Ancient news stories

Distant star found by Hubble telescope may be earliest we will ever see
31st March 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Space, Tech

The most distant star ever seen has been captured by the Hubble space telescope in images that appear to give a remarkable glimpse into the ancient universe.

Ancient helium leaking from core offers clues of Earth’s formation
31st March 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Earth, Space

Helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas, is leaking out of Earth’s core, a new study reports. Because almost all helium-3 is from the Big Bang, the gas leak adds evidence that Earth formed inside a solar nebula, which has long been debated.

Assam: ‘Mysterious’ giant stone jars found in India
31st March 2022 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Humans

Researchers have uncovered giant “mysterious” jars in India that may have been used for ancient human burial practices.

An Ancient Part of The Milky Way Is Much Older Than We Ever Knew
30th March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Space

The Milky Way is older than astronomers thought, or part of it is. A newly-published study shows that part of the disk is two billion years older than we thought.

Asteroid Ryugu harbors life’s building blocks
29th March 2022 earthsky.org | Ancient, Space, Tech

That’s according to researchers in Japan, who detailed their findings in two new papers presented at the 53rd annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, March 7 to 11, 2022.

2,500-year-old burial mound found in Siberia’s ‘Valley of the Kings’
29th March 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

The ancient tomb holds the remains of five people, including those of a woman and toddler who were buried with an array of grave goods, such as a crescent moon-shaped pendant, bronze mirror and gold earrings.

Built by an Unknown Culture, This Is The Oldest Sun Observatory in The Americas
29th March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Long before the Incas rose to power in Peru and began to celebrate their sun god, a little known civilization was building the earliest known astronomical observatory in the Americas.

Testing the Dark Emu hypothesis
26th March 2022 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Humans

One of the most interesting things going on in Australian archaeology is the idea that Aboriginal food production systems may have involved domestication of some plant species. Was there some level of food production going on in Aboriginal groups that goes well beyond hunter-gathering?

1,000-year-old oaks used to create ‘super forest’
26th March 2022 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

“They’ve lived for so long; just think what they’ve seen.” Forester Nick Baimbridge is gazing fondly at a majestic oak that has stood for more than a thousand years. On this wintry afternoon, birds sing from lichen-covered branches and a deer runs through the undergrowth.

Rewriting the history books: Why the Vikings left Greenland
24th March 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

One of the great mysteries of late medieval history is why did the Norse, who had established successful settlements in southern Greenland in 985, abandon them in the early 15th century?

Machu Picchu: Inca site ‘has gone by wrong name for over 100 years’
24th March 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans

Peruvian historian and US archaeologist say the pre-Columbian town was called Huayna Picchu by the Inca people.

Mysterious Pictish Symbols Discovered in Scotland Are The ‘Find of a Lifetime’
24th March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists in Scotland shed “genuine tears” upon discovering a stone covered with geometric carvings that the Picts, the Indigenous people of the region, designed about 1,500 years ago.

People in One of World’s Oldest Cities Colored The Bones of Their Dead
22nd March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

The sprawling ruins of Çatalhöyük – a vast, ancient human settlement in what we now know as Turkey – are much like a precursor to the modern metropolis of today. Yet, over the course of 9,000 years, times have certainly changed.

Sulfur from dino-killing asteroid caused way more global cooling than thought
22nd March 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

When the dinosaur-destroying asteroid collided with Earth 66 million years ago, massive amounts of sulfur — volumes more than were previously thought — were thrown high above land into the stratosphere, a new study finds.

Study ties present-day Native American tribe to ancestors in San Francisco Bay Area
22nd March 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A genomic study of Native peoples in the San Francisco Bay Area finds that eight present-day members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe share ancestry with 12 individuals who lived in the region several hundred to 2,000 years ago…the study challenges the notion that the Ohlone migrated to the area between A.D. 500-1,000…

Fears dash for wind power could cut off lost world of Doggerland
20th March 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

While the Conservative party’s proposed dash for wind power is good news for the climate it could be bad news for archaeology, with rapid offshore windfarm development sealing off access to some of the best-preserved and most complete evidence of early human communities in the world.

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