Archaeology

More Stories in Archaeology

  1. skeleton of an ancient shark attack victim at an excavation site
    Anthropology

    A skeleton from Peru vies for the title of oldest known shark attack victim

    The 6,000-year-old remains of a teen with a missing leg and tell-tale bite marks came to light after news of a 3,000-year-old victim in Japan surfaced.

    By Bruce Bower
  2. two researchers, one holding a torch in a dark cave
    Humans

    How wielding lamps and torches shed new light on Stone Age cave art

    Experiments with stone lamps and juniper branch torches are helping scientists see 12,500-year-old cave art with fresh eyes.

    By Jaime Chambers
  3. fossil of human jawbone
    Humans

    Ancient human bones reveal the oldest known strain of the plague

    The earliest known plague strain emerged about 7,100 years ago and was less contagious as the one behind Black Death — but was still deadly.

    By Jaime Chambers
  4. jaw and skull bones from the Nesher Ramla site on a white background
    Anthropology

    Israeli fossil finds reveal a new hominid group, Nesher Ramla Homo

    Discoveries reveal a new Stone Age population that had close ties to Homo sapiens at least 120,000 years ago, complicating the human family tree.

    By Bruce Bower
  5. Coxcatlan Cave entrance
    Archaeology

    New clues suggest people reached the Americas around 30,000 years ago

    Ancient rabbit bones from a Mexican rock-shelter point to humans arriving on the continent as much as 10,000 years earlier than often assumed.

    By Bruce Bower
  6. photo of two skeletons on their sides in the fetal position, half immersed in the soil
    Anthropology

    Hunter-gatherers first launched violent raids at least 13,400 years ago

    Skeletons from an ancient African cemetery bear the oldest known signs of small-scale warfare.

    By Bruce Bower
  7. black and white image of dusty ruins in Greenwood after the massacre
    Archaeology

    To find answers about the 1921 race massacre, Tulsa digs up its painful past

    A century ago, hundreds of people died in a horrific eruption of racial violence in Tulsa. A team of researchers may have found a mass grave from the event.

    By Helen Thompson
  8. sharpened turkey leg bones used for tattoos
    Archaeology

    The oldest known tattoo tools were found at an ancient Tennessee site

    Sharpened turkey leg bones may have served as tattoo needles between 5,520 and 3,620 years ago, at least a millennium earlier than previously thought.

    By Bruce Bower
  9. virtual reconstruction of child's bones
    Anthropology

    A child’s 78,000-year-old grave marks Africa’s oldest known human burial

    Cave excavation of a youngster’s grave pushes back the date of the first human burial identified in the continent by at least a few thousand years.

    By Bruce Bower