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Eight Infant Skeletons Found Beside Çatalhöyük’s “House of the Dead” Raise a Neolithic Mystery
Eight infant skeletons found beside Çatalhöyük’s “House of the Dead” are raising new questions about how the Neolithic community treated its youngest dead. Preliminary examination indicates that none of the babies was older than about six months. Infant graves are not uncommon at Çatalhöyük, where generations buried their dead beneath floors and platforms. The new…
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Repaired Viking Brooch Found with Rare 1,300-Year-Old Clothing in a Child’s Grave
A child buried in western Denmark during the Viking Age was laid to rest wearing two oval brooches that preserved fragments of wool and linen clothing. One of the brooches had been repaired before the burial, raising the possibility that it was already an old or valued possession. The grave was excavated in 2024 at…
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Tiny Sasanian Bird Carving Discovered Beside a Pahlavi Inscription in Iran
A tiny Sasanian bird carving discovered beside a Pahlavi inscription in southern Iran may offer a rare glimpse into religious ideas during the empire’s final centuries. The carving was documented in the Marvdasht plain of Fars Province, close to a Pahlavi inscription associated with the salvation and fate of the soul. At only 3 by…
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Submerged Etruscan Harbor Found Off Rome May Be the Oldest Known Linked to a Temple
Archaeologists surveying shallow waters north of Rome have identified a submerged Etruscan harbor that may once have carried sailors directly to a coastal sanctuary. The stone structure lies off Santa Marinella, about 90 meters from the modern shoreline and at an average depth of 1.5 meters. Its construction has been tentatively dated to between the…
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11,000-Year-Old “Leopard Rider” Found at Karahantepe Reverses an Earlier Neolithic Image
An 11,000-year-old “leopard rider” found at Karahantepe has reversed one of the Neolithic site’s strangest images. An earlier sculpture showed a human carrying a leopard; in the newly discovered composition, the predator bears the human. The 70-centimeter-tall stone sculpture was uncovered during the 2026 excavation season at Karahantepe, near Şanlıurfa in southeastern Türkiye. Archaeologists found…
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1,000-Year-Old Christian Cemetery in Norway Reveals Unusual Multiple Burials
Archaeologists investigating a 1,000-year-old Christian cemetery in Norway have uncovered 15 skeletons, including adults and children. Several of the graves contain two or more people, making the burial ground at Valum unusual for an early medieval rural community. One grave at Valum, near Hamar, held four individuals placed closely together, while others contained three or…
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Rare Bronze Age “Button” Found with Usable Axes Deepens Mystery of Norfolk Hoard
A small metal object found beside two Bronze Age axes in Norfolk may look like a button, but archaeologists cannot yet say whether it ever fastened clothing. Its discovery raises a broader question: why were two usable axes deposited alongside such an unusual object around 3,000 years ago? Metal detectorists discovered the objects near Barton…
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Cemetery Older Than Malta’s Megalithic Temples Discovered in Xagħra
A prehistoric cemetery in Xagħra, on the Maltese island of Gozo, has yielded at least eight tombs containing human remains and pottery dating back around 6,000 years. The cemetery belongs to the Żebbuġ Phase, approximately 4100–3800 BC. That places it at the beginning of Malta’s Temple Period, before the construction of the monumental stone buildings…
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Human Remains Found Inside an Underground Canal Sealed in a 1,400-Year-Old Ritual at Huaca Pucllana
Archaeologists excavating Huaca Pucllana in Lima have found human remains inside an underground canal that appears to have been deliberately sealed during a ritual about 1,400 years ago. The discovery, made during the site’s 2026 excavation season, comes from a context preliminarily dated to around AD 650 and associated with the Lima culture. Peru’s Ministry…