Could Henbane Explain the Viking Berserker Trance?
Could henbane explain Viking berserker trance? A Fyrkat burial and toxicology offer clues, but the evidence stops short of proving a battle drug.
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Ancient Civilizations
Discover the world’s most mysterious ancient civilizations, from lost cities and megalithic structures to forgotten knowledge and unsolved archaeological puzzles.
Why Did the “Siberian Unicorn” Survive So Long—and Then Disappear?
Why did the “Siberian unicorn” disappear? New dating places this giant Ice Age rhino alongside humans, while its specialised steppe diet offers a stronger clue than the myth.
Who Invented Zero—and How Did It Become a Number?
Who invented zero? The answer is a long history of place-value marks, Brahmagupta’s arithmetic and evidence from the Bakhshālī manuscript—not one sudden invention.
What Can Hilda’s Reconstructed Face Really Tell Us About an Iron Age Woman?
Hilda’s reconstructed face is based on a skull held by the University of Edinburgh. The method can estimate some proportions, but the image cannot prove a unique appearance or a druidic identity.
The Humayma Chess Piece: Was This Small Stone Really a 7th-Century Rook?
A small sandstone object found at Humayma in southern Jordan may be one of the earliest physical chess pieces, but its identification as a rook remains provisional.
Could a Seafloor Map Trace a Lost Coastline?
Bathymetry, sediments and preserved artefacts can reveal drowned landscapes, but a seafloor shape becomes archaeology only when several lines of evidence agree.
What Can Ancient DNA Actually Reveal About a City’s Founders?
Ancient DNA can reveal relationships and movements between populations, but it cannot by itself name a culture or explain why people moved.
Morocco’s Oued Beht Holds North Africa’s Oldest Defensive System Beyond the Nile
Archaeologists dated a ditch-and-rampart system at Oued Beht in Morocco to 3,500–4,000 years ago. Here is what it reveals about a changing North African settlement.
Can Geology Test the Memories Behind Ancient Flood Stories?
Ancient flood stories are not geological reports. Sediment layers, settlement dates and the Black Sea debate show how researchers test whether memory and geology could meet.
How Can One Inscription Reveal a Lost City? The Archaeology Behind the Clue
A lost city is rarely identified by one spectacular object. Learn how archaeologists combine inscriptions, architecture, stratigraphy and landscape evidence to test the case.
Could Hidden Rooms Lie Beyond Tutankhamun’s Tomb? New Evidence Reopens the Question
Tutankhamun’s tomb has always looked strangely small for a royal burial. That oddity helped create one of archaeology’s most persistent questions: does the known tomb, KV62, stop where its walls…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
A 6,000-Year-Old Czech Enclosure Had Twelve Entrances Aligned With the Sky
Twelve entrances opened onto the horizon at Chleby. The excavators link their directions to the Sun and Moon, raising questions about how people gathered there.