https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. A single accessory—an ornate necklace from a child's grave in ancient Jordan—provides new insights into social complexity of Neolithic culture, according to a study published August 2, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Hala Alarashi of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain, and the Université Côte d'Azur, France and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-neolithic-necklace-child-grave-reveals.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2023 14:00:01 EDT news610189573 Early colonial settlers likely survived the harsh frontier conditions of 17th-century Delaware because they banded as family units to work alongside enslaved African descendants and European indentured servants, according to a new study published this summer in Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-dna-delaware-site-kinship-european.html Archaeology Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:23:48 EDT news610190623 A team of researchers with a wide variety of backgrounds from institutions in Poland, Sweden, the U.K., Czech Republic and Ukraine has learned more about the demographic history of people living in East-Central Europe during the Bronze Age by studying the genes of people living during that time. For their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group conducted genetic analyses of temporal bones and/or tooth remains of 91 people. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-dna-reveals-shift-bronze-age.html Archaeology Wed, 02 Aug 2023 08:41:26 EDT news610184482 A team of archaeologists and historians from multiple institutions in the U.K. and the U.S. has found evidence that an Iron Age warrior whose remains were found in a grave on the island of Bryher, off the coast of England, was likely female. In their study, reported in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, the group analyzed tooth enamel found in the grave. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-mystery-iron-age-warrior-small.html Archaeology Tue, 01 Aug 2023 10:30:01 EDT news610100829 A large team of archaeologists affiliated with multiple institutions in China and the U.K. has found evidence of systematic coal use by Bronze Age people in what is now China. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their findings at a dig site called Jirentaigoukou in northwest China. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-systematic-coal-fuel-source-bronze.html Archaeology Tue, 01 Aug 2023 09:26:47 EDT news610100803 An article published on July 31 in Nature Ecology & Evolution reveals that Luzio, the oldest human skeleton found in São Paulo state (Brazil), was a descendant of the ancestral population that settled the Americas at least 16,000 years ago and gave rise to all present-day Indigenous peoples, such as the Tupi. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-luzio-paulo-years-amerindian-indigenous.html Archaeology Mon, 31 Jul 2023 11:00:01 EDT news610015145 An international team of geologists and historians has found that an arrowhead housed at the Bern History Museum was made using meteoritic iron. In their paper published in Journal of Archaeological Science, the group describes the attributes of the arrowhead and where they believe the material it was made of came from. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-arrowhead-housed-bern-history-museum.html Archaeology Mon, 31 Jul 2023 09:40:01 EDT news610014834 An international team of linguists and geneticists led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig has achieved a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the origins of Indo-European, a family of languages spoken by nearly half of the world's population. The work is published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-insights-indo-european-languages.html Archaeology Social Sciences Thu, 27 Jul 2023 14:00:01 EDT news609672188 Who lived at Machu Picchu at its height? A new study, published in Science Advances, used ancient DNA to find out for the first time where workers buried more than 500 years ago came from within the lost Inca Empire. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ancient-dna-reveals-diverse-community.html Archaeology Wed, 26 Jul 2023 14:00:02 EDT news609579630 Rome's next luxury hotel has some very good bones: Archaeologists said Wednesday that the ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to in ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of a future Four Seasons Hotel steps from the Vatican. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ancient-nero-theater-garden-future.html Archaeology Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:04:24 EDT news609591861 A team of archaeologists from Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority has found a way to reconstruct a fire in a single building in Jerusalem burned by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. In their study, reported in Journal of Archaeological Science, the group analyzed magnetic signals in shards of pottery recovered from the site to learn more about a fire in a single building. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ancient-pottery-shards-reveals-siege.html Archaeology Wed, 26 Jul 2023 11:30:01 EDT news609587543 The Neolithic lifestyle, based on farming instead of hunting and gathering, emerged in the Near East around 12,000 years ago and contributed profoundly to the modern way of life. The ability to produce and store extra food led Neolithic people to develop new social customs built on wealth, and therefore form social hierarchies. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-family-trees-european-neolithic-social.html Archaeology Wed, 26 Jul 2023 11:00:01 EDT news609579618 Jakarta … San Francisco … Shanghai … Phoenix … Houston. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-clues-urban-resiliency-ancient-cities.html Archaeology Mon, 24 Jul 2023 16:12:28 EDT news609433941 Earthen and shell mounds built hundreds of years ago by Indigenous people in the Mississippi River Delta contribute to biodiversity and the area's resiliency to erosion today, research by a Florida State University archaeologist has found. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-highlights-importance-indigenous-cultural-perspectives.html Archaeology Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:47:04 EDT news609428821 It's hard to imagine a world without spice today. Fast global trade has allowed the import and export of all manner of delicious ingredients that help bring Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Sri Lankan (and so many more) cuisines to our dinner tables. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-evidence-year-old-curry-oldest-southeast.html Archaeology Mon, 24 Jul 2023 12:45:04 EDT news609421501 Researchers from Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology collaborated with the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology to reconstruct the world's earliest composite-tiled roofs. Their findings were consolidated in an article titled "Reconstructing the earliest known composite-tiled roofs from the Chinese Loess Plateau," published in Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-reconstruct-earliest-composite-tiled-roofs.html Archaeology Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:47:03 EDT news609414421 New research has confirmed that the commonly repeated statement that the illicit antiquities trade is the third largest illicit trade in the world is unsupported by evidence. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-unproven-distract-real-illicit-antiquities.html Archaeology Economics & Business Sat, 22 Jul 2023 11:50:01 EDT news609158752 After 20 years of above-ground surveys, archaeologists have excavated the famous Iron Age site of Němčice and confirmed the presence of the earliest glass workshop north of the Alps. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-earliest-glass-workshop-north-alps.html Archaeology Fri, 21 Jul 2023 11:41:00 EDT news609158456 Archaeologists have used advanced radiocarbon dating to investigate the age of Neolithic monuments at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire, revealing that they are appreciably older than expected. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-neolithic-herefordshire-england-revealed.html Archaeology Fri, 21 Jul 2023 10:15:03 EDT news609153301 A 300,000-year-old hunting weapon has shone a new light on early humans as woodworking masters, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-early-humans-weapon-woodwork-experts.html Archaeology Wed, 19 Jul 2023 14:00:01 EDT news608988095 Recent archaeogenetic studies have shown that human migrations and individual mobility played a bigger role in prehistory than previously anticipated. With the movement of people, also culture, technical know-how, language and social practices were often spreading, leading to sometimes fundamental changes in lifestyle and genetic ancestry. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-genetic-evidence-early-contact-farmers.html Archaeology Wed, 19 Jul 2023 12:21:35 EDT news608988089 A new study from Tel Aviv University and Tel-Hai College solves an old mystery: Where did early humans in the Hula Valley get flint to make the prehistoric tools known as handaxes? https://phys.org/news/2023-07-early-humans-hula-valley-invested.html Archaeology Wed, 19 Jul 2023 10:51:08 EDT news608982664 Benjamin Franklin may be best known as the creator of bifocals and the lightning rod, but a group of University of Notre Dame researchers suggest he should also be known for his innovative ways of making (literal) money. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-benjamins-decipher-secrets-benjamin-franklin.html Archaeology Economics & Business Mon, 17 Jul 2023 15:00:02 EDT news608821935 A pair of archaeologists, one with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the other from Bar-Ilan University, has found evidence of Roman-era necromancy practices in a cave in Israel. In their study, reported in the journal Harvard Theological Review, Eitan Klein and Boaz Zissu analyzed artifacts excavated from the Te'omim Cave over the past 14 years. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-placement-ancient-hidden-lamps-skulls.html Archaeology Fri, 14 Jul 2023 12:00:01 EDT news608546907 In a new study, researchers and members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area are the first to publish evidence of wealth-driven patterns in maternal investment among ancient populations. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ancient-california-matriarchal-society-daughters.html Archaeology Social Sciences Thu, 13 Jul 2023 14:30:01 EDT news608475147 New research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now extinct giant sloths, bolstering evidence that people arrived in the Americas earlier than once thought. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-pendants-giant-sloths-earlier-people.html Archaeology Thu, 13 Jul 2023 11:23:52 EDT news608466225 The Kushan Empire in Central Asia was one of the most influential states of the ancient world. A research team at the University of Cologne's Department of Linguistics has now deciphered a writing system that sheds new light on its history. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-group-deciphers-enigmatic-ancient-unknown.html Archaeology Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:58:32 EDT news608457510 Portable chemical imaging technology can reveal hidden details in ancient Egyptian paintings, according to a study published July 12, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Philippe Martinez of Sorbonne University, France in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Liège, Belgium. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-hidden-egyptian-revealed-chemical-imaging.html Archaeology Thu, 13 Jul 2023 07:11:03 EDT news608451062 A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness has uncovered a spectacular mosaic panel in the late Roman (ca. 400 C.E.) synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village in Israel's Lower Galilee. The panel, which identifies the mosaic donors or artists, decorates the floor just inside the main entrance. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-archaeological-galilee-uncovers-mosaics-samson.html Archaeology Mon, 10 Jul 2023 12:25:03 EDT news608210701 An archaeological expedition from the University of Gothenburg recently discovered tombs outside the Bronze Age trading metropolis Hala Sultan Tekke in Cyprus. They rank among the richest ever found in the Mediterranean region. The precious tomb artifacts indicate that their occupants ruled the city, which was a center for the copper trade in the period 1500–1300 BCE. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-tombs-rich-artifacts-swedish-cyprus.html Archaeology Thu, 06 Jul 2023 11:42:12 EDT news607862529