Marine archaeologists have discovered a German submarine off the coast of Belgium in the North Sea. The U-boat dates back to the First World War, and its near-pristine condition suggests the remains of all 23 sailors are still inside.
The number zero is something we all take for granted, yet its conceptual origin has eluded archaeologists and historians. An updated analysis of an ancient Indian manuscript is shedding new light on this longstanding mystery, showing that the symbol that would eventually evolve into the number zero emerged at least…
Stories and poems from the Medieval era contain accounts of fearsome female Viking warriors, yet historians and anthropologists have argued that such accounts are based in myth. A DNA analysis of a 10th century skeleton found in an iconic Swedish Viking Age grave suggests there’s some truth to these old tales—and that…
Over a hundred thousand years ago, Neanderthals used tar to bind objects together, yet scientists have struggled to understand how these ancient humans, with their limited knowledge and resources, were able to produce this sticky substance. A new experiment reveals the likely technique used by Neanderthals, and how…
When we think about wine in Italian history, we think of the booze-soaked bacchanalias of ancient Rome. But it turns out that Italians were using wine to get their drunk on long before that, as evidenced by an exciting new discovery of the region’s oldest vino near a Copper Age site in Sicily. It’s a spicy meatball…
During the latter stages of the American Civil War, the H.L. Hunley made history by becoming the first combat submarine to sink an enemy ship. The Confederate crew never returned from its mission, sparking a mystery that’s lasted for over 130 years. An exhaustive new analysis suggests these pioneering submariners…
Conservators with Antarctic Heritage Trust have uncovered a perfectly preserved fruitcake that dates back to Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition, which began in 1910.
Distinctive zig-zag etchings on a prehistoric human bone found at Gough’s Cave in England suggests that Ice Age cannibals consumed human flesh not purely for the nutritional value, but as part of a sophisticated funeral practice.
Describing it as something that only happens in the movies, a team of Cambodian archaeologists have uncovered an 800-year-old sandstone statue weighing 440 pounds. Experts say it’s the most significant statue to be discovered in the famous archaeological site of Angkor Park in years.
Ötzi the Iceman—our favorite Copper Age corpsicle—is the gift that keeps on giving. A recent analysis of the metal found in the Neolithic hunter’s copper axe suggests a point of origin in Southern Tuscany, which is far from where Ötzi’s frozen body was found. This suggests a long-distance trade route might have…
Researchers in China have uncovered the skeletal remains of an unusually tall group of individuals who lived in China’s Shandong province some 5,000 years ago. With some reaching heights well over six feet, these Neolithic humans were a sign of things to come.
It’s hard to say how long The Metal has been around. This is because The Metal does not care for the laws of linear time. What we do know is that for thousands of years, humanity has both feared and revered The Metal, as evidenced once again by the recent discovery of an ancient skull cult.
Thousands of years ago, indigenous people living in the California Channel Islands relied on a manufacturing process that exposed them to dangerous chemicals that likely compromised their health. The discovery shows that toxic substances of our own making have been around for a lot longer than we realized.
Late last month, an excavator operator was working at a peat bog in the Polish municipality of Mircze when he accidentally stumbled upon this glorious specimen of 14th century craftsmanship. The remarkably well-preserved longsword is a unique find for the area, and its discovery has prompted an archaeological…
An ongoing reexamination of an ancient Egyptian wooden toe is shedding new light on how the remarkable wooden prosthetic was manufactured, and whether it was used for cosmetic or functional purposes.
Cats play an essential role in our everyday lives. They have many jobs around the house, such as monitoring humans in the bathroom, knocking stuff off tables to make sure gravity still exists, and most importantly, being our snuggle buddies. While cats might seem perfectly content with being couch potatoes, the…
Those who live vicariously through Indiana Jones will be glad to know that a team of Israeli archaeologists has uncovered a cryptic message left on a 3,000-year-old pottery shard. The ink-on-clay piece of pottery—called an ostracon—was originally discovered in the 1960s, in a city west of the Dead Sea called Tel Arad.…
A square-shaped copper mask pulled from a tomb in the southern Andes is resetting our notions of where and when sophisticated metallurgy first appeared in pre-Hispanic South America.
The remains of five early Homo sapiens have been unearthed at a site in northwest Africa. At around 300,000 years old, the fossils are a whopping 100,000 years older than the previous record, pushing back the origin of our species by a significant margin. And because the fossils were uncovered in Morocco—far from the…
In what sounds like a clichéd horror movie premise, a recent investigation suggests as many as 7,000 bodies are buried across 20 acres at the Mississippi Medical Center Campus—the former site of the state’s first mental institution. Officials at the university now face the grim task of pulling 100-year-old bodies…
