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Scientists have discovered extinct strains of smallpox in the teeth of Viking skeletons - proving for the first time that the killer disease plagued humanity for at least 1400 years. Smallpox spread from person to person via infectious droplets, killed around a third of sufferers and left another third permanently scarred or blind. Around 300 million people died from it in the 20th century alone before it was officially eradicated in 1980 through a global vaccination effort - the first human disease to be wiped out... He said: "We discovered new strains of smallpox in the teeth of Viking skeletons...

Tools excavated from a cave in central Mexico are strong evidence that humans were living in North America at least 30,000 years ago, some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday.​ Artefacts, including 1,900 stone tools, showed human occupation of the high-altitude Chiquihuite Cave over a roughly 20,000 year period, they reported in two studies, published in Nature. "Our results provide new evidence for the antiquity of humans in the Americas," Ciprian Ardelean, an archeologist at the Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas and lead author of one of the studies, told AFP. "There are only a few artefacts and...

Archaeologists in Mexico found stone tools and other signs that people were living in North America 30,000 years ago, much earlier than widely believed, according to new research reshaping the debate over the origins of people in the Americas.In a study reported Wednesday, scientists led by archaeologist Ciprian Ardelean at Mexico’s University of Zacatecas said that they had unearthed hundreds of unusual green limestone spear points, blades and other implements from a lofty cavern in the central Mexican highlands. For wandering hunter-gatherers, the cave served as a makeshift tool shed possibly beginning as early as about 33,000 years ago, the...

.....American Indian lineage has been traced to a tiny region of Russia called Altai, which borders China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago, these Altaians trekked thousands of miles, up through Russia/Siberia, eventually crossing the then-exposed Bering land mass into the Americas. "Altai is a key area because it's a place where people have been coming and going for thousands and thousands of years," said Dr. Theodore Schurr, from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schurr's team checked Altai DNA samples for markers in mitochondrial DNA, which is always passed on by mothers, and Y chromosome DNA, which...

Persons residing on the Israeli coastline 120,000 many years in the past strung ocher-painted seashells on flax string, in accordance to a recent examine in which archaeologists examined microscopic traces of have on inside of by natural means developing holes in the shells. That may well lose some light on when folks very first invented string -- which hints at the invention of points like clothes, fishing nets, and perhaps even seafaring... Shell collectors at Misliya appeared to like primarily intact shells, and there is no signal that they embellished or modified their finds. But 40,000 years later on and...

Greece is ready to open its first underwater museum beginning in August. The park, located off the coast of Alonissos Island in the western Aegean, will show-off the stunning marine life and a historic wreck off of Pertistera Islet. According to the news from ekathimerini, the site will be open to tours from licensed guides from August 3rd until October 2nd. The part will let amateur divers explore the 5th century BC wreck which carried a cargo of hundreds of amphoras of wine. The site is blessed with a wealth of archaeological treasures and incredibly rich sea life resulting from...

A colossal statue of Atlas, buried for centuries among ancient ruins, will soon take its rightful place among the ancient Greek temples of Agrigento on Sicily. The city's archaeological park announced that the artwork, one of the most celebrated sculptures on the island, will be raised upright in front of the Temple of Zeus. In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan or god who was forced to bear the sky on his shoulders after being defeated by Zeus, one of the next generation of gods called Olympians. The statue, eight metres high and built in the 5th century BC, was...

While the Irish island of Little Skellig was long thought to have been inhabited by nothing but a variety of seabirds, a new archaeological discovery demonstrates that monastics once labored in asceticism on the inaccessible crag. The archaeologist Michael Gibbons and a group of climbers recently located the remains of an early Christian church located on a narrow precipice overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, reports Afloat. Gibbons estimates that the church dates to the late 7th-early 8th century, when there was already a functioning monastery on nearby Skellig Michael. He described the location, 8 miles west of the Iveragh Peninsula...

Through deep genetic analyses, Stanford Medicine scientists and their collaborators have found conclusive scientific evidence of contact between ancient Polynesians and Native Americans from the region that is now Colombia—something that's been hotly contested in the historic and archaeological world for decades. (snip) Before the study brought scientific evidence to the debate, the idea that Native Americans and Polynesians had crossed paths originated from a complex—both in its structure and origins—carbohydrate: the sweet potato. It turns out the sweet potato, which was originally domesticated in South and Central America, has also been known to grow in one other place prior...

In 1923, famed British geologist Herbert Henry Thomas published a seminal study on Stonehenge, claiming to have found the precise spots where prehistoric people had quarried the stones. There was just one problem with his analysis: It was wrong. And it has taken geologists about 80 years to get it right, a new study finds. To debunk Thomas' work, Bevins and Ixer donned their Sherlock Holmes hats and examined Thomas' maps and rock samples. Thomas (1876-1935) was a geologist for the British Geological Survey who spent just one day in December 1906 surveying Mynydd Preseli... During his Preseli Hills visit,...

Last year, scientists from Newcastle University in the UK suggested that pig fat could have been used to move the stones to create Stonehenge. Archaeologists may have debunked the theory that stones for the world famous Stonehenge were sent via rafts from Wales to Salisbury Plain, a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science says. The recent study using chemical analysis showed that the six-tonne sandstone from Stonehenge matches rocks in Abergavenny, just a few miles from the English border. Thus the study shows that the stones could have been carried overland, debunking the theory that they were taken...

Archaeologists have unearthed what could potentially be the oldest Viking settlement in Iceland. It's an ancient longhouse that is reckoned to have been built in around 800 AD, which is decades earlier than the Vikings were thought to have colonised that part of the world. Oh, and it was found beneath another slightly less old longhouse that was packed with treasure, according to archaeologist Bjarni Einarsson, who was in charge of the excavations at the site. He told Live Science that the longhouse above was probably that of a chieftain, saying: "The younger hall is the richest in Iceland so...

The lake is home to at least one crannóg -- an artificial island used as dwellings and defense mechanisms in prehistoric Ireland. Crannóg's are the oldest dwellings in prehistoric Ireland. There are additionally at least seven ringforts surrounding the town of Lisacul. Eileen McDonagh, Cathal's mother, told the Irish Independent that he was supposed to be doing his homework when he made the discovery. She said that her son became bored with his schoolwork and went for a walk down to the lake, where he paddled up to his ankles in a pair of wellington boots. It was there that...

New emerging DNA evidence suggests that living Greeks are indeed descendants of the ancient Mycenaeans, who ruled mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea from 1,600 BC to 1,200 BC. The proof comes from a study in which scientists analyzed the genes from the teeth of 19 people across various archaeological sites within mainland Greece and Mycenae. A total of 1.2 million letters of genetic code were compared to those of 334 people across the world. Genetic information was also compiled from a group of thirty modern Greek individuals in order to compare it to the ancient genomes. This allowed researchers...

Two Durham University scientists are to play a key part in a 6000km trip following the migration route of ancient Pacific cultures. Drs Keith Dobney and Greger Larson, both from the Department of Archaeology, will be joining the voyage, which will be the first ever expedition to sail in two traditional Polynesian boats -- ethnic double canoes -- which attempts to re-trace the genuine migration route of the ancient Austronesians. The main aim of the voyage is to find out where the ancestors of Polynesian culture originated but the Durham University researchers will also be examining the local wildlife. Dr...

Was Hebrew DNA recently found in American Indian populations in South America? According to Scott R. Woodward, executive director of Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, a DNA marker, called the "Cohen modal haplotype," sometimes associated with Hebrew people, has been found in Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. But it probably has nothing to do with the Book of Mormon -- at least not directly. For years several critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and of the Book of Mormon have claimed that the lack of Hebrew DNA markers in living Native American populations is evidence the book can't...

Arima · Seated at a table under a traditional Carib Indian thatch roof, cousins Jason Calderon and Rosa Bharath are busy hot-gluing sequins on decorations for Carnival, listening to pop music on the radio while clad in the latest teen fashions: hip T-shirts, knockoff adidas shoes and earrings that look like diamonds.

Rare elongated dice and board game pieces from the Roman Iron Age have been discovered in western Norway. Last month, Norwegian archaeologists chose to excavate the remains of a small Early Iron Age grave cairn in western Norway. Dotted with monuments and grave mounds, the scenic location overlooking Alversund played an important role in Norwegian history. The site at Ytre Fosse turned out to be a cremation patch. Amidst the fragments of pottery and burnt glass, archaeologists found a surprise: rare Roman Iron Age dice and board game pieces... Archaeologists also found the remains of what was likely a powerful...

Pirates or no pirates, the islands of the Caribbean were settled and resettled by at least three successive waves of colonists from the American mainland, according to a new study. The examination of ancient DNA from 93 islanders who lived between 400 and 3200 years ago reveals a complex population history and ties to broader, inter-continental human expansions in both North and South America, according to an international research team... The Caribbean was one of the last regions in the Americas to be settled. Archaeological evidence suggests the first residents arrived about 8000 years ago, and that 3000 years later...

Mato Ilkic and Mate Parica from the Department of Archeology at the University of Zadar recently discovered a much older port in the western part of the Novigrad Sea, 22 kilometers northeast of Zadar... It is located on a hitherto unknown route that was very navigable in the period before the Roman conquests. The archeological remains of this port lay in the western part of the Novigrad Sea, opposite Posedarje, 22 kilometers northeast of Zadar. It was built by the Liburnians, and, for now, it is their only port for which the exact location is known. "Examining aerial photographs, we...