Ancient news stories

Scientists Discover Ancient Traces of The Oldest Glaciers Ever Found
12th July 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Earth

Scientists think they’ve uncovered evidence of the oldest glaciers ever found, in ancient rocks speckled with oxygen isotopes lying beneath the world’s largest gold deposits in South Africa. The study was published in Geochemical Perspectives Letters, with further results presented at the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society’s Goldschmidt Conference.

Stars From The Dawn of The Universe Found Hidden in The Heart of Our Own Galaxy
10th July 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

Ancient stars born during the Cosmic Dawn have been identified in the center of the Milky Way. As part of a survey to uncover some of the oldest known stars in the Universe, scientists conducted a comprehensive search for these ancient but elusive stars. Their findings have been presented at the UK’s annual National Astronomy Meeting.

Highest-ranking person in Copper Age Spain was a woman, not a man, genetic analysis shows
7th July 2023 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans, Tech

Since its discovery in 2008, the skeleton of a high-ranking individual buried inside a tomb in the Iberian Peninsula between 3,200 and 2,200 years ago was thought to be the remains of a man. However, a new analysis reveals that this person was actually a woman.

Giant stone artefacts found on rare Ice Age site in Kent
7th July 2023 | ucl.ac.uk | Ancient, Humans

The researchers, from UCL Archaeology South-East, discovered 800 stone artefacts thought to be over 300,000 years old, buried in sediments which filled a sinkhole and ancient river channel, outlined in their research, published in Internet Archaeology.

Large sub-surface granite formation signals ancient volcanic activity on moon’s dark side
6th July 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Space, Weird

A large formation of granite discovered below the lunar surface likely was formed from the cooling of molten lava that fed a volcano or volcanoes that erupted early in the moon’s history—as long as 3.5 billion years ago.

Astronomers observe time dilation in early universe
5th July 2023 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans, Space

Events appear to unfold five times slower when the universe was a tenth of its present age, in effect, predicted by Einstein.

A 407-million-year-old plant’s leaves skipped the usual Fibonacci spirals
5th July 2023 | sciencenews.org | Ancient, Earth, Weird

Most land plants living today have spiral patterns involving the famous Fibonacci sequence of numbers. Because the spirals are so common, scientists have thought the patterns must have evolved in some of the earliest land plants. But the leaves of the ancient plant… were arranged in spirals that can’t be described by Fibonacci numbers, researchers report in the June 16 Science.

Ancient rock engravings unveil intriguing insights into human cultures
5th July 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Humans, Tech

A groundbreaking study conducted by a multidisciplinary team that includes a computational archaeologist, artist, and computer programmer has revealed new insights into ancient rock engravings and the techniques used by ancient engravers. See the research here.

Discovery of up to 25 Mesolithic pits in Bedfordshire astounds archaeologis
3rd July 2023 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans

A prehistoric site with as many as 25 monumental pits has been discovered in Bedfordshire to the astonishment of archaeologists. Found in Linmere, they date from the Mesolithic period, 12,000 to 6,000 years ago…The pits could offer extraordinary new insights.

The invisible plant technology of the prehistoric Philippines
3rd July 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Stone tools bear microscopic evidence of ancient plant technology, according to a study published June 30, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

A Stunning Revelation Could Mean Betelgeuse Is Set to Blow
3rd July 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

A little more than 650 light-years from Earth, an old, red star lies dying. A fresh prognosis on Betelgeuse’s condition based on its pulsations gives the celebrated supergiant just a few decades before it collapses in a final flash of glory. This research is available on arXiv.

New evidence of plant food processing in Italy during Neanderthal-to-Homo sapiens period
30th June 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Long before the invention of agriculture, humans already knew how to process cereals and other wild plants into a flour suitable for food—and now there’s new evidence they did so long before scientists was previously thought. See the research here.

Recent Gullies on Mars Suggest Water Could Flow on The Planet Again in The Future
30th June 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans, Space

Ravine-like channels on Mars are something of a puzzle. They look like the gullies in Antarctica caused by melting glaciers, but the elevated locations of many of the features aren’t places we’d expect to find recently flowing water. The research has been published in Science.

A newfound gravitational wave ‘hum’ may be from the universe’s biggest black holes
29th June 2023 | sciencenews.org | Ancient, Space

Beneath the explosions, collisions and other intermittent bangs in the cosmos, scientists suspect a nonstop soundtrack plays, created by ripples in spacetime continually washing through the universe. After more than a decade of searching, scientists may have finally heard that background hum. See the research here.

See the face of the ‘Hobbit,’ an extinct human relative
29th June 2023 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

A new facial approximation offers insight into what one of humankind’s extinct relatives, Homo floresiensis —nicknamed “the hobbit,”—may have looked like when it lived on the Indonesian island of Flores approximately 18,000 years ago.

Women Hunt in Most Foraging Societies, Using Their Own Tools And Strategies
29th June 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Hunter-gatherer roles in human society are not nearly as gendered as anthropologists and archaeologists have traditionally believed, with narratives of ‘man the hunter’ and ‘woman the gatherer’ crumbling in the face of new evidence. The study was published in PLOS ONE.

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