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Before Roman Rule, the Sabines Carved This 100-Meter Aqueduct Through Solid Rock
Long before Rome absorbed the Sabine territories of central Italy, communities in the hills northeast of the city were already reshaping the landscape to control water. Archaeologists have now documented a rock-cut aqueduct near the ancient settlement of Trebula Mutuesca, revealing sophisticated engineering from the…
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To Read 2,000-Year-Old Scrolls, Scientists Burned Their Own
To help read 2,000-year-old scrolls buried by Mount Vesuvius, scientists created new papyrus manuscripts, wrote on them with lead-laced ink and deliberately burned them. The unusual experiment could provide a practical way to identify the most promising texts among the carbonized remains of the Herculaneum…
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Lost Castle from a Battle That Changed Anatolia May Have Been Found
In September 1176, a large Byzantine army advanced into Anatolia with siege engines, supply wagons and ambitions of restoring imperial control over the region. Along its route, the soldiers passed the lost castle now associated with Myriokephalon before entering a confined valley where Seljuk forces…
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Metal Detectorist Mistakes 3,000-Year-Old Gold Bracelet for Foil in Wales
A metal detectorist searching a Welsh farm initially thought he had uncovered another scrap of foil. The flash beneath the soil was instead a Late Bronze Age gold bracelet, made around 3,000 years ago and now officially declared treasure. Idris Thomas had spent only about…
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Inside the School Linked to Alexander the Great, Archaeologists Found Rooms Built for Feasting
The school linked to Alexander the Great at ancient Mieza was not devoted to lectures and physical training alone. Archaeologists have also uncovered mosaic-floored rooms where members of Macedonia’s young elite appear to have reclined, dined and talked together. Archaeologists excavating the Royal Gymnasium of…
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Unusual Funeral Rites Discovered in an Early Bronze Age Mound in Azerbaijan
Five burials uncovered inside an Early Bronze Age mound in southern Azerbaijan show that the dead were laid to rest in markedly different ways. Archaeologists found one person tightly curled on the right side, another extended on the back, and fragmented human remains placed inside…
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4,200-Year-Old Wall Emerges at a Vast Settlement Across the Dardanelles from Troy
Seven meters beneath Maydos Kilisetepe, archaeologists have reached a defense wall built more than four millennia ago. The Early Bronze Age structure once protected a coastal settlement comparable in size to Troy, although only a small fraction of the mound has been explored. The wall…
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Ceremonial Horse Burial Discovered Inside a 3,200-Year-Old Egyptian Fortress
A carefully buried horse, grain still resting inside storage vessels and ovens once used to feed a military community have emerged from an ancient Egyptian fortress on the western edge of the Nile Delta. Together, the discoveries offer an unusually intimate view of life behind…
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Ice Age Artists Turned the Natural Patterns of Mammoth Tusks into Art 18,000 Years Ago
Around 18,000 years ago, artists living in what is now northern Ukraine carved small human figures from mammoth ivory. A new study suggests that the patterns covering these objects were shaped by the natural structure of the ivory itself. Researchers made the discovery after examining…