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While digging to find an ancient settlement in southern Sweden, archaeologists made a completely unexpected discovery: an enormous Viking Age cemetery with more than 100 graves and several ship-shaped mounds...The cemetery was initially found in 2017 in the village of Tvååker, in southwestern Sweden, ahead of planned road construction. Although Tvååker is mentioned in historical sagas, the aboveground remains of this particular cemetery were lost to time until recently."The problem is that the land has been plowed and leveled to create pastures," Nordin said, "so all the occupation levels, above-ground remains, and burials have been plowed to pieces."During excavations carried...

Japan has been inhabited by people since about 35,000 years ago. Roughly 16,500 years ago a group of Neolithic hunter-gatherers, referred to as the "Jomon" culture, developed a complex society including the production of pottery and jewellery.About 3,000 years ago, rice cultivation in paddy fields was introduced to Japan. This saw the beginning of the Yayoi period which ended around the year 300 CE. After the Yayoi came the Kofun period (300–538 CE)...The authors note that the current consensus based on DNA evidence from modern Japanese people is that there was 2 or 3-way mixing between the indigenous Jomon people...

The 13-line inscription about the wrestler, which was found complete and intact measuring 120 cm (47 inches) by 50 cm (19 inches) and weighing half a ton, is believed to be 2,000 years old. The condition of the inscription makes it the first discovery of its kind for the region. The stone was found in the Harbor Bath where last year a Roman period statue was found. Tekocak said "Just like last year, the Harbor Bath has provided us with significant discoveries." The discovery suggests that the city was important as more than just a maritime trade centre.The inscription praises...

The discovery consists of three burial chambers, each accessed through a central shaft, characteristic of Punic and Roman period tombs. Remarkably, the entrance to each chamber was sealed with original slabs, and the contents inside included human remains and grave goods... The human remains and artefacts have since been carefully transferred to the SCH laboratory for further analysis.The findings, which include skeletal remains, cremation urns, and other funerary artefacts, provide a valuable insight into the ancient community that once inhabited the region.Preliminary analysis indicates a Punic timeline, although some artefacts suggest an extended period of use into the early Roman...

Despite the fact that it’s over 5,000 years old, Maeshowe, Orkney's answer to Stonehenge, is in amazing shape. But why did Neolithic Britons go to such great lengths to build it?This 5,000-Year-Old Tomb Is Spectacularly Preserved | 2:54Smithsonian Magazine | 35.3K subscribers | 29,963 views | October 15, 2024https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D026QAAuIwU

A study on earthen pots from more than 4,000 years ago sheds new light on dietary habits and cooking techniques during the Harappan era. It was conducted by a team of researchers... They examined residues discovered in black and red pottery from Surkotada, a Harappan site in Gujarat's Kutch district that was occupied for approximately 400 years...The analysis of lipid residues (fatty compounds) indicated that during the early stages of the settlement, the inhabitants most probably employed both boiling and frying techniques to prepare their food... the team discovered skeletal remains outside the fortified region of the Harappan-era settlement. The...

A 1,000-year-old Viking "wallet" containing dozens of silver coins was recently discovered by British historians on the Isle of Man, officials announced Monday.Metal detectorists John Crowe and David O'Hare discovered the "hoard" of treasure — around 36 whole and fragmented coins — while searching on private land earlier in the year, the Manx National Heritage organization said on social media...What is even more interesting is that the coins were minted under multiple different Irish and English rulers, with the majority from the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066 AD), as well as English kings Aethelred II (978-1016 AD) and Canute...

According to a Reuters report, 50 well-preserved skeletons dated to between A.D. 850 and 970 have been uncovered on Denmark's island of Funen. Michael Borre Lundoe of Museum Odense said that high water levels at the site and favorable soil conditions helped to preserve the bones. "Normally when we excavate Viking graves, we'd be lucky if there were two teeth left in the grave besides the grave goods," he explained. Most of the individuals are thought to have been farmers. One woman, who was buried with a silver-ornamented knife and a piece of glass, is thought to have been of...

Microscopic granules of sweet potato starch (kūmara) have been discovered with Asia-Pacific taro and Pacific yam (uwhi) at Triangle Flat, a site located on the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island, according to an RNZ report. Researchers from the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka determined that the Māori cultivated these crops as early as A.D. 1290 to 1385. "The first people who came here, came here to garden as well as to hunt things and they demonstrated from the outset that they were really sophisticated gardeners and they continued to be sophisticated gardeners over time," said archaeologist...

According to a Phys.org report, Guido Schreurs of the University of Bern and his colleagues suggest that rock-cut terraces and chambers at the remote archaeological site of Teniky in southern Madagascar were carved some 1,000 years ago by a Zoroastrian community. High-resolution satellite images revealed that Teniky was much larger than previously thought. Schreurs and his colleagues then identified dozens of circular and rectangular stone niches carved into the cliffs. Circular recesses in these niches may have been used to close the spaces with wooden or stone slabs, he explained. Charcoal and pottery recovered during the investigation have been dated...

Ivory Package 1 (Natural History Museum Denmark) Credit: Mikkel Høegh A new genetic analysis of ivory artifacts from across Europe suggests that early Norse hunters ventured far into North American waters and likely interacted with indigenous North Americans as early as 985 CE, or over 500 years before Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas. The scientists behind the potential historical discovery’s genetic and isotopic analysis show that the ivory was harvested from the tusks of Walruses that lived in the North Atlantic waters off of present-day Canada. Their study also found that the long distances and extreme weather that Norse...

Grapefruit is weird even among other citrus fruits.The Weird History of Grapefruit | 16:20The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.36M subscribers | 117,898 views | September 18, 2024

Cosmos Magazine reports that a new genetic study suggests that the Rapa Nui of Easter Island had contact with the peoples of South America and maintained a stable population before Europeans reached the remote island in the Pacific Ocean in 1722. The DNA samples in the study were obtained from 15 Rapa Nui individuals who lived between 1670 and 1950, and whose remains are currently held in France at the Museum of Mankind. "We looked into how the Indigenous American DNA was distributed across the Polynesian genetic background of the Rapa Nui," said Víctor Moreno-Mayar of the University of Copenhagen....

Recent research by Dr. Mikael Fauvelle and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, proposes that the neolithic Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) may have used skin boats to conduct trade, travel, fishing, and hunting activities.The PWC was a neolithic culture that had migrated from the East during the Early and Middle Neolithic. They settled in what is modern-day Scandinavia around 3500–2300 BCE. This hunter-gatherer culture was named after the pottery they produced, which was characteristically decorated with deep pits along its circumference.The Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) was unusual among European marine-specialized hunter-gatherer groups. While other such groups gradually...

A historic journey ended in tragedy this week when a Viking replica ship capsized off the coast of Norway, killing an American archaeologist who was part of its international crew. The six-person team had been piloting the open wooden ship, named Naddodd, on a roughly 1,000-mile trip from the Faroe Islands to Trondheim, Norway. "This expedition, honoring the Viking navigator Naddodd, aims to preserve Viking culture and navigational skills for future generations," Sail2North expeditions, which organized the voyage, said in an Instagram post in May. The team — made up of four Swiss, one Faroese and one American — departed...

Reuters reports that a bronze ram has been recovered from some 260 feet of water off the coast of western Sicily, near the Aegates Islands, by divers from the Society for the Documentation of Underwater Sites. The front of the ram is decorated with a helmet topped with three feathers, but deposits of shells and seaweed currently cover any other possible marks or inscriptions. Such a ram would have been placed on the bow of a warship and used to attack enemy vessels. This ram, and 26 others recovered from the area, have been assigned to the Battle of the...

In their study, Dr. Gaffney and colleagues say that new evidence of manually collected and processed 50,000-year-old tree resin shows that humans using sophisticated technological processes arrived on Waigeo Island, which lies along the northern route most suited for human expansion into Australia, as much as 50 to 55 thousand years ago. The new finding exceeds past estimates by close to 10,000 years, revealing that humans likely traversed the Pacific millennia earlier than once thought."The tree resin artefact provides evidence for complex plant processing during early human dispersal," they write. The researchers note that the resin sample is "rectilinear," which...

Cosmos Magazine reports that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge, which weighs more than six tons, may have been transported to southwestern England from Scotland. The Altar Stone currently rests under two toppled sarsen stones at the site. Anthony Clarke of Curtin University and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the minerals in the Altar Stone with mass spectrometry, and found that it has a distinct chemical fingerprint matching rocks in Scotland's Orcadian Basin, which is located more than 460 miles away. "Given its Scottish origins, the findings raise fascinating questions, considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic era, as to...

It looks like the original explanation for where Homo floresiensis came from was right all along. The Hobbit humerus fragment (left) from Mata Menge next to one from Liang Bua to scale, and the full collection of bones from the most complete Liang Bua Hobbit. Image Credit: Yousuke Kaifu ================================================================================ Three new fossils, including part of a humerus, have been found at Mata Menge on the Indonesian island of Flores. They indicate that Homo floresiensis, popularly known as Hobbits, were descended from Homo erectus, and became small relatively soon after arriving on Flores. Indeed, it seems at least some Hobbits...

An expert team of maritime archeologists and scientists uses state-of-the-art technology to search for ancient shipwrecks and evidence of prehistoric human activity in the deep Black sea. Equipped with advanced sonar, laser technology, and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), the team investigates the Black Sea, reaching depths up to 2,000 meters. The Black Sea, once a prehistoric lake, is believed to hold shipwrecks and artifacts from ancient civilizations, including the Greek and Ottoman Empires. The unique anoxic conditions below 150 meters preserve these underwater treasures, offering unique insights into human history and early seafaring.The Hunt For Ancient Shipwrecks In The Mysterious...