Archaeology

Our early ancestors had a taste for spicy food, new research led by the University of York has revealed.

Researchers have shown that ancient Egyptian iron beads held at the UCL Petrie Museum were hammered from pieces of meteorites, rather than iron ore. The objects, which trace their origins to outer space, also predate the emergence of iron smelting by two millennia.

In a long-buried Italian city, archaeologists have found a massive monument that dates back 300 years before the Colosseum and 100 years before the invention of mortar, revealing that the Romans had grand architectural ambitions much earlier than previously thought.

The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn’t by the Vikings, according to new research.

The 17th century Swash Channel Wreck raised today by marine archaeologists from Bournemouth University

A study by a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton has found that Neanderthals were more culturally complex than previously acknowledged. Two cultural traditions existed among Neanderthals living in what is now northern Europe between 115,000 to 35,000 years ago.

University of Colorado Boulder researcher shows the oldest known petroglyphs in North America, which are cut into several boulders in western Nevada, date to at least 10,500 years ago and perhaps even as far back as 14,800 years ago.

Scientists at Mainz University for the first time prove techniques used to produce ancient glazed beads / Investigations conducted using neutron activation analysis with the aid of the TRIGA research reactor

The day before the child's death was not a pleasant one, because it was not a sudden injury that killed the 10-13 year old child who was buried in the medieval town of Ribe in Denmark 800 years ago. The day before death was full of suffering because the child had been given a large dose of mercury in an attempt to cure a severe illness.

Crossrail archaeologists have discovered rare evidence of humans living on the Thames 9,000 year ago, in southeast London.

Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Tel Aviv University discovered an array of finds on an archaeology dig that dates from the Byzantine period.

Scientists from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Copenhagen have examined the bodies of three 500-year-old Inca children along with scientists from Bradford University in England. This has given new, detailed knowledge about the old Ince ritual ‘capacocha’ which also involved sacrificing humans. The results were published recently in the journal PNAS.

Part of an enormous structure dating to the Crusader period (1099–1291 CE), which was a busy hospital, has currently been revealed to the public following excavations and research by the Israel Antiquities Authority there in cooperation with the Grand Bazaar Company of East Jerusalem.

University of Leicester archaeologists have bid a fond farewell to the Grey Friars site - almost a year since beginning their archaeological search for Richard III. The originator of the Search project was Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society.

Archaeologists have completed a month-long dig at the site of Richard III’s burial – the “site that keeps on giving”. A team from University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) made a much larger excavation at the site of the Grey Friars church in Leicester city centre than was possible during the first dig in August last year.