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Archaeologists Uncover Rare Living Spaces at One of England’s Earliest Leprosy Hospitals
Archaeologists excavating one of England’s earliest medieval leprosy hospitals have uncovered traces of square structures that may reveal how people with the disease lived around 900 years ago. The remains emerged during a three-day excavation at the Hospital of the Holy Innocents on South Common in Lincoln. The hospital was founded around the late 11th…
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Mysterious 19th-Century Shipwreck in Portugal’s Algarve Revealed in New Detail
A mysterious wooden ship resting at the bottom of Portugal’s Arade River has emerged in unprecedented detail, giving archaeologists their clearest look yet at a vessel whose origin, purpose and final voyage remain unknown. Known as GEO 5, the wreck lies near Ferragudo in Portugal’s Algarve region. Archaeologists believe it probably dates to the 19th…
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Korea’s Oldest Known Gunpowder Weapon Revealed by a 28-Character Inscription
A small bronze weapon discovered on a mountainside in South Korea has been identified as the oldest known gunpowder firearm found in the country, providing rare physical evidence for Korea’s early development of gunpowder weapons. Known as the Hwangja Hwatong, or “Yellow-Character Fire Tube,” the weapon was found on Geumseongsan Mountain in Naju in November…
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Archaeologists Have Begun a New Search for Amelia Earhart’s Lost Plane
A new search for Amelia Earhart’s lost plane has begun nearly 90 years after the pioneering aviator vanished over the Pacific. This time, archaeologists are heading toward a specific object lying beneath the shallow waters of a remote Pacific lagoon. The Taraia Object Expedition began on October 2, when members of a team organized by…
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Ancient Babylonian School Tablets Reveal What Students Were Really Taught 2,500 Years Ago
More than 2,500 years ago, Babylonian school tablets were part of a demanding education built around copying signs, words and texts again and again. Instead of spelling exercises or multiplication tables, a student might work from a clay tablet containing the names of gods, a hymn to Marduk, or a story explaining how divine and…
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Inside the Anglo-Saxon Neighborhood That Once Thrived Beside the Vatican
More than a thousand years ago, an English traveler arriving in Rome could reach the area beside the Vatican and St Peter’s and find a community where people from Anglo-Saxon England were not simply passing through. Recent excavations beneath the Palazzo della Rovere have added unusually vivid evidence to that picture. Archaeologists identified twenty Anglo-Saxon…
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Anatolia’s Oldest Known Glass Bottle Reveals a Mystery From the Hittite World
More than 3,600 years ago, someone in Central Anatolia handled an object that would have been extraordinary even by the standards of the Bronze Age: a large, carefully decorated glass bottle. Found at Büklükale, a settlement on the Kızılırmak River southeast of Ankara, the vessel dates to around 1600 BCE and ranks among the oldest…
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A Tiny Lead Venus Changes the Story of a Roman Village Near Ancient Aquincum
For four years, archaeologists excavating a Roman village northwest of ancient Aquincum have been reconstructing the practical side of life there through houses, pottery, tools and traces of everyday work. This season, they found something the site had not produced before. A small lead figurine depicting Venus has become the first object from the settlement…
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What Did People Sleep On 2,000 Years Ago? Graves in Poland May Hold the Answer
What did a comfortable bed look like nearly 2,000 years ago in northern Europe? An unusual discovery inside ancient graves in Poland may offer part of the answer. Archaeologists studying organic remains from the vast cemetery at Czarnówko in northern Poland have identified traces of cattail plants and finely woven wool that may once have…