Archaeology
AI helps archaeologists solve a Roman gaming mystery
Researchers used AI-driven virtual players to test more than 100 rule sets, matching gameplay to wear patterns on a Roman limestone board.
Archaeology
More Stories in Archaeology
- Anthropology
This hand stencil in Indonesia is now the oldest known rock art
The work suggests early Homo sapiens developed enduring artistic practices as they moved through the islands of Southeast Asia.
- Archaeology
This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of humans doing math
Flower designs on 8,000-year-old Mesopotamian pots reveal a “mathematical knowledge” perhaps developed to share land and crops, archaeologists say.
- Archaeology
60,000-year-old poison arrowheads show early humans’ skillful hunting
A new analysis uncovers traces of poison on the South African arrowheads, pushing back the timeline for poisoned weapons by more than 50,000 years.
- Archaeology
Neandertals mastered fire-making tools 400,000 years ago
Archaeologists found flint, iron pyrite to strike it and sediments where a fire was probably built several times at an ancient site in England.
- Archaeology
A clay figurine unveils a storytelling shift from 12,000 years ago
A carefully crafted figure of a goose and a woman suggests that art reflecting spiritual beliefs entered a new phase among early villagers in the Middle East.
- Archaeology
Peru’s Serpent Mountain sheds its mysterious past
No, aliens had nothing to do with a winding 1.5-kilometer-long path of holes. First used as a market, the Inca then repurposed it for tax collection.
- Archaeology
Fossil hand bones point to tool use outside the Homo lineage
The fossil wrist and thumb bones suggest Paranthropus boisei could grasp tools around 1.5 million years ago.
- Archaeology
12,000-year-old rock art hints at the Arabian Desert’s lush past
Newly found engravings of animals on rock outcrops in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud desert show nomads lived there thousands of years ago.
- Archaeology
Venice’s iconic winged lion statue originated in ancient China
European artisans turned a Tang Dynasty tomb guardian sculpture into a symbol of medieval Venetian statehood, researchers say.
