Ancient news stories

New discovery sheds light on the peopling of the Pacific
23rd April 2022 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Humans

An epic migration story is revealed through a piece of pottery.

1,700-year-old sandal found on a remote mountain in Norway
23rd April 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

The sandal reveals that humans historically used the icy pass.

The Neanderthal lifestyle: archeological insights from Valencia
21st April 2022 | jpost.com | Ancient, Humans

A research team from the Department of Prehistory, Archaeology and Ancient History of the University of Valencia (UV) has discovered and dated in Aspe (Alicante) an open-air neanderthal habitat over 120,000 years old in the Natural Park of Los Aljezares.

Prehistoric people created art by firelight, new research reveals
21st April 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Our early ancestors probably created intricate artwork by firelight, an examination of 50 engraved stones unearthed in France has revealed.

Researchers develop new ways of visualizing ancient small objects by combining technologies
20th April 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans, Tech

Experts have developed new ways of visually representing ancient objects such as stone tools and fossils developing technologies currently only used in video games and computer graphics.

Evidence of ‘modern’ plate tectonics dating to 2.5 billion years ago found in China
20th April 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

A unique rock formation in China holds clues that tectonic plates subducted, or went underneath other plates, during the Archean eon (4 billion to 2.5 billion years ago), just as they do nowadays, a new study finds.

Mysterious “population hub” was a starting point for ancient human migration
20th April 2022 bigthink.com | Ancient, Humans

Archaic humans ventured into Eurasia in waves, not always successfully. They may have started their journey in North Africa or West Asia.

Massive meteorite impact created the hottest mantle rock ever
19th April 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Earth

The rock, a fist-sized piece of black glass, was discovered in 2011 and first reported in 2017, when scientists wrote in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters that it had been formed in temperatures reaching 4,298 degrees Fahrenheit (2,370 degrees Celsius)…

An Ancient Namibian Stone Could Hold The Key to Unlocking Quantum Computers
19th April 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

One of the ways we can fully realize the potential of quantum computers is by basing them on both light and matter – this way, information can be stored and processed, but also travel at the speed of light.

Microfossils may be evidence life began ‘very quickly’ after Earth formed
14th April 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

Scientists believe they have found evidence of microbes that were thriving near hydrothermal vents on Earth’s surface just 300m years after the planet formed – the strongest evidence yet that life began far earlier than is widely assumed.

This Could Be The Earliest Evidence of a 260-Day Maya Calendar Ever Found
14th April 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Among the fragments of an ancient Mesoamerican mural, archaeologists in Guatemala have uncovered the earliest unequivocal evidence of a Maya sacred calendar.

Clovis debunked: America’s first settlers did not take the ice-free corridor
14th April 2022 bigthink.com | Ancient, Humans

Researchers long assumed ancient humans entered North America via an ice-free corridor about 13,000 years ago. However, a new study published in the journal PNAS used cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating to prove that the continent had already been populated when the corridor was still frozen over.

Archaeological site along the Nile opens a window on the Nubian civilization that flourished in ancient Sudan
14th April 2022 theconversation.com | Ancient, Humans

Circular mounds of rocks dot the desert landscape at the archaeological site of Tombos in northern Sudan. They reveal tumuli – the underground burial tombs used at least as far back as 2500 B.C. by ancient inhabitants who called this region Kush or Nubia.

Pollution is threatening some of the world’s oldest rock carvings
12th April 2022 | nationalgeographic.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

On a remote peninsula in Western Australia, a 16-hour drive from the nearest city, 30,000-year-old faces stare at the rare visitor to this wild location.

Image from: Marius Fenger (Wiki Commons)

Where did the unicorn myth come from?
11th April 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Unicorn-like imagery dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization (about 3300 B.C. to 1300 B.C.) in South Asia, which included parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

First European farmers’ heights did not meet expectations
8th April 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A combined study of genetics and skeletal remains show that the switch from primarily hunting, gathering and foraging to farming about 12,000 years ago in Europe may have had negative health effects as indicated by shorter than expected heights in the earliest farmers, according to an international team of researchers.

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