A 2,500-Year-Old Child’s Skull Beneath a House Floor Reveals Violence in Ancient Scandinavia
A fragment of a child’s skull bearing signs of sharp-force trauma was placed beneath the floor of an Iron Age house in Denmark, offering a…
bioarchaeology
Why Did So Many People Die Around Egypt’s First Kings?
More than 5,000 years ago, hundreds of people were buried beside some of Egypt’s earliest kings at Abydos. Archaeologists have argued for more than a…
A Woman Buried Face Down in Medieval China May Reveal Evidence of a Brutal Punishment
When archaeologists excavated a medieval cemetery in central China, one burial immediately stood apart. The woman had been placed face down, and the bones around…
Bronze Age Adolescent in Myanmar May Have Survived Skull Surgery 3,000 Years Ago
A circular opening in the skull of an adolescent buried in Bronze Age Myanmar may preserve evidence of a remarkable medical intervention. Its healed edges…
Face of “Conquest Man,” Buried Soon After the Norman Conquest, Reconstructed in England
The face of “Conquest Man,” an individual buried in England shortly after the Norman Conquest, has been digitally reconstructed from his 1,000-year-old skull. His burial…
Nearly 2,000-Year-Old Bones Reveal What Vesuvius Victims Near Pompeii Ate
Nearly 2,000-year-old human remains from Oplontis, near Pompeii, are revealing what people living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius regularly ate before the catastrophic eruption…
4,000-Year-Old Bones Suggest Egyptian Princesses Trained with Bows and Daggers
Nearly 4,000 years ago, Egyptian princesses trained with bows and daggers, a new study of skeletal remains from Dahshur suggests. The women were buried with…
3,000-Year-Old Cremated Bones in Greek Macedonia Reveal How Ancient Funeral Pyres Were Built
Cremated bones from two Early Iron Age cemeteries near Thessaloniki are helping archaeologists reconstruct a part of ancient funerals that almost never survives: the funeral…
Broken Ribs on a 6,000-Year-Old Infant Skeleton Reveal a Dark Side of Early Urban Life
A 6,000-year-old infant skeleton from Tell Brak in northeastern Syria has revealed one of the rarest traces of violence against a child in prehistoric archaeology.…