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An overhead image of the monument photographed from a drone, and a detail overlay of the surface features in which the image is rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Photograph by I. LaBianca (Left) and Photograph by I. LaBianca; graphics by J. Blanzy (Right) ============================================================================================== Satellites and drones helped reveal huge ceremonial platform near the ancient city’s center. An enormous monument has been hiding in plain sight at the World Heritage site of Petra, according to a study recently published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Archaeologists Sarah Parcak, a National Geographic fellow, and Christopher Tuttle, executive director...

The newly revealed structure consists of a 184-by-161-foot (about 56-by-49-meter) platform that encloses a slightly smaller platform originally paved with flagstones. The east side of the interior platform had been lined with a row of columns that once crowned a monumental staircase. A small 28-by-28-foot (8.5-by-8.5-meter) building was centered north-south atop the interior platform and opened to the east, facing the staircase. This enormous open platform, topped with a relatively small building and approached by a monumental facade, has no known parallels to any other structure in Petra. It most likely had a public, ceremonial function, which may make it...

About 15 km to the east of the ancient city of Petra, archaeologists from the University of Leiden have discovered an impressive network of ancient water conservation measures and irrigated field systems... In Antiquity, an ingenious system of underground canals, hacked out of the limestone bedrock, in addition to specially built aqueducts and reservoirs with capacities of millions of litres of water, transformed this marginal region into a complex man-made landscape. This is a fantastic example of ancient water-management technology, constructed to irrigate the surrounding terraced field systems... It is possible that parts of this agricultural system -- which was...

Experts from London's Courtauld Institute of Art recently completed the conservation of a rare and exquisite Nabataean wall painting at the World Heritage site of Petra in Jordan, for the Petra National Trust. Conservators Stephen Rickerby and Lisa Shekede from the Courtauld's Conservation of Wall Painting Department worked on the project for three years. The remarkable painting, that can now be clearly seen for the first time in many years, was unveiled on Wednesday 18 August 2010 in a ceremony marking the conclusion of the fifth and final phase of conservation work... Dating from around the 1st century AD, the...

Spectacular 2,000-year-old Hellenistic-style wall paintings have been revealed at the world heritage site of Petra through the expertise of British conservation specialists. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been obscured by centuries of black soot, smoke and greasy substances, as well as graffiti. Experts from the Courtauld Institute in London have now removed the black grime, uncovering paintings whose "exceptional" artistic quality and sheer beauty are said to be superior even to some of the better Roman paintings at Herculaneum that were inspired by Hellenistic art. Virtually no Hellenistic paintings survive today, and fragments only hint at antiquity's lost...

Petra, "the rose-red city half as old as time" in southern Jordan, is best known for its spectacular Nabataean rock-cut temples and the narrow entry through the gorge of the Siq, featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But the site has a much longer history, with an early neolithic village on the hill of Beidha near by, and it was a regional centre in the Roman and early Byzantine eras. During this latter period, a number of churches were built: one known as the Petra Church was probably built in the late 5th century and destroyed by fire...

French archeologists find Marcus Aurelius 'head' AMMAN, April 22 (AFP) - French archeologists have unearthed a perfectly preserved head of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in the ancient Nabatean city of Petra south of Jordan, the head of the mission told AFP Thursday. "A monumental white marble head, in excellent condition, belonging to a statue the emperor Marcus Aurelius was found in Petra by French archeologists," Christian Auge said. The head of the 2nd century AD Roman leader who was also known as the "good emperor" or the "philosopher-king" was found in the Qasr al-Bint area of Petra, a Nabatean...

The writing on the rocks The ancient Nabataeans are chiefly remembered for their breathtaking rock-carved capital of Petra in southern Jordan. Jane Taylor traces their fascinating story, from absurd theory to identification and decipherment of their inscriptions in Sinai In their heyday some 2000 years ago the Nabataeans were known throughout the Middle East and in parts of Europe -- in other words, wherever they travelled to trade. At Alexandria and Rhodes, at Puteoli near Naples and other places along the sea routes to Greece and Italy, Nabataean merchants established trading settlements and built temples in which to worship...

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius turned an ancient victim’s brain into glass, according to Italian anthropologists. The finding, dubbed as “sensational” and published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, marks the first time that scientists have verified such a phenomenon. […] The remains of a man found lying on a wooden bed were discovered in Herculaneum in the 1960s. He is believed to have been the custodian of the College of Augustales, a place of worship that was at the center of the cult of Roman Emperor Augustus. The glassy substance found inside of the victim’s skull...

Neanderthals went diving for shells to turn into tools, according to new research, suggesting our big-browed cousins made more use of the sea than previously thought. The study focuses on 171 shell tools that were found in a now inaccessible coastal cave in central Italy, known as the Grotta dei Moscerini, which was excavated in 1949. Dating of animal teeth found within layers alongside the shell tools suggest they are from about 90,000 to 100,000 years ago – a time when only Neanderthals are thought to have been present in western Europe....(snip) ...The team reported another surprise: the discovery of...

A glass jug found under the median of Interstate 64 in York County is believed to be a "witch bottle" left by Union soldiers during the Civil War, according to researchers.

ISRAEL—Archaeologists claim to have found King David's "Make Israel Great Again" hat. Scholars believe King David rose to power on a wave of populist sentiment after King Saul failed to deliver on his campaign promise of "Hope" and the disastrous implementation of his healthcare plan, "Saulcare." "King David gave big, rousing speeches to supporters, who all chanted 'Make Israel great again!' throughout his exciting rallies," said one researcher. "The masses had grown tired of King Saul's unfulfilled campaign promises, ballooning of the national debt, and unconstitutional drone war on the Philistines. They were looking for a normal politician who could...

Homo erectus, one of modern humans' direct ancestors, was a wandering bunch. After the species dispersed from Africa about two million years ago, it colonized the ancient world, which included Asia and possibly Europe. But about 400,000 years ago, Homo erectus essentially vanished. The lone exception was a spot called Ngandong, on the Indonesian island of Java. But scientists were unable to agree on a precise time period for the site...A new study...dates the last existence of Homo erectus at Ngandong between 108,000 and 117,000 years ago.

Conservation experts have been able to restore a stunning shield that is 2,200 years old. The artifact belonged to a Celtic warrior who was buried in a chariot burial in the north of England. The warrior shield has been hailed as one of the most important and remarkable ancient finds this millennium. ... The workers had come across an Iron Age warrior’s chariot burial. The remains of the warrior were found in the chariot and two skeletons of horses were also unearthed. Paula Ware, an archaeologist with MAP, stated that “these horses were placed with their hooves on the ground...

Tree-dwelling apes in Europe strode upright around 5 million years before members of the human evolutionary family hit the ground walking in Africa. That’s the implication of fossils from a previously unknown ape that lived in what’s now Germany about 11.6 million years ago, say paleontologist Madelaine Böhme of the University of Tübingen in Germany and her colleagues. But the relation, if any, of these finds to the evolution of a two-legged stride in hominids by perhaps 6 million years ago is hazy (SN: 9/11/04). Excavations in a section of a Bavarian clay pit produced 37 fossils from the ancient...

Ancient Viking ship discovered buried next to church using breakthrough georadar technology A Viking ship believed to be over 1,000 years old has been discovered buried next to a church in Norway. Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) announced they had found the ship, believed to have been used in a traditional ship burial, using “breakthrough” large-scale high-resolution georadar technology. The remains of the 17m vessel are buried just below the top-soil, at Edøy church on Edøya island in western Norway. Archaeologists have suggested parts of the structure may have been damaged by ploughing. The team...

Teens discover 1500-year-old church that redefines Israeli history The church was discovered near Israel’s Ramat Beit Shemesh neighbourhood. An excavation, largely completed by teens, unearthed the church which dated back to 543 AD during the time of Emperor Justinian. After three years of detailed digging, archaeologists came across mosaics, pillars, still-intact crypts, and frescoes that at one time came together to form a beautiful church. An inscription indicated the building was complete thanks to the financial support of the Emperor. Excavation director Benjamin Storchan, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, told CBN News: “Numerous written sources attest to imperial...

The discovery, said Dr. Scott Stripling, is consistent with what he expected to find in the fields of the ancient city where the tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant once stood. “When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar” (1 Kings 2:28). This passage in the Bible may have come to life just a few weeks ago for a team of 200 archaeologists and volunteers, who have been excavating in the field of ancient Shiloh. This...

A new reserve group, inspired by the Monuments Men of the World War II era, will aim to protect antiquities and important cultural sites in war zones. It’s no secret that the war-ravaged nations where American soldiers have been enmeshed in conflict for nearly two decades are home to many of civilization’s oldest and most prized antiquities and cultural treasures. But in the heat of battle in Afghanistan or Iraq, how are troops to know whether they are taking their positions behind mounds of insignificant rubble or inside the precious remains of a 3,000-year-old temple complex? The Pentagon’s answer, announced...

Deep-sea explorers scouring the world's oceans for sunken World War II ships are investigating what they believe could be the third ship of seven lost to the Pacific during the Battle of Midway. Hundreds of miles off Midway Atoll, nearly halfway between the United States and Japan, a research vessel is launching underwater robots miles into the abyss to look for warships from the famed Battle of Midway. Weeks of grid searches around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have already led the crew of the Petrel to one sunken warship, the Japanese ship the Kaga. This week, the crew is deploying...