Ancient history

Ken Follett returns with an epic on building Stonehenge in 2500 BCE

Follett spent six months on research, distilled it into a fifty page exposé checked by historians before expanding it into the 704 page saga of Seft and Joia hauling monoliths across the great plain.

Ken Follett returns with an epic on building Stonehenge in 2500 BCE.
A detectorist searching for relics. Illustration.

2,000-year-old Roman brooch found by detectorist

A Byzantine Christian center near Sea of Galilee.

'The detector went crazy': Hoard found in Byzantine Christian center near Sea of Galilee

Syedra is an ancient city near the Alanya district of Antalya province.

Roman era 1,800-year-old stadium unearthed in Syedra ancient city in southern Turkey


Sunken Ptolemaic harbor near Alexandria revives hunt for Cleopatra's lost tomb

“After 2,000 years, no one has ever been there. We are the first,” said archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, citing the harbor’s link to Taposiris Magna as a decisive clue.

Near Alexandria, archaeologists have discovered the remains of a sunken harbor.

Turkish dig shows how people used daily objects in mysterious 5,000-year-old ceremonies

Head archeologist says face-carved pottery from Konya Plain served ritual purposes rather than daily cooking or storage functions.

Illustration: the neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük in Konya.

Bacchus or theater mask? Rare 1,900-year-old Roman find in the Netherlands

Alongside an oil lamp were four ceramic plates, two jugs, a cup, a glass bowl and a bronze bowl, and archaeologists debate its meaning.

The lamp, after cleaning.

Scientists found a 3.5-meter dolphin fossil in a desert that was once an ancient ocean

The fossil, discovered in July, measures three and a half meters and will undergo exhaustive analysis before public display.

Whale fossils in the Ocucaje desert, Peru.

Why this small dinosaur from Mongolia is rewriting the story of dome-headed evolution

Dated to about 108 million years ago, the fossil preserves roughly 90 percent of the skeleton, including the first pachycephalosaur hand and stomach stones.

Artist illustration of Z. rinpoche.

A 3,000-year-old divination archive found in Turkey

Cuneiform tablets mentioning crown princes and kings provide new insights into how ancient empire used bird omens for state decisions.

Some of the tablets found.

Sparta and Athens: History's wartime lessons for a modern-day Israel - analysis

As Netanyahu evokes "super-Sparta," Israel may be repeating the mistakes that left both city-states devastated after decades of war.

Repulse of Pyrrhus from Sparta', 1890. Pyrrhus, in retreat at the Siege of Sparta, 272 BC from Spartans defending their city under command of Areus I. From "Cassell's Illustrated Universal History, Vol. I - Early and Greek History", by Edmund Ollier.

Study: Oldest mummies predate ancient Egypt by 6,000 years

Researchers analyzed 54 skeletons from 11 sites, detecting prolonged low-temperature heating and tightly bound 'fetal' postures consistent with deliberate processing before burial.

Smoked mummies kept in private households in Papua, Indonesia, photographed in January 2019.

Ancient lentils in the canary islands survived 2,000 years, DNA shows

Genetic analysis reveals indigenous cultivation practices and crop continuity dating back to the 3rd century CE.

Lentil plant grown at Fuerteventura.

Older than Neanderthal rites? New papers double down on the Homo naledi burial hypothesis

Researchers say remains of at least 15 individuals in the Rising Star cave were deliberately placed and quickly covered by sediments, countering claims of accidental deposition.

A facial reconstruction of Homo naledi.

Three new 7.7-million-year-old elephant skulls unearthed in Turkey

“This year we can talk about the year of the elephant. From 2018 until now, we had identified two skulls, but only this year did we find three” described an archeologist.

Illustration: The skull of an asian elephant.