The East · Archaeology · Faith · Observations · Ethnography
The petroglyph from Misida (2) in northern Sudan, near the Third Cataract of the Nile, consists of a male figure about two and a half metres tall and two goats. The figure is thought to depict a ruler of Kush, the ancient kingdom in Nubia, in present-day Sudan, whose
Archaeology · Science · Ethnography
Researchers have analysed the skeletons of 199 people, found by archaeologists at six sites in central and southern Greece, and concluded that in the Bronze Age it was young people who moved between communities most often. The study forms part of the European project The Rise II, which brings together
Paris · Archaeology · Architecture
On the Île de la Cité in the centre of Paris, archaeologists have discovered a section of ancient wall about 20 metres long. The researchers suppose that this wall formed part of the fortifications of Lutetia, the settlement of the Gallic tribe of the Parisii from which Paris later grew.
The East · Archaeology · Science
Göbekli Tepe lies in south-eastern Turkey. Between 9600 and 8200 BC, hunter-gatherers raised monumental structures and stone pillars here in several stages. This era belongs to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, that is, the early part of the New Stone Age, when people were already building large structures but
Archaeology · Science
The Polish underwater archaeologist Michał Grzegorz Grabowski of the University of Warsaw has published the results of his study of a 17th-century shipwreck. Divers found the vessel in 2023 in the Greifswald Bay in northern Germany, while preparing the route for an underwater gas pipeline. The Greifswald Bay is
Archaeology · Museums · Heritage · New York
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has handed over to Greece ancient objects that until recently were held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since 2017 the Manhattan prosecutor's office has had a special unit devoted to combating the illicit trade in antiquities, which
The East · Archaeology · Archive · Heritage
Archaeologists working at Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite kingdom on the territory of present-day Turkey, have found a fragment of a clay tablet bearing cuneiform writing, which has turned out to be part of the Treaty of Kadesh. Cuneiform is a system of writing in which signs were
Archaeology · Science · Nature
Researchers have compared the strength of the arm and leg bones in two fossil human ancestors and suggest that it is possible to determine when our ancestors ceased to travel regularly through the trees. The first skeleton belongs to an individual australopithecine known as Little Foot. Australopithecines are a genus
Archaeology · The East · Science
Chinese historical texts repeatedly mention the cutting off of the nose as a judicial punishment, one of the so-called five punishments. Until now, archaeologists in China had found no skeletal confirmation of the practice. Now researchers describe the first probable case. The remains of a woman who lived some
Archaeology · Faith · Science
A pendant of copper alloy, dated to the eleventh century, has been found in Staraya Russa. One side shows a warrior with a spear and shield, presumably a Christian saint; the other, a head with snakes, reminiscent of Medusa. Such objects are known as zmeeviki ("serpent amulets"). Four
Archaeology · Science · Nature
For a long time it was believed that the wine industry of Spain traces its descent to the Roman conquest of Iberia, which began in the 3rd century BC. The importance of viticulture to the Romans is well known, and the vine followed them everywhere. A new study shows that
Archaeology · Geography · Science · Rome
In 20 BC the Emperor Augustus set up the Golden Milestone in the Roman Forum, from which distances along all the roads of the empire were symbolically measured. A team of researchers led by Tom Brughmans has analysed this network, which covers some 300,000 kilometres of roads in Europe,