Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2021

Scientists just reconstructed one of the oldest family trees ever charted

A nearly 6,000-year-old tomb unearthed in England holds the remains of 27 family members, representing a five-generation lineage descended from one man and four women, researchers have found using DNA analysis. The findings suggest there were polygamous marriages in the upper echelons of Neolithic society at that time, because the...

Oct 31, 2021

Metal detectorist finds 2,000-year-old dagger wielded by Roman soldier in battle with Rhaetians

An amateur archaeologist in Switzerland has discovered an ornate dagger wielded by a Roman soldier 2,000 years ago. That discovery, found using a metal detector, led a team of archaeologists to the site, who then uncovered hundreds of artifacts from a lost battlefield where Roman legionaries fought Rhaetian warriors as...

Oct 31, 2021

FBI searching one-time New Jersey waste dump for body of Jimmy Hoffa

The FBI is surveying a former New Jersey landfill — once condemned as an environmental disaster site — as part of the agency's long-running investigation into the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the infamous Teamster labor union leader who mysteriously vanished in 1975. Federal agents visited the site on Oct. 25...

Sep 30, 2021

Remains of Nazi V2, the first supersonic rocket, unearthed in South East England

The remains of a V2 rocket fired by Nazi Germany at London during World War II have been unearthed in a field in South East England, where it crashed and exploded before reaching its target. This is the sixth major excavation of a V2 site carried out by conflict archaeologists...

Sep 30, 2021

8 powerful female figures of ancient Rome

Women in ancient Rome held very few rights and by law were not considered equal to men, according to a 2018 article on The Great Courses Daily. Roman women rarely held any public office or positions of power, and instead their role was expected to be caring for children and...

Aug 31, 2021

Why did the Maya civilization collapse?

The Maya have lived in Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula since at least 1800 B.C. and flourished in the region for thousands of years. According to countless studies, the Maya civilization collapsed between A.D. 800 and 1000. But though the term Maya collapse brings up images of ruins overgrown...

Jul 31, 2021

Machu Picchu was built decades earlier than thought

The mountaintop Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in southern Peru was built and inhabited decades earlier than previously believed, according to new radiocarbon dates of human remains found at the archaeological site. The discovery that Machu Picchu was inhabited by 1420 — and possibly much earlier — has implications for...

Jun 30, 2021

500-year-old skulls with facial modification unearthed in Gabon

Men and women living in West Central Africa 500 years ago dramatically changed their looks by removing their front teeth, ancient skulls reveal. Archaeologists found the centuries-old altered skulls deep underground in a cave that could be reached only by rope, through a hole in the cavern's roof. The harrowing...

Mar 31, 2021

3,000-year-old 'Lost Golden City' discovered in Egypt

Archaeologists have found a Lost Golden City that's been buried under the ancient Egyptian capital of Luxor for the past 3,000 years, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced Thursday (April 8). The city, historically known as The Rise of Aten, was founded by Amenhotep III (ruled 1391-1353 B.C.),...

Feb 28, 2021

Scientists unlock the 'Cosmos' on the Antikythera Mechanism, the world's first computer

Scientists may have finally made a complete digital model for the Cosmos panel of a 2,000-year-old mechanical device called the Antikythera mechanism that's believed to be the world's first computer. First discovered in a Roman-era shipwreck by Greek sponge divers in 1900, the fragments of a shoebox-size contraption, once filled...

Feb 28, 2021

Biblical scroll discovered in 'Cave of Horror' in Israel

Fragments of a biblical scroll dating back 1,900 years have been discovered in the Cave of Horror in the Judean Desert in Israel. The cave's existence has been known for some time; it gets its macabre name from 40 ancient human skeletons that were discovered there in the 1960s. The...

Jan 31, 2021

Never-before-seen 'mud mummy' from Egypt discovered in wrong coffin

The discovery of a rare mud mummy from ancient Egypt has surprised archaeologists, who weren't expecting to find the deceased encased in a hardened mud shell. The mud carapace is an unparalleled find; it reveals a mortuary treatment not previously documented in the Egyptian archaeological record, the researchers wrote in...

Jan 31, 2021

Stash of more than 600 Roman-era silver coins discovered in Turkey

Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed a hoard of Roman-era silver coins in a jug buried near a stream. The 651 coins are about 2,100 years old, but despite their age, the text and imagery engraved on them is still legible, said Elif Özer, an archaeologist at Pamukkale University in Turkey...

Jan 31, 2021

Ancient Egypt's Mona Lisa? An elaborately drawn extinct goose, of course

Nearly five millennia ago, an artist inked an incredibly detailed painting of geese in the tomb of an Egyptian vizier and his wife. This Mona Lisa of ancient Egypt may depict a previously unknown and now extinct species of goose, a new analysis suggests. The 4,600-year-old painting, known as Meidum...

Dec 31, 2020

Woman's garden 'stepping stone' turns out to be an ancient Roman artifact

A seemingly dull marble slab, used for 10 years as a stepping stone in an English garden, is actually a rare ancient Roman engraving, a new analysis finds. The discovery surprised its owner, who learned that the 25-inch-long (63 centimeters) slab — a stone she had previously used as a...