Mass Production Of Stone Bladelets Led To A Cultural Shift In Paleolithic Levant Analysis of stone tools attributed to the Ahmarian, the first Upper Paleolithic culture of the Near East (dated approximately 40,000 to 45,000 years ago) shows that small, elongated, symmetrical objects (bladelets) were mass-produced on-site. Such a standardized production is in line with … Read more
3000 years old wooden wishing well discovered in Germany In the town of Germering, in the Germany state of Bavaria, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a well-preserved Bronze Age wooden well filled with ritual deposits. People may have sunk jewelry and ceramics as offerings in the special water spring, similar to how coins are still thrown … Read more
Viking beaters: Scots and Irish may have settled Iceland a century before Norsemen Remarkably similar carvings and simple cross sculptures mark special sites or places once sacred, spanning a zone stretching from the Irish and Scottish coasts to Iceland. We can look to Skellig Michael, which rises from the sea 12km off the southwest Irish … Read more
Researchers share surprising new findings on Ice Age excavation site This story begins anywhere from 4,000 to 17,000 years ago, when woolly mammoths roamed the Earth. It picks up in Mexico in the mid-1950s, when the remains of a couple of those mammoths — and stone tools with traces of human use — were found in the … Read more
Study Investigates Source of Amazon’s “Dark Earth” Indigenous people in the Amazon may have been deliberately creating fertile soil for farming for thousands of years. At archaeological sites across the Amazon River basin, mysterious patches of unusually fertile soil dot the landscape. Scientists have long debated the origin of this “dark earth,” which is darker … Read more
Bone Fragments Found Inside Mysterious Medieval Pendant An interdisciplinary research team led by the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) has solved the mystery of a gold-plated pendant found in 2008 in a medieval refuse pit in the Old City section of Mainz. Thanks to the non-destructive examinations at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) … Read more
2,000 years of genetic history in Scandinavia elucidates Viking age to modern day A new study reported in the journal Cell on January 5 captures a genetic history across Scandinavia over 2,000 years, from the Iron Age to the present day. This look back at Scandinavian history is based on an analysis of 48 new and 249 published … Read more
Medieval murder victim was killed by multiple sword blows to the head in ‘case of raw violence’ Modern forensic analysis techniques have proven endlessly beneficial in solving present-day murders, but now that same technology is being used to help crack the unsolved cases of the past — including the brutal murder of a man more … Read more
Police Seized Hundreds of Paleolithic Tools, Roman Tiles, Bones, and Other Ancient Artifacts From Two Homes in Spain Two men are under investigation after Spanish police discovered hundreds of archaeological artefacts as well as bone fragments believed to be up to 5,000 years old in two residential homes in the province of Alicante. The investigation … Read more
4001 Roman coins on display 50+ years after discovery The Treasure of Garonne, an assemblage of 4001 Roman coins that went down with a shipwreck in the 2nd century A.D., has gone on display at the Museum of Aquitaine Bordeux. This is the first time all 4001 coins have been exhibited to the public. The coins are … Read more