After 128 years of exploration, fossil excavation and investigation, Flinders University researchers have finally uncovered the skull of Australia’s own giant and charismatic megafauna bird—Genyornis newtoni. The only previously known skull for this species, reported in 1913, was heavily damaged and with little of the original bone remaining, not much could be deduced about the … Read more
A new study from Tel Aviv University identified the earliest appearance worldwide of special stone tools, used 400,000 years ago to process fallow deer. The tools, called Quina scrapers (after the site in France where they were first discovered), were unearthed at the prehistoric sites of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. They are characterized by a … Read more
50,000 years ago, North America was ruled by megafauna. Lumbering mammoths roamed the tundra, while forests were home to towering mastodons, fierce saber-toothed tigers and enormous wolves. Bison and extraordinarily tall camels moved in herds across the continent, while giant beavers plied its lakes and ponds. Immense ground sloths weighing over 1,000 kg were found … Read more
A team of paleontologists from the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong has identified a new species of abelisauroid dinosaur. The species has been named Koleken inakayali. This groundbreaking discovery is published in the journal Cladistics. The fossilized remains of … Read more
A team co-led by a CU Boulder classics researcher has unearthed the upper portion of a huge, ancient pharaonic statue whose lower half was discovered in 1930; Ramesses II was immortalized in Percy Bysshe Shelly’s “Ozymandias.” In 1930, German archaeologist Günther Roeder unearthed the lower half of an enormous statue depicting pharaoh Ramesses II, also … Read more
A group of archaeologists, led by researchers from the University of Tokyo, announce the discovery of a part of a Roman villa built before the middle of the first century. This villa, near the town of Nola in southwestern Italy’s Campania region, was found beneath a more recent, but still ancient building from the 2nd … Read more
Recent strides in interdisciplinary archaeological research in Arabia have unveiled new insights into the evolution and historical development of regional human populations, as well as the dynamic patterns of cultural change, migration, and adaptation to environmental fluctuations. Despite the challenges posed by limited preservation of archaeological assemblages and organic remains in arid environments, these discoveries … Read more
Dinosaurs get all the glory. But aetosaurs, a heavily armored cousin of modern crocodiles, ruled the world before dinosaurs did. These tanks of the Triassic came in a variety of shapes and sizes before going extinct around 200 million years ago. Today, their fossils are found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. Scientists use … Read more
Archaeologists in Prague, Czech Republic, made an extraordinary discovery during a routine excavation. Beneath the city’s Upper Square, they unearthed 1,000-year-old ice skates made from animal bones. This relic, housed at the Comenius Museum, is believed to be from the 10th or 11th century. Experts suspect it was fashioned from a horse’s shin bone, based … Read more
Archaeologists in China’s Shaanxi Province have made a rare discovery, a remarkably well-preserved tomb from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The Shaanxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology recently unveiled details about the excavation, which took place in Jinfu District of Jinzhou City. This unearthing of the past coincided with a national highway realignment project. While … Read more
A team of paleontologists from the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture excavated four dinosaurs in northeastern Montana this summer. All fossils will be brought back to the Burke Museum where the public can watch paleontologists remove the surrounding rock in the fossil preparation laboratory. The four dinosaur fossils … Read more
The first dinosaur to be described in La Rioja, Spain, is a spinosaurid about 7–8 meters long with an estimated body mass of 1.5 metric tons. It is bipedal and had mainly piscivorous habits, although, as a good predator, it would also have been capable of chasing and feeding on terrestrial prey. Named Riojavenatrix, the … Read more
Archaeologists have unearthed a chilling reminder of Europe’s tumultuous past: the largest mass grave of Black Death victims ever found on the continent. Located in southern Germany, the site in Nuremberg has yielded the skeletons of approximately 1,000 individuals, shedding new light on the devastating impact of the bubonic plague during the late medieval and … Read more
A groundbreaking collaboration between Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management (NAAM Foundation) in Curaçao has extended our understanding of the earliest human settlements in the Caribbean, shedding new light on pre-Colombian history in the region. Since 2018, an international team of researchers has been engaged in the Curaçao Cultural Landscape … Read more
In a remarkable excavation near Turkey’s capital, Ankara, archaeologists have unearthed a clay tablet that offers a glimpse into a tumultuous chapter of ancient history. Dated back 3,300 years, the tablet portrays a harrowing foreign invasion of the once-mighty Hittite Empire, adding layers of complexity to our understanding of the region’s past. Discovered at Büklükale, … Read more
In a groundbreaking excavation at the Boncuklu Tarla site in southeastern Türkiye, archaeologists have unearthed a treasure trove of human history dating back an astonishing 11,000 years. The discovery? Evidence of body perforation, shedding new light on the rituals and practices of early sedentary communities. The findings, meticulously analyzed by a team from Ankara University, … Read more
A rough site plan for the Roman-era village of Silchester in south-central England, now a ruin, has existed since antiquarians excavated it in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though extensive, these efforts used techniques that are now outdated and, modern researchers note, represent only the most well-preserved structures. Accordingly, the popular estimates of … Read more
A team from the Université libre de Bruxelles’s centre for archaeological research (CReA-Patrimoine) has completed a significant excavation in Pachacamac, Peru, where they have discovered an intact mummy in especially good condition. Pachacamac’s status as a Pre-Colombian pilgrimage site under the Inca empire is confirmed by further evidence. Peter Eeckhout’s latest campaign of archaeological excavations … Read more
As part of the Silk Road and located at the geographical intersection of Eastern and Western cultures, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has long served as a major crossroads for trans-Eurasian exchanges of people, cultures, agriculture, and languages. Since the late 1990s, the discovery of hundreds of naturally mummified human remains dating to circa 2,000 … Read more
Although a relatively large number of late Middle Pleistocene hominins have been found in East Asia, these fossils have not been consistently included in current debates about the origin of anatomically modern humans (AMHS), and little is known about their phylogenetic place in relation to contemporary hominins from Africa and Europe as well as to … Read more