Archaeology News

Archaeologists Discover Earliest Evidence of Fire-Making

An artist’s impression of fire at Barnham around 400,000 years ago. Image credit: Craig Williams / The Trustees of the British Museum.
Dec 10, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed 400,000-year-old heated sediments and fire-cracked flint handaxes alongside two fragments of pyrite — a mineral used in later periods to strike sparks with flint — at Barnham, Suffolk, the United Kingdom. The discovery shows humans were making fire around 350,000 years earlier than previously known. An artist’s impression of fire at Barnham around 400,000 years ago. Image credit: Craig Williams / The Trustees...

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3D model of Rano Raraku quarry. Image credit: Lipo et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0336251.

Archaeologists Create First 3D Model of Easter Island’s Primary Moai Quarry

Dec 2, 2025 by News Staff

Ethnohistoric and recent archaeological evidence suggest that Easter Island (Rapa Nui) was a politically decentralized society organized into small, relatively...

An artist’s reconstruction of the gateway and drain at the ancient city of Harappa. Image credit: Chris Sloan.

Study: Severe and Persistent River Droughts Led to Collapse of Indus Valley Civilization

Dec 2, 2025 by News Staff

Severe and persistent river droughts, each lasting longer than 85 years, affected the Indus basin between 4,400 and 3,400 years ago, according to new research....

The genomes of ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia (circles in the map) revealed that domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at 2,000 years ago, several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe; African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a distinct wildcat population in Northwest Africa. Image credit: De Martino et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adt2642.

Domestic Cats Were Introduced to Europe around 2,000 Years Ago, Probably from North Africa: Study

Nov 28, 2025 by News Staff

The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica). Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Ancient Humans Introduced Wolves to Remote Baltic Sea Island 5,000 Years Ago

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

Wolves, the wild ancestor of dogs, are the only large carnivores that have undergone domestication by humans. Yet, it remains unclear if this process took...

New research indicates the importance of sweet potato to the Easter Island diet prior to European contact in 1722. Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Invasive Polynesian Rats Played Key Role in Deforestation of Easter Island, Study Suggests

Nov 20, 2025 by News Staff

The ecological transformation of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) has become among the most paradigmatic yet contested case studies in environmental archaeology....

Monte Sierpe. Image credit: Charles Stanish.

Monte Sierpe: Thousands of Mysterious ‘Holes’ in Peru May Have Been Ancient Barter Marketplace

Nov 11, 2025 by News Staff

Monte Sierpe (translated as ‘serpent mountain’ and known colloquially as the ‘Band of Holes’) is located in the Pisco Valley of southern Peru and...

Itiner-e is the most detailed and comprehensive open digital dataset of roads in the entire Roman Empire. Image credit: de Soto et al., doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-06140-z.

New Map Reveals 300,000 Kilometers of Roman Empire’s Road System

Nov 6, 2025 by News Staff

The new map and digital dataset, named Itiner-e, increase the known length of the Roman Empire’s road system by over 110,000 km. Itiner-e is the most...

The 2.58-million-year-old stone tool from the site of Namorotukunan in Kenya. Image credit: Braun et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-64244-x.

Archaeologists Find 2.75-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools in Kenya

Nov 4, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Archaeologists have discovered Oldowan stone tools in three distinct archaeological horizons, spanning approximately 300,000 years (2.75 to 2.44 million...

A group of Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

45,000-Year-Old Crimean Neanderthal Reveals Long-Distance Connections across Eurasia

Nov 3, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine contains key Middle to Upper Paleolithic transitional archaeological sites, including the site of Starosele, where archaeologists...

Carl P. Lipo & Terry L. Hunt confirmed via 3D modeling and field experiments that the ancient people of Rapa Nui ‘walked’ the moai statues. Image credit: Carl Lipo.

New Research Confirms ‘Walking’ Moai Hypothesis

Oct 7, 2025 by News Staff

The transport of Rapa Nui’s (Easter Island) monumental moai statues has been debated for over a century. Based on a systematic analysis of 962 moai,...

A view over the smaller pyramids on the eastern side of Plaza de la Luna from Piramide de la Luna towards Piramide del Sol at Teotihuacan. Image credit: Daniel Case / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists May Have Solved Mystery of Teotihuacan’s Written Language

Oct 7, 2025 by News Staff

The culture that thrived at Teotihuacan in the Classic period has a unique place in Mesoamerican history. Today, it is held as an emblem of the Mexican...

Rock art panels at Jebel Arnaan. Image credit: Maria Guagnin.

Humans Thrived in Arabian Desert 12,000 Years Ago, Monumental Rock Art Illustrates

Oct 1, 2025 by News Staff

During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (around 12,000 years ago), humans exploited a network of seasonal water bodies in the interior of northern Arabia,...

The three areas of blue residue present on the sandstone layer of the stone artifact from Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. Image credit: Wisher et al., doi: 10.15184/aqy.2025.10184.

Archaeologists Find Traces of Blue Pigment on 13,000-Year-Old Stone Artifact in Germany

Sep 30, 2025 by News Staff

Blue pigments are absent in Paleolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues....

Reconstituted scenario of Monte Clérigo tracksite, generated by AI tools following the guidance. Image credit: J.M. Galán / AI.

80,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Footprints Found in Portugal

Sep 25, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have discovered two Neanderthals tracksites in the southwestern most region of Europe: at Monte Clérigo, dated to 78,000 years ago, trackways...

The plano-convex ingot from Särdal, Halland, Sweden. Image credit: Sabatini et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105312.

Rare Artifact Found in Sweden Sheds Light on Iron Age Metal Trade between Atlantic and Baltic Sea

Sep 16, 2025 by News Staff

In new research, archaeologists examined a round heavy metal object from Särdal in the west Swedish region of Halland. Due to its shape and size, it seemed...

Seal of Yaroslav the Wise, the Grand Prince of Kyiv from 1019 until 1054 and the father of Anna Yaroslavna, the Queen of France. Image credit: Sheremetievs Museum.

Slavs Originated in Ukraine and Southern Belarus, DNA Study Finds

Sep 15, 2025 by News Staff

The second half of the first millennium CE in Central and Eastern Europe was accompanied by fundamental cultural and political transformations. This period...

A mosaic floor in a building at the archaeological site of Kh. Kafr Ḥatta, Israel. Image credit: Israel Antiquities Authority.

1,600-Year-Old Samaritan Settlement Unearthed in Israel

Sep 2, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered the ruins of an ancient agricultural estate at the site of Kh. Kafr Ḥatta in...

Five pebbles from Dzudzuana Cave, Georgia. Image credit: Longo et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321262.

Archaeologists Find Traces of Indigo Dye on 34,000-Year-Old Grinding Tools from Georgia

Sep 2, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and elsewhere have found traces of indigotin — a blue secondary compound, also known as...

The impression of a cylinder seal from the Uruk period, around 3100 BCE. Image credit: Louvre Museum.

Ancient Sumer’s Rise Was Driven by Interplay of Rivers and Tides, Archaeologists Say

Sep 2, 2025 by News Staff

New research introduces a paleoenvironmental model in which tidal dynamics influenced the earliest development of agriculture and sociopolitical complexity...

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