Ancient Civilizations News

April 25, 2024

Top Headlines

'Forgotten City:' the Identification of Dura-Europos' Neglected Sister Site in Syria

Apr. 19, 2024 — The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the ...

First Evidence of Human Occupation in Lava Tube Cave in Saudi Arabia

Apr. 17, 2024 — New research has highlighted an area in Arabia that once acted as a key point for cultural exchanges and trades amongst ancient people -- and it all took place in vast caves and lava tubes that have remained largely untapped reservoirs of ...

The Hidden Role of the Milky Way in Ancient Egyptian Mythology

Apr. 10, 2024 — Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have shone a spotlight, as it were, on Nut's role as ...

Early Medieval Money Mystery Solved

Apr. 8, 2024 — Byzantine bullion fueled Europe's revolutionary adoption of silver coins in the mid-7th century, only to be overtaken by silver from a mine in Charlemagne's Francia a century later, new tests reveal. The findings could transform our understanding of ...

Latest Headlines

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When Did the Chicken Cross the Road? New Evidence from Central Asia

Apr. 2, 2024 — An international team of scholars present the earliest clear archaeological and biomolecular evidence for the raising of chickens for egg production, based on material from 12 archaeological sites ...

Ancient DNA Reveals the Appearance of a 6th Century Chinese Emperor

Mar. 28, 2024 — What did an ancient Chinese emperor from 1,500 years ago look like? A team of researchers reconstructed the face of Chinese Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou using DNA extracted from his remains. The study ...

New Archive of Ancient Human Brains Challenges Misconceptions of Soft Tissue Preservation

Mar. 20, 2024 — A new study has challenged previously held views that brain preservation in the archaeological record is extremely rare. The team compiled a new ...

Persian Plateau Unveiled as Crucial Hub for Early Human Migration out of Africa

Mar. 25, 2024 — A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location ...

Lost Tombs and Quarries Rediscovered on British Military Base in Cyprus

Mar. 7, 2024 — Archaeologists rediscovers 46 sites at the Eastern Sovereign Base Area at Dhekelia, Cyprus. Archaeologists located sites from archive records, a number of which were thought to have been 'lost.' They ...

Plant Seed and Fruit Analysis from the Biblical Home of Goliath Sheds Unprecedented Light on Philistine Ritual Practices

Feb. 26, 2024 — While many aspects of Philistine culture are well-documented, the specifics of Philistine religious practices and deities have long remained shrouded ...

Ancient DNA Reveals Down Syndrome in Past Human Societies

Feb. 20, 2024 — By analysing ancient DNA, an international team of researchers have uncovered cases of chromosomal disorders, including what could be the first case of Edwards syndrome ever identified from ...

Anthropologists' Research Unveils Early Stone Plaza in the Andes

Feb. 14, 2024 — Located at the Callacpuma archaeological site in the Cajamarca Basin of northern Peru, the plaza is built with large, vertically placed megalithic stones -- a construction method previously unseen in ...

Some Pre-Roman Humans Were Buried With Dogs, Horses and Other Animals

Feb. 14, 2024 — Some people from an ancient community in what is now northern Italy were interred with animals and animal parts from species such as dogs, horses and pigs. The reasons remain mysterious, but might ...

Thailand's Iron Age Log Coffin Culture

Feb. 6, 2024 — A mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture characterizes the Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha in northwestern Thailand. Between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, individuals were buried in large wooden ...

Prehistoric Mobility Among Tibetan Farmers, Herders Shaped Highland Settlement Patterns, Cultural Interaction, Study Finds

Feb. 2, 2024 — Using advanced geospatial modeling to compare environmental and archaeological evidence, researchers found evidence that connects ancient mobility and subsistence strategies to cultural connections ...

Did Dementia Exist in Ancient Greek and Rome?

Jan. 31, 2024 — Did the ancient Greeks and Romans experience Alzheimer's? Medical texts from 2,500 years ago rarely mention severe memory loss, suggesting today's widespread dementia stems from modern ...

DNA from Preserved Feces Reveals Ancient Japanese Gut Environment

Jan. 24, 2024 — DNA from ancient feces can offer archaeologists new clues about the life and health of Japanese people who lived thousands of years ago, according to a new ...

Despite Intensive Scientific Analyses, This Centaur Head Remains a Mystery

Jan. 18, 2024 — For almost 200 years, archaeologists have been puzzled by a mysterious brown stain on the ancient Greek Parthenon temple in Greece. Now, researchers have conducted new scientific analyses, and their ...

Key Moment in the Evolution of Life on Earth Captured in Fossils

Jan. 15, 2024 — New research has precisely dated some of the oldest fossils of complex multicellular life in the world, helping to track a pivotal moment in the history of Earth when the seas began teeming with new ...

Prehistoric Person With Turner Syndrome Identified from Ancient DNA

Jan. 11, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new technique to measure the number of chromosomes in ancient genomes more precisely, using it to identify the first prehistoric person with mosaic Turner syndrome ...

Discovery of Immense Fortifications Dating Back 4,000 Years in North-Western Arabia

Jan. 10, 2024 — The North Arabian Desert oases were inhabited by sedentary populations in the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE. A fortification enclosing the Khaybar Oasis -- one of the longest known going back to this ...

Cult Mentality: Monumental Discovery in Italy

Jan. 5, 2024 — Researchers have discovered an ancient Roman temple that adds significant insights into the social change from pagan gods to Christianity within the Roman ...

Mesopotamian Bricks Unveil the Strength of Earth's Ancient Magnetic Field

Dec. 18, 2023 — Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings have yielded important insights into a mysterious anomaly in Earth's magnetic field 3,000 years ago, according to a new ...

AI Provides More Accurate Analysis of Prehistoric and Modern Animals, Painting Picture of Ancient World

Dec. 14, 2023 — A new study of the remains of prehistoric and modern African antelopes found that AI technology accurately identified animals more than 90% of the time compared to humans, who had much lower accuracy ...

'A Ticking Clock': First Ground-Based Survey of Damage to Ukrainian Cultural Sites Reveals Severity, Need for Urgency

Dec. 13, 2023 — And after nearly two years of fighting, war is destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage on a scale not seen since World War II, according to new ...

Archaeologists Unearth One of Earliest Known Frame Saddles

Dec. 12, 2023 — Recovered from looters, a new archaeological discovery from a cave in western Mongolia could change the story of the evolving relationship between humans and horses around the ...

Ancient DNA Analysis Reveals How the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Shifted Populations in the Balkans

Dec. 7, 2023 — Despite the Roman Empire's extensive military and cultural influence on the nearby Balkan peninsula, a DNA analysis of individuals who lived in the region between 1 and 1000 CE found no genetic ...

Baboons in Captivity in Ancient Egypt: Insights from Collection of Mummies

Dec. 6, 2023 — Baboons were raised in captivity before being mummified in Ancient Egyptian sites, according to a new ...

Dishing the Dirt on Human Evolution: Why Scientific Techniques Matter in Archaeology

Nov. 30, 2023 — Scientists should seek answers hidden in the dirt using proven and state-of-the-art archaeological science techniques to support new discoveries about human evolution following recent controversies ...

Radiocarbon Dating Meets Egyptology and Biblical Accounts in the City of Gezer

Nov. 16, 2023 — New dates provide detailed insights into the timing of events in the ancient city of Gezer, according to a new ...

Long-Distance Weaponry Identified at the 31,000-Year-Old Archaeological Site of Maisières-Canal

Nov. 6, 2023 — The hunter-gatherers who settled on the banks of the Haine, a river in southern Belgium, 31,000 years ago were already using spearthrowers to hunt their game. The material found at the archaeological ...

Climate Change Likely Impacted Human Populations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age

Oct. 25, 2023 — Human populations in Neolithic Europe fluctuated with changing climates, according to a new ...

Origin of Ancient Mummified Baboons Found in Egypt

Oct. 24, 2023 — Primatologists are using genetic analysis to determine the geographic origin of ancient mummified baboons found in Egypt. The team finds evidence that the two legendary trading regions of Punt and ...

New Study Reveals a Long History of Violence in Ancient Hunter-Gatherer Societies

Sep. 21, 2023 — Violence was a consistent part of life among ancient communities of hunter-gatherers, according to a new study that looked for signs of trauma on 10,000-year-old skeletal remains from burial sites in ...