Archaeology

Archaeology

Food residues offer a taste of pottery’s diverse origins in East Asia

Clay pots emerged in different places and for different reasons, starting at least 16,000 years ago, a study suggests.

Archaeology

An ancient skeleton from an underwater Mexican cave sheds light on early Americans

A nearly 10,000-year-old skeleton discovered in a submerged Mexican cave provides more clues to how and when people settled the Americas.

Archaeology

Wasp nests provide the key to dating 12,000-year-old Aboriginal rock art

Dating wasp nest remnants found beneath and atop painted rock art in Australia suggests the pictures were made some 5,000 years later than thought.

Archaeology

A Siberian cave contains clues about two epic Neandertal treks

Stone tools and DNA illuminate an earlier and a later journey eastward across Asia.

Archaeology

A 3-D printed vocal tract lets an ancient mummy speak from beyond the grave

A re-created version of a mummy’s vocal tract reveals what this ancient Egyptian might have sounded like.

Archaeology

Mount Vesuvius may have suffocated, not vaporized, some victims

A new study suggests people living near Pompeii who hid in stone boathouses died a slower death when the volcano erupted in A.D. 79.

Archaeology

After the Notre Dame fire, scientists get a glimpse of the cathedral’s origins

Researchers will tackle the scientific questions behind rebuilding Notre Dame, and learn more about its history.

Archaeology

DNA from 5,700-year-old ‘gum’ shows what one ancient woman may have looked like

From chewed birch pitch, scientists recovered DNA from an ancient woman and her mouth microbes and hazelnut and duck DNA from a meal she’d consumed.

Archaeology

A nearly 44,000-year-old hunting scene is the oldest known storytelling art

Cave art in Indonesia dating to at least 43,900 years ago is the earliest known storytelling art, and shows otherworldly human-animal hunters.

Archaeology

Archaeologists have finally found ancient Egyptian wax head cones

Newly discovered wax caps are the first physical examples of apparel shown in many ancient Egyptian art works.

Humans

An ancient outbreak of bubonic plague may have been exaggerated

Archaeological evidence suggests that an epidemic that occurred several centuries before the Black Death didn’t radically change European history.

Archaeology

Infrared images reveal hidden tattoos on Egyptian mummies

Infrared images show a range of markings on seven female mummies, raising questions about ancient Egyptian tattoo traditions.