Archaeology
- Archaeology
Shipwrecks harbor evidence of ancient sophistication
Research on shipwrecks from two ancient, submerged harbors shows that frame-based shipbuilding emerged surprisingly early and then became more sophisticated within a few hundred years.
- Archaeology
Tools with handles even more ancient
An analysis of stone tools excavated at a Syrian site indicates that, around 70,000 years ago, Neandertals used a tarlike adhesive to affix sharpened items to handles.
- Archaeology
An ancient healer reborn
A research team in Israel has uncovered one of the oldest known graves of a shaman. The 12,000-year-old grave hosts a woman’s skeleton surrounded by the remains of unusual animals.
- Archaeology
Return of the kings
Excavations in southern Jordan have incited controversy about whether a copper-producing society existed there 3,000 years ago, and whether it was controlled by Israeli kings described in the Old Testament.
- Archaeology
Really Cool History
Tales of the black band: Clues to a 4,200-year-old mystery lie frozen in icy records stored atop Mt. Kilimanjaro.
- Archaeology
Saharan surprise
A chance discovery in the Sahara leads to the excavation of a Stone Age cemetery containing remains from two lakeside cultures.
- Archaeology
Greeks followed a celestial Olympics
A Greek gadget discovered more than a century ago in a 2,100-year-old shipwreck not only tracked the motion of heavenly bodies and predicted eclipses, but also functioned as a sophisticated calendar and mapped the four-year cycle of the ancient Greek Olympics.
- Archaeology
From Science News Letter, August 2, 1958
PORCUPINES GNAWED ON STONE AGE MAN’S TOOLS — Razor sharp edges on some of the bone chisels of Middle Stone Age man in Africa were found to have been put there by the needle-sharp front teeth of porcupines, Dr. Raymond A. Dart of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, reports. But the fact […]
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- Archaeology
Green reapers
Agriculture's rise sparked widespread use of green stone beads as fertility charms and as protection against supernatural forces, scientists propose.
- Archaeology
Resurrection of a biblical tree
Date palm pit found at Masada sprouts at age 2,000, becoming the oldest known seed to germinate.
- Archaeology
Acrobat’s last tumble
Sacrificial offerings in an ancient Mesopotamian building included a beheaded acrobat, a new skeletal analysis suggests.
