Archaeology

Archaeological discoveries in China rarely get noticed. Recently, though, mitochondrial DNA tests conducted on human remains from Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, got the attention of international media.

Evidence for the foremost structure, built underneath the later two construction phases of the pyramid of Kukulkan has been discovered by researchers at Chichen Itza.

Archaeologists from MOLA have uncovered an important Anglo-Saxon cemetery in an excavation funded by Historic England in advance of a conservation and fishing lake and flood defence system at Wensum View in Norfolk.

Archaeologists have shed new light on the belief systems of early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers after analysing cremated remains and artefacts given as grave offerings from the earliest recorded human burial site in Ireland.

A subtle change occurred in our evolutionary history 100,000 years ago which allowed people who thought and behaved differently - such as individuals with autism - to be integrated into society, academics from the University of York have concluded.

A team of scientists and archaeologists have discovered widespread evidence of prehistoric milk production in southern Europe.

Archaeologists in Norway claim to have discovered a church where the Viking King, Olaf Haraldsson was first enshrined as a saint.

A three-month detailed excavation of Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre by MOLA archaeologists has revealed details of a stage that is much longer than originally thought with evidence of a passageway running beneath it. Archaeologists can now also confirm that the theatre was a purpose-built structure at the rear of another building on Curtain Road in Shoreditch.

Six years ago divers discovered the oldest known stationary fish traps in northern Europe off the coast of southern Sweden. Since then, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Stone Age site. They now believe the location was a lagoon environment where Mesolithic humans lived during parts of the year.

Penn Museum archaeologists excavating at the desert site of Abydos, Egypt have discovered the remains of a subterranean pharaonic boat burial dating to the reign of Senwosret III (c. 1850 BCE), according to Dr. Josef Wegner, Penn Museum Associate Curator in the Egyptian section and long-time Project Director of the Abydos excavations

The research team that has carried out the last campaign found remains of stone carving along with cutting and fracturing marks on the bones of animals that lived on the margins of the great lake that dominated and conditioned life in the north of the province of Granada.

Take the ferry to the beautiful Greek islands of Santorini and you will sail into a truly unique landscape forged by a cataclysm towards the end of the Bronze Age. From either the north or south your ship will leave the brilliant blue seas of the Aegean and enter a natural harbour flanked by majestic cliffs.

This work proves how effective the combined application of numerical tools based on dispersion models and oceanographic and historical research is in finding underwater archaeological remains.

The Maya were, at their height, one of the world’s great civilisations. In the “classic” period, from AD 250–900, Maya cities with monumental architecture and huge populations spread across a large area through what is now Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and western Honduras.

A researcher from the University of Granada (UGR) has shed new light on the lifestyle of the first communities in the Early Neolithic (7500-6800 years ago) in the Iberian Peninsula, from the study of stone bracelets.