Archaeology

See also: https://mander.xyz/post/20611791

In his latest book, the paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak recounts how, as a young man, he spent his time observing people as he played the bagpipes in a kilt on the dirty streets of Marseille. Driven by an unconscious impulse, he had decided to master the instrument, and he succeeded, even leading a famous band in France. Then his first child was born, he found himself traveling from gig to gig, and eventually, he gave it up. But he was able to earn his PhD with the money he made from music.

The oldest human remains ever found in Northern Britain have been identified as a young female three years after being discovered in a Cumbrian cave. Excavated at Heaning Wood Bone Cave in Cumbria’s Great Urswick by local archaeologist Martin Stables, the 11,000-year-old bones provide clear evidence of Mesolithic burials in the North.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/14/british-museum-removes-palestine-references-from-ancient-mi/

After centuries beneath the waves, 22 massive stone blocks from the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria have been recovered from the seafloor, marking a major step in efforts to digitally reconstruct one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Before joining the project, Reich wasn’t too excited, he admits: “The Netherlands seemed like the most boring place in the world – every single bit of ground there has been walked on a million times before. But it turned out to be perhaps the most interesting place in Europe.”

In 1958, an amateur archaeologist named John Cowles excavated the Cougar Mountain Cave in Oregon and retained many of the artifacts found there. Upon his death in the 1980s, these items were transferred to the Favell Museum in Klamath Falls. Finally, modern archaeologists are taking a closer look at these items along with a collection from the Paisley Caves, which includes ancient needles, braided cordage, and the oldest piece of sewn material ever found. Their research is now published in Science Advances.

Archaeologists have discovered a trove of rare artifacts used by children at the site of a new development in London.

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/41957701

At a stroke, this extends the human occupation of Malta by over 1000 years. But more importantly, these people were not only alive in the Stone Age; they were also hunter-gatherers, as opposed to people from farming communities with more advanced tools. Archaeologists had often assumed that hunter-gatherers didn’t cross wide spans of ocean. Scerri’s team showed otherwise.

This has already been reported on in this community, but a link to the original article may be desirable too.

It shows a red outline of a hand whose fingers were reworked, researchers say, to create a claw-like motif which indicates an early leap in symbolic imagination.

A palm-sized fragment of elephant bone, shaped and used as a precision tool almost half a million years ago, has been identified as the oldest known elephant-bone implement in Europe. Although the artifact was excavated at Boxgrove in West Sussex in the 1990s, new microscopic analysis revealed it was deliberately fashioned and repeatedly used to maintain razor-sharp stone handaxes - offering an unusually intimate glimpse of how early humans worked, planned and conserved valuable materials in Ice Age Britain.

An excursion down a forgotten staircase in a 12th century French church resulted not only in a lost burial vault, but in a trip back in time to the sixth century.

In the ancient Lycian city of Myra, nestled within modern-day Demre in Turkey’s Antalya province, archaeologists have unearthed an extraordinary thermal structure that challenges conventional understanding of Roman bathing architecture. The discovery, dating back to the 2nd century AD, reveals a sophisticated healing complex built directly atop active thermal springs, representing an architectural type previously unknown in the region. After waiting fifteen years for industrial buildings to be cleared from the site, excavation director Prof. Dr. Nevzat Çevik and his team have finally begun to unveil what may be one of the most significant Roman thermal discoveries in southern Turkey.

Rest in Piss

An archaeologist’s dream can be a developer’s nightmare. That’s definitely been the case in North Carolina, as the builders of the new Bridge View neighborhood along the intercostal waterway near Cedar Point uncovered ancient bones while trying to construct a new housing development.

Archaeologists have been stunned to discover two of the rarest Iron Age objects in the same excavation.

The Incan Temple of the Sun in Cusco has long been a visual and cultural jewel of the ancient empire. But there’s even more to admire below ground. Recently, archaeologists confirmed a long-held rumor: the existence of a labyrinth of underground tunnels extending out from the temple, sometimes over a mile in length.

Archaeologists working at the foot of Mount Hora in northern Malawi have uncovered what appears to be the world’s oldest known cremation pyre containing adult human remains. Dating back approximately 9,500 years, this extraordinary find is challenging long-held assumptions about the social complexity and ritual practices of ancient African hunter-gatherer societies. The discovery, published in the journal Science Advances, provides unprecedented insight into the elaborate mortuary customs practiced by these early communities thousands of years before the advent of agriculture.

Intriguing new discoveries in a medieval cemetery in Wales have brought archaeologists closer to solving the mystery surrounding the women buried there.

Hahaha, wild. This should be interesting hmmm.

Researchers have discovered the earliest known instance of human-created fire, which took place in the east of England 400,000 years ago.

An ancient Egyptian pleasure boat that matches a description by the first-century Greek historian Strabo has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, to the excitement of archaeologists.

Archaeologists working at the Palace of Westminster have uncovered evidence of human activity dating back nearly 6,000 years - over a millennium older than the earliest earthworks at Stonehenge. The discovery includes more than 60 struck flint flakes, including one worked tool, likely dating to the late Mesolithic or early Neolithic period (around 4300 BC).

Archaeologists in Greece have uncovered the grave of an ousted noblewoman whom they are calling “The Lady with the Inverted Diadem.” The seventh-century-B.C. burial is notable for the elaborate bronze crown placed upside down on the woman’s head, which may have signified a final end to her power.

In an article co-authored with his colleague Margarita Díaz-Andreu, the University of Barcelona researcher argues that 12 large shell trumpets found in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia – and dated to between the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC – may have been used as long-distance communication devices and as rudimentary musical instruments.

Archaeologists are to resume digging at the Ness of Brodgar on Orkney after 3D radar technology led to an “extraordinary discovery”.

SANLIURFA, Turkey, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Turkey unveiled dozens of new finds at a major archaeological site in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, giving fresh insight into an area seen as showing humanity’s transition from hunter-gatherers to settled societies more than 11,000 years ago.

Archaeologists uncovered a 2,000-year-old building in what is modern-day United Arab Emirates that likely served as a sanctuary at which merchants and travelers could worship before and after trips across the Persian Gulf.

BUDAPEST: A remarkably well-preserved Roman sarcophagus has been unearthed in Hungary’s capital, offering a rare window into the life of the young woman inside and the world she inhabited around 1,700 years ago.

Imagine you’re in southeast Cape York Peninsula, heading north from the tiny town of Laura—population 133. You’re in a dusty four-wheel drive, bumping over a rough gravel road to a remote location known only to traditional Kuku Warra custodians.

In the history of studying the proliferation of humanity across the globe, there has long been one question that has stumped researchers: How did the islands of Southeast Asia (ISEA) become so well-inhabited so long ago?

Archaeologists in Dašice in Pardubice have discovered the remains of a village dating back approximately three thousand years. The find comes from a rescue excavation at the site of a planned new logistics hall in the southern part of the town.

An ice storage facility, the first of its kind, has been discovered at Busosanseong Fortress in Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province—a UNESCO World Heritage site and the royal fortress of the Baekje Kingdom during the Sabi period (538–660).