Ancient news stories

Are These Mysterious 400,000-Year-Old Artifacts the Oldest Ivory Objects Made by Humans
22nd April 2025 | smithsonianmag.com | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists have unearthed mysterious 400,000-year-old artifacts made from mammoth tusks that may be the oldest human-made ivory objects ever found. They describe their findings in a recent paper published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.

Crows Are So Smart They Can Identify Geometric Shapes, Study Finds
22nd April 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Crows have a sense of geometric intuition much like our own, a new study reveals. The research was published in Science Advances.

‘It blew us away’: how an asteroid may have delivered the vital ingredients for life on Earth
21st April 2025 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Earth, Space

Extraterrestrial rocks, recently delivered by a space probe, could answer the big questions about alien lifeforms and human existence

Modified human remains in prehistoric South Texas reveal ancient cultural practices
18th April 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A study by Dr. Matthew S. Taylor, published in the Journal of Osteoarchaeology, reports on the reanalysis of modified human bones discovered at several prehistoric South Texas archaeological sites.

Stone Age tombs for Irish royalty aren’t what they seem, new DNA analysis reveals
18th April 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists have long assumed that Stone Age tombs in Ireland were built for royalty. But a new analysis of DNA from 55 skeletons found in these 5,000-year-old graves suggests that the tombs were made for the community, not for a ruling dynasty. The study was published April 2 in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal

Curiosity Finds First In Situ Evidence of Carbon Cycle on Ancient Mars
18th April 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space, Weird

A surprise discovery in Gale Crater is the component that was missing in the puzzle of Mars’s climate history. The findings have been published in Science Advances.

Green Arabia: Ancient lakes and rivers discovered beneath the Arabian Desert
11th April 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Earth

Researchers have revealed the Arabian Peninsula’s green past. Though a desert today, ancient Arabia had lakes and rivers due to high rainfall. Results of the expeditions are published in the Communications Earth & Environment journal.

Ancient tools from a South African cave reveal connections between prehistoric people
11th April 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

In a study published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, researchers analyzed these stone tools and discussed how the different techniques used to make them hint at the ways that prehistoric people traveled, interacted, and shared their craft.

First Denisovan Fossil Discovered in Taiwan Reveals Secrets of Our Ancient Relatives
11th April 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Analysis of a perfect jawbone found in Taiwan has given us new clues to the Denisovans, an enigmatic people with whom our ancestors had relations. The research has been published in Science.

Hunter-gatherers’ daring sea journey to Malta predates early farmers by 1,000 years, study finds
9th April 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Seafaring hunter-gatherers were accessing remote, small islands such as Malta thousands of years before the arrival of the first farmers, a new international study has found. The findings, “Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean islands,” have been published in Nature.

Could Stonehenge Be a Copy of This Even More Ancient Monument?
9th April 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

At a newly dated 5,200 years old, the Flagstones monument in southern England is now the oldest known large stone circle in Britain. The research has been published in Antiquity.

Scientists claim to have brought Game of Thrones’ dire wolves back from extinction
9th April 2025 | itv.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Scientists claim they have resurrected the dire wolf using ancient DNA, cloning and gene-editing technology. The species of wolf, which died out some 12,500 years ago, is the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal”, according to Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences.

6,500-year-old hunting weapons found in Texas cave are among the oldest known in North America
9th April 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists in Texas have discovered a cache of ancient hunting weapons, including the remains of poison darts, that is one the earliest collections of hunting weapons ever found in North America.

Stunning reconstruction reveals warrior and his weapons from 4,000-year-old burial in Siberia
7th April 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

A new full-body reconstruction depicts a warrior wearing armor and holding weapons, all of which were found in a 4,000-year-old burial in Siberia.

This Bronze-Age Tablet Is The Oldest Customer Complaint on Record
7th April 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Almost 4,000 years ago, a Mesopotamian man named Nanni was so disappointed with the copper he bought from a trader named Ea-nāṣir, that he decided to write a formal complaint.

Can psychedelics make you a more moral person? New study explores the link
4th April 2025 | psypost.org | Ancient, Humans

Recent research has found that individuals who had meaningful psychedelic experiences tended to report increases in moral expansiveness. In other words, the scope of entities (humans, animals, the environment, etc.) that they considered worthy of moral consideration and protection expanded. The research was published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

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