https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. New research by Flinders University researchers, conducted in partnership with the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC), has documented ancient archaeological sites on the cliff-tops in the region between Morgan and Overland Corner in South Australia. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-cliff-sites-ancient-aboriginal-heritage.html Archaeology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 17:16:02 EST news650222161 Archaeologists documenting tens of thousands of rock art motifs in the Colombian Amazon have been consulting with Indigenous elders and ritual specialists to help interpret their meaning. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-indigenous-elders-ritual-specialists-ancient.html Archaeology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:21:04 EST news650218861 In 79 CE, the active volcanic system in southern Italy known as Somma-Vesuvius erupted, burying the small Roman town of Pompeii and everyone in it. The "Pompeii eruption" covered everything in a layer of ash that preserved many of the bodies. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-dna-evidence-rewrites-histories-people.html Archaeology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:10:07 EST news650203801 The Ice Age camp site of Gönnersdorf on the banks of the Rhine has revealed a groundbreaking discovery that sheds new light on early fishing practices. New imaging methods have allowed researchers to see intricate engravings of fish on ancient schist plaquettes, accompanied by grid-like patterns that are interpreted as depictions of fishing nets or traps. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-oldest-depictions-fishing-ice-age.html Archaeology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:30:09 EST news650194201 A pit of human bones, potential evidence of a catastrophic epidemic that struck Constantinople in 541 A.D. Sulfur deposits trapped in polar ice, showing traces of a series of massive volcanic eruptions. For Brandon McDonald, these seemingly incongruous findings—one in Turkey, the other in Greenland—hold clues to a puzzle about the interplay of environment and disease. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-qa-ancient-roman-plagues-environmental.html Archaeology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:14:06 EST news650193241 An international group of researchers led by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have uncovered the earliest evidence of Ephedra use from the charred remains of the plant in a 15,000-year-old human burial site in northeastern Morocco. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-earliest-evidence-ephedra-year-moroccan.html Archaeology Wed, 06 Nov 2024 14:55:14 EST news650127310 An international team of archaeologists led by Professor Jochem Kahl from Freie Universität Berlin has made an incredible discovery in the necropolis of Asyut, Egypt. Researchers discovered the burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian priestess Idy, daughter of the regional governor Djefaihapi I, in a previously inaccessible section of his monumental tomb from around 1880 BCE. Unearthed after twenty years of fieldwork, the find is being hailed as a significant archaeological discovery. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-burial-chamber-grave-goods-ancient.html Archaeology Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:03:05 EST news650044978 The origins of writing in Mesopotamia lie in the images imprinted by ancient cylinder seals on clay tablets and other artifacts. A research group from the University of Bologna has identified a series of correlations between the designs engraved on these cylinders, dating back around six thousand years, and some of the signs in the proto-cuneiform script that emerged in the city of Uruk, located in what is now southern Iraq, around 3000 BCE. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-stone-cylinders-correspond-mesopotamia.html Archaeology Tue, 05 Nov 2024 06:00:02 EST news649957838 In an important discovery, archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan have uncovered a multi-layered archaeological site in the Zeravshan Valley, central Tajikistan, shedding rare light on early human settlement in the region. The findings from the site, known as Soii Havzak, provide crucial evidence that Central Asia played a vital role in early human migration and development. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-multi-layered-site-tajikistan-zeravshan.html Archaeology Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:11:03 EST news649944661 A recent preliminary study by Ph.D. student Leonie Hoff of the University of Oxford, published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, provides insight into how ancient fingerprints left on terracotta figurines reveal the age and sex of their makers. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-fingerprints-ancient-terracotta-figurines-men.html Archaeology Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:40:01 EST news649935414 Archaeologists using laser-sensing technology have detected what may be an ancient Mayan city cloaked by jungle in southern Mexico, authorities said Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-scientists-ancient-mayan-city-southern.html Archaeology Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:50:02 EST news649565295 The discovery of a 4,000-year-old fortified town hidden in an oasis in modern-day Saudi Arabia reveals how life at the time was slowly changing from a nomadic to an urban existence, archaeologists said on Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-year-town-hidden-arabian-oasis.html Archaeology Sat, 02 Nov 2024 18:00:01 EDT news649565873 A study led by the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, has used stable isotope analysis to uncover medieval land-use practices beneath temperate forests in Europe. The research, published in Scientific Reports, provides evidence of agricultural activity at a Cistercian manor site dating back to the thirteenth century, revealing that cereal production rather than animal husbandry dominated the area. The isotopic data shows clear signatures of grain cultivation and fertilization practices. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-isotope-reveals-medieval-people-prioritized.html Archaeology Fri, 01 Nov 2024 09:23:02 EDT news649671781 Settlements in northern Arabia were in a transitional stage of urbanization during the third to second millennium BCE, according to a study published October 30, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Guillaume Charloux of the French National Center for Scientific Research, Paris and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-archaeologists-urban-revolution-bronze-age.html Archaeology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:00:01 EDT news649500104 An international team of archaeologists, led by Antonis Bartsiokas with Democritus University of Thrace, in Greece, has uncovered evidence that a tunic found in one of the Royal Tombs at Vergina once belonged to Alexander the Great. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-tunic-royal-tombs-vergina-alexander.html Archaeology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:50:02 EDT news649508654 There is clearly giddy excitement in the shaky footage showing hands scrabbling in the soil in the Chew Valley in south-west England. A close-up shot captures someone pulling silver coin after silver coin from the churned earth as a woman laughs "there's pennies everywhere." The video accompanied news reports in 2019 of the monumental find by seven detectorists of a hoard of silver coins dating from the time of the Norman conquest in the 11th century. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-norman-coin-hoard-england-valuable.html Archaeology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:28:03 EDT news649510081 With the time traveling ability of archaeogenetic studies, it has become possible to shed light onto the dynamic past of human populations world-wide. Integrated with archaeological and anthropological data, it has been shown that fundamental changes in lifestyle, culture, technical know-how and social systems were often linked to the movement and interaction of people. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-genetic-wider-caucasus-region-steppe.html Archaeology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:00:01 EDT news649500065 Military musicians returning from the Napoleonic wars established Britain's first brass bands earlier than previously thought, new research reveals. The study undermines the idea that brass bands were a civilian and exclusively northern creation. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-britain-brass-bands-older-thought.html Archaeology Social Sciences Tue, 29 Oct 2024 20:00:01 EDT news649413613 Oysters play a crucial role in the marine ecosystem as they filter water, create habitats and support the nutrient cycle. Today, they are considered endangered in many parts of the world. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-sustainable-oyster-harvesting-stone-age.html Archaeology Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:48:10 EDT news649421286 Prehistoric Polynesian seafarers were highly skilled and undertook some of the longest and most technically demanding voyages in prehistory—but did they ever sail into very high latitudes with landfall in Antarctica, as some scholars have argued? https://phys.org/news/2024-10-south-polynesian-seafarers.html Archaeology Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:25:04 EDT news649419902 Archaeologists have analyzed lidar data from a completely unstudied corner of the Maya world in Campeche, Mexico, revealing 6,674 undiscovered Maya structures, including pyramids like those at the famous sites of Chichén Itzá or Tikal. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-major-maya-cities.html Archaeology Mon, 28 Oct 2024 19:00:01 EDT news648804541 University of Missouri scientist Brandi L. MacDonald is using modern technology only found at Mizzou to help researchers expand the collective understanding of how human thought and intellect has developed over time. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-geochemical-fingerprints-ochre-world-oldest.html Archaeology Mon, 28 Oct 2024 13:38:16 EDT news649341491 For the first time, state-of-the-art biomechanics technology has allowed us to scientifically measure just how deadly are two iconic Aboriginal weapons. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-biomechanics-indigenous-weapons-deadly.html Archaeology Mon, 28 Oct 2024 12:44:28 EDT news649338264 A study published in L'Anthropologie by Professor Ella Been from Ono Academic College and Dr. Omry Barzilai from the University of Haifa sheds new light on the burial practices of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the Levant region during the Middle Paleolithic (MP). https://phys.org/news/2024-10-ancient-graves-reveal-distinct-burial.html Archaeology Mon, 28 Oct 2024 10:30:01 EDT news649328206 A passage in the Norse "Sverris Saga," the 800-year-old story of King Sverre Sigurdsson, describes a military raid that occurred in AD 1197, during which a body was thrown into a well at Sverresborg Castle, outside Trondheim in central Norway, likely as an attempt to poison the main water source for the local inhabitants. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-thrown-castle-year-norse-saga.html Archaeology Fri, 25 Oct 2024 11:00:02 EDT news649063561 Twelve skeletons have been found in a large, 2,000-year-old tomb directly in front of the Khazneh ("Treasury") in the city of Petra in Jordan. Alongside them, excavators have discovered grave goods made of pottery, bronze, iron and ceramics. There is much excitement among archaeologists because of what the rare opportunity to investigate this site might tell us about Petra's ancient people, the Nabataeans, and their culture. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-ancient-skeletons-mysterious-tomb-petra.html Archaeology Thu, 24 Oct 2024 11:14:58 EDT news648987291 The first-ever use of cutting-edge drone-based lidar in Central Asia allowed archaeologists to capture stunning details of two newly documented trade cities high in the mountains of Uzbekistan. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-high-res-lidar-exposes-large.html Archaeology Wed, 23 Oct 2024 11:00:01 EDT news648892082 A pair of engineers and a historian have teamed up together to model the means by which the first use of the wheel may have happened. In their paper published in Royal Society Open Science, Lee Alacoque, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Kai James, with the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Richard Bulliet, from Columbia University, all in the U.S., describe the process that may have unfolded as workers at a copper mine in the Carpathian Mountains sought to move ore more easily from deep within a mine approximately 6,000 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-wheel.html Archaeology Wed, 23 Oct 2024 10:06:46 EDT news648896791 The Roman-era temple of Esna, 60 kilometers south of Luxor in Egypt, is undergoing extensive restoration work in an Egyptian-German cooperation project. The temple proper no longer exists, but the large vestibule or pronaos was rediscovered more than 200 years ago and is complete. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-uncovered-egyptian-temple-esna.html Archaeology Tue, 22 Oct 2024 13:03:00 EDT news648820971 The leather gloves, embroidered at the wrists, rest on a tufted pillow of red satin in a glassed wooden box, a fitting place for artifacts that have a history tied to the English-speaking world's most-famous playwright. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-exploring-authenticity-pair-storied-gloves.html Archaeology Tue, 22 Oct 2024 10:45:59 EDT news648812752