Lost Branch of the Nile May Solve Long-Standing Mystery of Egypt’s Famed Pyramids
A former stretch of the Nile River, now buried beneath the Sahara Desert, may help scientists understand how Egyptians built the pyramids and adapted to a drying landscape
Why Did Ancient Romans Make this Baffling Metal Dodecahedron?
A mysterious 12-sided object called a dodecahedron discovered in England has archaeologists both excited and baffled
An Indigenous Archaeologist’s Journey to Find the Lost Children
How “heart-centered” archaeology is helping to find the Indigenous children who never came home from residential schools
Early Humans Sheltered in This Lava Tube 10,000 Years Ago—And It’s Still in Use Today
Fossils and stone tools show that a cave in Saudi Arabia has been used as shelter by humans for millennia, up to the present day
How Jeff Koons’s Lunar Artwork Could Outlast All of Humanity
How long can humanity’s artifacts endure on the lunar surface? A new installation from artist Jeff Koons is inadvertently putting this question to the test
The Milky Way Illuminated Ancient Egypt’s Goddess of the Sky
Astronomical simulations and ancient Egyptian texts show the Milky Way was linked to the ancient Egyptian sky goddess Nut. This fits within multicultural myths about our home galaxy
How a Rare Islamic Astrolabe Helped Muslims, Jews and Christians Tell Time and Read Horoscopes
A rare Islamic astrolabe discovered in Verona, Italy, reveals how the instrument passed through different countries and cultures
Ancient Malaria Genome from Roman Skeleton Hints at Disease’s History
Genetic information from ancient Roman remains is helping to reveal how malaria has moved and evolved alongside people
Is This the Earliest Evidence of Human Cannibalism?
A newly examined munch mark on a tibia has become a real Pleistocene whodunit.
The Life and Gruesome Death of a Bog Man Revealed after 5,000 Years
Vittrup Man, who was bludgeoned to death in a Danish bog, was a Scandinavian wanderer, according to new research
Could Neanderthals Make Art?
Scientists are finding ever-earlier examples of artistic expression in the archaeological record that reshape what we know about the abilities of Neanderthals and other archaic humans
Europe’s Oldest Human-Made ‘Megastructure’ Discovered under Baltic Sea
Archaeologists have discovered what may be Europe’s oldest human-made megastructure, submerged below the Baltic Sea and dubbed the Blinkerwall