Modifying our bodies, from external expressions like piercings and tattoos to more internal changes like drilling holes into skulls or foot binding, is quintessentially human. Now, a team of biological anthropologists and archaeologists from Kyushu University in Japan and the ...

Hammocks normally invoke an image of sipping tropical drinks or relaxing in a backyard, not necessarily archaeological discoveries. However, while installing a hammock this summer at Michigan State University, workers found a hard, impenetrable, surface just under the ground. Campus ...

China’s Longshan period which lasted from about 2600 to 2000 BCE is best known for its sophisticated pottery shapes, but their sophisticated plumbing is getting some well-deserved attention. A team of archaeologists found the oldest known ceramic water pipes in ...

A 300,000 year-old fossilized skull discovered in China is proving to be an evolutionary puzzle. The specimen dating back to the late middle Pleistocene doesn’t look like other skulls that have been found from this time period, and could possibly ...

A broken molar and some sophisticated stone pointed tools suggest that Europe’s first known humans may have been living on the continent 54,000 years ago. The findings are detailed in a study published May 3 in the open-access journal PLOS ...

Archaeologists in Rome have unearthed a treasure trove of Renaissance-era medical supplies inside the Forum of Caesar. Among the “golden” finds are 500 year-old medicine bottles and urine flasks. In a study published April 11 in the journal Antiquity, the ...

Archaeologists in western Scotland have found the foundations of a Roman fortlet dating back to the Second Century CE. According to the government-run historic preservation commission Historic Environment Scotland, this fort was one of 41 defensive structures that was built ...

The 2016 animated family film Moana brought the long-told story of Polynesian seafarers (along with some incredibly catchy tunes) to a much wider worldwide audience. Now, geochemical analysis is confirming the oral history of ancient Polynesia’s incredible sailors in a ...

What’s inside a miniature, 2,500-year-old coffin? Well, now researchers at the British Museum know. A team of scientists used a noninvasive technique called neutron tomography to peer inside six Egyptian animal coffins that have been sealed for over two millennia. ...

In the Late Bronze Age, humans learned to smelt iron, and things haven’t been the same since. Between 1200 and 1000 BCE, the movement of information stemming possibly from ancient Anatolia on how to utilize the metal and turn it ...