News Round Up

The Sogdians of Central Asia were the master traders of the Silk Road from the fifth to eighth century A.D. Their wealth enabled Sogdians from the highest nobles to members of the middle class to commission lavish murals that adorned temples,…

Renowned Visiting Researchers join the UHI Archaeology Institute, and the Archaeology Institute is established as a significant economic benefit to Orkney. The University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, based at Orkney College…

Prehistoric earthworks at Bosigran, in west Cornwall, have been directly dated for the first time, shedding new light on the area’s ancient field systems.  The post Dating Bosigran’s prehistoric field systems appeared first on Current Archaeology.

What is it? Laguncula (canteen) Culture Roman Date End of 1st to end of 3rd century A.D. Material Iron and copper alloy Found Seynod, France Dimensions 6.5 inches high, 4.4 inches wide, weight 1 pound…

United States Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. William J. McGowan was 23 years old when he died near the village of Moon-sur-Elle in northern France. McGowan had grown up in the small town of Benson in western Minnesota, where he loved to ski. He attended…

AUSTRALIA: While excavating the Ladies’ Cottage, a former women’s mental health asylum in Tasmania, archaeologists learned about one inmate’s curious behavior through a surprising discovery. More than 1,000 objects were found hidden beneath the…

INDONESIA: The ability to create figurative and portable objects of art is a characteristic that researchers believe separates Homo sapiens from our ancestors. Until recently though, little evidence had been found showing that early humans who…

INDIA: Nearly 300 never-before-documented rock paintings were discovered across 11 sites in Madhya Pradesh. The scenes include 67 human and 80 animal figures, among them depictions of deer, rhinoceros, wild boar, and Indian bison. While animal…

ISRAEL: Hand-size stone balls have been found at numerous early Paleolithic sites around the world, but their exact purpose has baffled experts. Microscopic analysis of wear patterns and bone residues on the surface of examples found in Qesem Cave…

GREECE:  An experienced surgeon treating a soldier on the island of Thasos tried everything to alleviate his patient’s debilitating infection, even performing a complex procedure that entailed boring holes in his skull. The man, who was buried at…

SPAIN: Before the Carthaginian general Hannibal crossed the Alps with his elephants, he defeated a group of Iberian tribes in a pivotal 220 B.C. battle fought somewhere along the Tagus River. Ancient writers record that Hannibal’s 25,000 soldiers…

ENGLAND: There were no roast chickens or rabbit stews on the tables of Iron Age Britons. Chickens and brown hares, which are not native to the British Isles, only arrived sometime between the 5th and 3rd centuries B.C. Carefully buried intact bird…

BOLIVIA: Various ancient civilizations in places such as China and the Near East are known to have independently developed agriculture thousands of years ago. New research within the Llanos de Moxos has revealed that people living in Amazonia some…

MEXICO: An inscribed stone tablet unearthed by a cattle rancher in Lacanja Tzeltal, Chiapas, has led to the discovery of a long-lost Maya city that was founded around 750 B.C. The existence of an important regional capital called Sak Tz’i’ was known…

FLORIDA: The Calusa Indians, who ruled much of southern Florida in the pre-Columbian era, are known for their sophisticated engineering projects. These included artificial islands and canals at their capital of Mound Key. They also created large…

In the language of the Vikings, Old Norse, rök means “monolith,” and no other runestone stands out from its peers in more ways than Sweden’s Rök. The five-ton stone measures eight feet tall and its five sides are covered with the longest runic…

In the language of the Vikings, Old Norse, rök means “monolith,” and no other runestone stands out from its peers in more ways than Sweden’s Rök. The five-ton stone measures eight feet tall and its five sides are covered with the longest runic…

When some of the first British farmers to live in the Lake District needed to gather at a central location, they may have chosen Castlerigg Stone Circle, a Neolithic monument built some 5,000 years ago. The circle measures almost 100 feet in…

When a circular structure measuring more than 40 feet in diameter, made entirely from mammoth bones, was discovered in western Russia in 2014, its purpose was unclear. Now, researchers have investigated debris from the site of Kostenki, which is…

MONMOUTHSHIRE, WALES—BBC News reports that analysis of aerial photographs taken in 2018 during a record drought has identified 200 ancient sites in Wales, including at least three Roman forts, a marching camp, a villa, and previously unidentified…