons. Tightly muscled, angry and swinging its fore legs tipped with...
Obsidian projectile point sourced to Batza Tena, Alaska.

Reconstructing an Ancient Lethal Weapon

Archaeologists are a little like forensic investigators: They scour the remains of past societies, looking for clues in pottery, tools and bones about how people lived, and how they died. And just as...
A typical depiction of a pirate

French Pirate Olivier Levasseur Left Behind a Curious Cryptogram – Does it Lead to his Long-Lost Treasure?

Olivier Levasseur (known also by his nicknames ‘La Buse’, meaning ‘the Buzzard’, or ‘La Bouche’, meaning ‘the Mouth’) was a French pirate who was active during the 1st half of the 18th century...
Taq-e Bostan, famous rock relief monument of Sassanid Persia

Histories of the Sassanian Kings Rivalry with the Romans Are Set in Stone at the Taq-e Bostan Monument

Taq-e Bostan (known also as Taq va san) is an archaeological site located in Kermanshah, a western province in Iran. This region is best-known for its numerous monuments dating to the Sassanian...
Åsgårdsreien (The Wild Hunt) by Peter Nicolai Arbo (1872).

Omen of Odin: The Wild Hunt Thundered Across European Skies, Bringing Calamity and Doom

Ask anyone who has ever seen Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones —witnessing a Bolton "hunt" is rarely a good sign. So too is the case for the supernatural Wild Hunt of European myth. A phenomenon...
A fanciful depiction of a leprechaun

The Carlingford Leprechauns: Protected by the European Union, But Are They Real?

Along with the harp and Saint Patrick, leprechauns have become iconic of Ireland. These mischievous fairies; with their green coats and hats, pots of gold at the edge of rainbows, and promise of...
Bloody Hunts and War Games of the Armies of Khan: The Mongol Military – Part II

Bloody Hunts and War Games of the Armies of Khan: The Mongol Military – Part II

Mongol military organization based on decimal lines under Genghis Khan was nothing new. Other steppe peoples, like the Khitan and Jurched had been using the same system for many years beforehand...
Legends of Mount Shasta: “The Abode of the Devil” Part I – The Legend of J.C. Brown

Legends of Mount Shasta: “The Abode of the Devil” Part I – The Legend of J.C. Brown

Many of Mount Shasta’s strangest tales have yet to be told. Ancient Native American legends speak of a fallen race of prehistoric giants who once inhabited the Pacific Coast of North America...
A witch in prison by dg2001

Archaeologists Identify Scottish Church Where Accused 16th Century Witches Were Imprisoned

Researchers think they have found architectural features in a church in Aberdeen, Scotland, where accused witches were held during the Great Witch Hunt of 1596-‘97 and later strangled as an act of ‘...
The wolf howls against the moon.

Howling Against the Moon: The Last Wolves of Ireland

The man followed the tracks through the snow. His hound sniffed eagerly, almost pulling the leash from the man’s grasp. The wolf was not far ahead of them. Through a break in the clouds a full moon...
Featured Image: Britomart viewing Artegal from  The Faerie Queene, (1895-1897) W. Crane (Wikimedia Commons)

Britomartis: The Original Virgin Huntress

The Minoan mistress of hunting and sea navigation, Britomartis is considered to be one of many goddesses to have been absorbed into classical Greek mythology. Britomartis appears to have played an...

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