Ancient Civilizations News

July 10, 2016

Prehistoric Himalayan Populations: Origins Found

Metal Traded in Alaska Prior to European Contact

No 'Pristine' Land for 1000s of Years: Humans

First Peoples of Australia Were Truly First

Latest Headlines

updated 12:28pm EDT

Archeology: Rare Discovery of Late Roman Official Buried in Leicester

July 7, 2016 — Archaeologists have recently excavated a Late Roman cemetery at Western Road in Leicester's West End. Amongst the 83 skeletons recorded by the team, one burial is proving to ... read more

Ancient DNA Shows Perfect Storm Felled Ice Age Giants

June 17, 2016 — Giant Ice Age species including elephant-sized sloths and powerful sabre-toothed cats that once roamed the windswept plains of Patagonia, southern South America, were finally ... read more

Single Strain of Plague Bacteria Sparked Multiple Historical and Modern Pandemics

June 8, 2016 — A single entry of the plague bacterium into Europe was responsible for the Black Plague of the mid-14th century. This same ... read more

Researchers Map 6,000 Years of Urban Settlements

June 7, 2016 — A new provides the first spatially explicit dataset of the location and size of urban settlements worldwide over the past 6,000 years, offering clarity on long-term ... read more

Underwater 'Lost City' Found to Be Geological Formation

June 2, 2016 — New research reveals how an underwater 'lost city' has been found to be a geological formation.The ancient underwater remains of what was thought to be a long lost Greek ... read more

Ancient Wari Empire Likely Did Not Cause Large Shifts in Population Genetic Diversity

June 1, 2016 — The imperial dominance of the ancient Wari Empire at the Huaca Pucllana site in Lima, Peru, was likely not achieved through ... read more

Remains of Rice and Mung Beans Help Solve a Madagascan Mystery

May 30, 2016 — Researchers have helped discover why the inhabitants of Madagascar speak Malagasy, a language otherwise unique to Southeast Asia and the Pacific -- a region located at least ... read more

Ancient DNA Study Finds Phoenician from Carthage Had European Ancestry

May 25, 2016 — A research team has sequenced the first complete mitochondrial genome of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician dubbed the 'Young Man of Byrsa' or 'Ariche.' This is the first ancient DNA to be obtained from ... read more

High Altitude Archaeology: Prehistoric Paintings Revealed

May 25, 2016 — Archaeologists have undertaken pioneering scans of the highest prehistoric paintings of animals ... read more

New Research Maps in Unique Detail the Devastation of the Black Death on Medieval England

May 23, 2016 — An innovative new archaeological study has revealed in detail for the first time how individual towns, villages and hamlets across swathes of ... read more

Archaeologists in Israel Race to Find Ancient Scrolls

Using New Technology to Scan Ancient Pyramids

Roman Writing Tablets Reveal Early London Life

Aboriginal Australians Had an Axe to Grind

Burial Sites Show How Nubians, Egyptians Integrated Communities Thousands of Years Ago

May 18, 2016 — New bioarchaeological evidence shows that Nubians and Egyptians integrated into a community, and even married, in ancient Sudan, according to new research from an ... read more

Lead Pollution Reveals the Ancient History of Naples

May 16, 2016 — Almost two thousand years after the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum, certain periods of the history of Naples have just been reconstructed. Until now, historians and ... read more

Cosmic Dust Reveals Earth's Ancient Atmosphere

May 11, 2016 — Using the oldest fossil micrometeorites -- space dust -- ever found, new research has made a surprising discovery about the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere 2.7 billion years ... read more

Archaeologists Uncover 13,000-Year-Old Bones of Ancient, Extinct Species of Bison at Old Vero Man Site

May 11, 2016 — In what is considered one of the oldest and most important archaeological digs in North America, scientists have uncovered what they believe are the bones of a 13,000- to 14,000-year-old ancient, ... read more

New Archaeological Method Finds Children Were Skilled Ceramists During the Bronze Age

May 11, 2016 — Artisanal interpretation of ceramics from the Bronze Age shows that a nine-year-old child could be a highly skilled artisan. This was one of the discoveries presented in a new thesis that explores ... read more

Humans Were in Southern Arabia 10,000 Years Earlier Than First Thought

May 11, 2016 — The last Ice Age made much of the globe uninhabitable, but there were oases -- or refugia -- where people 20,000 years ago were able to cluster and survive. Researchers who specialize in the ... read more

The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe

May 2, 2016 — Analyses of ancient DNA from prehistoric humans paint a picture of dramatic population change in Europe from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago, according to a new study. The new genetic data reveal two big ... read more

Ancient Glass-Glued Walls Studied for Nuke Waste Solutions

Apr. 26, 2016 — The modern challenge of nuclear waste storage and disposal has researchers looking back at ancient materials from around the ... read more

Ancient DNA Reveals Evolution of Giant Bears in the Americas

Apr. 20, 2016 — Researchers are shedding new light on the evolution of what are believed to be the largest bears that ever walked the ... read more

Headdress Reconstruction Throws Light on Hunter-Gatherer Rituals

Apr. 13, 2016 — Archaeologists used traditional techniques to create replicas of ritual headdresses made by hunter-gatherers 11,000 years ago in North Western ... read more

Handwriting Analysis Provides Clues for Dating of Old Testament Texts

Apr. 12, 2016 — Widespread literacy was required for the composition of key Old Testament texts, a new study suggests. It provides, for the first time, empirical evidence of literacy in the final days of the Kingdom ... read more

Roman Imperial Leaders Had Wine Empire Away from the Battlefield, Study Suggests

Apr. 11, 2016 — Archaeologists have uncovered a unique insight into the life of one of the Roman Empire's most prominent ... read more

How an Ancient Civilization Conserved Water

Apr. 8, 2016 — High-resolution, aerial imagery bears significance for researchers on the ground investigating how remote, ancient Maya civilizations used and conserved ... read more

Microbiologists Unmask the Hannibal Route Enigma

Apr. 4, 2016 — Microbiologists have recently released results that may have answered one of ancient history's greatest enigmas: Where did Hannibal cross the ... read more

Possible Viking Discovery by Archaeologist Could Rewrite North American History

Apr. 1, 2016 — Using satellite imaging, an archaeologist may have found evidence of the 2nd Norse settlement in North America at a site in ... read more

Ancient DNA Shows European Wipe-out of Early Americans

Apr. 1, 2016 — The first large-scale study of ancient DNA from early American people has confirmed the devastating impact of European colonization on the Indigenous American populations of the ... read more

Indonesian 'Hobbits' May Have Died out Sooner Than Thought

Mar. 30, 2016 — An ancient species of pint-sized humans discovered in the tropics of Indonesia may have met their demise earlier than once believed, according to scientists who reinvestigated the original finding. ... read more

Text in Lost Language May Reveal God or Goddess Worshipped by Etruscans at Ancient Temple

Mar. 29, 2016 — Archaeologists in Italy have discovered what may be a rare Etruscan sacred text likely to yield rich details about Etruscan worship and early beliefs of a lost culture fundamental to western ... read more

Anthropologists Reconstruct Mitogenomes from Prehistoric Dental Calculus

Mar. 29, 2016 — Using advanced sequencing technologies, anthropologists demonstrate that human DNA can be significantly enriched from dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) enabling the reconstruction of whole ... read more

An Ancient Killer: Ancestral Malarial Organisms Traced to Age of Dinosaurs

Mar. 28, 2016 — A new analysis of the prehistoric origin of malaria suggests that it evolved in insects at least 100 million years ago, and the first vertebrate hosts of this disease were probably reptiles, which at ... read more

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Burial sites show how Nubians, Egyptians integrated communities thousands of years ago

Monday, May 16, 2016

Lead pollution reveals the ancient history of Naples

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Monday, May 2, 2016

The genetic history of Ice Age Europe

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Ancient glass-glued walls studied for nuke waste solutions

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Ancient DNA reveals evolution of giant bears in the Americas

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Headdress reconstruction throws light on hunter-gatherer rituals

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Handwriting analysis provides clues for dating of old testament texts

Monday, April 11, 2016

Roman Imperial leaders had wine empire away from the battlefield, study suggests

Friday, April 8, 2016

How an ancient civilization conserved water

Monday, April 4, 2016

Microbiologists unmask the Hannibal route enigma

Friday, April 1, 2016

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Indonesian 'Hobbits' may have died out sooner than thought

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Monday, March 28, 2016

An ancient killer: Ancestral malarial organisms traced to age of dinosaurs

Friday, March 25, 2016

Metallic ink revealed in Herculaneum papyri

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Archaeologists create 3D interactive digital reconstruction of King Richard III’s grave found under a car park

Thursday, March 3, 2016

For the first time in excavations of ancient Near Eastern sites: Winery found in Canaanite palace

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Mystery on the marsh: Newly discovered Anglo-Saxon island is one of the most important archaeological finds in decades

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Evidence of early medieval Muslim graves found in France

Monday, February 22, 2016

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Prehistoric village found in the Jordan Valley links old and new stone ages

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Ancient genomes reveal that the English are one-third Anglo-Saxon

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Plague may have persisted in Europe during 300-year period, including 'Black Death'

Friday, January 8, 2016

Roman toilets gave no clear health benefit, and Romanization actually spread parasites

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Archaeological discovery yields surprising revelations about Europe's oldest city

Monday, December 28, 2015

Scientists sequence first ancient Irish human genomes

Monday, December 21, 2015

Religion and politics led to social tension and conflict, then and now

Friday, December 18, 2015

Excavations uncover unique Hebrew inscription showing existence of a Jewish village at Kursi

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Ancient Egyptians described Algol's eclipses

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Archaeologists unearth new evidence of Roman, medieval Leicester

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Ancient trade routes between Bronze Age Iran and Mesopotamia uncovered

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Impression of King Hezekiah's royal seal discovered in excavations in Jerusalem

Monday, November 23, 2015

How the introduction of farming changed the human genome

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Early farmers exploited beehive products at least 8,500 years ago

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Twenty-two ancient shipwrecks discovered in small Greek archipelago

Monday, November 9, 2015

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Snail trails lead to climate-driven cultural shift in ancient Morocco

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Monday, November 2, 2015

Invaluable ancient Syrian mosaic discovered

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Beyond the temples, ancient bones reveal the lives of the Mayan working class

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

3D models provide a credible stimulus to current archaeological thought, practice

Monday, October 26, 2015

Rare warrior tomb filled with Bronze Age wealth and weapons discovered

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Evidence of Ice Age ‘economic migrants’ in Europe to be unearthed

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Ancient genome from Africa sequenced for the first time

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Tiny ancient fossil from Spain shows birds flew over the heads of dinosaurs

Monday, September 21, 2015

Earliest evidence of ancient North American salmon fishing verified

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Archaeologists discover 'Roman Village' in Gernsheim

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Unlocking secrets of how fossils form

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Neolithic skeleton reveals early history of rickets

Monday, September 7, 2015

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Greedy kestrel provides first proof of bird breeding in ancient Egypt

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

3D printing revives bronze-age music

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Scientists reveal New Zealand's prehistoric wildlife sanctuaries

Friday, August 28, 2015

Philistines introduced sycamore, cumin and opium poppy into Israel during the Iron Age

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Unusual use of blue pigment found in ancient mummy portraits

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Meteorite impacts can create DNA building blocks

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Prehistoric carnivore dubbed 'scarface' discovered in Zambia

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Competition from cats drove extinction of many species of ancient dogs

Monday, August 3, 2015

Archaeologists uncover entrance gate, fortification of ancient city

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Genome analysis pins down arrival and spread of first Americans

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Volcanic rocks resembling Roman concrete explain record uplift in Italian caldera

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

South Africans used milk-based paint 49,000 years ago

Friday, June 26, 2015

Bronze Age humans' diet and arrival of new crops in Iberian Peninsula

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Kennewick Man closely related to Native Americans, geneticists say

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Data bank launched for global access to ancient DNA

Monday, June 15, 2015

Remote cave study reveals 3000 years of European climate variation

Friday, June 5, 2015

Archaeologists discover evidence of prehistoric gold trade route

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Ancient DNA sheds light on how past environments affected ancient populations

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Social media and archaeology: A match not made in heaven

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Our bond with dogs may go back more than 27,000 years

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Who left the dogs out? No trace of ancient colonizers' canines in Madagascar

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Size of domestic animals has increased over time

Monday, May 18, 2015

'Eternal flames' of ancient times could spark interest of modern geologists

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Ancient skeleton shows leprosy may have spread to Britain from Scandinavia

Friday, May 8, 2015

Traces of flowers placed on a Palaeolithic tomb

Monday, May 4, 2015

As the river rises: Cahokia's emergence and decline linked to Mississippi River flooding

Friday, May 1, 2015

Heritage destruction in conflict zones provides archaeological opportunities

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Monday, April 20, 2015

Ancient crucible steel weapon found in Eastern Europe

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Palaeolithic remains show cannibalistic habits of human ancestors