Neolithic engravings may push Chinese writing back 7,000 years
Feng Shi confirmed that inscriptions on ceramic stands from Liulinxi are the earliest known Chinese characters, appearing in groups rather than alone, making them easier to interpret.
Archaeology
Over 50 medieval skeletons unearthed in central Aarhus graveyard
Ancient Crocodile Species Discovered in Egypt Sheds Light on Evolutionary History
Mass grave DNA reveals deadly disease that devastated Napoleon's army in 1812
Dresden Codex decoded: study unveils the Maya’s 700-year eclipse calculator
“The 405-month eclipse table had emerged from a lunar calendar in which the 260-day divinatory calendar commensurated the lunar cycle,” the authors wrote.
Ancient teeth reveal salmonella and louse-borne fever helped doom Napoleon’s 500,000-man force
Teeth from 13 Grande Armée soldiers in a Vilnius grave give first genetic proof that infections, with famine and cold, helped cause the loss of 300,000 men during Napoleon’s retreat from Russia.
Israeli archaeologists uncover medieval sugar mills beneath Gan Hashlosha National Park
The study indicates that the tunnels likely channeled water to drive horizontal paddle wheels, which powered millstones used to crush sugarcane.
Bronze bust of Egyptian goddess Isis unearthed at Satala necropolis in Gümüşhane, Turkey
The discovery emerged in the cemetery just north of the Roman walls at a site that once housed the headquarters of Legio XV Apollinaris on the empire’s eastern frontier.
Opium residue found in an Ancient Egyptian vase, rewriting the story of Tutankhamun’s tomb raids
Analysis detected morphine, thebaine, noscapine and other opiate alkaloids, providing the first scientific identification of the contents of an inscribed egyptian alabastron.
First Assyrian inscription ever found in Jerusalem uncovered near western wall
Israel’s antiquities authority reports discovery of an Assyrian inscription from the first temple period - evidence of an assyrian presence in the kingdom of judah.
Archaeologists find intact Merian axe from tenth century near Rostov, Russia
The Merians were a Finno-Ugric people who lived in the upper Volga basin.
Chinese woman charged in 1.5 million euro gold nugget theft from Paris Natural History Museum
She was arrested at Barcelona airport on September 30 with about one kilogram of melted gold and remains in provisional detention, according to prosecutors.
Rare Assyrian inscription unearthed near Temple Mount reveals communication with the King of Judah
The finding provides “direct evidence of official correspondence between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah," according to an excavation expert.
New scans challenge the idea that Indigenous Australians hunted giant animals to extinction
A study in Royal Society Open Science by Professor Mike Archer shows no evidence that humans hunted or butchered megafauna in the fossil record.
