Ancient news stories

Casas del Turuñuelo, a site of repeated animal sacrifice in Iron Age Spain
23rd November 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Archaeological sites with evidence of major animal sacrifices are rarely known from the Iron Age of the Mediterranean region, and there is a gap between information offered by written sources and by the archaeological record. This makes it difficult to establish a clear understanding of the patterns and protocols of this practice. See the study here.

Neanderthals were the world’s first artists
23rd November 2023 | eurekalert.org | Ancient, Humans

Recent research has shown that engravings in a cave in La Roche-Cotard (France), which has been sealed for thousands of years, were actually made by Neanderthals. This research was performed by Basel archaeologist Dorota Wojtczak together with a team of researchers from France and Denmark, whose findings reveal that the Neanderthals were in fact the first humans with an appreciation of art. See the research here.

Archaeologists uncover Europe’s hidden Bronze Age megastructures
22nd November 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists from University College Dublin, working with colleagues from Serbia and Slovenia, have uncovered a previously unknown network of massive sites in the heart of Europe that could explain the emergence of the continent’s Bronze Age megaforts—the largest prehistoric constructions seen prior to the Iron Age. See the research here.

Strange Yellow Glass in African Desert Traced Back to Extraterrestrial Impact
22nd November 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Earth, Space

The Great Sand Sea Desert stretches over an area of 72,000km² linking Egypt and Libya. If you find yourself in a particular part of the desert in south-east Libya and south-western parts of Egypt, you’ll spot pieces of yellow glass scattered across the sandy landscape.

Late Prehistoric discovery turns archaeological assumptions on their head
16th November 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

The excavation, taking place in the 3000-year-old funerary complex of Las Capellanías, in Cañaveral de León, Spain, uncovered a stela depicting a human figure with detailed face, hands and feet, a headdress, necklace, two swords and male genitals.

Stone Age Europeans mastered spear-throwers 10,000 years earlier than we thought, study suggests
16th November 2023 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

Stone Age people in Belgium were hunting with spear-throwers more than 30,000 years ago  — the earliest known evidence of such a weapon in Europe, a new study suggests.

Archaeologists Unearth a Secret Lost Language From 3,000 Years Ago
15th November 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

A secret text has been discovered in Türkiye, scattered among tens of thousands of ancient clay tablets, which were written in the time of the Hittite Empire during the second millennium BCE.

Milky Way-like galaxy found in the early universe
12th November 2023 | eurekalert.org | Ancient, Humans, Space

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team…has discovered the most distant barred spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way that has been observed to date. The research, published in Nature, was led by scientists at the Centro de Astrobiología in Spain.

Mysterious Origins of North America’s ‘Last Primate’ Finally Emerge
12th November 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A mysterious primate appeared in North America 30 million years ago, long after the continent’s native primates had died out and even longer before the next big influx of primates – humans – would arrive. The study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

The oldest continents in the Milky Way may be 5 billion years older than Earth’s
10th November 2023 | livescience.com | Ancient, Space

Several exoplanets at the edge of our galaxy could have formed continents — and advanced life — 5 billion years earlier than Earth, new research suggests.

Turkana stone beads tell a story of herder life in a drying east Africa 5,000 years ago
10th November 2023 theconversation.com | Ancient, Humans

On the shores of Lake Turkana in East Africa, about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, pastoralists buried their dead in communal cemeteries that were marked by stone circles and pillars.

Archaeological skull fragments from Ukraine reveal early modern humans came from the East
10th November 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the new study analyzes two skull fragments dating back between 37,000 and 36,000 years to conclude that our ancestors came from Eastern Europe and migrated westwards.

Euclid telescope: First images revealed from ‘dark Universe’ mission
8th November 2023 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Space, Tech

Over the next six years, Euclid will survey a third of the heavens to get some clues about the nature of so-called dark matter and dark energy.

Weathered face of ‘old man’ Neanderthal comes to life in amazing new facial reconstruction
8th November 2023 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans, Tech

A new facial reconstruction depicts a Neanderthal whose skeleton was found by priests in a French cave.

3,400-YEAR-OLD PYRAMID FOUND IN KAZAKHSTAN
6th November 2023 | heritagedaily.com | Ancient, Humans

According to the researchers, the pyramid is a mausoleum complex for a ruler from the Begazı Dandibay culture, a late Bronze Age culture that flourished during the last phase of the Andronovo period (2000–1150 BC).

Image by: Sanjay Rao (Wiki Commons)

Giant Pyramid Buried in Indonesia Could Be The Oldest in The World
5th November 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

A giant underground pyramid hidden beneath a hillside in Indonesia far outdates Stonehenge or the Giza Pyramids and may come to rival the oldest megalithic structures ever built by human hands. See the study here.

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