Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 24, 2024

Mysterious skeleton found in Hernán Cortés' palace revealed to be Indigenous woman, not Spanish monk

A skeleton visible within a burial at the entrance of the palace of Hernán Cortés —the Spanish conquistador who caused the fall of the Aztec Empire — is not the remains of a Spanish monk as was long thought. Instead, a new analysis reveals that the bones belonged to a...

Jan 24, 2024

Hoard of Bronze Age jewelry discovered in Poland was part of ancient water burial ritual, study finds

Archaeologists in Poland have discovered a collection of more than 550 pieces of Bronze Age jewelry that were once part of an ancient burial ritual. Known as Papowo Biskupie, the dried-out lake bed site was occupied from roughly 1200 to 450 B.C. by the Chełmno group, a community from the...

Jan 26, 2024

Even Stone Age people burned their porridge, 5,000-year-old food-scorched clay pot reveals

People have been burning their porridge for at least 5,000 years, remains of a charred cooking pot unearthed in Germany confirms. And just like today, cleaning the pot was more hassle than it was worth. Archaeologists discovered the meal mishap after examining a trash heap of mixed pottery shards at...

Jan 29, 2024

Prehistoric jewelry reveals 9 distinct cultures across Stone Age Europe

Tens of thousands of years ago, prehistoric humans in Europe adorned themselves with such a wide variety of beads that researchers have classified nine distinct cultural groups across the continent based on their location and distinctive styles. The researchers focused on the Gravettian period, which stretched between 34,000 and 24,000...

Jan 29, 2024

Denmark's oldest runes inscribed on ancient knife

Archaeologists in Denmark have discovered runic letters inscribed on a knife blade dating back nearly 2,000 years, making them some of the oldest runes ever found in the country. The 3-inch (8 centimeters) iron blade was found in an ancient grave near the city of Odense on the central island...

Jan 29, 2024

90,000-year-old human footprints found on a Moroccan beach are some of the oldest and best preserved in the world

Two trails of ancient human footprints pressed into a beach in Morocco form one of the largest and best-preserved trackways in the world. Researchers happened upon the footprint site near the northern tip of North Africa in 2022 while studying boulders at a nearby pocket beach, according to a study...

Jan 30, 2024

1 of Sweden's oldest stone tombs is mysteriously missing skulls

Archaeologists in central Sweden have unearthed a 5,500-year-old stone chamber containing several burials from the Early Neolithic period — but many of the largest bones, including skulls, seem to have been removed around the time the dead were placed there. This differs from what we usually see in megalithic graves,...

Jan 30, 2024

Early medieval sword fished out of Polish river is in 'near perfect' condition

Workers made a surprising discovery in Poland when they pulled an early medieval sword from a muddy riverbed while dredging, and some researchers think the weapon could have a Viking connection. The 1,000-year-old sword, which is thought to be older than Poland itself, was found cloaked in silt and in...

Jan 30, 2024

Amelia Earhart's plane may have crashed in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, explorer claims

An ocean exploration team believes they've found iconic pilot Amelia Earhart's plane in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. But some experts say they're not so sure. The group, known as Deep Sea Vision, recently released underwater sonar images that resemble a plane lodged more 16,000 feet (4,900 meters) underwater,...

Jan 31, 2024

45,000-year-old bones unearthed in cave are oldest modern-human remains in Central Europe

Modern humans crossed the Alps into chilly Northern Europe about 45,000 years ago, meaning they may have coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe for thousands of years longer than experts previously thought, according to new research. The discovery — of 13 bone fragments belonging to Homo sapiens who occupied a cave...

Jan 31, 2024

Jade mask depicting Maya storm god unearthed in royal tomb in Guatemala

Archaeologists have discovered a 1,700-year-old royal tomb in Guatemala that's overflowing with funeral offerings, including an intricately designed jade mask depicting a Maya deity. The tomb, which is located at an archaeological site known as Chochkitam near the borders of what are now Mexico and Belize, was the burial site...

Feb 1, 2024

2,000-year-old 'bog body' of teenager with missing skull discovered in Northern Ireland

Archaeologists have uncovered a bog body in the U.K. that is between 2,000 and 2,500 years old. The find was made after the police were alerted about the discovery of human bones in peatland near Bellaghy, a village in the central part of Northern Ireland, according to a statement by...

Feb 2, 2024

Our mixed-up human family: 8 human relatives that went extinct (and 1 that didn't)

The ancient human family tree is complicated. An evolutionary trajectory that was once presented as a straight line has been abandoned, and our history is envisioned as a muddy delta or braided stream representing the interplay between physical and cultural adaptations across species. The story of the Homo genus is...

Feb 2, 2024

13 of the world's oldest artworks, some crafted by extinct human relatives

What constitutes art is heavily debated, and that's especially true for prehistoric art. But here are some of the contenders for the title of the world's oldest art. Many were made by anatomically modern humans, but some were not. Related: Did art exist before modern humans? New discoveries raise big...

Feb 2, 2024

1st known tuberculosis cases in Neanderthals revealed in prehistoric bone analysis

Neanderthals living in Central Europe around 35,000 years ago suffered from tuberculosis (TB), a new DNA analysis of their bones reveals. This is the first time this disease has been identified in Neanderthals, raising questions about whether tuberculosis contributed to their extinction. In two research studies published in the journal...