Vikings were formidable Scandinavian warriors and sailors who, from around 800 to 1050 CE, raided, traded, and settled throughout northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and even as far as North America. Most of what scholars know about Viking maritime networks, however, has to do with their start and end points. After all, they could have taken […]
Psychedelics Allowed Ancient Peruvians to Consolidate Power, Study Says
In a new study, archaeologists uncovered 2,500-year-old psychoactive drug paraphernalia in an archaeological site in the Peruvian highlands. Ancient Peruvians likely used psychedelics during intricate and exclusive rituals, according to the study’s authors. The study, published May 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the ancient Chavín people, a pre-Incan […]
Egyptologist in Paris Discovers Secret Messages on the Luxor Obelisk
In 1830, the viceroy of Egypt gifted France a 3,300-year-old Egyptian obelisk—a carved stone pillar with a pyramidal top. In 1836, the obelisk found its home in Paris, in Place de la Concorde. One would think that after standing in the center of the French capital for almost 200 years, Parisian Egyptologists would have learned […]
Archaeologists Unearth Roman Horse Cemetery With 100 Skeletons
“The history of mankind is carried on the back of a horse” is a saying that holds true for the Roman Empire, which expanded through the strength of its army, including its cavalry. An archaeological discovery in Germany offers rare insight into the animals that helped carry an ancient civilization. In July 2024, a construction project […]
Prehistoric Hearths Reveal Ice Age Hunter-Gatherers Were Masters of the Flame
Scholars generally agree that fire was crucial to human survival during the most recent Ice Age—yet in Europe, there is surprisingly little evidence of hearths from its coldest years, between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago. By studying three prehistoric hearths in Ukraine, a team of researchers has gained new insight into how fire was used […]
Mass Grave of 150 Roman Soldiers Found Under Vienna Sports Field
Sometime between the mid-first century and early second century CE, Roman legionaries clashed with Germanic fighters near the Danube River in a furious battle. Almost two thousand years later, gruesome evidence of the bloody event has come to light. While renovating a sports field in Vienna in October of last year, construction workers discovered a […]
Archaeologists Find Creepy 2,400-Year-Old Puppets Atop El Salvador Pyramid
A recent discovery at the top of a pyramid in El Salvador challenges the notion that pre-Columbian Salvadorans were isolated from more advanced civilizations. A pair of archaeologists has unearthed five 2,400-year-old ceramic figurines at the top of the largest pyramid of the San Isidro archaeological site. As detailed in a study published today in […]
Severed Heads in Iron Age Iberia Weren’t Just War Trophies, New Research Suggests
Iron Age people living on the Iberian Peninsula in the last millennium BCE had a striking funerary tradition: chopping off people’s heads and hanging them in prominent places—sometimes with a giant nail hammered through the skull. Archaeologists, however, aren’t sure who got beheaded: was it a ritual of veneration for important community members, or a […]
Archaeologist Who Uncovered Pharaoh’s Tomb May Have Just Made an Even Bigger Find
The stunning discovery of a pharaoh’s burial spot last week was a bombshell in the archaeology world. Not since Howard Carter located the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun in 1922 had such a site been found. There was only one problem: the pharaoh’s body wasn’t in the tomb. Now, the archaeologist who made the […]
The River Thames Has Been a Dumping Ground for Bodies for at Least 6,000 Years, Study Reveals
The average Londoner might be shocked to hear that, over the past two hundred years, hundreds of human bones have been discovered in the River Thames. As new research shows, a sizable portion of these remains date back to prehistoric times. Researchers in the U.K. have studied the remains of 61 individuals recovered from the […]