Conservators at National Museums Scotland have reconstructed a 1,800-year-old segment of Roman armor that was broken into more than 100 pieces. The completed work will be part of an upcoming exhibition. For several weeks, museum conservators painstakingly pieced together what they’re calling an “ancient jigsaw puzzle.” The second-century brass armor was shattered into dozens of … Read more
An archaeologist in Ireland has discovered an ancient megalithic tomb — one that was seen and sketched in the 19th century but then lost for almost 200 years. Local scholar Billy Mag Fhloinn, an archaeologist and folklorist with Sacred Heart University in the Irish town of Dingle, found the tomb with the help of photogrammetry, … Read more
A roughly 3,000-year-old stone disk covered with enigmatic markings is actually an ancient celestial map marking the brightest stars in the night sky, researchers claim. The tire-size stone, which was discovered near an ancient hill fort in northeastern Italy a few years ago, features 29 carved markings on its front and back that may represent … Read more
A hidden “entrance to the underworld” built by the ancient Zapotec culture has been discovered beneath a Catholic church in southern Mexico, according to a team of researchers using cutting-edge ground-scanning technology. The complex system of underground chambers and tunnels was built more than a millennium ago by the Zapotec, whose state arose near modern-day … Read more
Archaeologists in England have discovered more than two dozen monumental pits dotting the countryside in Bedfordshire, north of London. Radiocarbon dating of materials retrieved from the prehistoric site revealed that the round, steep-sided holes were created around 7,700 to 8,500 years ago during the Mesolithic, also known as the Middle Stone Age, according to a … Read more
Ancient DNA reveals that the Picts, the “painted people” of Scotland who fought off the Romans, weren’t an enigmatic group that migrated from faraway lands. Instead, the Picts had local roots and were related to other Iron Age people in Britain, a new study finds. An analysis of eight skeletons from two Pictish cemeteries, published … Read more
Stonehenge is a massive stone monument located on Salisbury Plain in southern England. It was built roughly 4,000 to 5,000 years ago and was part of a larger sacred landscape. The bigger stones at Stonehenge, known as sarsens, weigh 25 tons (22.6 metric tons) on average and are widely believed to have been brought from … Read more
A “replica” sword that has been part of the collection at the Field Museum in Chicago for nearly a century is actually a 3,000-year-old artifact from the Bronze Age. Curators made the shocking discovery while preparing for an upcoming exhibition called “First Kings of Europe.” The 3-foot-long (91 centimeters) bronze sword had been in storage … Read more
Geologists in northern Guatemala have discovered a massive Maya site that stretches approximately 650 square miles (1,700 square kilometers) and dates to the Middle and Late Preclassic period (roughly 1000 B.C. to 250 B.C.). The findings were the result of an aerial survey that researchers conducted via airplane using lidar (light detection and ranging), in … Read more
Archaeologists have unearthed the pyramid of a never-before known ancient Egyptian queen; a cache of coffins, mummies and artifacts; and a series of interconnected tunnels. For the past two years, archaeologists have been working at Saqqara, an archaeological site in Giza, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Cairo. Recently, they discovered a trove of … Read more
