Ancient news stories

Youngest basaltic lunar meteorite fills nearly one billion-year gap in moon’s volcanic history
9th July 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Space

A 2.35-billion-year-old meteorite with a unique chemical signature, found in Africa in 2023, plugs a major gap in our understanding of the moon’s volcanic history. The researchers plan to publish their findings in full in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.

Radiocarbon dating reveals Rapa Nui not as isolated as previously thought
7th July 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists have analyzed ritual spaces and monumental structures across Polynesia, questioning the idea that Rapa Nui (Easter Island) developed in isolation following its initial settlement. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.

Oldest wooden tools unearthed in East Asia show that ancient humans made planned trips to dig up edible plants
7th July 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

The 300,000 year-old tools show that hominins in East Asia made planned foraging trips to lakeshores and designed instruments for specific purposes. The study was published Thursday (July 3) in the journal Science.

Mysterious Leprosy Pathogen Has Lurked in The Americas For 4,000 Years
7th July 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

A new study has found that leprosy was circulating in Chile some 4,000 years ago, meaning the disease arrived in the Americas much earlier than previously thought. The research has been published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

125,000-year-old ‘fat factory’ run by Neanderthals discovered in Germany
3rd July 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

The research, published Wednesday (July 2) in the journal Science, reveals that these archaic human relatives had a process for extracting grease from animal bones — and it may have saved them from a lethal condition.

Paleolithic discoveries in Türkiye reveal earliest known human activity in northern Mesopotamia
3rd July 2025 | aa.com.tr | Ancient, Humans

Excavation uncovers evidence of 4 ancient human species, obsidian tools dating back over 300,000 years…Archaeologists have uncovered rare artifacts from the Paleolithic era at Ulukoy Cave in Türkiye’s southeastern Mardin province, revealing the earliest known evidence of human activity in northern Mesopotamia, officials said.

Oldest Egyptian DNA Reveals Secrets of Elite Potter From Pyramid Era
3rd July 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

The findings suggest that early Egyptians once lived in a melting pot of cultures, with migrants and traders arriving from other parts of Africa and Mesopotamia, an ancient region that now encompasses parts of Iraq, Türkiye, and Iran. The study was published in Nature.

Fossils from Japan reveal squids evolved and dominated in dinosaur age seas
2nd July 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A new, advanced technique for studying fossils has revealed that squids evolved more than 50 million years earlier than previously thought and dominated Earth’s ancient seas. The new study was published in the journal Science.

Hymn to Babylon, missing for a millennium, has been discovered
2nd July 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

In the course of a collaboration with the University of Baghdad, LMU’s Enrique Jiménez has rediscovered a text that had been lost for a thousand years. A paper on this discovery is published in the journal Iraq.

Rocks in Canada may be oldest on Earth, dating back 4.16 billion years
2nd July 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Earth

An obscure rock formation on the eastern shore of Canada’s Hudson Bay may contain the oldest known rocks on Earth, a new study claims. Their findings are published June 26 in the journal Science.

Stone tools from a cave on South Africa’s coast speak of life at the end of the Ice Age
20th June 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A new study analyzes stone tools from the cave that date to about 19,000 to 18,000 years ago, and discusses how the techniques used to make them hint at the ways that prehistoric people traveled, interacted, and shared their craft.

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed
19th June 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A new study supports the 2021 findings—this time relying on ancient mud to radiocarbon date the footprints, not seeds and pollen, and an independent lab to make the analysis. The paper was published in the journal Science Advances.

Neanderthal extinction: a space physicist reopens the debate
19th June 2025 theconversation.com | Ancient, Humans, Space

One of the latest developments is a recent study from the University of Michigan, published in the journal Science Advances. It proposes that Neanderthals went extinct for astrophysical reasons.

First ever skull from ‘Denisovan’ reveals what ancient people looked like
19th June 2025 | nature.com | Ancient, Humans

A prominent brow ridge with a brain as large as modern humans and Neanderthals — that’s what the archaic human group, the Denisovans, looked like, according to work published this week in Cell and Science.

Ancient DNA reveals new clues about the incredible journey of dogs in the Americas
18th June 2025 | ox.ac.uk | Ancient, Humans

major new study led by Dr Aurélie Manin from the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford has traced the incredible journey of humankind’s best friend across the Americas, showing how dogs slowly spread southward alongside early farming societies – mirroring the rhythms of human migration, agriculture and cultural change. 

Ice Age shelter high up in the Blue Mountains reveals Aboriginal heritage from 20,000 years ago
17th June 2025 theconversation.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

Looking around, you could easily assume this cold and barren high country was too difficult for people to spend time in. But our new research, published today in Nature Human Behaviour, indicates Dargan Shelter was occupied as early as the last Ice Age and repeatedly visited during this cold period.

News stories covering history, archaeology, ancient Egypt, and mysteries of the past.