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Researchers have discovered nearly 500 ceremonial complexes in Mexico, and they are thought to have been of cosmic importance to Mesoamerican civilizations over 2,000 years ago. The hundreds of sites were discovered using publicly available LIDAR data collected by the Mexican government... ...It is thought they were constructed by diverse groups between 1,050 BC and 400 BC...and, and, based on they way they are facing, many seem to be aligned with the sunrise of a certain date....

He had been sent to the auction by his wife, so legend has it, to buy a set of dining chairs. Instead, barrister Cecil Chubb’s eye was caught by lot No 15: a few acres of Wiltshire downland – plus one ancient, crumbling, mysterious monument. Exactly 100 years ago, Stonehenge was sold to Chubb for £6,600. Three years later he gave the magnificent stones to the nation and since then it has become one of the most beloved and most visited historical sites in the world.

A team of historians and archaeologists from the Kotha Telangana Charitra Brundam (KTCB) discovered two menhirs, ancient standing stones, dating back to some 4,000 years in Yadadri-Bhongir district.These menhirs, according to archaeologist and KTCB convenor Sreeramoju Haragopal, seemed to be the kind that were installed at burial sites of some significance...Of the two menhirs found, one stood erect and intact while the other one, partially broken, was found in a field near Venkatapuram village, Turkapalli mandal. The intact menhir stands 15 feet high and four feet wide. “It is broad in the bottom and tapers towards the top,” said Haragopal....

Landscape architect Sarah Ewbank believes Stonehenge once had thatched roof Sarah believes iconic Salisbury monument was an all-purpose Neolithic temple After making models, the architect believes it had a large oval hall overlooked by galleries in which the crowds might have gathered to hear the speakers below She points out that the total diameter — some 30 metres — is almost exactly the same as Shakespeare’s Globe, a similarly thatched building in which, several millennia later, the human voice could carry to every audience member. ‘It is unquestionably the right size for an enclosed public venue,’ she says, speculating that...

Yazılıkaya rock sanctuary near Ankara depicts more than 90 figures carved into limestone walls Lesser gods are seen marching toward the sun-goddess Hebat and the storm-god Teshub, the supreme deities Archaeologists believe the figures function as an ancient calendar, tracking the lunar cycles and the passing months They also explain the Hittite cosmos, divided into Earth, sky and the Underworld The reliefs were uncovered in 1834 but only now is their purpose clear

Come along with an international team of researchers as they unlock an ancient paradox in the desert oasis of Alula.Follow their journey – from legendary heritage sites such as Alula Old Town to mysterious mustatils – in the Discovery Channel Documentary Architects of Ancient Arabia.

Halley's comet portrayed on ancient coin Heather Catchpole ABC Science Online Wednesday, 19 May 2004 Could the star shape on the king's crown be Halley's comet? A rare ancient coin may feature an early record of Halley's comet, researchers say. The coin features the head of the Armenian king Tigranes II the Great, who reigned from 95 to 55 BC. A symbol on his crown that features a star with a curved tail may represent the passage of Halley's comet in 87 BC, say the Armenian and Italian researchers. Their research will be published in Astronomy & Geophysics, a journal...

A piece of the famous Halley's comet likely slammed into Earth in A.D. 536, blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that the planet cooled considerably, a new study suggests. This dramatic climate shift is linked to drought and famine around the world, which may have made humanity more susceptible to "Justinian's plague" in A.D. 541-542 — the first recorded emergence of the Black Death in Europe. The new results come from an analysis of Greenland ice that was laid down between A.D. 533 and 540. The ice cores record large amounts of atmospheric dust during this seven-year period, not...

A New Jersey man has been indicted on felony charges following his arrest last month in connection with the 2019 vandalism at the America’s Stonehenge site in Salem. Mark L. Russo, 51, of 1108 Kings Highway in Swedesboro, N.J., faces two counts of burglary and one count of criminal mischief for his alleged role in the carving damage that led to a 15-month investigation involving social media sleuthing to find him. The indictments allege that Russo entered a secured section of the archaeological site on Sept. 28, 2019, with the intention of committing criminal mischief and criminal threatening by “carving...

An ancient tomb, described by archaeologists as "untouched" and "highly unusual" has been discovered on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry...The tomb was uncovered by a digger during land reclamation work when a large stone slab was upturned, revealing a slab-lined chamber beneath.On closer inspection an adjoining sub-chamber was found at what appears to be the front of the tomb.The tomb contained an unusual smooth oval-shaped stone and what is believed to be human bone.It is believed the tomb may date to the Bronze Age (2000BC-500BC), but it could be even earlier as it displays a number of highly unusual...

According to their analysis – using a technique called Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to date the ancient stone – the jars were positioned potentially as early as the late second millennium BCE.Evidence discovered of varied mortuary practices at some of the sites – including primary burial of human skeletons, and also bundled or jarred collections of bones – was also dated by radiocarbon dating, suggesting activity between 9-13th century CE.On the face of the most recent evidence, this means the Plain of Jars pre-dates the most recent and confirmed discoveries of mortuary practices, by potentially thousands of years. As for...

The discovery of a dismantled stone circle—close to Stonehenge's bluestone quarries in west Wales—raises the possibility that a 900-year-old legend about Stonehenge being built from an earlier stone circle contains a grain of truth. Radiocarbon and OSL dating of Waun Mawn indicate construction c. 3000 BC, shortly before the initial construction of Stonehenge. The identical diameters of Waun Mawn and the enclosing ditch of Stonehenge, and their orientations on the midsummer solstice sunrise, suggest that at least part of the Waun Mawn circle was brought from west Wales to Salisbury Plain. This interpretation complements recent isotope work that supports a...

The latest finds were made during preliminary studies of the area, before 18 months of full archaeological excavations are expected to begin later this year, Leivers said. Foremost among the latest finds are several graves, unearthed just to the southwest of the Stonehenge circle, that are thought to be from the Beaker culture, which is named after their practice of burying the dead with bell-shaped pottery drinking vessels. The Beaker people lived in Western Europe between 4,800 and 3,800 years ago, beginning in the Chalcolithic period when the first copper tools came into use. In one of the graves., the...

After 50 years of submerged at the bottom of a reservoir, a 5,000-year-old monument has reappeared in Spain. The megalithic site has 144 granite blocks, which are stand over six feet tall and are known as ‘Spanish Stonehenge.’ Its similarity to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Wiltshire is striking, but the Iberian version is made of smaller rocks. In the 1960s, it was thought to be condemned to the history books when a Spanish general ordered the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Peraleda de la Mata, near Cáceres in Extremadura.

New finding from Antikythera MechanismBased onstatistical analysis of micro CT imaging of the more than 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, we show unexpected evidence establishing a lunar calendar with Egyptian civil-calendar month-names circa 100 B.C. This finding displaces a century-long presumption of a 365-day solar calendar on the Antikythera Mechanism with a 354-day lunar calendar and may inform a fundamental question of the number and type of calendars used in Ancient Egypt.

Though open to interpretation, the bronze disk appears to depict the moon, stars and possibly the sun. A duo of archaeologists from Goethe University Frankfurt and Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich took a fresh look at where and how the disk was discovered. The disk was found during an illegal excavation in 1999 near Nebra, Germany, along with a trove of Bronze Age items, including swords and jewelry. If the disk's age matched that of the other items, it would be about 3,600 years old. A release from Goethe University this week calls out the "vague information given by the looters."...

The mustatils are giant stone monuments that are about 7,000-year- old. The Arabic name ‘mustatils,’ means rectangle. These vast structures made of stone piled into rectangles, are some of the oldest large-scale structures in the world. Mustalis were previously recognized from satellite imagery and as they were often covered by younger structures, it had been speculated that they might be ancient, perhaps extending back to the Neolithic. Recent studies reveal new, interesting information that may shed light on the purpose of these massive stone monuments. Dr. Huw Groucutt from the Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology, the Science of Human...

About 30 previously unknown stones with holes have been discovered at Carahunge or Zorats Karer (the Armenian Stonehenge). Other stones of astronomical importance have also been found during the measurement works carried out jointly by the Byurakan Observatory and the Armenian National University of Architecture and Construction. The team carried out computer scanning of the monument and the adjacent area, aerial photo-scanning of the area. All stones with holes were photographed and measured. After the measurement results are summed up, astronomical calculations will begin based on new, highly accurate data. Carahunge is a prehistoric archaeological site near the town of...

Archaeological excavations in the Perdig&otildees complex, in the Évora district, have identified "a unique structure in the Prehistory of the iberian Peninsula", Era -Arqueologia announced. Speaking to the Lusa agency, the archaeologist in charge, António Valera, said that it was "a monumental wooden construction, of which the foundations remain, with a circular plan and more than 20 metres in diameter". it is "a ceremonial construction", a type of structure only known in Central Europe and the British isles, according to the archaeologist, with the designations as 'Woodhenge', "wooden versions of Stonehenge", or 'Timber Circles' (wooden circles). The structure now identified...