Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 31, 2019

Offerings to Supernatural Deities Discovered in Lake Titicaca in the Andes

A team of archaeological divers has uncovered dazzling treasures at the bottom of Lake Titicaca, including a puma carved out of the blue gemstone lapis-lazuli, gold medallions and a turquoise stone pendant. These riches were likely offered to supernatural deities hundreds of years ago by elite people from the Tiwanaku...

Jan 31, 2019

Forgotten Parchments About King Arthur, Merlin and the Holy Grail Discovered in UK Library

The librarian hadn't fallen under a magical spell, but he still felt enchanted when he unexpectedly discovered seven handwritten parchments detailing the legendary adventures of Merlin and King Arthur. For years, the documents had lain hidden at the University of Bristol in England. The parchments were discovered in a book...

Jan 31, 2019

Search for Shackleton's Antarctic Shipwreck Turns Back to Avoid Deadly Ice Trap

The inclement weather and heavy ice also caused the loss of one of two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that had spent several days searching for the wreck on the seafloor. The AUVs were transported by the South African polar research ship Agulhas II. The expedition team announced today (Feb. 14)...

Jan 31, 2019

England's Oldest Cave-Art Site Is Covered with Signs to Ward off Evil Spirits

There's a cave in England where, during the last ice age, ancient people carved images of their world into the walls. Those renderings of bison, birds and reindeer are the only known examples of ice age rock art in Britain. But those same caves, Creswell Crags, were also the site...

Jan 31, 2019

5,600-Year-Old Human Skull Bone Fished Out of the Thames by Lucky 'Mudlarker'

Humans have lived alongside England's River Thames for thousands of years, and they've left some interesting things behind in its muddy waters: wooden clubs for bashing in heads, a toilet that fits three butts at once and sometimes, even bits of human skulls. Tomorrow (Feb. 20), the Museum of London...

Jan 31, 2019

Inca Ritual Baths Fed by Waterfall Reveals More of Its Secrets

Deep in Peru's Sacred Valley, a ceremonial Inca complex — complete with a stone altar and 14 baths — sits in a jungle clearing. And now, cutting-edge radar and laser scans, and on-the-ground excavations are revealing just how the Inca built and used these structures more than 500 years ago....

Dec 31, 2018

'Ripped' Woman with Massive Forearms Is the Oldest Known Human Burial in Lower Central America

Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known human burial in lower Central America: the skeletal remains of a mysterious woman who lived 5,900 years ago in what is now Nicaragua, a new study finds. In general, tropical places don't preserve human remains well, but in this case, the ancient women's bones...

Nov 30, 2020

Giant Aztec skull 'tower' unearthed in Mexico

Archaeologists in Mexico City have discovered 119 human skulls arranged in a trophy tower that the Aztecs built about 500 years ago, according to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. The new finding shows just how extensive the tower is; in 2015, researchers discovered part of the tower —...

Nov 30, 2020

The 10 biggest archaeology discoveries of 2020

With the pandemic and accompanying economic recession clouding 2020, it goes without saying that the year will not go down as the happiest for humanity. The archaeology world also felt the effects, as numerous digs were canceled or curtailed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the difficult year,...

Aug 31, 2020

3,200-year-old Egyptian-built fortress found in Israel

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a 3,200-year-old fortress built by the Egyptians and Canaanites, the ancient foes of the Israelites in the bible. The fortress was built to keep the newly arrived Philistines out of the region. The military structure, dubbed Galon Fortress, dates to the middle of the 12th...

Jul 31, 2020

When did humans discover how to use fire?

Fires blazed the way for humans to evolve into the species we are today. Scientists suspect that without a control over fire, humans probably would never have developed large brains and the benefits that come along with it. But when did humans first discover how to use fire? That's a...

May 31, 2020

London's 'oldest theater,' built just 3 years after Shakespeare's birth, discovered

The remains of what may be the oldest theater in London, dating to the start of Queen Elizabeth's reign in England, have been unearthed on land earmarked for a new housing development in the East End of the city. The buried ruins are thought to be from the Red Lion...

May 31, 2020

Death from above? Fireball may have destroyed ancient Syrian village

Debris from a comet may have leveled an ancient village in Syria during a spate of several such explosions occurring around the world, according to new research. The village of Abu Hureyra was a mound settlement in northern Syria around 13,000 years ago. The site was quickly excavated in 1972...

Apr 30, 2020

The world's oldest temple was built along a grand geometric plan

Hunter-gatherers might have built the world's oldest known temple on a precise geometric plan, according to new findings. The Neolithic site, known as Göbekli Tepe, is perched atop a limestone mountain ridge in southeastern Turkey. The site's T-shaped pillars, which are carved with mystic drawings of animals, abstract symbols and...

Feb 29, 2020

The equinox reveals one of the secrets of Egypt's iconic Sphinx

The Sphinx had a distinctive astronomical moment with the sun during the spring equinox when, in a shining flourish, the sun set on the shoulder of the half-man, half-lion statue on March 19, according to the Egypt Ministry of Antiquities. This phenomenon happens only twice a year, during the spring...