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In a fascinating twist of ancient chemistry, copper-smelting artisans may have stumbled upon a technique that would eventually lead to the intentional extraction of iron from ore, a discovery that was both accidental and revolutionary.A fresh analysis of slag, ores, and furnace residues from the 3,000-year-old site of Kvemo Bolnisi, Georgia, is rewriting the story of how humankind first learned to make iron.A team of researchers from Cranfield University in England, reexamining old finds from Kvemo Bolnisi using modern techniques, suggests that what had once been labeled an early iron-smelting site was actually a copper workshop that utilized iron oxides...

Author Gavin Menzies Is Determined to Prove That Minoans Discovered the New World 4,000 Years Ago It takes a brave soul to rewrite history by sailing against current thought. More than 500 years after Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, another seaman is doing just that, entering previously uncharted academic waters with claims that other "Europeans" -- the Minoans -- got there first, thousands of years earlier. Gavin Menzies, 72 years old, is drawing on his experience as a former British Royal Navy submarine commander to prove in a book he is writing that the Minoans were such supreme seafarers that they...

More than 40 years ago, a Turkish sponge diver named Mehmet Çakir caused a stir among Anatolian archaeologists when he showed them sketches of objects that he had seen lying 150 feet deep on the seafloor off the coast of Kas, in southwestern Turkey. He described them as "metal biscuits with ears," but experts immediately recognized them as a type of metal bar known as an oxhide ingot that was commonly traded during the Bronze Age, 3,500 years ago.Authorities immediately began to search for the site, and soon came across the artifacts that Çakir had spotted not far offshore of...

KNews reports that a team of researchers led by Giorgos Vavouranakis of the University of Athens has completed an excavation at Erimi Pamboula, an archaeological site in southern Cyprus occupied between 3500 and 2900 B.C. The recent investigation uncovered the floor of a house with a pit and a platform, the wall of a circular structure, and a pit containing burned deer bones and antler fragments. Stone tools, unfinished jewelry pieces and a figurine made of the green or grey stone picrolite, and decorated pottery dated to the early third millennium B.C. were also recovered. To read about prosperous Bronze...

According to a Live Science report, an archaeological investigation conducted ahead of a road construction project in northern Israel, near the ancient city of Tel Meggido, has unearthed a teapot-shaped vessel with a ram's head as a spout and a few small bowls. The items were buried together some 3,300 years ago, possibly by the Canaanites. Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said that the vessel was likely used to pour a valuable liquid such as milk, oil, or wine into someone's mouth or a smaller vessel to be consumed, or poured out as a religious offering. Storage jars,...

The tholos tombs around the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae are among the most spectacular sights in Greece. The Spectacular Tombs of Mycenae | 7:15 Scenic Routes to the Past | 47.7K subscribers | 2,222 views | November 21, 2025 0:00 Introduction 1:10 Grave Circle A 2:30 Grave Circle B 3:24 Tomb of Clytemnestra 4:20 Tomb of Aegisthus 4:49 Treasury of Atreus

In A Nutshell Around 3,500 BCE in central Jordan, people built over 95 stone burial monuments (dolmens) and standing stone structures on hilltops, creating a ceremonial gathering place that remained active for roughly 200 years. These monuments appeared during a crisis period when the Chalcolithic way of life was ending: large settlements had been abandoned, trade networks collapsed, and climate data shows a severe drought around 3,400 BCE. Unlike typical residential sites, Murayghat had no hearths or permanent housing—instead, excavations found massive 27-liter pottery bowls (suggesting communal feasts), ritual grinding stones stained with red ochre, and animal horn cores. Researchers...

Abstract: The Scythians were a multitude of horse-warrior nomad cultures dwelling in the Eurasian steppe during the first millennium BCE. Because of the lack of first-hand written records, little is known about the origins and relations among the different cultures. To address these questions, we produced genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals retrieved from 39 archaeological sites from the first millennia BCE and CE across the Central Asian Steppe. We uncovered major admixture events in the Late Bronze Age forming the genetic substratum for two main Iron Age gene-pools emerging around the Altai and the Urals respectively. Their demise was...

Archaeologists have uncovered a rare Bronze Age sickle in France at the Suret site in Val-de-Reuil, in the lower Seine valley. Dating to the Atlantic Late Bronze Age between 1200 and 600 B.C., the artifact is one of only a handful of such finds recorded in the country.The sickle is made of copper alloy and remains largely intact, although its tip has broken off. The missing piece was recovered alongside the main artifact. The chipped edges on the curved blade suggest that it was used extensively.The socket features a side ring and two holes that were once used to secure...

Zartonk Media reports that an international team of researchers conducted a comprehensive study of Armenia's "dragon stones" that has finally cracked the mystery surrounding these enigmatic ancient stone steles. Known as vishaps after the Armenia word for dragon, the monoliths can stand 18 feet high. They were typically decorated with animal imagery often depicting fish, and were erected in high altitude summer pastures. Archaeologists have been unsure exactly when or why they were created. Led by Vahe Gurzadyan and Arsen Bobokhyan of Yerevan State University, the team analyzed 115 known vishaps and determined they were often located near springs, streams,...

According to a statement released by The University of South Florida (USF), a new study has upended previous assumptions about when horses first arrived on the island of Sicily. Until recently, archaeologists had thought that the animals were not present there until the early first millennium b.c. New research led by USF archaeological scientist Davide Tanasi indicates that not only did horses live there at least 1,000 years earlier, they were also an integral part of Early Bronze Age Sicilian ceremonies. The evidence comes from a site near Polizzello Mountain where Tanasi and his colleagues recovered a large assemblage of...

Three centuries after horse-drawn chariots were introduced to Scandinavia, a Bronze Age artisan crafted the Sun Chariot, a stunningly detailed object that may represent an ancient mythological scene or even a rare calendar.The Sun Chariot was discovered in 1902 by a peat farmer who was working on the Trundholm moor in Denmark, about 42 miles (67 kilometers) northwest of Copenhagen. It was found in numerous pieces and has since been reconstructed by experts at the National Museum of Denmark, where it is on display.Taken as a whole, the bronze object is about 21 inches (54 centimeters) long and 14 inches...

A rare example of a ritual Bronze Age monument has been discovered on Oileán Acla in Co Mayo.The stone alignment had been hidden by ancient trees which were flattened by Storm Éowyn earlier this year.The discovery was made during an archaeological field trip with US students from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.It is part of their semester at the University of Galway and Kylemore Abbey."The site in question is a stunning Bronze Age stone alignment in Cloghmore townland, overlooking Achill Sound opposite the mountains of the Corraun Peninsula. The site consists of two upright standing stones with a...

Someone's lunch was full of whole grains.Up in the high passes of the Bernese Alps, a team of researchers found a box. It was about 8 inches in diameter and made of pine, willow, and larch. It was 4,000 years old.Now, the scientists report in a new paper, published in Scientific Reports, they have discovered traces of what was once held in the box -- someone's lunch (or dinner or breakfast).The team thought that the box might have held porridge and looked for traces of milk. But they found nothing. Instead, using a newly developed technique, they were able to...

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced that archaeologists uncovered rare 4,000-year-old wicks that are among the oldest known examples that have been found anywhere in the world. The discovery came as a team was excavating a set of Bronze Age tombs at the site of Newe Efraim near Yehud. Among the burial offerings, which also included pottery, jewelry, and metal weapons, were three clay oil lamps that still contained wicks inside. These objects rarely survive, not only because they were made from natural material that decays easily, but because by design they are intended to be lit and burnt, eventually...

...Excavations at the site of Vounous-Bellapais in the 1930s revealed dozens of tombs from a large prehistoric cemetery. Although many of the tombs had previously been looted, archaeologists recovered a large number of intricately decorated ceramics, including the Vounous Bowl, which had broken into many pieces over the ages.The Vounous Bowl, which is now in the Cyprus Museum, is shallow with a flat base measuring 14.6 inches (37 centimeters) in diameter and 3.1 inches (8 cm) tall, Louise Steel, an archaeologist at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, wrote in a 2013 study.One side of the bowl has a...

The Herald Scotland reports that prior to the construction of a new housing development in Guardbridge, Fife, archaeological excavations uncovered traces of some 10,000 years of local history. The historic village takes its name from a sixteenth-century bridge that led pilgrims across the River Eden to St. Andrews, but a team from GUARD Archaeology recently unearthed evidence that the site was a hotspot of human occupation far earlier than that. During the Upper Paleolithic period, some of Scotland's first inhabitants made flint tools at the site. Later, early Neolithic farmers left many pits across the area, which contained burnt cereal...

Ever wondered why this Church (knowlton) was plonked into a Henge? Whilst you might think the answer is obvious, what was found 2 miles away could reveal all! Knowlton Church... Explained by a discovery 2 miles away! | 9:45 Paul Whitewick | 197K subscribers | 132,486 views | July 20, 2025

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,...