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A Polish archaeologist at the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology has made a 3D reconstruction of a 5,500-year-old brewing installation which was found at Tell el-Farcha, an archaeological site in Egypt dating back to approximately 3700 BC when it functioned as a centre of local Lower Egyptian Culture. The virtual reconstruction has brought to life the ancient scene in which Egyptians practiced a traditional form of beer making. The reconstruction was created based on preserved structures of similar analogous buildings at both Tell el-Farcha and other brewing centres in Upper Egypt. The Tell el-Farcha brewery, the oldest ever brewery found...

Established in 1247, the notorious Bethlem (“Bedlam”) Royal Hospital was the first dedicated psychiatric institution in Europe and possibly the most famous specialist facility for care and control of the insane, so much so that the word ‘bedlam’ has long been synonymous with madness and chaos. Now, in a spectacular discovery, archaeologists have uncovered the asylum’s ancient graveyard right in the heart of London, revealing as many as 20,000 skeletons. The 500-year-old graveyard was found during excavations to create a 13-mile high speed tunnel under Central London. Modern-day residents and visitors going about their busy daily lives have been oblivious...

Uncovering Israel’s Past Posted By Christopher S. Carson On August 6, 2013 @ 12:12 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 34 Comments It seems that many educated liberals who wish Israel didn’t exist are turning to archaeologists to succor their agendas. These archaeologists are called biblical “minimalists,” and loosely affiliate themselves with the “Copenhagen School” of archaeology. They believe that the scientific evidence in the dirt is irrefutable—there was no Moses, there was no Exodus, there was no period of the “Judges,” there was not a Conquest of Caanan by Joshua or anyone else, and there was no glorious “United Monarchy”...

In Easton, Md., an untold story of free African-Americans is being discovered through bits of glass, shards of pottery and oyster shells. Piece by piece, archaeologists and historians from two universities and the community are uncovering the history of The Hill, which they believe is the earliest settlement of free African-Americans in the United States, dating to 1790. Treme, in New Orleans, is recognized as the oldest free black community in the nation, dating to 1812. But researchers say that could change based on findings from the Easton dig. "It's not just a black story. It's an American story," said...

The first interesting form is the scorpion, which might first be thought to represent is known as Scorpius, but this does not appear to be the case.  This is due to the presence of the three birds to the middle right (A, B, C), these three most clearly correspond to the “Summer Triangle” stars, the three birds, one represented by each star: Cygnus, Aquila (aka Vultur volans), and Vultur cadens (Lyra).  The shape of the Aquila constellations holds the same general appearance as bird A, the angle of the Cygnus stars matches the shape of the body of bird B,...

In the bone-dry coastal desert of northern Peru, the ancient Moche sculpted and painted intricate murals on the adobe walls of the site now known as Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon). Created between A.D. 100 and 800, the images hold intriguing clues to a mysterious people who left no written texts to help explain their beliefs and customs. Now, a composite photo in super high resolution has captured one of those murals in amazing detail, allowing anyone with a computer to zoom in for close-up views of individual figures. (Click here for the interactive version of the...

Archaeologists have found an astonishing piece of Neolithic artwork that was buried for 4,500 years. The stone creation - which is decorated on both sides and has been described as one of the ‘finest ever’ to be found in Britain - was uncovered last night on the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney, Scotland. It was found at the base of the south-west internal corner of the Neolithic ‘cathedral’ at the site, which covers 2.5 hectares and is believed to have been occupied from as early as 3,500BC....

In the 1970s, archaeologist Peter Bogucki was excavating a Stone Age site in the fertile plains of central Poland when he came across an assortment of odd artefacts. The people who had lived there around 7,000 years ago were among central Europe's first farmers, and they had left behind fragments of pottery dotted with tiny holes. It looked as though the coarse red clay had been baked while pierced with pieces of straw. Looking back through the archaeological literature, Bogucki found other examples of ancient perforated pottery. “They were so unusual — people would almost always include them in publications,”...

Archaeologists digging around an ancient church in Turkey say they’ve made a startling discovery and unearthed a piece of the cross that used to crucify Jesus. The diggers found a stone chest this week and inside were several relics believed to be tied to the crucifixion. Among them was a piece of the actual cross upon which Jesus was nailed, one historian with Turkey’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts said in the Hurriyet Daily News.

(CNN) -- First came the dramatic discovery of the long-lost remains of King Richard III.Now, there's the mystery of the coffin within the coffin.Archaeologists working at the site in central England where Richard III's body was found underneath a parking lot are currently puzzling over a sealed lead coffin containing the remains of a yet-to-be-identified person.The lead coffin was found encased in a larger stone coffin.The smaller coffin is intact "except for a hole at one end of the casket through which we could tantalizingly see someone's feet," said Mathew Morris, the fieldwork director at the site.New discovery just as...

Archaeologists have unearthed a mysterious coffin-within-a-coffin near the final resting place of Richard III. The University of Leicester team lifted the lid of a medieval stone coffin this week – the final week of their second dig at the Grey Friars site, where the medieval king was discovered in September. This is the first fully intact stone coffin to be discovered in Leicester in controlled excavations – and is believed to contain one of the friary's founders or a medieval monk. Within the stone coffin, they found an inner lead coffin – and will need to carry out further analysis...

Before there was Jamestown and even before there was Roanoke, there was Spain's Fort San Juan, in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina. Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of the fort built by gold-hunting Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century and say it's the oldest European garrison ever found in the interior of the United States. The settlement around Fort San Juan was occupied for less than two years and it met a rather bloody end — likely brought on by the Spaniards' botched bartering for food and their sexual transgressions with Native American women. But the short-lived fort's traces...

Half of the research is done by walking the same trails migrants use. The other half is spent talking to border crossers staying in the migrant shelters in Nogales, Sonora, or getting ready for their journey in the town of Altar, Sonora. Over the years, migration through Arizona has slowed, but researchers don't know how much of that is due to border enforcement and how much to the recession.

Israeli archaeologists say they have found the remains of a palace that they believe was a seat of power for the biblical King David — but other experts say that claim shouldn't be taken as the gospel truth. The discovery, announced on Thursday by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, revives a debate over one of the Bible's central stories as well as the origins of the ancient Jewish state. The debate focuses on an archaeological site known as Khirbet Qeiyafa, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Jerusalem. Khirbet Qeiyafa has been associated with the ancient city of Sha'arayim, which is...

A new study says Europe's first farmers used far more sophisticated practices than was previously thought. A research team led by the University of Oxford has found that Neolithic farmers manured and watered their crops as early as 6,000 BC. It had always been assumed that manure wasn't used as a fertiliser until Iron Age and Roman times. However, this new research shows that enriched levels of nitrogen-15, a stable isotope abundant in manure, have been found in the charred cereal grains and pulse seeds taken from 13 Neolithic sites around Europe. The findings are published in the early edition...

Planning a last supper party on Dec. 21? To celebrate the Mayan way, you might need several clay balls. That's one way the Maya cooked their food, according to U.S. archaeologists who have unearthed dozens of rounded clay pieces from a site in Mexico. Conducted with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) and Millsaps College's financial support, the excavation of a kitchen at Escalera al Cielo in Yucatán revealed 77 complete balls and 912 smaller fragments....

Bulls Scarp could be the most fascinating and important archaeological site waiting to be surveyed in the region. There’s just one little problem: That Ice Age rock ledge is under about 140 feet of seawater.But a team of scientists recently studied and mapped it from the ocean surface. Now the team is looking for partners to go back.“We haven’t been on the bottom to look for artifacts and that’s what we’re trying to do. We feel very strongly this area would have held populations of people,” said Scott Harris, College of Charleston geology professor.“I think it’s fantastic. I can just...

A rare, unlooted royal tomb has been found in Peru, replete with gold and silver riches, the mummified bodies of queens and other, less-adorned bodies thought to have been human sacrifices. The pristine state of the site is something of a miracle, say archaeologists, surrounded as it is by other heavily looted areas. The queens ruled over the Wari, an ancient civilization that built South America's earliest empire between 700 and 1000 AD, National Geographic reports.....

Their stone tools may have been simple and their dwellings made from simple straw huts, but ancient Britons were in fact ahead of the times - literally - when it came to the world's first ever calendar. That's the claim of archaeologists who believe they have found evidence of a giant 'year clock' capable of tracking lunar months and the changing seasons in a field near Banchory in Aberdeenshire. Dating back 10,000 years, it is twice the age of time-keeping systems created by the ancient Mesopotamians, which were thought to be the world's oldest.....

'Vampire' Graves Uncovered in Poland Archaeologists in Poland believe they've made a startling discovery: a group of vampire graves. The graves were discovered during the construction of a roadway near the Polish town of Gliwice, where archaeologists are more accustomed to finding the remains of World War II soldiers, according to The Telegraph. But instead of soldiers, the graves contained skeletons whose heads had been severed and placed on their legs. This indicated to the archaeologists that the bodies had been subject to a ritualized execution designed to ensure the dead stayed dead, The Telegraph reports. By keeping the head...