How Do Archaeologists Know a Wall Was a Border?
A wall can look like a border from above, but archaeologists test the idea through gates, roads, visibility, construction layers and excavation context.
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Ivan Petricevic
Ivan Petricevic is an investigative journalist and researcher with more than a decade of experience covering ancient history, UAP phenomena, space, and science. He writes about space, science, and history for Večernji list and has appeared as an expert on Discovery Channel and History Channel. He founded Curiosmos, where he reports from primary sources, archaeological research, and field investigations.
A Pulsar Is Feeding on a Giant Star’s Wind. How Can Astronomers See It?
A neutron-star pulsar is pulling gas from a blue hypergiant 13,000 light-years away. XRISM’s X-ray spectra show how astronomers can follow that material as it falls.
How Can Scientists Read a Scroll Burned 2,000 Years Ago?
A new proof-of-concept study shows how lead in ink could make some Herculaneum scrolls easier to read without opening them.
A 240-Million-Year-Old Herbivore From Tanzania May Change the Dinosaur Timeline
A newly named 240-million-year-old herbivore from Tanzania links African and South American rocks and may force a rethink of the earliest dinosaur timeline.
Why Did Romans Bury Lightning? A New Inscription at Hadrian’s Villa Offers a Clue
A marble inscription found in its original position at Hadrian’s Villa refers to a lightning strike attributed to Summanus—and the Roman ritual of making the place sacred.
How Does Dendrochronology Date Ancient Buildings?
How can a wooden beam reveal when an ancient building was raised? Dendrochronology reads the annual rings in timber, linking old structures to a calendar built from living trees.
A Rare Iron Age Marsh Fort Is Being Excavated Again After 40 Years
An Iron Age fort hidden in a Shropshire marsh is being excavated again after four decades. What can its ditches, timber and buried layers reveal about a settlement built in a wet landscape?
NASA’s Roman Telescope Has Opened Its Main Eye. What Will It See?
Something remarkable happened on the way to the next great map of the universe. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has activated its main science instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera…
A Rainstorm Exposed a Picene Burial Tomb in Italy. What Archaeologists Found Inside
Heavy rain exposed a ceramic vessel near Sant’Elpidio a Mare. Archaeologists say it belongs to a Picene burial provisionally dated to the sixth century BCE.
Roman Roads Were Less Straight Than Legend—and Their Routes Still Matter Today
A new Nature Communications study mapped 299,171 kilometres of Roman roads and found that ancient routes still correlate with major modern roads.
BepiColombo Let Go of Its Power Module at Mercury. Why Is the Hardest Part Still Ahead?
After nearly eight years and 9.9 billion kilometres, ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo has released the module that powered its journey to Mercury. The spacecraft has reached the arrival phase—but orbit insertion is still months away.
Were the Les Rois Teeth Really Neanderthal? A New Study Reopens a Dark Paleolithic Story
A new study of a 30,000-year-old mandible from Les Rois Cave places the specimen closer to early Homo sapiens than to Neanderthals. The result changes what the famous teeth can—and cannot—tell us about life in the Aurignacian.
A 1,600-Year-Old Mosaic and an Eros Head Reveal Two Eras at Pompeiopolis
Archaeologists uncovered a 105-square-metre mosaic and a second-century Eros head at Pompeiopolis. What do the finds reveal about a changing city?
What Did Crawford Lake’s Mud Remember? Ancient DNA Reconstructs 1,300 Years of Change
A new Molecular Ecology study reads environmental DNA in Crawford Lake’s layered sediment, following plants, animals, fungi, algae and bacteria through Indigenous farming, village abandonment and later settlement.
A 600-Year-Old Burial Platform at Chan Chan Held 38 People. One Burial Breaks the Pattern
What can a Chan Chan burial platform preserve after six centuries of rain, wind and the attention of people looking for treasure? At Chan Chan, on Peru’s northern coast, archaeologists…
Webb Looked Into the “Black Eye” of a Galaxy—and Found a Collision Still Written in Its Gas
At first glance, Messier 64 looks as though someone has drawn a dark eye across the centre of a spiral galaxy. That band of dust is why M64 is better…
Chandra Found 84 Cosmic Objects That Shine in X-Rays—But What Are They?
Astronomers have found 84 objects in nearby galaxies that do not behave like the familiar X-ray sources catalogued over the past six decades. They are bright at the lowest X-ray…
Webb Found Brown Dwarfs Only Twice Jupiter’s Mass. How Small Can a Star-Born Object Be?
Webb found brown dwarfs as light as twice Jupiter’s mass in IC 348. One may have a disk, while an unexplained molecule hints at unfamiliar atmospheres.
A Circular Pit on Google Maps Led Scientists to a 390-Million-Year-Old Impact Structure
An amateur spotted a circular depression in Quebec on satellite maps. Fieldwork found shatter cones and impact-melt rock inside the 25-kilometre Uhackatik structure.
How Do Archaeologists Tell a Settlement From a Ritual Complex?
Archaeologists rarely identify a settlement from one object. They combine buildings, hearths, tools, food remains, activity areas, and patterns of rebuilding to understand a site.
What Happened in These Neolithic Caves? Human Bones Record More Than One Kind of Cannibalism
Nearly 1,000 bones and teeth from three Granada caves show that Neolithic cannibalism was not one practice or one event. The dates and traces point to different stories.
Roman Is on Its Way to L2. Why Are Its First Days in Space So Carefully Choreographed?
Roman’s antenna, sunshade and visor are deployed. Here is why the telescope’s three-month commissioning journey matters before its first images arrive.
A Single Asteroid Impact May Have Shaped Mars’ Moon Deimos
University of Bern simulations and ESA Hera observations point to one non-destructive asteroid impact as the source of Deimos’ southern depression and dusty surface.
The Sun’s Ancient Journey Through the Galaxy May Have Changed Earth’s Climate
Two NASA-funded studies trace how the Sun’s changing galactic surroundings may have altered Earth’s climate and helped warm the young planet.