archaeology

Vikings melted down Islamic coins to make their own pennies, new research has revealed. Some of the earliest Viking cash on record was crafted using silver from Middle Eastern coins known as dirhams. The findings, published in the journal Archaeometry, confirm a long-suspected connection between early Scandinavian coinage and Islamic silver. Scientists examined coins from the Damhus hoard, a coll…

Like much of human history, the last throes of the Stone Age featured crises, conflicts,...

The silver in a Viking Age hoard found in Denmark was from melted-down coins from the faraway Islamic world, a new study finds.

A remarkable archaeological find in South Africa's Wonderwerk Cave has compelled scientists to fundamentally reconsider the timeline of human mastery of fire. Researchers working at the site, renowned for its exceptional prehistoric finds, have identified burned mammal bones dating to approximately 1.79 million years ago. This discovery extends the known record of controlled fire use by roughly 8…

Stonehenge’s giant Altar Stone likely traveled about 700 kilometers from Scotland through a carefully planned human effort. New research from Curtin University is shedding new light on one of Stonehenge’s biggest mysteries: how a massive stone weighing around six tons made its way across Britain thousands of years ago. The focus of the study is [...]

Because the seal had never been broken, the Etruscan tomb’s grave goods had also gone completely untouched by looters.

The sting recovered 30 bronze coins minted during the Second Punic War, but the real story is the tens of thousands that are still unaccounted for.

A planned highway exposed a buried Celtic world filled with gold coins, amber and clues to a vanished trading center.

A new study has revealed that ancient human ancestors were far more skilled and organized than previously thought. Nearly 800,000 years ago, they were carefully selecting different types of stone for specific tools rather than simply picking up whatever rocks happened to be nearby. The findings suggest that these early humans possessed detailed knowledge of […] The post Ancient humans chose the p…

Archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) have completed an excavation at Stanton Cross in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, revealing what has been described as a "remarkable window into life in the area during the Roman period". The dig covered nine hectares at a new housing development situated near Chester House Estate, where evidence of an ancient Roman settlement had previ…

A 7,000-year-old village may have practiced a haunting skull ritual that left bodies behind

An analysis of corn, cassava and coca plants discovered with sacrificed Inca children reveals they died during the reign of one of the last Inca emperors.

Identified with Tel Shiloh in the West Bank, the site holds a prominent place in biblical tradition.

A routine river dredge pulled up a rusted weapon, then revealed a hidden Revolutionary War story buried underwater for centuries.

Recent studies are revealing just how extensive that burial landscape was and how long it remained in use.

An archaeology student has uncovered a ninth-century Viking grave in Cambridge with an unusually tall skeleton inside. A routine training excavation conducted by University of Cambridge archaeology students has yielded an extraordinary ninth-century mass burial site at Wandlebury, located just three miles from the city centre. The 2025 dig initially appeared unremarkable before researchers uncove…

Scattered across rocky outcrops in northern Europe, these ancient footprints have endured for nearly 3,000 years. What they meant to the people who carved them has remained elusive...until now.

Dated to the ninth century C.E., a time when the Vikings ruled the area, the grave held the remains of at least 10 different young men.

A spectacular fossil fish discovered on a remote cliff in New Zealand nearly 30 years ago has finally revealed its full story thanks to an unexpected discovery: the original collector’s long-lost field notebooks. The 1.2-meter fossil, preserved in stunning three-dimensional detail, belonged to an ancient tarpon-like predator that cruised New Zealand waters about 55 million years ago.

The fall of the Roman Empire led to a tumultuous period of political, demographic and cultural change in Western Europe from the 4th to 6th centuries in the Common Era (CE). A new study that uses ancient human DNA analyses combined with archeological finds is helping scientists to frame a better picture of the Early Medieval people who inhabited Western Europe and the societies they created. Thei…