Researchers studying Ethiopia’s Afar Rift have reported what could be the oldest known evidence of human cremation. The finding comes from sediments about 100,000 years old in the Middle Awash region, an area with one of Africa’s richest records of early Homo sapiens life. Surveying, sieving, and fossil recovery at the research site. Credit: Ferhat … Read more
More than 5,000 years ago, communities in Central Europe built massive stone tombs that still dominate parts of the landscape. These megalithic monuments from the Late Neolithic period have long been linked with ancestry, family identity, and tightly connected kin groups. A new genetic study suggests a more complicated picture. People buried together in these … Read more
Climate change is rapidly erasing evidence from one of the Arctic’s largest early modern whaling cemeteries, where archaeologists have uncovered signs of harsh labor, poor nutrition, and declining health among the men who worked Europe’s northern whale fisheries. The graves of three whalers buried on Svalbard in the 17th century. Credit: Loktu, L., & Brødholt, … Read more
A debate over the dating of prehistoric cave art has resurfaced after a French researcher challenged several widely publicized age estimates linked to some of the world’s oldest known paintings and hand stencils. The criticism focuses on uranium-thorium dating, often called U-Th dating, a method used to estimate the age of calcite layers formed over … Read more
Archaeologists working inside Crno Jezero Cave on Croatia’s Pelješac Peninsula have uncovered an intact terracotta head shaped as a Greek theatrical mask, a rare find linked to ritual activity in the ancient Adriatic world. The object dates to the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE and offers new clues about religious life among local Illyrian communities … Read more
Credit: Xue Ling et al., Antiquity (2026) A microscopic study of residue left on surgical tools from a Ming Dynasty tomb in eastern China has provided the first direct chemical evidence of anesthetic use on ancient surgical instruments. The findings suggest Chinese physicians in the 14th century had developed careful methods for using toxic plant … Read more
A man buried near Lake Kitka in northern Finland around 400 years ago appears to have lived a far more mobile life than researchers once thought. A new study based on ancient DNA and isotope analysis found close genetic ties between the man and Sámi populations. The findings also point to years spent outside Finland, … Read more
A team led by the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana studied fossil teeth from the Payre site in southeastern France. The material comes from nine teeth found in layers linked to the Middle Pleistocene, around 250,000 years ago. The research focuses on how early Neanderthal populations in Europe changed over time and … Read more
Ancient Persian metalworkers worked with brass far earlier and in far more varied ways than researchers once thought. A new study of metal artifacts from the Sasanian Empire shows brass in jewelry, fittings, and military helmets between the 4th and 7th centuries CE. The findings point to skilled metalworkers who understood how different copper alloys … Read more
Archaeologists studying the ancient fortress of Argishtikhinili in Armenia’s Araks Valley have identified more than 1,000 kilometers of water-management features across the landscape, including over 134 kilometers of channels that could trace back to the kingdom of Urartu. The findings offer a new look at how one of the ancient Near East’s lesser-known states transformed … Read more