ancient history

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Rock Slab Found in 1900 Now Hailed as 'Treasure Map'

Researchers believe the Saint-Bélec slab points to Bronze Age burial sites in France

(Newser) - There's no bright red "X" marking the spot where treasure can be found. Still, archaeologists believe they've found a "treasure map" in the form of a 4,000-year-old rock slab whose engraved markings match natural features in France's westernmost Brittany region. The large stone, known...

AI Finds Three Peruvian Nazca Lines
AI Finds Three Peruvian
Nazca Lines
New Study
Jun 13, 2023 1:49 PM CDT

AI Finds Three Peruvian Nazca Lines

The large desert etchings are likely 2.4K years old

(Newser) - In a groundbreaking development, researchers have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to unearth three previously undiscovered "Nazca Lines" in Peru . As LiveScience reports, these vast figures, etched into the Nazca Desert around 2,400 years ago, include a pair of legs spanning over 250 feet, a 62-foot-wide fish,...

A 'Scourge' to the Romans, Attila the Hun Had Good Motive

Raids came in periods of extreme drought, suggesting king sought to prevent starvation

(Newser) - Attila the Hun doesn't have a great reputation some 1,500 years after his death in 453 AD. He's typically painted as a bloodthirsty barbarian bent on seizing power no matter the cost. As the 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat Jordanes described the king of the Huns , "He...

Carvings Reveal Multicultural Procession of Ancient Gods

Archaeologists say the carvings suggest an unexpected melding of cultures

(Newser) - “I felt as if I was in a ritual when I was confronted by the very expressive eyes and majestic serious face of the storm god Hadad,” Dr. Mehmet Önal told the New York Times, describing his feelings as he viewed a “procession of almond-eyed deities”...

Trump Threat About Iranian Cultural Sites Is Controversial

World bodies have prohibited attacks on heritage sites

(Newser) - Iran's ancient and rich cultural landscape has become a potential US military target as Washington and Tehran lob threats and take steps toward a possible open conflict, the AP reports. President Trump tweeted Saturday that the US has a list of 52 potential targets should Iran retaliate for the...

Legendary Ancient City Found by Accident

Mardaman in modern-day Iraq is nearly 5K years old

(Newser) - Archaeologists who've spent five years digging up an ancient city in Iraq's Kurdistan region have finally learned its name—and it's legendary. Mardaman, once the capital of a Mesopotamian province and its own independent kingdom, is believed to have begun as early as 4,800 years ago...

Indian Minister: We Had the Internet 5K Years Ago

He's getting support—and a lot of ridicule

(Newser) - Amazon has released an Android browser in India dubbed "Internet," per the Verge —but that's not what the chief minister of Tripura state was referring to Tuesday when he claimed the Internet was invented in India long ago. Speaking in Agartala, Biplab Deb cited the Hindu...

29 Ancient Footprints May Upend Long-Held Migration Theory

The Coastal Migration Theory, that is

(Newser) - Twenty-nine human footprints from the end of the last Ice Age are fueling discussion about America's first immigrants, Gizmodo reports. Archaeologists found the prints on an island in British Columbia, Canada, while seeking evidence of the Coastal Migration Theory, which posits that humans traveled down the coast after crossing...

Neanderthals Expertly Made Tools Still in Use Today

These were no dummies, say researchers in Italy

(Newser) - Modern hunter-gatherers used "digging sticks," crafted from wood, to search for edible roots and tubers, as well as to hunt. It's a tradition that stretches back at least 171,000 years, according to a new PNAS study. Digging in Italy, scientists have uncovered 58 wooden tools—including...

Mayan Civilization Has Been 'Grossly Underestimated'
Mayan Civilization
Has Been 'Grossly
Underestimated'
NEW RESEARCH
Feb 2, 2018 7:57 AM CST

Mayan Civilization Has Been 'Grossly Underestimated'

60K structures, including a pyramid, revealed in Guatemala

(Newser) - Only a handful of ancient Mayan temples rise above a dense jungle of trees in Guatemala. But what's obscured by the thick foliage, revealed for the first time, is evidence of a sprawling civilization to rival ancient Greece or China. Using LiDAR technology (Light Detection And Ranging), which measures...

China's Ancient Terracotta Army May Rewrite History

Researchers say they prove that contact with West occurred far earlier than thought

(Newser) - Marco Polo's travels to China in the 13th century are the first well documented record of a European reaching the empire. But archaeologists studying a famous trove of terracotta figures dug up in China now suggest that the first contact with the West occurred much earlier than thought—some...

World's Oldest Wooden Statue Twice as Old as Pyramids

New dating puts Shigir Idol at 11K years old, 1.5K years older than thought

(Newser) - When scientists first tried in 1997 to date the famous Shigir Idol wooden sculpture —originally found in a Siberian peat bog in 1890—radiocarbon dating suggested the art was so old the findings were widely disputed. Now, armed with better tech, scientists turned to one of the world's...

Scroll So Charred It Looks Like Charcoal Finally Read

1.5K-year-old scroll sat unreadable since being found in 1970

(Newser) - When a 1,500-year-old scroll was found in the ashes of an ancient synagogue on the shores of the Dead Sea just south of Jerusalem in 1970, it was so charred it resembled a piece of charcoal and was impossible to read or preserve. But now, thanks to the latest...

Workers Stumble on 2K-Year-Old Marvel in Jerusalem

Ancient aqueduct worked 'intermittently' until last century, experts say

(Newser) - Workers constructing a sewer line in East Jerusalem last month discovered a 2,000-year-old water-supply system that—think about this—worked fairly well until the last century, LiveScience reports. The 13-mile long Lower Aqueduct, which was fed by a spring south of Bethlehem and runs through four modern-day Jerusalem neighborhoods,...

8K Years Ago, Women Reproduced Way More Often Than Men

Scientists aren't sure why, but one theory involves successful farmers

(Newser) - Scientists are puzzling over a new discovery regarding Stone Age sex: It seems that for every 17 women who reproduced at the time, just one man did the same. The findings are based on an analysis of the DNA of 450 people from geographically diverse locations. Researchers compared Y-chromosome DNA,...

2M-Year-Old Stones May Have Belonged to Children

Chinese site thought to possibly be ancient playground

(Newser) - An investigation into what appears to be a nearly 2 million-year-old site in China's Hebei province suggests the spot served an important purpose: fun. The South China Morning Post compares the dig site to a "playground" for ancient hominids, noting that it was home to some 700 stone...

How a Drone Could Settle Debate Over the Ancient Amazon

Researchers will scan ground in search of geoglyphs

(Newser) - Experts are divided over how ancient people lived in what is now Brazil, and they're turning to a drone to help them learn the answers. "While some researchers think that Amazonia was inhabited by small bands of hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators who had a minimal impact on the...

Scientists 'Read' Words on Ancient, Burnt Scrolls

X-ray technology could lead to great literary finds

(Newser) - It's been centuries since a certain set of ancient scrolls was discovered in 1752, but their words have largely remained a secret. The 300-some rolled-up pieces of papyrus were in Herculaneum, a town pummeled by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The scrolls were left in a...

King Herod's Hallway Linked to 'Horrible' Gangrene

Reviled ancient ruler was too sick to use palace, experts say

(Newser) - Archaeologists have uncovered a corridor into Herod the Great's ancient palace but say the infamous king never really put the hallway to use, NBC News reports. In fact he turned Herodium, roughly 7 miles south of Jerusalem, into a burial monument when he fell horribly ill. "Surprisingly, during...

'Ancient Music of Babylon' Recorded for 1st Time

Stef Conner writes music, sings to ancient poems

(Newser) - A singer with folk roots and a guy who "plays a mean lyre" have recorded haunting songs that sound something like ancient Babylonian music, Raw Story reports. No one knows what Babylonians listened to—the tunes are long-lost—but singer/composer Stef Conner says she relied on the natural stresses...

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