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Sometime between 1400 and 1200 B.C., two Minoan men were laid to rest in an underground enclosure carved out of the soft limestone native to southeast Crete. Both were entombed within larnakes—intricately embossed clay coffins popular in Bronze Age Minoan society—and surrounded by colorful funerary vases that hinted at their owners’ high status. Eventually, the burial site was sealed with stone masonry and forgotten, leaving the deceased undisturbed for roughly 3,400 years.

The remains of a mysterious Jewish city populated decades before the destruction of the First Temple was discovered on a site near Beit Shemesh about six months ago. The findings not only revealed evidence of the renewal of Jewish settlement in the area following the destruction wrought by Sancheiriv but also revealed evidence of the idol worship the Jewish people engaged in at the time. The findings of figurines and idols in the Jewish city corroborated the Tanach's (Jewish Bible) attribution of the destruction of the First Temple to idolatry. Sancheiriv (Sennacherib), the king of Assyria from 705 BCE to...

I was blessed to make a long planned all-day ride-a-long with a dear Dayton police friend from my church yesterday, just one day after the tragic mass shooting. The outpouring of love from the grateful citizens of the city of Dayton was overwhelming. Restaurants offered free food to cops, trays of cookies and donuts showed up at the station, people came up and wanted to hug officers, big waves with thank you’s were shouted our way. At traffic stops people rolled down their windows to voice their appreciation. The shooter was dropped by a hail of police bullets at the...

Six aligned standing stones have been discovered on a building site in Sion, southwest Switzerland, in what local authorities call an important archaeological find. "This discovery is of prime importance to help us understand social rituals at the end of the Neolithic period (around 2,500BC) in central Europe," says a press releaseexternal link from canton Valais's buildings, monuments and archaeology department. The find was made by chance during work for a new residential building in the Petit-Chasseur quarter of the cantonal capital Sion. This is the same area where, in the 1960s, several dolmens (collective tombs) and some 30 standing...

Between 1997 and 2016, researchers at an excavation near Ashkelon in Israel examined the remains of more than one hundred humans, remains that dated from the 12th to 6th centuries before Christ. The researchers hoped to find human DNA in order to answer an old question: Who were the Philistines? Where did they come from? As it turns out, the Philistines were exactly who the Bible says they were, and they came from where the Bible says they did. Amos 9 speaks of God bringing up the Philistines from Caphtor, just as he brought Israel out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 2...

Male academics, who comprise less than 10 percent of North American archaeologists, write the vast majority of the field's high impact, peer-reviewed literature. That's according to a new study in American Antiquity by Washington State University archaeologists Tiffany Fulkerson and Shannon Tushingham. The two scientists set out to determine how a rapidly evolving demographic and professional landscape is influencing the production and dissemination of knowledge in American archaeology. They found that women, who now make up half of all archaeologists in North America, and professionals working outside of a university setting, who account for 90 percent of the total workforce,...

The fragment above an artist’s impression of how the fish bottle would have looked. Credit: National Trust/Rod Kirkpatrick/F Stop Press ============================================================ Peter Moore discovered a fragment from a 1,800 year-old glass fish at the National Trust's Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire. The shard of intricately decorated glass is so rare it took experts from around the world two years to identify it. Wealth and influence Peter discovered the fragment while part of a team carrying out a dig to understand more about the north wing of the villa. The glass fish may have been used to hold exotic perfume and...

(JNS) The Israeli Antiquities Authority, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Macquarie University of Sydney, Australia, have announced the discovery of what they believe is the biblical city of Ziklag, the Philistine city in which according to the Bible the young David took refuge from King Saul. Ziklag is mentioned in the Bible multiple times in relationship to David, who the Bible states received sanctuary in the city along with his army, with the permission of Achish, King of Gat. The site is also believed to be the place from which David left to journey to Hebron, where he was anointed...

Scientists discovered a strange, tall, humanoid wooden figure under four meters of peat in a Russian bog. The figure, dubbed the Shirgir Idol (after the bog where it was found), is more than twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids. Gold miners stumbled upon pieces of the wooden figure in 1894. 100 years later, radiocarbon dating helped researchers trace the sculpture back some 9,900 years, which made it the oldest monumental sculpture in the world. The most recent analysis of the idol, published in Antiquity journal, pegged the figure at about 11,500 years old.

In 1894, gold prospectors near the city of Yekaterinburg in Russia unearthed not gold, but wood, and a very special wood at that. Specifically, they unearthed what's now known as the Shigir Idol, a 5-meter (16-foot) carved wooden statue that was marked with recognizable human faces and hands, as well as several intricate markings. The statue was believed to be merely a few thousand years old, and it simply sat on display at a Russian Museum for many years. In 1990s, researchers conducted a radiocarbon analysis of the statues to finally determine how old it really is, and turned up...

　 Beaver's teeth 'used to carve the oldest wooden statue in the world' By The Siberian Times reporter 15 June 2017 Dating back 11,000 years - with a coded message left by ancient man from the Mesolithic Age - the Shigir Idol is almost three times as old as the Egyptian pyramids. Two years ago German scientists dated the Idol as being 11,000 years old. Picture: The Siberian Times New scientific findings suggest that images and hieroglyphics on the wooden statue were carved with the jaw of a beaver, its teeth intact. Originally dug out of a peat bog by...

<p>'A mysterious wooden idol found in a Russian peat bog has been dated to 11,000 years ago - and contains a code no one can decipher.</p> <p>The Shigir Idol is twice as old as the Pyramids and Stonehenge - and is by far the oldest wooden structure in the world.</p>

A stunning wooden statue pulled from a Russian peat bog 125 years ago has been dated as being 11,000 years old after 'sensational' new analysis. This means the remarkable Shigir Idol, which is covered in ‘encrypted code’ and may be a message from ancient man, is by far the oldest wooden sculpture in the world. Previous dating attempts claimed it was made 9,500 years ago. ... The idol was originally dug out of a peat bog in the Ural Mountains in 1890. 'The first attempt to date the idol was made 107 years after its discovery, in 1997. The first...

An ancient palace has emerged from an Iraqi reservoir after water levels dropped precipitously because of a drought. A lack of rain and the release of water through the Mosul Dam to relieve dry conditions has led to the Mittani Empire site being revealed. The site was flooded when the Mosul Dam was built in the mid-1980s before archaeologists were able to examine it.

Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a Roman-era ship off the east coast of Cyprus. In a statement, Cyprus’ Department of Antiquities explained that the wreck is the first undisturbed Roman shipwreck found in the Mediterranean island nation’s waters. The ship is loaded with amphorae, or large ancient jars, which are likely from Syria and ancient Cilicia on modern-day Turkey's southeastern coast. Analysis of the shipwreck will shed new light on seaborne trade between Cyprus and the rest of the Roman provinces of the eastern Mediterranean, officials explained in the statement. The wreck was found near the resort town of...

Mysterious 3,000-year-old fingerprints have been found in bricks at an archaeological site in the United Arab Emirates. The fingerprints were found at the Hili 2 site in Abu Dhabi, which is part of the Al Ain UNESCO World Heritage Site. In a Facebook post, Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism said that the fingerprints could offer vital clues to archaeologists. The fingerprints, they explain "indicate the adoption of an advanced technique in construction." The National reports that ancient craftsmen used their hands to make indentations in the mud bricks. The indentations would be used to contain the mortar that...

There's room for all types in a newly described fossil that shows 259 baby fish swimming together in a school, approximately 50 million years ago. According to the authors of a new study published Wednesday (May 29) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, this ex-school may be the earliest known fossil evidence that prehistoric fish swam in unison, just as modern fish do today. A team of Arizona researchers stumbled upon this remarkable rock during a visit to the Oishi Fossils Gallery of Mizuta Memorial Museum in Japan. Working with the museum, the researchers determined that the...

Even in modern times we are fascinated by crystals – from the diamonds we use as a sacred symbol of partnership, to the plethora of ‘healing’ gems that can be found in a New Age gift shop. So we can only imagine how ancient people viewed these transparent rocks with hidden structure. Evidence of the esteem in which crystals were held can be found in a “remarkable set” of ‘crystal weapons’ found in the megalithic tombs of southwestern Spain. At the site of Valencina de la Concepci
on, archaeologists have uncovered crystal arrowheads, an exquisite dagger blade, and cores used for...

An Anglo-Saxon burial chamber found on a grassy verge next to a busy road and not far from an Aldi is being hailed as Britain’s equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Archaeologists on Thursday will reveal the results of years of research into the burial site of a rich, powerful Anglo-Saxon man found at Prittlewell in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. When it was first discovered in 2003, jaws dropped at how intact the chamber was. But it is only now, after years of painstaking investigation by more than 40 specialists, that a fuller picture of the extraordinary nature of the find is emerging.

Middle Kingdom rock-cut tomb discovered in El-Lisht. The Egyptian-American mission directed by Mohamed Youssef (Dahshur antiquities director) and Dr. Sarah Parcak (University of Alabama) discovered a Middle Kingdom tomb in El-Lisht to the south of Senusret I pyramid. "The mission has been working on documenting and preserving the result of illicit digs which took place after 25th of January 2011 turmoil." Dr. Mamdouh El-Damaty, Minister of Antiquities, told Luxor Times. The discovered tomb belongs to a High official dated to 12th Dynasty at the reign of Senusret I. The tomb owner held the title "Royal seal bearer". The mission will...