Archaeology

A volunteer in Scotland has discovered a rare, 1,000-year-old ring with a red centerpiece at a fort that once belonged to the Picts, also known as the "Painted People" because of their affinity for tattoos.John Ralph, a retired engineer and alum of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, joined an ongoing archaeological dig on a…

Name: Babylonian Map of the World ("Imago Mundi" in Latin)What it is: A clay tablet inscribed with the oldest known map of the ancient worldWhere it is from: Abu Habba (Sippar), an ancient Babylonian city in what is now IraqWhen it was made: Approximately the sixth century B.C.Related: Ancient Egyptian head cones: Mysterious headgear that…

A man doing home construction in Germany has discovered a rare boulder with a 12th-century carving — a "picture stone" that may depict a Christian bishop who visited the area around 800 years ago.The medieval find is a "sensation," as there are only about 20 other known picture stones in the region, Detlef Jantzen, chief…

Researchers have discovered a 2,000-year-old Roman military camp hidden in the mountains of Switzerland.The site is located in the Alps of eastern Switzerland and northern Italy, at an elevation of 7,200 feet (2,220 meters). During Roman times, it was protected by three ditches and a defensive wall known as a rampart. The camp, which dates…

Stone Age people buried over a span of 800 years at a mass grave in France mostly belonged to the same male lineage, DNA extracted from skeletons reveals. The findings emphasize the importance of patrilineality in the social structure of these 5,000-year-old communities, researchers say. The site — located in Aven de la Boucle, a limestone cave…

Archaeologists in Germany have discovered the 1,700-year-old burial of a "barbarian" who lived on the edge of the Roman Empire and was given valuable grave goods, including glassware, pottery and a fine-tooth comb.The grave, which is thought to date to the first half of the fourth century, holds the remains of a man who died…

Archaeology is the study of human prehistory, so it seems incongruous to use its methods to study how humans behave in space. But that’s what astronauts aboard the International Space Station are doing. When the ISS was designed, it was built around specific tasks and needs. Living areas like latrines, exercise spaces, and food preparation…

Archaeologists have discovered a trove of ancient silver coins "hidden in a hole in the wall" on a Mediterranean island near Sicily, possibly during a pirate attack more than 2,000 years ago.The coins were minted between 94 and 74 B.C. when the region was ruled by Rome, a republic at that time, according to a…

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed five gold coins dating to the time of the emperor Justinian the Great (ruled from A.D. 527 to 565). Although it is not unusual to discover coins during excavations, these ones were located on the floor of a 10th-century house — suggesting the dwelling's medieval occupants may have kept the…

Viking age people who lived in what is now Norway were far more likely to be violently killed than Viking age people who lived in Denmark, a new analysis reveals.The findings were surprising to the research team, as "rates of violence in Viking Age Norway and Denmark were long believed to be comparable," the researchers…