shells

23 September, 2021 - 22:52 Nathan Falde

World’s Oldest Jewelry Excavated at a Moroccan Cave

Human beings have been wearing necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other forms of jewelry for a long time. But the discovery of a cache of prehistoric Aterian sea snail shell beads at a cave in...

Shellfish Extravaganza at Iron Age Feast Unearthed in Ancient Orkney

24 March, 2021 - 14:03 ashley cowie

What Prompted the Shellfish Extravaganza at an Iron Age Feast Site, Orkney?

Archaeologists in the far north of Scotland have unearthed thousands of seashells from the remains of an Iron Age feast dating back to around the 5 th century AD, including 18,630 sea snail shells...

Exposed shell midden on the Pike River cliff line near the Riverland region Aborigines’ project site. Source: Flinders University

15 July, 2020 - 22:48 Ed Whelan

Study Shows Riverland Region Aborigines Were Thriving 29000 Years Ago

Researchers have established that Riverland region Aborigines lived in South Australia much earlier than previously thought. They determined that Riverland region Aborigines lived in the area an...

The discovery that a collection of shells were threaded onto 120,000-year-old strings, at a cave in Israel is an important discovery which advances our understanding of human evolution. Source: Bar-Yosef Mayer et al/Plos One/PA Wire

9 July, 2020 - 22:51 ashley cowie

Evidence of 120,000-Year-Old String Discovered in Israeli Cave

A team of archaeologists excavating a cave in Israel have made the incredible discovery of a collection of shells that were once threaded onto strings and worn by humans as beads 120,000 years ago...

A lost Spanish Jesuit missionary fort has been found at Mound Key Source: Florida Museum of Natural History

24 April, 2020 - 14:02 ancient-origins

Archaeologists Verify Location of Elusive Spanish Fort at Florida's Mound Key

Florida Museum of Natural History Florida and Georgia archaeologists have discovered the location of Fort San Antón de Carlos, home of one of the first Jesuit missions in North America. The Spanish...

Falls in the Amazon in Bolivia, representation of area of Amazonia settlement.

27 April, 2019 - 19:02 ancient-origins

Humans Inhabited the Amazon 7,500 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

Humans settled in southwestern Amazonia and even experimented with agriculture much earlier than previously thought, according to an international team of researchers. "We have long been aware that...

Ancient Saladoid child foraging for shellfish.

28 March, 2019 - 21:58 ancient-origins

Shell Heap Shows Ancient Caribbean Children Helped With the Groceries [New Report]

Researchers have long thought that snail and clam shells found at Caribbean archaeological sites were evidence of ‘ starvation food ’ eaten in times when other resources were lacking. Now, a...

Model of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan

24 May, 2018 - 04:16 lizleafloor

Sacrificial gifts found at Aztec Temple in Mexico feature a trove of diverse species

One of the great archaeological sites in Mexico is the sprawling ancient city of Tenochtitlan, religious center and capital of the Aztec civilization. Templo Mayor (The Great Temple) was a huge...

Piles of clamshells (Schvin/CC BY 2.0), background: men in a Curragh, a skin boat (WilliamMurphy/CC BY-SA 2.0);Deriv.

25 August, 2017 - 15:39 jim willis

Seafarers and Shell Rings: Strange Formations on the American Coast a Hallmark of Faraway Visitors?

Just south of Awendaw, South Carolina, in the Francis Marion National Forest, is an example of a type of architectural artifact that still baffles archaeologists. For every explanation someone offers...

27 June, 2017 - 01:57 ancient-origins

When – and Why – Did People First Start Using Money?

Chapurukha Kusimba / The Conversation Sometimes you run across a grimy, tattered dollar bill that seems like it’s been around since the beginning of time. Assuredly it hasn’t, but the history of...

The story of King Tang (Ta Ji), the dynasty, in a 17th-century painting Shang Dynasty (Public Domain)

28 March, 2016 - 14:49 dhwty

Reading Oracle Bones and Writing the Future in the Shang Dynasty

Oracle bones (known in Chinese as 甲骨, transliterated as ‘jiǎ gǔ’, and literally translated as ‘shells and bones’) are a type of artifact best known for its association with the Shang Dynasty (roughly...

1 November, 2015 - 13:52 Mark Miller

Animal bones shed light on the lifestyle of citizens in ancient Maya cities

While archaeologists and historians know much about the lives of Maya royalty and rulers, the lifestyles of the poor and middle class are wrapped in mystery. A new study that is examining hordes of...

The Ruins Lagoon located in the Royal Towers, home to over 20,000 deep reef and pelagic fish.

28 July, 2015 - 23:59 lizleafloor

Dark Mysteries of the Deep: Ancient Divers and their Dangerous Journeys

It is not known who first braved cold, dark waters and held their breath to explore, or gather rare treasures or food, but divers have been retrieving items from beneath the water’s surface since the...