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Examples of podomorphs interacting with the microtopography of the rock. Credit: Oxford Journal of Archaeology (2026). DOI: 10.1111/ojoa.7002 Etched into the ancient rocky outcrops of southern Scandinavia and large boulders left behind by retreating glaciers are footprints, also called podomorphic petroglyphs. Some are barefoot with every toe visible, while others carry the imprint of strapped sandals. A recent study argues that these human footprints created during the Scandinavian Bronze Age, roughly 3,700 to 2,500 years ago, were not mere art or decorative symbols because the petroglyphs weren't placed at random. They were deliberately arranged around water sources and shallow depressions...

The Viking Herald reports that two rare English "Lamb of God" coins were recently unearthed in Jutland. During the eleventh century, English monarchs undertook various initiatives to try to ward off seemingly unending Viking attacks. Around 1009, King Æthelred the Unready even minted unusual coins in the hope of obtaining divine protection. The objects feature a lamb and a cross on one side -- a Christian motif alluding to Christ's sacrifice -- and a dove on the other, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Not only did these coins fail in their objective, they became somewhat coveted by Viking raiders,...

When the experienced rock carving hunter Tormod Fjeld was driving his daughter Ada to a nearby location, the two of them decided to take a closer look beneath Kolsåstoppen, a hill in Bærum, Eastern Norway.That was when they found something remarkable: magnificent ships carved into the rock.Perhaps these carvings show people in Norway 3,000 years ago -- sitting in their ship, maybe even wearing helmets.They also spotted a large footprint of the sole of a foot, as well as a hand with five thick fingers.And then more ships appeared -- some carved upright, others upside down.

A remote desert in Peru has revealed new secrets after an AI-assisted investigation uncovered hidden geoglyphs and traces of an ancient civilization buried in plain sight for centuries. © After Decades of Failed Research, Artificial Intelligence Just Discovered 303 Hidden Geoglyphs in Peru in Just Six Months. Credit: Shutterstock ============================================================= Artificial intelligence has helped archaeologists uncover 303 previously unknown Nazca geoglyphs in southern Peru. The discovery nearly doubles the number of known relief-style figures scattered across the desert and gives researchers fresh clues about how the ancient Nazca people used the landscape around them. The breakthrough came from a joint...

Robert Fooks swung a pickaxe into his kitchen floor to steal a few more inches of ceiling height. Instead, he cracked open a glazed pottery bowl that had been sitting in the earth beneath his 400-year-old Dorset cottage since the English Civil War. Inside sat roughly 1,000 gold and silver coins, untouched since someone buried them in the mid-1640s.The story surfaced after the coins sold at auction in 2024. The hoard lay hidden beneath the kitchen floor at South Poorton Farm until Robert and Betty Fooks decided to lower the ground level during a renovation...The couple bought the property in...

In the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, archaeologists recently discovered a 1,600-year-old tomb with several mummies inside. Some of them were decorated with gold leaf or geometric patterns—features commonly found in burials of this kind.But one of the mummies was unearthed alongside a particularly unusual artifact: a papyrus fragment from Homer's Iliad, the epic poem set during the Trojan War. The ancient Greek text had been tucked beneath the wrappings on the mummy's abdomen during the embalming process."The fact that in this case the text, in Greek, refers to a literary text is truly novel," say Maite Mascort and Esther...

The Times of India reports that researchers led by epigrapher K. Muniratnam Reddy from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have decoded a Sanskrit inscription written in Brahmi characters on a seal discovered in what is now Pakistan. The translation reads, "Devadaruvane Svami Kotesvarah," indicating that the fifth-century a.d. seal belonged to a temple dedicated to Shiva, a principal Hindu deity. Reddy and his colleagues explained that the inscription refers to a pivotal story about Shiva set in the Devandaru forest that is recorded in a sacred text called the Skanda Purana. The seal is thought to be the oldest...

A single leaked hint exposed the CIA’s most puzzling code. But dozens of the world’s toughest ciphers are still waiting to be solved. Here’s what you’ll learn in this story: Last month, two journalists decoded part of the famous Kryptos sculpture in front of the CIA building. It’s the latest news in the cryptography world, as ciphers continue to attract code crackers in the CIA—and beyond. The Beale Cipher has attracted perhaps the most decryption enthusiasts of all time. Tens of thousands of people have tried to solve it, to get to the supposed location of a massive treasure. ========================================================================...

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...

Between the 10th and 13th centuries, the monks at the Great Lavra Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, sporadically broke down a 6th century manuscript and reused its pages as binding material and flyleaves for other texts. In time, Codex H effectively disappeared. These new volumes were spread across Europe and it was only through the enterprise of a sharp-eyed 18th century French monk that researchers today have been able to locate the lost folios among libraries in Italy, Greece, Russia, Ukraine, and France. All the same, while the general content of Codex H, which contains a copy of the Letters...

In the ancient Mitanni Kingdom, an Indo-Aryan language very closely related to Sanskrit was used by the ruling class -- but only for very special occasions... Jack of All Languages explores the surprising linguistic links between ancient Indo-Aryan terms found in Syrian horse training manuals and early Sanskrit. By analyzing archaeological tablets and royal treaties, this investigation sheds light on how a prestige language influenced elite cultures in the Middle East centuries before the oldest known Vedic texts were composed. The Indo-Aryans of the Middle East | 13:16 Jack of All Languages | 7.33K subscribers | 2,142 views | April...

According to a Mexico News Daily report, 16 paintings and petroglyphs have been discovered on cliffs near the Tula River and the La Requena Dam, at central Mexico's El Venado site, which is named for the depictions of deer on rock faces there. Archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History investigated the area prior to construction of a passenger train route. The oldest of the newly found artworks has been dated to 4,000 years ago, while the later images were made between about A.D. 900 and the arrival of the Spanish in the early sixteenth century. The rock...

Archaeologists working on a Flanders construction site carefully excavate the remains of British soldiers lost in the battlefield mud during World War I. By analyzing personal items like regimental badges, coins, and equipment found near the site, the team searches for clues that might provide a name to those who vanished in combat. During the past 25 years, only one body of an unknown British Soldier has been identified. These diggers have an important and delicate task to complete, identifying these WW1 soldiers. This clip is from Meet the Ancestors (2002). Fragile Traces of the Fallen WW1 Soldiers | 5:48...

Minor Prophets Scroll from the Cave of Horrors | 13:40Daily Dose of Septuagint | 3.49K subscribers | 862 views | April 18, 2026

Much of William Shakespeare's life is shrouded in mystery – but a key riddle has just been solved, thanks to a newly discovered floorplan. A historical document found in the London Archives reveals the precise location of The Bard's only property in the capital. It can now be pinpointed to 5 St Andrew's Hill – a quiet Blackfriars street close to his workplace at the nearby theatre and within stumbling distance of a pub.

Before Michelangelo, before Leonardo, there was Giotto. Step back into the 14th century to discover the life and legacy of Giotto di Bondone, the man hailed by history as the "Father of European Painting." In this documentary, we explore how a humble shepherd boy from Vespignano shattered the flat, symbolic traditions of Byzantine art to breathe real human emotion, three-dimensional space, and dramatic narrative into the world of the living. Using our analysis model, we decode Giotto's revolutionary "Divine Spark"—from his legendary discovery by Cimabue to the breathtaking frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel that serve as the "visual vernacular" of...

The papyrus, which contains 133 lines of preserved text, is the longest Greek papyrus ever uncovered in the Judean Desert, although for decades it had been misclassified as a Nabatean text and practically lost in the archives of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)...Upon translation, the team that Cotton Paltiel put together realized the papyrus preserves an incredible snapshot into the Roman legal system and life between two Jewish revolts against the Romans: the Diaspora Revolt (c. 115–117 CE) and the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (c. 132–136 CE). The papyrus, which pertains to a legal case brought before a Roman court, contains the...

According to a statement released by the University of Liège, a 2,000-year-old fragment of papyrus recovered from the archives of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo preserves 30 previously unknown verses written by Empedocles of Agrigentum, a Greek philosopher who lived in the fifth century B.C. The work of Empedocles had been known only through quotes recorded by later authors, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch. Papyrologist Nathan Carlig of the University of Liège realized that the papyrus fragment, labeled P. Fouad inv. 218, was an unknown fragment of Physica, a poem written by Empedocles. These verses concern...

Top Secret Location this time, as I get a unique opportunity to inspect an ultra rare Medieval Wayside Cross, next to a lost Roman road, deep on a private estate with no public access. Believed to have been erected in the 13th or 14th centuries to provide reassurance for Christians travelling the ancient Roman road, this remarkable survivor has never been seen on video before and it speaks of the afterlife of the Roman road, before it disappeared from view. Along the way we get to see a well-defined surviving section of the road in the form of a causeway...

Spanish police recovered a 17th-century velvet guild manuscript that had been missing for a century after spotting it for sale online. The artefact will remain the property of its current owner, but it will now be conserved. The manuscript is a copy of ordinances signed in 1479 by Ferdinand the Catholic that elevated velvet-making from a trade to an art, granting the velvet-makers privileges and social recognition. Agents from the Heritage Group of the National Police Unit assigned to the Valencian Community found the document during routine monitoring of online sales of cultural goods, police said in a statement. The...