How Does LiDAR Reveal Lost Cities Beneath Forests?
How does LiDAR reveal lost cities beneath forests? It sends pulses of laser light from an aircraft or drone toward the ground and measures how long they take to return.…
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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.
A Drilled Human Tooth from Serbia Turns Out to Be a 6,500-Year-Old Pendant
A drilled human canine from the Neolithic site of Jablanica in Serbia was mistaken for an animal tooth bead until a new analysis identified its human origin.
A 1,500-Year-Old Moche Burial Preserves Whistles, a Rattle, and a Child’s Story
A child about 18 months old was buried at Huacas de Moche with musical objects and a carefully made ceramic vessel. The find adds a personal detail to a major Moche settlement.
Painted Pottery from Arabia May Have Been the Bronze Age’s First Brand
Qurayyah Painted Ware carried repeatable designs across Bronze Age Arabia. New research suggests that its makers built recognition and demand around a distinctive style more than 3,000 years ago.
Bronze Age Greek Elites Wore Rings Made From Meteorite Iron, Study Finds
A chemical survey of 91 Bronze Age iron artefacts found that a small group of rings probably came from meteorites. Their tomb contexts suggest that “iron from the sky” carried status long before iron smelting became common.
An Ancient Iron Furnace in Uzbekistan Is Opening a Window on Central Asian Metalworking
An excavation in Uzbekistan is bringing archaeologists, materials scientists and environmental researchers together around a single ancient furnace. At Abu Muslim Qala, in the historic Khorezm region, a Purdue-led project…
An Etruscan Ritual Well at Kainua Holds Offerings and Human Remains
At the Etruscan city of Kainua in northern Italy, archaeologists have found a deep well containing intact bronze objects, a distinctive plate and human remains. The location and the objects…
How Do Archaeologists Date Pottery?
How do archaeologists date pottery? Usually, they do not look at a single shard and read a year from it. A ceramic fragment becomes useful when its shape, clay, decoration,…
A Roman Cave Sanctuary in Spain Holds 120 Inscriptions—and Five Name an Unknown Goddess
Deep inside a cave near Valencia, archaeologists have documented at least 120 Latin inscriptions from the Roman period. Five of them refer to a previously unknown goddess addressed as Domina—“the…
How Does Dendrochronology Date Ancient Buildings?
How does dendrochronology date ancient buildings? By reading the growth history recorded inside wood. In regions where trees respond to changing seasons, each year leaves a pattern of wide and…
More Than 200 Roman Coins Found Beside Plovdiv’s Ancient Eastern Gate
Rescue excavations beside the Eastern Gate of Philippopolis have uncovered a large coin cache, an ancient building and burials that add new detail to Roman Plovdiv.
Pollen in a Roman Shipwreck’s Tar Reveals How Its Hull Was Repaired Across the Adriatic
A 2,200-year-old wreck off Croatia preserved more than timber and amphorae. Its sticky hull coatings trapped pollen that now gives archaeologists a record of where the ship was built and repaired.
A Ramesses II Inscription Points to Egypt’s Lost City of Mesen
A new sandstone lintel at Tell Abu Saifi names Horus as “Lord of the City of Mesen,” strengthening the case that the eastern Egyptian site may be the lost city described in ancient records.
Atapuerca Excavation Finds 24 New Homo antecessor Fossils From 850,000 Years Ago
At Spain’s Atapuerca archaeological site, a handful of broken bones can change the shape of an entire chapter in human evolution. During the 2026 field season, researchers recovered at least…
A Body Buried Inside a Canal at Lima’s Ancient Pyramid May Have Been a Ritual Offering
The body was placed on its left side inside a disused canal, with the skull facing Huaca Pucllana's pyramid and the Pacific Ocean. Archaeologists believe the burial may have formed part of a deliberate offering when a ceremonial water feature was closed.
The “Kerry Cow” Wasn’t a Cow—and That Changes When Farming Reached Ireland
Animal bones from Ferriter's Cove were once treated as proof that domestic cattle reached Ireland before farming took hold. A new protein analysis identifies the remains as bear and wild boar instead, overturning a 40-year-old archaeological argument.
Did a Roman Political Purge Leave Its Dead Inside This British Villa?
For more than a century, visitors to Brading Roman Villa on the Isle of Wight have come to see its mosaics: Medusa, Bacchus, geometric patterns and the evidence of a…
A 12,000-Year-Old Chamber at Karahantepe Is About to Be Opened
Heavy slabs still cover a small room inside one of Karahantepe’s most unusual Neolithic buildings. Archaeologists plan to enter it from above during the 2026 excavation season, opening a space that may have remained closed for roughly 12,000 years.
Did People Live at Göbekli Tepe? The Houses Are Changing Its Story
New surveys have detected possible houses beyond Göbekli Tepe’s excavated monuments, while rooms already uncovered contain benches, grinding stones, storage spaces, and vessels. The famous sanctuary is beginning to look like the centre of a lived-in settlement.
Scientists Read 4,000-Year-Old Letters Without Opening Their Clay Envelopes
Researchers are using high-definition X-ray CT and virtual unwrapping to read cuneiform letters that remain sealed inside their ancient clay envelopes.
How Can Archaeologists Date a Ditch That Has Almost Disappeared?
Archaeologists do not always find a monument in the form people imagine. A stone circle may survive as a scatter of sockets. A burial mound may be flattened into a…
Archaeologists Used Light to Date a Faint Neolithic Enclosure in Suffolk
The outline of a Neolithic monument can disappear long before the site stops carrying information. At Sizewell on the Suffolk coast, archaeologists found a large rectangular enclosure whose ditches had…
Radar Reveals a Hidden Prehistoric Structure at Hierakonpolis
A new study at Hierakonpolis used high-resolution ground-penetrating radar to map a large wooden palisade beside a Predynastic ceremonial center.
Göbekli Tepe Archaeological Excavations: Were These 10,000-Year-Old Buildings Homes?
Göbekli Tepe excavations have uncovered rectangular buildings that may have been homes. The find adds an everyday setting to a place long known for its monumental pillars and enclosures, giving…