Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 14, 2024

Skull of Neolithic 'bog body' from Denmark was smashed by 8 heavy blows in violent murder

The bones of a Neolithic man found over a century ago in a Danish peat bog reveal that he was an immigrant who was brutally murdered. To solve the 5,000-year-old cold case, researchers studied everything from dental plaque to DNA. They concluded that this Vittrup Man, as researchers call him,...

Feb 14, 2024

Ancient rock art in Argentinian cave may have transmitted information across 100 generations

A gallery's worth of rock art decorating the inside of a cave in Argentina is several millennia older than once thought and contains hundreds of drawings that span 100 generations. At one time, archaeologists dated the art — located in Patagonia, a region in South America's southern tip — as...

Feb 15, 2024

2 waves of mass murder struck prehistoric Denmark, genetic study reveals

Hunter-gatherers in what's now Denmark were wiped out within a few generations of the arrival of the first farmers in the region around 5,900 years ago, a new study finds. But these farmers were the new top dogs for only about a millennium — about 4,850 years ago, immigrants of...

Feb 16, 2024

13,000-year-old bone bead is the oldest of its kind in the Americas

Archaeologists in Wyoming have discovered the oldest known bead in the Western Hemisphere: a nearly 13,000-year-old bone ornament crafted by the prehistoric Clovis people. The tubular, 0.3-inch-long (7 millimeters) polished bead has several grooves and was crafted from the bone of a hare, according to the researchers. The bead's slight...

Feb 17, 2024

Stunning rock art site reveals that humans settled the Colombian Amazon 13,000 years ago

The first humans to settle the Amazon Basin arrived around 13,000 years ago as part of a mass migration that quickly swept across the Americas, researchers have discovered. After coming to what is now Serranía de la Lindosa, an archaeological site on the northern edge of the Colombian Amazon, these...

Feb 17, 2024

'Beautifully preserved,' 3,000-year-old gold clasp unearthed by metal detectorist in UK

An amateur metal detectorist in the United Kingdom has unearthed a remarkable 3,000-year-old gold clasp that would've been used to fasten clothing during the Late Bronze Age (1000 to 800 B.C.). Jonathan Needham discovered the artifact while metal detecting in Staffordshire, a county in central England, according to a statement...

Feb 17, 2024

When did the ancient Egyptians first mummify their dead?

Ancient Egyptians are perhaps best known for the way they treated the dead — from constructing colossal pyramids to filling subterranean tombs with lavish treasures and artifacts. The Egyptians also famously mummified many of the recently deceased to preserve their bodies. But when did people in ancient Egypt start mummifying...

Feb 20, 2024

31 of the world's most valuable treasures that are still missing

A huge number of priceless treasures have disappeared from the historical record throughout the ages. These artifacts often go missing due to theft or under mysterious circumstances during times of war or disaster, when they can't be protected or when military forces decide to take those treasures as a trophy....

Feb 21, 2024

'Completely surreal': Metal detectorist unearths 1,500-year-old gold ring in Denmark

An amateur metal detectorist in Denmark has unearthed a rare gold ring that may have belonged to a previously unknown royal family with ties to the Kingdom of France. Lars Nielsen discovered the large, ornately decorated gold ring, set with a red semiprecious stone, while exploring Emmerlev, a parish in...

Feb 23, 2024

Bright-red pigment is one of the earliest examples of Bronze Age lipstick

A bright-red pigment housed inside a small stone vial could be one of the oldest known examples of lipstick in the world. Archaeologists recovered the Bronze Age cosmetic in 2001 in Jiroft, a city in southeastern Iran, after the Halil River flooded and swept through several nearby cemeteries from the...

Feb 27, 2024

1,000 burials and medieval village found in excavation of abbey destroyed in French Revolution

The excavation of a medieval French abbey has revealed more than 1,000 burials, including those of plague victims, in its cemetery as well as the remains of a nearly 1,200-year-old village underneath the building. The dig at Beaumont Abbey reveals almost eight centuries of use before the events of the...

Feb 27, 2024

'Rare' metal slab found in Maryland was once part of a suit of armor worn by colonists

A flattened scrap of metal buried at the site of a 17th-century colonial fort in Maryland was once part of a suit of armor, X-rays reveal. Archaeologists discovered the slightly concave slab that's about the size of a cafeteria tray while conducting excavations in a cellar at Historic St. Mary's...

Feb 28, 2024

Copper Age necropolis unearthed in Italy contains skeletal remains and still-sharp weapons, maybe from ancient warriors

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed a Copper Age necropolis that contains nearly two dozen tombs and a collection of weapons. The discovery was made in November at San Giorgio Bigarello, a municipality in northern Italy, during the construction of a community garden. However, researchers had no idea how extensive the...

Feb 28, 2024

Ancient Troy: The city and the legend of the Trojan War

Troy is an ancient city and archaeological site in modern-day Turkey, but is also famously the setting for the legendary Trojan War in Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. In legend, the city of Troy was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led...

Feb 29, 2024

14 wrecks that expose 'what life was like on slaver ships' identified in the Bahamas

Archaeologists in the Bahamas have identified the underwater wrecks of 14 sailing ships involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the Americas, a new report finds. The wrecks include the Peter Mowell, an American schooner that sank off Lynyard Cay near Great Abaco Island in 1860 with about...