Archaeology

Earliest Human Remains in East Africa Older Than Thought

The age of the earliest human remains in East Africa widely recognized as representing our Homo sapiens species has long been uncertain. Now, the dating of a massive volcanic eruption in Ethiopia reveals they are much older than previously thought. The remains — known as Omo I — were found in Ethiopia in the late 1960s, ...

Troy Oakes

The Omo Kibish Formation in southwestern Ethiopia.

Ancient Funerary Avenues Discovered in Arabia

Archaeologists from the University of Western Australia have discovered people who lived in northwest Arabia in the Early to Middle Bronze Age built “funerary avenues” — long-distance ancient corridors linking oases and pastures, bordered by thousands of elaborate burial monuments. Dr. Matthew Dalton, from UWA’s School of Humanities, is the lead author of the findings ...

Troy Oakes

Keyhole-shaped tombs.

The Fascinating History Behind 1,300-Year-Old Cookies and How to Make Them

It’s not very commonplace to discover food items in ruins, and tombs that are in shape, even after several centuries. Such an incident took place in Xinjiang in China. Marc Aurel Stein, a noted British-Hungarian archeologist, came across a box of 1,300-year-old millet-based cookies that defied the ravages of time.  It was in 1915 that ...

Raven Montmorency

Ancient cookies of different shapes.

The Mysterious Home of the Maya Death Gods and the ‘Crystal Maiden’

In the heart of Belize, lost in its jungle, lies a mysterious cave that when talked about seems to have come straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Within the cave, there are artifacts as well as several sets of human remains, one of which is called the “Crystal Maiden.” The site is called Actun ...

Troy Oakes

A human skeleton on the floor of a cave.

Does Population Size Explain the Evolution of Complex Cultures?

The idea that the size of populations determines their ability to develop complex cultures has been a growing consensus among archaeologists and anthropologists. The logic behind this consensus seems to be sound; however, a new study says it is severely flawed. So using this model, the larger the population is, the higher the probability it ...

Troy Oakes

A crowd of people walking on a city sidewalk.

The Superfood That Saw Ancient Andeans Through 2,500 Years of Turmoil

What if the superfood in Indigenous diets could save our politically and ecologically strained planet? The answer may lie in the success of an ancient civilization high in the Andes Mountains where not much grows. UC Berkeley archaeologists reconstructed the diets of ancient Andeans living around Lake Titicaca, which straddles Bolivia and Peru 12,500 feet ...

Troy Oakes

Stone circles in the Andes Mountains.

Team of Archaeologists Finds Monumental Ancient Temple

Last summer, archaeologists from the University of Münster discovered a previously unknown sanctuary from the Roman era during excavation work in the ancient town of Doliche in southeastern Turkey. Over a period of nine weeks, the team — headed by Prof. Engelbert Winter and Prof. Michael Blömer from the Asia Minor Research Centre — uncovered ...

Troy Oakes

Archaeologist excavating Roman-era site.

Rare Boomerang Collection Reveals a Diverse Past

New research at Flinders University has analyzed a rare non-returning boomerang collection from Kinipapa (Cooper Creek) near Innamincka in South Australia’s far northeast. The four boomerangs and one wooden fragment were discovered in the creek bed during drought conditions in 2017 and 2018 by Jason Litherland from National Parks and Wildlife South Australia and Katheryn ...

Troy Oakes

Boomerangs found at kinipapa.

Nearly 500 Ancient Ceremonial Sites Found in Southern Mexico

A team of international researchers led by the University of Arizona reported last year that they had uncovered the largest and oldest Mayan monument — Aguada Fénix. That same team has now uncovered nearly 500 smaller ceremonial sites that are similar in shape and features to Aguada Fénix. The find transforms previous understanding of Mesoamerican ...

Troy Oakes

Mayan temple.