tools

2 March, 2021 - 23:18 Nathan Falde

Changes in Human Hunting Practices May Explain Human Brain Development

Two researchers from the archaeological department at Israel’s Tel Aviv University have come up with an all-inclusive theory to explain the physiological and historical development of human brain...

17 February, 2021 - 15:29 Nathan Falde

Neanderthal Child’s Tooth Found in Palestinian Cave Tells A Tale of Africa

A team of archaeologists from the Max Planck Institute recently reexamined a set of artifacts recovered from the Shuqba Cave, which included a Neanderthal child’s tooth. It is the first evidence that...

12 January, 2021 - 22:02 ashley cowie

Human Evolutionary Theory Needs Updating, Again

Until now the Middle Stone Age is thought to have ended about 30,000 years ago. However, new evidence unearthed in Africa suggests the tools which define this period of African prehistory between the...

27 November, 2020 - 20:59 ashley cowie

Were Neanderthal Thumbs Better Adapted for Tennis?

If you needed repairs done 50,000 years ago you would have been better off with a team of Neanderthals rather than Homo sapiens, a new study has shown. The new research has been published in the...

19 November, 2020 - 13:59 ashley cowie

The First Teacher? Study Finds Teaching and Tools Evolved Together

Ask ten people where teaching originated and you will get as many contrasting answers. Most historians will tell you that Jan Amos Komensky (John Amos Comenius) (1592 - 1670 AD), the visionary Dutch...

Clovis tools may have been developed to hunt the last of the North American megafauna. Source: Daniel /Adobe Stock

28 October, 2020 - 21:01 Alicia McDermott

Short Lived Clovis Tools May Have Killed Off North American Megafauna

While they were not the earliest inhabitants of the Americas, the Clovis people had an extremely significant prehistoric culture that was distinctive and widespread across what is now North America...

A new study has found that mysterious early humans used fire to make different kinds of flint blades as far back as 300,000 years ago. Source: Gorodenkoff / Adobe Stock

5 October, 2020 - 17:58 Ed Whelan

Mysterious 300,000-Year-Old Early Humans Used Fire to Make Flint Blades

Experts in Israel believe that a mysterious group of early humans were using fire to manufacture flint blades and tools up to 300,000 years ago. This discovery has implications for our understanding...

Archaeologists excavating in at the famous Boxgrove site in England have identified horse bone tools, the earliest bone tools ever discovered in the history of European archaeology. There are scraping marks due to the way the tool was

13 August, 2020 - 02:02 ashley cowie

500,000-Year-Old Horse Bone Tools Discovered in England

Every doctor, physician and nutritionist who has ever donned a white coat would agree that, to a great extent, we humans really are what we eat. But over recent years, with advances in scanning...

Both sides of the recent Ethiopian bone hand axe find.

15 July, 2020 - 11:46 ancient-origins

1.4-Million-Year-Old Bone Hand Axe Revises Toolmaking Timeline

In Ethiopia , a team of experts have uncovered a bone hand axe made, a staggering 1.4 million years ago, by an ancestor of modern humans. It was probably made by the archaic human species Homo...

Havering Hoard of Bronze age weapons and tools found in London. Source: Museum of London

14 May, 2020 - 20:36 Ed Whelan

The Havering Hoard: Baffling Bronze Age Artifacts Found in London

Archaeologists in England have been studying the Havering Hoard for over a year. The Bronze Age weapons, tools, and personal grooming items are almost 3000 years old. They were found in London on a...

Stone balls, aka petrospheres were found at Qesem cave, Israel. Source: Assaf et al 2020

15 April, 2020 - 14:01 ashley cowie

Mystery of Stone Balls at ‘Magic’ Qesem Cave Finally Solved

Petrospheres, or spheroids, are two archaeological names for any man-made spherical object made from stone. These mostly prehistoric artifacts have been found intricately carved and painted,...

Some of the Papua New Guinea artifacts, including stone tools and art, that were dug up at the Waim dig site. Source: UNSW / Ben Shaw

26 March, 2020 - 16:27 ashley cowie

5000-Year-Old Papua New Guinea Artifacts Rewrite Neolithic History

Scientists unearth ancient Papua New Guinea artifacts in the highlands of the island that settle a longstanding archaeological argument regarding the emergence of complex culture on the island. About...

Neanderthal tools included shell scrapers. Source: procy_ab & Comugnero Silvana / Adobe Stock

16 January, 2020 - 14:44 ancient-origins

Coastal Neanderthals Went Diving For Tools

Neanderthals are known to have used tools, but the extent to which they were able to exploit coastal resources has been questioned. New research shows they collected clam shells and volcanic rock...

The removal of meat from a bone using a replica of the Revadim tiny flake tool. Source: Professor Ran Barkai, Tel Aviv University

17 September, 2019 - 23:14 ancient-origins

Acheulian Culture Had ‘Surgical’ Skills in Butchery

The Acheulian culture endured in the Levant for over a million years during the Lower Paleolithic period (1.4 million to 400,000 years ago). Its use of bifaces or large cutting tools like hand axes...

Ancient human. Credit: procy_ab / Adobe Stock

21 August, 2019 - 13:55 ancient-origins

Surprise Discovery of 45,000-Year-Old Tools in Mongolia Indicates Early Human Migration

Stone tools uncovered in Mongolia by an international team of archaeologists indicate that modern humans traveled across the Eurasian steppe about 45,000 years ago, about 10,000 years earlier than...

The scientists dug out the remains of the mammoth skeleton from the thawing permafrost and discovered a nearby weapons making site. Source: Innokenty Pavlov

24 June, 2019 - 22:03 ancient-origins

Researchers Discover Ancient “Weapon Making Site” Near Skeleton of Woolly Mammoth

By Anna Liesowska / The Siberian Times Evidence found on an Arctic island shows how 10,000 or more years ago people carved sharp slices off tusks to use for killing and cutting. Palaeontologists made...

Pages

Myths & Legends

Detail of a bowl from the Hildesheim Silver Treasure featuring a seated Athena, 1st century BC.

The Hidden Identity of the Woman Glorified as Athena: Her Link to the Pre-Flood World

Here is that woman in all her splendor, reconstructed in the imitation Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, based on the original in her ancient temple atop Athens’ Acropolis —the high place of the...

The ancient origins of the legendary griffin

The Real Story of Medusa: Protective Powers from a Snake-Haired Gorgon

The Dogon’s Extraordinary Knowledge of the Cosmos and the Cult of Nommo

Legendary Black Knights: Mysterious Medieval Entities of Neutrality

Hidden in Plain Sight: The Pterodactyl of New Guinea

Human Origins

Little Human Subspecies: Where’s the Evidence?

From the lush oases of Africa’s Ethiopia, across the planet to the sweltering jungles of Mexico, beyond the horizon to the primordial coasts of Hawaii, and back again to the gardens, olive groves, and marble columns of ancient Greece, an obscure common thread of small human subspecies endures.

Footprints, Fairies and even a Foreskin: 10 Bizarre Relics from History

Did Ancient People Really Have Lifespans Longer Than 200 Years?

Optical Illusions: The Challenge of Tracing Human Origins

Are the Distinctive Kalash People of Pakistan Really Descendants of Alexander the Great’s Army?

Ancient Technology

Detail of a mural from an Eastern Han tomb with artificial pigment

Han Purple: A 2,800-year-old artificial pigment that quantum physicists are trying to understand

Han purple is an artificial pigment created by the Chinese over 2,500 years ago, which was used in wall paintings and to decorate the famous terracotta warriors, as well as ceramics, metal ware, and...

The Man Who Stopped a Desert Using Ancient Farming

Catapult: The Long-Reaching History of a Prominent Medieval Siege Engine

6 Advanced Ancient Inventions Beyond Modern Understanding

Eight Impressive but Terrifying Cases of Ancient Surgery

Ancient Chinese Earthquake Detector Invented 2,000 Years Ago Really Worked!

Ancient Places

Pavlopetri: 5,000-Year-Old Town Discovered Underwater in Greece

Nothing sparks the imagination of history enthusiasts quite like underwater discoveries, ranging from sunken cities to the millions of shipwrecks still unexplored on the seabed. The bottom of the...

The Beauty of Loulan and the Tattooed Mummies of the Tarim Basin

Ten enduring mysteries of the Longyou caves

The Ancient Rock City of Sigiriya

The tragedy of Queen Ankhesenamun, sister and wife of Tutankhamun

The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio, the Largest Earthen Effigy in the World

Opinion

Unearthing Ancient Magic in The Runes –Messages with Hidden Symbols and Powerful Numbers

The etymology of the word “rune” means: “to carve, or to cut.” In Low German the word is “raunen.” As the runes were cut and carved into wood, metal or stone, the word “rune” was analogous to the rune letters themselves.

Petroglyphic Features of Portable Rock Art

The Northern Mysteries Current: Futhark and Mystery Schools of the Viking Age

Was There Ever a Trojan War?

Floki and the Viking Discovery of Iceland

Messiah on Temple Mount: Are We Nearing the End of Time?

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.