Stories related to: archaeology

Spain filed evidence today in support of its claim it is the rightful owner of a shipwreck loaded with $500 million in treasure discovered and looted by a US exploration firm, the AP reports. The Spanish government identifies the wreck, whose identity has been disputed over the past year, as the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk by a British warship in 1804. More »

A British team has excavated Stonehenge in hope of showing it was once a temple used for healing, the Los Angeles Times reports. Archaeologists focused on the site's 4,000-year-old bluestones, a twin circle of huge rocks, for proof of their origins and purpose. Shamans and witch doctors once likely filled the site, researcher Tim Darvill said, along with "all the sorts of people who in prehistoric terms would look after those who were ill." More »

Researchers have dug up the oldest piece of crafted gold in the Americas, a 4,000-year old gold necklace, LiveScience reports. Found at a pre-Inca burial site in Peru, the bling proves that primitive societies sought displays of wealth. It signals "the social process towards some kind of inequality," said Mark Aldenderfer, a University of Arizona anthropologist. More »

An incredibly old jawbone discovered in a Spanish cave could rewrite human history, scientists say. The bone with teeth is 1.2 million years old and belongs to a long-extinct human ancestor called Homo antecessor. It's at least 300,000 years older than any other human fossil found in Europe. The discovery, along with stone tools and animal bones at the site, suggests that early humans colonized Europe much earlier than thought, Bloomberg reports. More »

Archaeologists have dug up a pre-Incan temple that sheds light on a lost Peruvian culture, the AP reports. Nestled in a mountain region, the sprawling site housed the Killke people as they fended off an encroaching Spanish empire around 1200 AD. Evidence of mummies and idols shows that the Killke were not only warriors but had a "sacred ceremonial nature," one researcher said. More »

Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed one of the oldest structures in the Americas, Reuters reports. Carbon dating indicates the ceremonial plaza in Casma is 5,500 years old, scientists at the dig say. That's 500 years older than the nearby ancient citadel of Caral, previously thought be Peru’s oldest ruins. "It's an impressive find," said the project's supervisor. More »

An ancient Peruvian civilization may have been kick-started by a climate swing. Five thousand years ago, hunter-gatherers moved inland from the seashore, settling in arid, desolate river valleys where they learned to farm. Archaeologist Jonathan Haas thinks the new settlers were spurred to move by more frequent El Ninos, which killed the fish and shellfish they had relied on for food, reports NPR. More »

Archaeologists in Greece have unearthed the remains of an altar that predates Zeus worship, the New York Times reports. The evidence of animal sacrifices to an unknown deity thousands of years ago turned up during excavation of a temple to Zeus in Greece's Arcadia region. “We went from BC to 'BZ'—before Zeus," quipped one archaeologist. More »

The human sacrifices offered up to the Mayan gods in Pre-Columbian Mexico were likely boys and young men, not virgin girls, Reuters reports. A Mexican archaeologist has ventured into the sacred sinkholes of Chichen Itza to recover bones from 127 bodies, and discovered that more than 80% of them came from pre-adolescent males between the ages of 3 and 11. The sacrificed children were hurled into the water-filled caverns, scientists believe. More »

Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of modern Mexico City. The ruins, which are approximately 36 feet high, stand on the former site of Tlatelolco, a center of political and religious power and the twin city of Tenochtitlan. The discovery indicates that the ancient city might be more than a century older than previously believed, reports Reuters. More »

eBay called off the auction of a 4,000-year-old clay tablet last week just minutes before it closed because an expert suspected the artifact had been smuggled out of Iraq, the Guardian reports. A German archaeologist alerted authorities after spotting the tablet, a business-card-size object covered in distinctive cuneiform script, on Swiss eBay. More »

Scientists had hoped that the watch belonging to the commander of the HL Hunley would give them some clues as to why the Confederate submarine sank in 1864. But they've been left only with more questions, AP reports. The watch stopped quickly rather than winding down—possibly because of an explosion, but it may have been broken sooner or lost time in damp conditions. More »

An American underwater archaeology team has found what's believed to be the remains of a ship piloted by notorious buccaneer Captain William Kidd. Indiana University researchers discovered cannons and anchors off a tiny Caribbean island in just ten feet of water, which they believe belong to the Quedagh Merchant , a ship Kidd abandoned in 1699 to face criminal charges in New York. More »

Queen Helene of Adiabene, ruler of parts of Iraq, apparently had a pied-a-terre in the seedy part of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, according to an archaeological team that has unearthed the mansion. Now it’s prime real estate in the Arab quarter, forming the foundation of a parking lot until recently. More »

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Roman throne in the volcanic ash that buried the city of Herculaneum when Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79. Scientists unearthed two legs and the back of a throne, the first ever found. The piece was decorated with ivory bas-reliefs of ancient deities, pine cones and phalluses. More »

Archaeologists digging in Jerusalem's City of David have found what they believe is an ancient wall mentioned in the Bible, AP reports. While working to save a tower from collapse, they found pottery shards and arrowheads from the 5th century BC, leading them to believe that a wall nearby is one mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah. More »

A new study of three wrist bones from an 18,000-year-old fossil shows that the so-called hobbits of Indonesia were, indeed, a separate human species. When the bones were discovered in 2003, scientists trumpeted the find as evidence of a smaller species, Homo floresiensis. But skeptics argued that the hobbit, at 3 feet tall with a brain the size of a grapefruit, was in fact a human afflicted by microcephaly, a brain-shrinking disorder. More »

Russian archaeologists say they’ve unearthed remains belonging to two children of Nicholas II, the Russian czar executed along with the rest of his family almost 90 years ago. The discovery of Alexei and Maria Romanov may help prove the authenticity of remains found in 1991 that are believed to be those of their parents and their three sisters. More »

Cambodia's famed Angkor—usually penciled into guidebooks thanks to its eponymous 12th-century temple—was once the world's biggest city, new research by University of Sydney archaeologists shows. From the 10th century on, Angkor grew to nearly one million inhabitants and sprawled out to the size of modern-day Los Angeles. More »

Two of our ancestors apparently lived alongside each other in Africa rather than evolving from one to the next on the path to Homo sapiens , as scientists once believed. National Geographic reports that a Homo habilis skull dug up in Kenya is surprisingly young, making its 1.4 million-year-old owner a neighbor to Homo erectus rather than an evolutionary forerunner. More »