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Researchers examined 29 tombs from Szigetszentmiklós-Ürgehegy, one of Hungary’s largest Middle Bronze Age cemeteries...In the grave numbered 241, the cremated bones of an adult woman and two 7-8-month-old fetuses found in the urn, as well as highly prestigious items.The site is located in the northern part of Csepel Island (a few kilometers south of Budapest), and c. They are dated to 2150 and 1500 BC.People of the Vatya culture-in the early and mid-Bronze Age of Hungary used to cremate their dead. Although this often makes studying their remains challenging, researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy turned to new...

A mountain of human remains and animal carcases have been found in Saudi Arabia's Umm Jirsan, a vast underground tunnel that spreads for more than than 40 miles created by a river of lava ...Researchers found the gruesome mountain in Saudi Arabia's Umm Jirsan lava tube, which is thought to be the longest network of its kind in the country, measuring 4,900 feet long and around 26 to 29 feet. The "extremely dense accumulation of bones" was found on the lava tube's western passage...

The faces of three ancient Egyptian men who lived up to 2,797 years ago have been reconstructed using genetic data extracted from their mummified remains. It is the first time such a technique has been used on human DNA of that age. The trio came from Abusir el-Meleq, an ancient city on a floodplain to the south of Cairo, and are estimated to have been buried some time between 780 BC and 5 AD.... ...'This is the first time comprehensive DNA phenotyping has been performed on human DNA of this age,' Parabon said in a statement. The firm's experts found...

An Idaho bowhunter who was looking for a shortcut instead found the remains of another hunter who had been missing for 53 years.Raymond Jones was 39 years old when he was last seen on Sept. 7, 1968, while bow hunting for mountain goats in central Idaho’s Lemhi County, EastIdahoNews.com reported. Searches were unsuccessful, and Jones’ remains went unfound until Friday, when another bowhunter stumbled across them.

A mass grave uncovered in Sidon, Lebanon, has shed new light on the Crusades and on the cruelty of medieval warfare, a new study in the academic journal PLOS ONE has shown. Archaeologists unearthed a large quantity of human bones in the moat of the Saint Louis Castle in South Lebanon. The area was first conquered by the Crusaders after the First Crusade in 1110. Some 150 years later, the Christian city was attacked and largely destroyed by the Mamluks in 1253 and then destroyed even more by the Mongols in 1260. Pursuing the idea of liberating the holy sites...

Their grisly remains show the ugly brutality of the holy wars.Archaeologists digging near a Middle Eastern castle have unearthed two mass graves containing the grisly remains of Christian soldiers vanquished during the medieval Crusades — and some of them could have even been personally buried by a king. The chipped and charred bones of at least 25 young men and teenage boys were found inside the dry moat of the ruins of St. Louis Castle in Sidon, Lebanon. Radiocarbon dating suggests they were among the many Europeans who, between the 11th and the 13th centuries, were spurred by priests and...

Eyam (AFP) - In the 17th century, residents in the remote English village of Eyam quarantined themselves to prevent the spread of bubonic plague. Most paid with their lives. Now their descendants and locals are outraged that a steady stream of visitors have ignored government warnings to stay at home to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. In 1665, the bubonic plague arrived in the Derbyshire village of Eyam from London, nearly 150 miles (250 kilometres) further south, carried by fleas in fabrics ordered by a tailor. As dozens died, the rector of Eyam church, William Mompesson, with the help of his...

In the nearly 200 years since his mummy’s arrival at the Leeds City Museum in northern England, an ancient Egyptian priest named Nesyamun has slowly but surely revealed his secrets.Employed as a high-ranking priest and scribe at the Karnak state temple in Thebes, Nesyamun performed rituals filled with both song and speech. Active during the turbulent reign of Ramses XI, who served as Egypt’s pharaoh between 1099 and 1069 B.C., he died in his mid-50s, likely due to a severe allergic reaction, and suffered from ailments including gum disease and heavily worn teeth. And, as evidenced by inscriptions on his...

The Marsoulas conch hasn't been heard since the late Stone Age.The sound of the Marsoulas conch hasn't been heard for 18,000 years. At the entrance to the Marsoulas cave in France's Pyrenean foothills, Henri Begouën and James Townsend Russell stumbled upon an exceptional find in 1931. A conch shell -- the hardened exoskeleton of a predatory sea snail -- lay empty at the mouth of a cave the men knew was once used by human ancestors in the late Stone Age. But, as exceptional as the find was, the researchers filed the conch away, believing it to have no sign...

A huge horde of mixed animal bones, including the remains of humans, has been found in an ancient lava tube in Saudi Arabia. The hollowed cave, called Umm Jirsan, is a sprawling lava conduit system underneath the volcanic fields of Harrat Khaybar in the northwest of the country. Umm Jirsan extends for a staggering 1.5 kilometers (almost a mile), making it the longest known reported lava tube in Arabia. Within those extensive shadows, wild creatures have been busy. In a new study, researchers report the discovery of hundreds of thousands of bones belonging to at least 14 different kinds of...

Archaeologists working in the village of Konthagai in southern India have found a rusted iron dagger preserved in a burial urn alongside skeletal remains, the Times of India reports. The discovery is part of a major excavation effort in the state of Tamil Nadu that seeks to shine a light on the ancient Keeladi civilization.Though the dagger's 16-inch steel blade was rusted and broken in half, part of its wooden handle remained intact. R. Sivanandam, director of the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, tells the Hindu that this type of weapon was used by warriors during the Sangam period...The wood's...

Twenty miles south of Cairo, on the Nile's west bank, where riverfed crop fields give way to desert, the ancient site of Saqqara is marked by crumbling pyramids that emerge from the sand like dragon's teeth. Most striking is the famous Step Pyramid, built in the 27th century B.C. by Djoser, the Old Kingdom pharaoh who launched the tradition of constructing pyramids as monumental royal tombs. More than a dozen other pyramids are scattered along the five-mile strip of land, which is also dotted with the remains of temples, tombs and walkways that, together, span the entire history of ancient...

Rare evidence of ritual beheadings in ancient Roman-controlled London comes from three dozen human skulls bearing an array of serious wounds, scientists say.Decapitated heads were placed in closely spaced pits along Walbrook Stream, a tributary of the Thames River, say biological anthropologist Rebecca Redfern of the Museum of London and forensic anthropologist Heather Bonney of the Natural History Museum in London.Damage from clubs, knives and other weapons suggests that the skulls came from victims of head-hunting by Roman soldiers or from mortally wounded gladiators who fought in a nearby amphitheater, Redfern and Bonney report January 10 in the Journal of...

Even though the 30- to 40-year-old human was buried in a bog more than 2,400 years ago, the acidic peat has mummified his body to a remarkable degree, preserving his hair, brain, skin, nails, and intestines - even the leather noose around his neck...Roughly a day before the Tollund Man was hung and buried in the bog, researchers say he ate porridge, containing barley, flax, and seeds from plants and weeds.That's similar to what scientists found in the early 1950s, when the body was first unearthed in what is now modern Denmark. But unlike past analyses, this one has also...

In a new study, scientists from the CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, and the French Blood Establishment (EFS) have examined the previously sequenced genomes of one Denisovan and three Neandertal females who lived 100,000 to 40,000 years ago, in order to identify their blood groups and consider what they may reveal about human’s evolutionary history. Of the 40-some known blood group systems, the team concentrated on the seven usually considered for blood transfusion purposes, the most common of which are the ABO (determining the A, B, AB, and O blood types) and Rh systems.The findings bolster previous hypotheses but also offer new...

The remains of nine Neanderthals have been unearthed in the Guattari Cave near the seaside town of San Felice Circeo, 70 miles south of Rome. The cave’s entrance, blocked off by a rockslide that stopped human occupation of the site tens of thousands of years ago , was discovered by accident on February 24th, 1939. Inside were animal bones, the remains of hyena repasts, and in the last chamber the well-preserved cranium of a Neanderthal. The chamber would henceforth be dubbed the Antrum of Man. Even with a large hole in the temple, it was one the best-preserved Neanderthal skulls...

Arthropod fossil. (Javier Ortega-Hernández) ===================================================================================== Charles Darwin famously discussed the "imperfections" of the geological record in his book On The Origin of Species. He correctly pointed out that unless conditions are just right, it's unlikely for organisms to be preserved as fossils, even those with bones and shells. He also said "no organism wholly soft can be preserved". However, after more than a century of fossil hunting since his book was published, we now know the preservation of soft creatures is indeed possible – including some of the most fragile animals, such as jellyfish. But what about the really delicate...

Mountainer Reinhold Messner, right, and colleague inspect the mummified remains of Ötzi the Iceman following his discovery in 1991. The famed mummy died from an arrow to the back on a high Alpine mountain pass 5,300 years ago. Now researchers are tracing his unusual movements right before his murder.A wounded—and possibly wanted—man, Ötzi the Iceman spent his final days on the move high up in the Alps until he was felled with an arrow to the back. About 5,300 years later, archaeologists are still unraveling the mystery of his death. Now, a new analysis of mossy plant remains from the...

Soft tissues that make up brains are very prone to rapid decay, Bicknell said. "In order for them to be preserved, either very special geological conditions, or amber, are needed." In this case, geology helped to keep the soft tissue in tip-top condition over the years and preserve the brain — or at least a copy of the brain. "We have a mold of the brain, not the brain itself, so to speak," Bicknell said. The deposits at Mazon Creek are made of an iron carbonate mineral called siderite, which forms concretions — mineral precipitations — that can quickly encase...

Today, being "birdbrained" means forgetting where you left your keys or wallet. But 66 million years ago, it may have meant the difference between life and death—and may help explain why birds are the only dinosaurs left on Earth. Research on a newly discovered bird fossil led by The University of Texas at Austin found that a unique brain shape may be why the ancestors of living birds survived the mass extinction that claimed all other known dinosaurs. "Living birds have brains more complex than any known animals except mammals," said lead investigator Christopher Torres, who conducted the research while...