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Archaeology news
The sunken treasure of the San José shipwreck is contested—but its real riches go beyond coins and jewels
The San José was a galleon ship owned by King Philip V of Spain (1683–1746) in the 18th century. It sailed from Portobelo in present-day Panama to Cartagena in Colombia in 1708.
Archaeology
Mar 17, 2024
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How the Tudors dealt with food waste
More than 10 million tons of food is wasted in the UK each year. Leftovers perish in their plastic Tupperware tombs, supermarket bins heave with damaged but perfectly edible produce, and fields are littered with spoiled harvests. ...
Archaeology
Mar 16, 2024
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Manuports in the context of archaeology
If you look around your bedroom, or in the door pocket of your car, you may have a cool shell you've found and kept. Maybe it's a nice pinky-orange, or has a perfect little hole so that one day you could make a necklace.
Archaeology
Mar 15, 2024
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Malaria, smallpox, polio: Here's how we know life in ancient Egypt was ravaged by disease
The mention of ancient Egypt usually conjures images of colossal pyramids and precious, golden tombs.
Archaeology
Mar 15, 2024
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New framework embraces uncertainty to make sense of history
There are many things we don't know about how history unfolds. The process might be impersonal, even inevitable, as some social scientists have suggested; human societies might be doomed to decline. Or, individual actions ...
Archaeology
Mar 15, 2024
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Bacterial diseases a lethal threat during the Stone Age
Bacterial poisoning via food and water—but also via contact such as kisses—caused a lot of suffering during the Stone Age. Diseases that today can be treated with antibiotics were then fatal, concludes new study published ...
Archaeology
Mar 14, 2024
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Researchers locate cargo ship SS Hartdale, torpedoed in 1915
The final resting place of a British cargo ship, missing since being torpedoed by a German U-boat, has been established by a team of researchers working on the Unpath'd Waters project. The initiative led by Historic England ...
Archaeology
Mar 13, 2024
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Ancient scrolls are being 'read' by machine learning—with human knowledge to detect language and make sense of them
A groundbreaking announcement for the recovery of lost ancient literature was recently made. Using a non-invasive method that harnesses machine learning, an international trio of scholars retrieved 15 columns of ancient Greek ...
Archaeology
Mar 13, 2024
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Human activity on Curaçao began centuries earlier than previously believed, study finds
New research co-led by Simon Fraser University and the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management (NAAM Foundation) in Curaçao extends the earliest known human settlement of Curaçao by centuries, adding pieces ...
Archaeology
Mar 12, 2024
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Archeoastronomy uses the rare times and places of previous total solar eclipses to help us measure history
In 648 BCE, the Greek poet Archilochus wrote that "nothing can be surprising any more or impossible or miraculous, now that Zeus, father of the Olympians has made night out of noonday, hiding the light of the gleaming sun."
Archaeology
Mar 12, 2024
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Migration of hominins out of Africa may have been driven by the first major glaciation of the Pleistocene
A pair of planetary scientists, one with the University of Milan, the other with Columbia University, has found evidence that the exodus of hominins out of Africa approximately 1 million years ago may have been driven by ...
Prehistoric piercings may have been coming-of-age ritual
Archaeologists have discovered more than 100 ornaments for use in piercings in ~11,000-year-old adult burials in Türkiye, providing the earliest conclusive evidence for body perforation and suggesting that piercing may have ...
Archaeology
Mar 12, 2024
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Nigeria's ancient Ilorin city: Archaeologist uncovers more than 1,000 years of history
Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, is a Nigerian city with a long and rich history. However, much of its distant past is not well known. Archaeology is now uncovering more of this history and the relationships of Ilorin ...
Archaeology
Mar 11, 2024
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A trip to the coast, a dip in the pool, and a snow-chilled drink: How ancient Romans kept cool in summer
The dog days of summer are upon us. Or so the ancient Romans named the dies caniculares that followed the rise of the "dog star" Sirius which the ancients believed to signal the oncoming sweltering heat and drought of summer.
Archaeology
Mar 11, 2024
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'Missing' houses offer a new perspective on Britain's Roman period
A rough site plan for the Roman-era village of Silchester in south-central England, now a ruin, has existed since antiquarians excavated it in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though extensive, these efforts used techniques ...
Archaeology
Mar 11, 2024
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The first Europeans reached Ukraine 1.4 million years ago, new study finds
During warm periods in Earth's history, known as interglacials, glaciers the size of continents pulled back to reveal new landscapes. These were new worlds for early humans to explore and exploit, and 1.4 million years ago ...
Archaeology
Mar 10, 2024
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Rabana-Merquly: Was the mountain fortress also a Parthian-era sanctuary?
Besides being a fortress for military use, the ancient mountain settlement of Rabana-Merquly in modern Iraqi Kurdistan could have also been a 'sanctuary' dedicated to the ancient Persian water goddess Anahita. Architectural ...
Archaeology
Mar 7, 2024
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Tracing the spread of cacao domestication
The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), whose beans (cocoa) are used to make products including chocolate, liquor and cocoa butter, may have spread from the Amazon basin to the other regions of South and Central America at least ...
Archaeology
Mar 7, 2024
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Lost tombs and quarries rediscovered on British military base in Cyprus
More than forty archaeological sites in Cyprus dating potentially as far back as the Bronze Age that were thought lost to history have been relocated by University of Leicester scientists working for the Ministry of Defence.
Archaeology
Mar 6, 2024
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Ancient stone tools found in Ukraine date to over 1 million years ago, and may be oldest in Europe
Ancient stone tools found in western Ukraine may be the oldest known evidence of early human presence in Europe, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Archaeology
Mar 6, 2024
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