Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2018

500-Year-Old Scroll Reveals King Henry VII's Extraordinary Support of Travelers to New World

In 1500, just a year after England sent its first British-led expedition to Terra Nova, the so-called New World, King Henry VII gave a hefty reward to one of the explorers, new research shows. The king gave an extravagant paycheck of 30 British pounds sterling to William Weston, a Bristol...

Sep 30, 2018

Social Inequality Left Its Mark on 5,000-Year-Old Alpine Village

Archaeologists think they've spotted traces of social inequality in a 5,000-year-old village that was buried on the shores of Lake Zurich in Switzerland. The prehistoric settlement was uncovered during the construction of an underground parking garage near the Parkhaus-Opéra in Zurich. When the construction started, we expected only minor archaeological...

Aug 31, 2018

Hidden Maya Civilization Revealed Beneath Guatemala's Jungle Canopy

More than 61,000 ancient Maya structures — from large pyramids to single houses — were lurking beneath the dense jungle canopy in Guatemala, revealing clues about the ancient culture's farming practices, infrastructure, politics and economy, a new aerial survey has revealed. The Guatemalan jungle is thick and challenging to explore,...

Jul 31, 2018

That Massive Black Sarcophagus Contained 3 Inscriptions. Here's What They Mean.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 9:10 a.m. E.D.T. on Aug. 22, 2018 Three drawings, incised on three sheets of gold, have been discovered in a massive black granite sarcophagus in Alexandria, Egypt. One expert, not involved with the research, told Live Science that one of the drawings may...

Jun 30, 2018

Horses Have Had Dental Appointments in Mongolia for Over 3,000 Years

Imagine extracting a wayward tooth from a young horse more than two millennia before the discovery of laughing gas. It may sound like a Herculean task, but the ancient people of Mongolia figured it out, making them the oldest veterinary dentists on record. Researchers made the discovery by examining 85...

Jun 30, 2018

Mummy Wearing Gold-Gilded Face Mask Discovered at Ancient Egypt Burial Ground

A silver face mask gilded with gold, a mummification workshop, mummies and sarcophagi have all been discovered at a tomb complex in Saqqara, Egypt, an Egyptian-German team announced this morning (July 14). The complex contains several burial shafts dug into the ground, some of them extending more than 100 feet...

Jun 30, 2018

Hidden Compartments in This Wrecked Confederate Submarine Could Solve a 150-Year-Old Mystery

The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was a 40-foot-long (12 meter) sausage of bulletproof iron built in Mobile, Alabama, and propelled through the water by seven daring men cranking a single, giant screw. It was, it's fair to say, not the safest place in which to spend the Civil War. During...

May 31, 2018

How Did Easter Island Statues Get Their Massive 'Hats'?

Archaeologists put on their thinking caps to solve a long-standing puzzle about another kind of cap: the enormous stone hats that sit atop the heads of colossal statues on Easter Island, a place also known as Rapa Nui. The solemn, carved faces of the imposing rocky figures, or moai, are...

May 31, 2018

Rare 1,000-Year-Old Amulet with Arabic Blessing Found in Jerusalem

Teams from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Tel Aviv University unearthed the rare ornamental piece beneath the Givati Parking Lot in the City of David, in Jerusalem Walls National Park. In the past decade, archaeologists have uncovered numerous artifacts, including precious stones and gold coins, beneath the Givati Parking...

Apr 30, 2018

Sprawling 3,300-Year-Old Egyptian Tomb Hides Secrets of Ancient War

Archaeologists have discovered the sprawling, 3,300-year-old tomb of an army general named Iwrhya at the ancient Egyptian site of Saqqara. Hieroglyphic inscriptions found on the tomb walls say that Iwrhya is a high army General, and High steward of the domain of Amun [and] High steward of the estates of...

Apr 30, 2018

Hatshepsut: Powerful Female Pharaoh

Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh of Egypt. She reigned between 1473 and 1458 B.C. Her name means “foremost of noblewomen.” Her rule was relatively peaceful and she was able to launch a building program that would see the construction of a great temple at Deir el-Bahari at Luxor. She also...

Apr 30, 2018

Intriguing Gold Coin and Other Treasures Uncovered in Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed the remains of a huge, red, brick building — likely the remnants of a Roman bath — as well as a mountain of treasures, including a statue of a ram and a gold coin featuring King Ptolemy III, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities....

Mar 31, 2018

'Space Alien' Mummy Spurs DNA Debate

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The remains of a 6-inch-long mummy from Chile are not those of a space alien, according to recently reported research. The tiny body with its strange features – a...

Mar 31, 2018

Why New Guinea Warriors Prized Human Bone Daggers

When facing rivals, the warriors of New Guinea had a choice of deadly bone daggers; they could fight with daggers crafted from human thighbones or weapons shaped from the thighbones of cassowaries, flightless, dinosaur-like birds. But which type of dagger — the human or the cassowary — is stronger? According...

Mar 31, 2018

This 3,000-Year-Old Horse Got a Human-Style Burial

More than 3,000 years ago in the Nile River Valley, a body was carefully prepared for ceremonial burial. It was wrapped in a shroud and placed in a tomb, surrounded by important objects that demonstrated its elevated status. The mourners probably had long faces as they sent their loved one...