Ancient news stories

Tiny fragments of rock brought back from an asteroid in near-Earth solar orbit are so old, they predate the Solar System.

The rock crystals were likely brought to the site from a source more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) away, over mountainous terrain, and the crystals appear to have been carefully broken into much smaller pieces, possibly during a community gathering to watch the working of what must have seemed like a magical material

A new study of a meteorite that landed on Earth reveals how this asteroid activity occurs. Small collisions can dislodge the pebbles, which shoot off the asteroid but fall back, drawn in by the space rock’s gravitational pull.

A team of archaeologists uncovered the Neolithic-era remains using laser scanning, aerial photography, drones, and various forms of surveying. The scientists located the settlement at Al-Faw, an archaeological site that has previously turned up evidence of a strong trade network that sustained an ancient city.

Footprints laid down by Ice Age hunter-gatherers and recently discovered in a US desert are shedding new light on North America’s earliest human inhabitants.

Maya people cremated their rulers and used the ashes to help make rubber balls that were used in ballgames, an archaeologist has claimed.

Distinctive and rare rock crystals were moved over long distances by Early Neolithic Brits and were used to mark their burial sites, according to groundbreaking new archaeological research.

To date, Earth is the only planet we know of that has continents. Exactly how they formed and evolved is unclear, but we do know – because the edges of continents thousands of miles apart match up – that, at one time long ago, Earth’s landmass was concentrated in one big supercontinent.

Researchers have deciphered enigmatic recipes for metal-making contained in an ancient Chinese text, revealing unexpected complexity in the art at the time.

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered two Olmec reliefs chiseled into large, circular stones that are thought to depict local rulers performing ritual contortion.

The story of peyote is something like a fairytale, beginning in a time long ago and containing what could be called magic by those who utilize it for healing. However, today’s reality for the Indigenous people who consider it sacred is anything but…

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 4,500-year-old temple dedicated to the Egyptian sun god Ra at the site of Abu Ghurab, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Cairo.

The Bantu Expansion transformed sub-Saharan Africa’s linguistic, economic, and cultural composition. Today, more than 240 million people speak one of the more than 500 Bantu languages.

Archaeologists recently stumbled upon a set of mysterious ‘ghost footprints’ in the salt flats of a Utah desert.

An analysis of fossils suggests changes in the shape of the braincase during human evolution were linked to alterations in the face, rather than changes in the brain itself

About 37,000 years ago, a mother mammoth and her calf met their end at the hands of human beings.