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Archaeologists Discover a 5,500-Year-Old Monument Hidden Beneath a Polish Forest
Archaeologists have identified a monument hidden beneath a Polish forest as a 5,500-year-old earthen tomb built by a Neolithic farming community. Archaeologists working at the edge of a long-established forest in the Greater Poland region have uncovered sections of a stone-lined earthen structure associated with the Funnel Beaker culture. The evidence confirms that the mound…
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Nearly Intact Roman Statue Weighing Hundreds of Kilograms Pulled from the Danube in Hungary
A nearly intact Roman statue weighing several hundred kilograms has been recovered from the Danube near Dunaújváros, Hungary, as exceptionally low water levels continue to expose archaeological remains around the ancient settlement of Intercisa. Industrial divers discovered the statue in a difficult-to-access section of the river. Its considerable weight made the recovery challenging, and additional…
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Two Unknown Human Lineages Still Survive in Modern DNA, One Traces Back 1.8 Million Years
Modern human DNA appears to preserve traces of two ancient human populations that scientists have never identified directly from ancient genomes. One of those lineages may reach back to a population that split from other human ancestors roughly 1.8 million years ago. The finding comes from a new study published in Science, in which UC…
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Giant Mammal-Like Footprints Reveal a Hidden World in Dinosaur-Era Brazil
The fossil record has long encouraged a simple picture of mammals during the age of dinosaurs: most were small, while giant reptiles dominated the landscape. Unusually large footprints from an Early Cretaceous desert in Brazil suggest that this picture may be incomplete. Researchers studying the Botucatu Formation in southern Brazil have described two large four-toed…
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6,500-Year-Old Czech Sanctuary Tracked the Sun and Moon 1,000 Years Before Stonehenge
More than 6,500 years ago, prehistoric communities in what is now the Czech Republic created a vast circular sanctuary whose entrances appear to have been deliberately arranged around important movements of the Sun and Moon. Archaeologists led by the University of West Bohemia say the monument near Chleby in Central Bohemia is one of the…
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Mass Grave of at Least 132 Men Reveals Nazi Killing of Psychiatric Patients in Poland’s “Death Valley”
Archaeologists investigating a mass grave in northern Poland have documented the remains of at least 132 men killed during a Nazi campaign against people with mental disorders and disabilities in 1939. The grave also contained hundreds of clothing buttons, bullets and an insignia associated with German police and gendarmerie units. The burial lies in the…
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Tiny Gold Rings Beneath Jerusalem Floors Hint at a 2,200-Year-Old Ritual
A tiny gold ring set with a deep-red stone may reveal an unexpectedly personal side of life in Hellenistic Jerusalem more than 2,200 years ago. Archaeologists discovered the ring beneath the floor of a large residential building at the Givati Parking Lot excavation in the City of David. Measuring just 1.2 centimeters in diameter, the…
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From a Neanderthal Handaxe to a ‘Princely’ Horse Burial: New Map Reveals More Than 36,000 Years at Sizewell C
A rare Neanderthal handaxe, Roman industrial remains and large Anglo-Saxon cemeteries may appear to belong to entirely different archaeological stories. Yet all of them have emerged from the same landscape in Suffolk, where Sizewell C archaeology is revealing evidence of human activity stretching back more than 36,000 years. Oxford Cotswold Archaeology (OCA) has now launched…
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A 4,000-Year-Old Burial Mound Became a Roman Sanctuary — Then Came the Medieval Gallows
A prehistoric burial mound in Suffolk was repeatedly drawn back into human activity over thousands of years, eventually becoming the center of a Roman sanctuary filled with ritual deposits before the surrounding landscape was associated with medieval executions. New research published in the journal Britannia traces the remarkable history of the site at Red Lodge,…