Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2023

Cosmic rays reveal 'hidden' 30-foot-long corridor in Egypt's Great Pyramid

Cosmic rays and photos from an endoscope have revealed a hidden corridor inside the Great Pyramid of Giza's north face, above the pyramid's ancient entrance, new research finds. The Great Pyramid was built on orders of the pharaoh Khufu (ruled circa 2551 B.C. to 2528 B.C.) on the Giza plateau...

Feb 28, 2023

Roman-era tomb scattered with magical 'dead nails' and sealed off to shield the living from the 'restless dead'

In ancient Roman times, people may have feared the restless dead, according to the discovery of a cremation tomb sprinkled with intentionally bent nails and sealed not only with two dozen bricks but also a layer of plaster, a new study finds. The unusual grave, found at the site of...

Jan 31, 2023

See the lifelike face of Zuzu, a man who lived 9,600 years ago in Brazil

In 1997, archaeologists unearthed a skeleton buried in the fetal position at Toca dos Coqueiros, an archaeological site in Brazil's Serra da Capivara National Park. Based on the size and shape of the skull, they identified the remains as female and named the skeleton Zuzu. But that classification has remained...

Jan 31, 2023

3,400 years ago, 'brain surgery' left man with square hole in his skull, ancient bones suggest

The skeletal remains of two Bronze Age brothers buried more than 3,400 years ago in what's now northern Israel reveal that the siblings lived with severe health problems but had access to treatments, including trepanation, a new study suggests. The older brother had a piece of bone removed from his...

Dec 31, 2022

Lasers reveal massive, 650-square-mile Maya site hidden beneath Guatemalan rainforest

Geologists in northern Guatemala have discovered a massive Maya site that stretches approximately 650 square miles (1,700 square kilometers) and dates to the Middle and Late Preclassic period (roughly 1000 B.C. to 250 B.C.). The findings were the result of an aerial survey that researchers conducted via airplane using lidar...

Dec 31, 2023

5 blockbuster archaeology discoveries that may come in 2024

In 2024, we can expect to see a number of new finds and advances in archaeology. New AI techniques may lead to a wave of lost texts being rediscovered, and similar techniques may be used to track down stolen artifacts. We may also see the discovery of new inscriptions at...

Dec 31, 2023

Medieval grave of 'very, very powerful' man and his 4-foot-long sword unearthed in Sweden

Archaeologists in Sweden have discovered the medieval burial of an extremely tall man who was buried with a long sword — one that was nearly two-thirds of his height — and may have been a nobleman who supported the region's ill-fated union with Denmark and Norway. The sword, which is...

Jan 17, 2024

Doctor injected dog and rabbits with bacteria from assassinated US president in bizarre autopsy experiments, documents reveal

Never-before-seen documents from an autopsy on assassinated U.S. President William McKinley reveal that after the president's death, a doctor performed unorthodox experiments in which he injected bacterial samples from the president's wounds into rabbits and a dog. The notes are now on sale for the first time. On Sept. 6,...

Jan 17, 2024

Babylon's Ishtar Gate may have a totally different purpose than we thought, magnetic field measurements suggest

Babylon's bright-blue Ishtar Gate was thought to have been built to celebrate the conquest of Jerusalem — but a new analysis finds that it may have been erected years later. The iconic glazed-brick edifice, which King Nebuchadnezzar II ordered to be built and decorated with wild bulls and mušhuššu-dragons while...

Jan 18, 2024

'Extremely rare' 2,500-year-old broken silver coin unearthed near Jerusalem

A broken 2,500-year-old silver coin unearthed near Jerusalem is rare evidence that early currency was used in ancient Judea, according to archaeologists. It's one of only a handful of coins of this age — made in the sixth or fifth century B.C., when Judea was under the control of the...

Jan 19, 2024

1,000-year-old cemetery with dead wearing dramatic rings on their necks and buckets on their feet found in Ukraine

Archaeologists in Ukraine have discovered a 1,000-year-old cemetery whose dead were buried with weapons, jewelry and, curiously, buckets around some of their feet. The 11th-century cemetery is located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Kyiv. Of its 107 graves, most of the identified burials were deposed in wooden coffins,...

Jan 19, 2024

10,000-year-old burials from unknown hunter-gatherer group discovered in Brazil

Archaeologists in Brazil have discovered a large Indigenous cemetery housing over 40 skeletons and thousands of grave goods from as far back as 10,000 years ago. The earliest human remains appear to be from a previously unknown ancestral community predating the Sambaquians, coastal hunter-gatherers who historically lived in the area....

Jan 23, 2024

Remains of 4,000-year-old 'lost' tomb discovered in Ireland

An archaeologist in Ireland has discovered an ancient megalithic tomb — one that was seen and sketched in the 19th century but then lost for almost 200 years. Local scholar Billy Mag Fhloinn, an archaeologist and folklorist with Sacred Heart University in the Irish town of Dingle, found the tomb...

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...