Paleolithic

Digital tracing of Bison featured in rock art.

11 April, 2019 - 18:55 ancient-origins

Archaeologists Identify First Prehistoric Figurative Cave Art in Balkans - It’s Symbolic!

There was an explosion of symbolism in human culture during the Paleolithic period. Around the world, examples of cave art, some of it rather strange , began cropping up over 35,000 years ago. But...

Image of the findings with a tracing of the engraved figures on the piece.

13 March, 2019 - 13:20 ancient-origins

Archaeologists in Spain Unearth Rare Paleolithic Art Featuring Bird and Human Interaction

Science Daily It is not very common to find representations of scenes instead of individual figures in Paleolithic art, but it is even harder for these figures to be birds instead of mammals such as...

7 March, 2019 - 19:01 Philip Jamieson

Uncovering the Truth Behind Matriarchal Societies in the Ancient World

A theme common amongst the mythology of ancient cultures is a belief in the existence of a Golden Age , when humans lived uncorrupted, in peace and harmony, experiencing prosperity and societal...

21 January, 2019 - 18:53 Ed Whelan

New Discovery Shows Prehistoric Humans May Have Hunted Mammoths to Extinction

It has long been debated as to how our ancient ancestors were able to kill mammoths . In Poland, a discovery has been made that should throw more light how prehistoric hunters killed these giants,...

A megalithic temple in Malta - evidence for early human presence in Malta.

14 December, 2018 - 18:41 Lenie Reedijk

Cover Up: Very Early Human Presence in Malta Has Been Intentionally Hidden

Owing to fluctuations in the earth’s temperatures, the sea levels all over the world rose and fell in more or less regular intervals during the Pleistocene between 400,000 to 12,000 years ago. At...

Finger bones of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis found in Poland.

8 October, 2018 - 19:51 Ed Whelan

115,000-year-old Bones Found in Poland are of a Neanderthal Child that was Eaten by a Bird

In 2013 some very early hominid bones were uncovered by archaeologists in a cave in southern Poland. There have been extensive studies conducted on the remains and they have led to some astonishing...

25 August, 2018 - 14:08 Michelle Freson

Baxiandong Caves: Immortal Deities and Stone Age Artifacts

In ancient Chinese mythology there are eight immortals in the world who rose above the human state and became blessed with divine, supernatural attributes and powers. They are somewhat amusing...

Clipety-clop! The Upper Paleolithic foal held by Semyon Grigoryev, head of the Mammoth Museum.

18 August, 2018 - 23:00 ancient-origins

The Foal That Came in From the Cold After 40,000 Years

By The Siberian Times reporter A sensational find has been made of the world’s only completely preserved ancient baby horse, aged just three months when it died in the Palaeolithic period. This is...

Stolbovoy Island, it would have been connected to the mainland. Source: Ilya Kravchenko (via Siberian Times)

17 August, 2018 - 14:00 ancient-origins

Are These Tools Left by Paleolithic Travelers on the Beringia Land Bridge?

By The Siberian Times reporter Excavations are to be made after the discovery of evidence indicating the world’s most northerly paleolithic site on this remote island off the Arctic coast of Yakutia...

Infected tooth partially cleaned with flint tools, dating to the Late Upper Paleolithic. It is credited as the oldest found evidence of dentistry.

24 July, 2018 - 13:20 lizleafloor

Paleolithic Toothache: Oldest Dentistry Revealed in 14,000-Year-Old Tooth of Young Man

Researchers were undoubtedly smiling over a 14,000-years-old tooth that revealed the oldest known dentistry techniques, dating back to the Late Upper Paleolithic (between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago...

Archaeologists excavate the Red Lady’s burial site in 2010

5 July, 2018 - 21:55 Mark Miller

Archaeologists unravel secrets of 18,700-year-old burial of the Red Lady of el Miron

The woman whose remains were tinted with red ochre and buried with flowers about 18,700 years ago in a cave in northern Spain may have had what modern people would consider a hard life. But on the...

Researchers said the bones of this woman's twin fetuses are visible near her pelvis and thighs

1 June, 2018 - 03:08 Mark Miller

A 7,700-Year-Old Case of Death During Childbirth in Siberia

If childbirth is still today one of the most dangerous things a woman can do, imagine how dangerous it was 7,700 years ago, before modern medicine. The remains of a Stone Age Siberian mother and her...

27 April, 2018 - 18:58 dhwty

Titanoboa: The Monster Snake that Ruled Prehistoric Colombia

You may not want to read about this frightening creature if you suffer to any degree from ophidiophobia, or even if you are about to embark on a camping trip. Titanoboa fossils show it was the...

16 April, 2018 - 22:55 Birdog

Stone Hatchet Man & The Troubling Unfinished Journeys to the Spirit World for Native American Bones

It was July of 1923, and a hot day in Clearlake Park, California. Charles Hesse had been excavating a pit for his new septic tank all morning. Just before lunch, Charlie dug a good-sized, waist deep...

13,500 year old carved bison bone dredged from the North Sea.

19 February, 2018 - 18:57 ashley cowie

13,500-year-old Artwork Saved from the Abyss of the Continental Shelf

Snared in a fishing net at the bottom of the North Sea, on the edge of the continental shelf, the “oldest Dutch work of art” has been found, according to an article published in Cambridge Antiquity...

Tron Bon Lei cranium, photographed during excavation. Fish-hook A and perforated bivalve to the north of the mandible.

13 December, 2017 - 13:56 Alicia McDermott

World’s Oldest Funerary Fish Hooks Indicate Women Fished in Ancient Indonesia

Fishing was an important part of life, and apparently death as well, in the Pleistocene on Indonesia's Alor Island, northwest of East Timor. The collection of fish hooks placed alongside the remains...

Pages

Myths & Legends

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter

Easter is a festival and holiday celebrated by millions of people around the world who honor the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred three days...

Is the Island of Dolls Haunted? An Eerie Tribute to a Little Mexican Girl

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

The Story of the Scary Shtorka and the Revival of Croatian Mythology

Ragnar Lothbrok: A Real Viking Hero Whose Life Became Lost to Legend

Involuntary Initiation: Tales of Demonic Powers of Sorcery Transmitted to the Unsuspecting

Human Origins

Heavens Gates Opening. Source: Alswart / Adobe.

What and Where is Heaven? The Answers Are at the Heart of the Easter Story

My pious Baptist grandmother once shockingly confessed, at the ripe old age of 93, that she didn’t want to go to heaven. “Why,” we asked? “Well, I think it will be rather boring just sitting around on clouds and singing hymns all day” she answered. She had a point.

One Hundred Thousand Adams and Eves?

Rh-Negative Blood: An Exotic Bloodline or Random Mutation?

Where are Ashkenazi Jews from? Their Origins May Surprise You

The Stoned Ape Theory and the Dawn of Human Consciousness: Did Our Prehistoric Ancestors Evolve by Getting High?

The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts

Ancient Technology

Handle of one of the wooden tools from the Poggetti Vecchi site.

171,000-Year-Old Fire Forged Tool Discovered Beneath a Giant Elephant

171,000 years ago, in Tuscany, a set of ancient tools were crafted and forged with fire. Archaeologists in Florence, Italy, made an incredible discovery during construction work at Poggetti Vecchi. A paper published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Romans Mastered Nanotechnology and Used it for Eye Catching Decoration

Does ‘New Evidence’ Prove Noah’s Ark Is Buried on a Turkish Mountain?

Is this a 300 million-year-old screw or just a fossilized sea creature?

Norimitsu Odachi: Who Could Have Possibly Wielded This Enormous 15th Century Japanese Sword?

The Man Who Stopped a Desert Using Ancient Farming

Ancient Places

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...

Peel Castle: Centuries of History, a Mysterious Pagan Lady, and a Phantom Dog

Ashurbanipal: The Oldest Surviving Royal Library in the World with Over 30,000 Clay Tablets

The Dark Underworld of the Paris Catacombs

Roque Bentayga, Gran Canaria: Vestiges of the Mysterious Guanche People

3,000-Year-Old Ain Dara Temple in Syria Reduced to Rubble by Turkish Airstrikes

Opinion

The astronomical ceiling at the Pronaos, Detail of the first Band west from the center. From left to right: two wind creatures (the winged ram with four heads personifies the south wind), the snake- and frog-headed eight goddesses and gods of the Ogdoad who ruled the cosmos before the creation of the world and Osiris seated on a throne sails across the sky as personification of the full moon accompanied by the seated goddesses Nephtys (left) and Isis on the right (Maat stands near the bow of the ship). Siri

Changing Colors and Scampering Across the Night Sky: What Did the Ancients Say about Sirius?

In Egypt, Sirius was the Star of Isis, Isis being the companion and rescuer of the god Osiris. In a very deep way, Osiris was Egypt.

Cracking the Code to Discover Ancient Tarot Symbolism and Forgotten Universal Knowledge

The Secret Strategic Plans of Darius the Great

The Secrets of the Kabbalists Garden

Alchemy and Generating Lifeforce —Global Temples Made in the Shape of Lingams: Shaivite Bull Cult Part II

From Green Man to Bull Son, The Universal Shaivite Bull Cult – Part I

Our Mission

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe.

We’re the only Pop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives.

By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings.