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Join us as we tackle one of archaeology's most persistent puzzles: the origins of the Elamites, the Bronze-Age powerhouses of southwestern Iran. Where Did the Elamites Come From? Ancient DNA & the Dravidian Mystery | 11:28 World of Antiquity | 293K subscribers | 78,800 views | June 22, 2025

In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have found chemical traces of betel nut chewing in 4,000-year-old teeth from a Bronze Age burial in Thailand -- the earliest direct evidence of psychoactive plant use in Southeast Asia.By analyzing hardened dental plaque, researchers uncovered compounds linked to betel nut, a stimulant that boosts alertness and euphoria...One common side effect of regular chewing is teeth stained a deep reddish-brown or black.However, the absence of these stains does not necessarily mean the habit was avoided. A recent investigation by an international team used a cutting-edge technique to study ancient dental plaque from Bronze Age Thailand,...

Children are always picking stuff up off the ground -- dirt, bugs, rocks, anything shiny. And usually, it's just junk. However, 3-year-old Ziv Nitzan made the discovery of her young life when, on a walk with her family, she picked up a small stone that wound up being a scarab amulet more than one thousand times her age."We were walking along the path, and then Ziv bent down and out of all the stones around her, she picked up this particular stone," Omer Nitzan, Ziv's sister, said in a translated statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority...The family brought in the...

In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, Israeli researchers have unearthed a 5,500-year-old flint blade workshop near Kiryat Gat, southern Israel—the first of its kind ever found in the region. Announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the Early Bronze Age site sheds new light on the technological ingenuity and social complexity of ancient Canaanite civilization.The excavation, carried out at the Naḥal Qomem site—also referred to as Gat-Govrin or Zeita—revealed a full-scale production center where highly skilled craftsmen manufactured long, razor-sharp flint blades. This prehistoric workshop marks a major milestone in understanding the early development of urban society and professional specialization in...

New research in northwest Saudi Arabia has identified the existence of a network of previously unknown fortified enclosures, La Brújula Verde reports. Known as Walled Oasis Complexes, these settlements consisted of large defensive walls encircling desert oases that helped shelter and protect crops, water sources, and herds of goats and sheep. Relying on satellite imagery and ground reconnaissance, the study located four previously unknown complexes at Dumat al-Jandal, Hait, Huwayyit, and Khaybar dating back thousands of years. The discovery changes the perception of Arabia as a desert dominated by Bedouins and demonstrates that there were complex sedentary societies as many...

Aze.Media reports that a team of researchers from several Azerbaijani institutions unearthed a remarkable [3,800]-year-old tomb belonging to a high-status Bronze Age warrior. The archaeologists were investigating an area of Keshikchidagh State Historical and Cultural Reserve when they located the kurgan, or burial mound, which measured 90 feet in diameter and stood 6 feet high. When the archaeologists began excavating this feature, they revealed a large central interior chamber that was covered with 14 large stone blocks, each weighing approximately one ton. The tomb within this passage was divided into three sections: one containing the body and personal equipment, another...

Archaeologists from the Brno City Museum have made a rare and precious discovery in South Moravia: a 3,200-year-old fragment of bronze armor dating back to the Late Bronze Age. The find, excavated at a confidential location in 2023, includes not only a fragment of a warrior's breastplate but also a spearhead, a sickle, a bronze pin, and copper fragments -- all of which had been buried together in what researchers believe was a ritual deposit.The fragment originally appeared to be a folded piece of metal, but under closer examination, it was revealed to be a fragment of body armor. "Thanks...

For thousands of years, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were the oldest epic stories that Europeans know of. But is it possible that Homer was, in turn, influenced by the stories of other civilizations to the east of Greece? We are joined by Mary Bachvarova, an expert on both the ancient Greek and Hittite traditions, to explore this fascinating question. This is episode 42 of the "Ancient Greece Declassified" podcast. A Hittite Version of the Trojan War?! | 1:03:07 Lantern Jack | 10.2K subscribers | 329,200 views | November 28, 2021

Our study explored the evolutionary trajectory of grapevine cultivation in Italy through the analysis of archaeological grape pips spanning approximately 7,000 years...During the Early Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods, the absence of morphologically domestic grapes suggests a reliance on wild grape gathering, possibly with some experiment of proto-cultivation of wild grape.Despite previous research showing the presence of domestic grapes in Middle Bronze Age sites such as Pertosa Cave in southern Italy and Sa Osa in Sardinia, our study of grape pips from several other sites do not reveal robust evidence for domestic grapes in Middle Bronze Age sites in...

This week we pop across to the Mendips and explore the heart of Somerset with a rather unsettling Mystery. Deep in mining country a discovery was made, 20m below the surface, to this day we have yet to fully explain what happened here. The Most Unsettling MYSTERY, No one can Explain... | 14:25 Paul Whitewick | 191K subscribers | 12,833 views | July 13, 2025

Over the past several years, excavations beneath Cardiff's Trelai Park, a popular spot for sports and recreation, have unveiled thousands of years of local history. The site is close to the Iron Age Caerau hillfort as well as an extensive Roman-era villa. Last year, archaeological work in the park uncovered traces of a Bronze Age roundhouse dating back to 1500 b.c., believed to be the oldest recorded dwelling in Cardiff. BBC News reports that archaeologists from Caerau and Ely Rediscovering Heritage Project (CAER) recently discovered another Bronze Age structure, a timber circle, and burial ground containing pits with cremated human...

In Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus hails from the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea. Greek City Times reports that archaeological work conducted by a team from the University of Ioannina has uncovered further evidence of the Trojan War warrior's association with the island. The recent excavations occurred near the village of Exogi at the site of Agios Athanasios, often referred to as the "School of Homer." Archaeologists uncovered significant evidence of a major Mycenaean Age settlement there dating to the fourteenth or thirteenth century b.c., the supposed era in which the...

The Dubrovnik Times reports that an archaeological team from the Dubrovnik Museums recently uncovered 4,000 years of human occupation in the Crno Jezero ("Black Lake") Cave. The 780-foot-long cavern snakes its way 300 feet underground near the village of Ponikve on the Pelješac peninsula. The excavations highlighted the different ways that local peoples used the cave from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. During the second millennium b.c., the cave was mostly used for temporary or seasonal housing, especially during periods of conflict or inclement weather. From the ninth to the sixth century b.c., the space was transformed into...

German researchers have reconstructed the ancient manufacturing process of the Nebra Sky Disc, one of Europe's best-known archaeological finds, and discovered the impressive metallurgical skills of Early Bronze Age craftsmen.Discovered in 1999 on Mittelberg Hill near Nebra, Germany, the Nebra Sky Disc is a 30-centimeter-diameter bronze artifact. The disc holds gold inlays that represent celestial elements: the full moon or sun, crescent moon, and stars. The disc dates to between 1800 and 1600 BCE and is associated with the Únětice culture. It is, in general, regarded as the oldest representation of the cosmos in the world.Researchers at Otto von Guericke...

According to an announcement released by Hungary's Eötvös Loránd University, new research in the Carpathian Basin has pinpointed a major transformational period in the history of Central Europe. The study focused on eastern Hungary's Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom cemetery, which was used by two different cultures during two different time periods: the Füzesabony culture in the Middle Bronze Age and the Tumulus culture in the Late Bronze Age. Analysis of skeletal remains from the site indicates that there were major lifestyle changes in the region around 1500 b.c. One of the most dramatic changes was seen in dietary habits. During the Middle Bronze...

A recent study published last year in the journal Cell has identified the ancient origins of a genetic mutation that confers resistance to HIV, and how it first appeared in an individual who lived near the Black Sea between 6,700 and 9,000 years ago. Named CCR5 delta 32, the uncommon genetic variant disables a key immune protein used by a large majority of strains of the HIV virus to enter human cells and therefore "locks out" the virus in individuals who carry two copies of the mutation.HIV is a relatively new disease. It was only identified in the last century,...

Among the most surprising finds is that the inhabitants of the earliest cities of the Bronze Age (3500–1200 b.c.) were enthusiastic pig eaters, and that even later Iron Age (1200–586 b.c.) residents of Jerusalem enjoyed the occasional pork feast. Yet despite a wealth of data and new techniques including ancient DNA analysis, archaeologists still wrestle with many porcine mysteries, including why the once plentiful animal gradually became scarce long before religious taboos were enacted...In the 1990s, at the site of Hallan Çemi in southeastern Anatolia, archaeologists unearthed 51,000 animal bones dating to about 10,000 b.c. Of these, boar bones made...

A piece of bread baked millennia ago was recently unearthed in Turkey — and now a local bakery is recreating it. Scientists recently uncovered an ancient bread recipe in Turkey, and a local bakery has successfully brought it back to life. The bread, dating back roughly 5,000 years, was discovered as a piece of charred loaf buried beneath the threshold of a house in Eskisehir, a city in central Turkey. Archaeologists found this remarkable artifact in September 2024 during an excavation at Kulluoba Hoyuk, a Bronze Age settlement that has been studied for decades. An Ancient Discovery Preserved Through Millennia...

Bronze Age potters working in the city of Hama in current-day Syria appear to have sold more than just cups, bowels, and dishes 4,500 years ago -- they apparently also sold children's toys. Past excavations at the site have uncovered 19 small clay artifacts that contained bits of clay or small pebbles that produce a sound when shaken. Originally, they were thought to have been musical instruments. However, according to a statement released by the National Museum of Denmark, these objects have now been reinterpreted as baby rattles. Researchers determined that the sound that the artifacts produced was much too...

The emergence of bronze and the onset of the Mediterranean Bronze Age is one of the most pivotal events in history, as it coincided with the rise of new advanced civilizations. Yet to make bronze, which is an amalgam of both tin and copper, one needed tin, which was not readily available in the region. Experts have long argued about who exactly supplied all the tin. According to a statement released by Durham University, it was the remote tin mines of southwest Britain that were instrumental in satisfying the Mediterranean demand for bronze 3,300 years ago. New research led by...