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Buried side by side since 1836, one Mexican and one Texan cannonball lay untouched beneath the Alamo’s soil for nearly two centuries.Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: -Archaeologists excavating near the church at the Alamo have discovered two cannonballs fired during the famous 1836 battle there. -The cannonballs sat close to each other for roughly 190 years before being discovered. -One cannonball was from Mexico and the other was made with iron from Texas. Two fully intact Battle of the Alamo-era cannonballs have sat undisturbed in the dirt outside the northeast corner of the Alamo Church,...

Though local lore held that the so-called "scorpion tree" had been the work of cowboys, paleontologist Rex Saint Onge immediately knew that the tree was carved by Indians when he stumbled upon it in the fall of 2006. Located in a shady grove atop the Santa Lucia Mountains in San Luis Obispo County, the centuries-old gnarled oak had the image of a six-legged, lizard-like being meticulously scrawled into its trunk, the nearly three-foot-tall beast topped with a rectangular crown and two large spheres. "I was really the first one to come across it who understood that it was a Chumash...

According to the archaeological record, sharks (and rays, their close relative) were the number two source of protein for coastal Chumash after sardines, at least for the past 1,000 or so years... Specifically, the coastal Chumash were eating the easier-to-catch near-shore species such as leopard shark, angel shark, soupfin shark, and swell shark... The Chumash also ate many species of rays, but seemed to prefer the shovelnose guitarfish, which is wide like a ray in its torso but lanky and finned like a shark on the tail... The guitarfish, like other small sharks and rays, lives part of its life...

Findings from a mysterious remote chain of islands off the coast of California are rattling bones in the science community as bone-pickers find traces of a “vanished world.” The Golden State’s Channel Islands, located several miles off the SoCal coast, are home to the remnants of revelational lost civilizations intriguing enough to make Indiana Jones blush. A banner finding in the area has been the 13,000-year-old remains of the “Arlington Springs Man,” the earliest dated adult found on the continent. A new documentary highlighted the extraordinary discovery, which has changed science’s thinking around where and when humans first migrated to...

Just off the southern coast of mainland Greece lies the oldest submerged city in the world. It thrived for 2,000 years during the time that saw the birth of western civilisation. In this documentary, an international team of experts use cutting-edge technology to prise age-old secrets from the complex of streets and stone buildings that lie less than five metres below the surface of the ocean. State-of-the-art CGI helps to raise the city from the seabed, revealing for the first time in 3,500 years how Pavlopetri would once have looked and operated. Archeologists Discover The Oldest Sunken City In The...

Archaeologists have recently uncovered fragments of a life-size mural depicting the Greek Trojan War hero Achilles in the remains of a Roman home near Reims, France. The discovery, dating to the 2nd century CE, sheds new light on the cultural reach and artistic sophistication of ancient Roman Gaul. The mural, depicting the mythological tale of Achilles and Deidamia, was found on the western outskirts of what was once the Roman city of Durocortorum, now modern-day Reims. The discovery offers a rare glimpse into the tastes and traditions of the Roman elite who lived far from the empire’s major urban centers....

In Norway’s highest mountains, experts are scouring perilous terrain for pieces of the past, long stored in mint condition in ice patches. As temperatures rise across the world, glacial archaeologists must find the emerging artifacts before they degrade forever This arrow with a pressure-flaked arrowhead made from gray quartzite dates to the Late Stone Age or Bronze Age and was found on Norway’s ice. The pitch and the animal sinew used to fasten the arrowhead are still preserved, which is exceptionally rare. Espen Finstad, Innlandet County Municipality ============================================================================================ A brown leather loafer came into view on a patch of ice...

The history of the Trojan horse is probably one of the most famous stories ever told. A gigantic wooden horse is loaded with Greek soldiers and presented to the Trojans as a gift. Unsuspecting, they swallow the bait and pull the horse into the city. Under cover of darkness the Greeks slip out of the horse and open the gates to their comrades. Only hours later the mighty Troy goes up in flames. But what if the myth of the horse is not true at all? New, groundbreaking findings show that one of the most famous stories of all time...

An example of Linear Elamite( Image Credit: Darafsh/Wikimedia/CC 3.0) An ancient Iranian mystery has finally been solved, according to a French archaeologist who reports successfully cracking the code to an enigmatic, undeciphered writing system. Known as Linear Elamite, the 4000-year-old script—once considered impossible to decode—has now been unlocked by François Desset, in an achievement that has drawn comparisons to Jean-François Champollion’s famous deciphering of the enigmatic Rosetta Stone. Desset, a 43-year-old archaeological researcher based at the University of Liege in Belgium, says the remarkable ancient script is the only truly “local” writing system from the country’s early history, which is...

We Might Be Wrong About Humanity's Near Extinction | 34:00 New Scientist | 484K subscribers | 330,045 views | April 8, 2026

Gerardo Aldana is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Aldana about Mayan astronomy, Mesoamerican culture, and the importance of Indigenous knowledge. “If we think of Indigenous cultures and their approaches, especially Mesoamerican cultures and their approaches to astronomy, it wasn't to transform and control nature,” Aldana said. “It was to find ways to open up dialogues with nature so that now your engagement with your environment can be a productive and a healthy one.”

Archaeologists working in southeastern Turkey have uncovered new evidence that expands the known reach of one of the world’s earliest monumental cultures. The find is reshaping how researchers understand the Neolithic transition in Upper Mesopotamia. Stone structures featuring Göbeklitepe-style T-pillars have been identified in the Samsat district of Adıyaman. The remains surfaced after falling water levels in the Atatürk Dam reservoir exposed land that had remained underwater for decades. Discovery triggered by retreating waters The site lies near Kızılöz village, where receding waters revealed stone features along the shoreline. After a report from residents, teams from the Adıyaman Museum Directorate...

To the Greeks, the Trojan War is one of the most famous events in their history, and it is also one of the most well-known stories in Greek mythology. However, the question about whether or not the Trojan War truly happened remains. The discovery of Troy in the eighteenth century seemed to vindicate Homer’s account, but the reality is much more complicated than that. Does the city of Troy prove the Trojan War really happened? For many people, the discovery of the city of Troy proves that the Trojan War really happened. According to this train of thought, such a...

The Viking Ship Museum in Denmark recently announced an unprecedented discovery in the Øresund Strait: the world’s largest and most advanced medieval cargo ship ever found. Hailed as “a milestone in maritime archaeology,” the discovery occurred while divers were investigating the seabed in the Sound, in anticipation of Copenhagen’s new Lynetteholm district, and stumbled upon a record-breaking cog buried beneath centuries of sand and silt. Found approximately 43 feet deep, the precious wreckage escaped destructive forces, resulting in an extraordinary state of preservation that provided archaeologists with a rare, close-up look at never-before-seen details. “It is extraordinary to have so...

Archaeologists in northwest China have uncovered an 8-mile (13km) section of a Qin Dynasty road, believed to date back more than 2,200 years. The ancient military route, part of the Qinzhidao system, was constructed under the orders of Emperor Qinshihuang during China’s first unification period. The newly identified stretch runs through the Hengshan District of Yulin, in Shaanxi Province. The discovery was made during a 2024 survey conducted by the Cultural Relics Protection Research Institute in Yulin. The project focused on documenting the layout and current condition of the road remains. According to the institute, the finding helps further outline...

Biblical archaeologists are using ancient texts and modern technology to uncover possible clues to one of Christianity's biggest mysteries.When God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the Bible says that he placed a cherubim and flaming sword at the entrance that scholars believe is used to guard against their return to this paradise on Earth. But this clear expulsion of human beings hasn’t stopped archaeologists, theologians, and tourists alike from trying to find their way back. The Bible’s vivid geographical description of Eden gave seekers a head start. Readers are initially told that the Eden is “in...

Archaeologists have found the earliest evidence yet of fire technology — and it was created by Neanderthals in England more than 400,000 years ago. Neanderthals were the world's first innovators of fire technology, tiny specks of evidence in England suggest. Flecks of pyrite found at a more than 400,000-year-old archaeological site in Suffolk, in eastern England, push back archaeologists' evidence for controlled fire-making and suggest that key human brain developments began far earlier than previously thought. "We're a species who've used fire to really shape the world around us," study co-author Rob Davis, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the British Museum,...

The Tower of David Museum has recently undergone comprehensive renovation work and in the process, an astonishing archaeological discovery has been unearthed. Just in time for the Hanukkah holiday, when we remember how the Hasmonean Maccabees fought and gained victory over their Greek oppressors 162 years before the birth of Yeshua (Jesus), a huge section of ancient wall from the Hasmonean era has been found underground. The Tower of David is an iconic part of Jerusalem’s old city skyline, and has been made into an impressive museum. The Israel Antiques Authority (IAA) have been carrying out excavations at the historic...

Around 8,000 years ago, a vast stretch of land connected Britain to mainland Europe. This lost world, known as Doggerland, was a thriving Mesolithic landscape teeming with mammoth, deer, and human communities. But everything changed with a catastrophic event that submerged this Stone Age Eden beneath the rising waters of the North Sea. In 1931, fishermen accidentally pulled prehistoric bones and tools from the seafloor, marking the first modern discovery of Doggerland. Since then, especially from the 1990s through 2019, archaeologists and scientists have used sonar scans, seabed sampling, and digital reconstructions to piece together what life was like in...

Archaeologists have uncovered definitive proof of early Christian life in the Arabian Gulf, thanks to the discovery of a plaster Christian cross dating back around 1,400 years. The find was made on Sir Bani Yas Island, about 110 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, and confirms that a cluster of small courtyard houses found decades ago were part of a monastic Christian community. The cross was discovered by teams from Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism during excavations that restarted in January 2025. The artifact was found among courtyard houses north of the main monastery complex, where senior monks are...