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For a team of archaeologists digging in southwest Spain, the discovery of a Bronze/Iron Age stela—a funerary stone slab with carvings depicting an important individual—would have been exciting enough...The excavation, taking place in the 3000-year-old funerary complex of Las Capellanías, in Cañaveral de León, Spain, uncovered a stela depicting a human figure with detailed face, hands and feet, a headdress, necklace, two swords and male genitals.Prior to this discovery, archaeologists had interpreted features such as a headdress and necklace on a stela as representing a female form, while the inclusion of weaponry such as swords would be interpreted as male...

An illuminating exhibition of thirteen ancient Babylonian tablets, along with supplemental documentary material, opens at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) on November 12, 2010. Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics reveals the highly sophisticated mathematical practice and education that flourished in Babylonia -- present-day Iraq -- more than 1,000 years before the time of the Greek sages Thales and Pythagoras, with whom mathematics is traditionally said to have begun. The tablets in the exhibition, at once beautiful and enlightening, date from the Old Babylonian Period (ca. 1900-1700 BCE). They have been...

A recent study has found a 50% decline in the use of semicolons over the last two decades. The decline accelerates a longterm trend: “In 1781, British literature featured a semicolon roughly every 90 words; by 2000, it had fallen to one every 205 words. Today, there’s just one semicolon for every 390 words.” Further research reported that 67% of British students never or rarely use a semicolon; more than 50% did not know how to use it. Just 11% of respondents described themselves as frequent users. These findings may not be definitive. According to the Guardian, the Google Books...

There are around 400 caves in France and Spain that contain painted art made between 40,000 and 12,000 years ago. Many of these bear hand prints or paintings created by children between the ages of two and 12. Experts have long wondered why such young children were taken into some of the deepest and darkest caves in Europe on treks that would have been quite treacherous. A new study suggests that children may have played a special role as mediators between the physical and spiritual worlds, according to a statement released by Tel Aviv University. The prevailing hypothesis has been...

On the Presence of Non-Chinese at Anyang by Kim Hayes It has now become clear that finds of chariot remains, metal knives and axes of northern provenance, and bronze mirrors of western provenance in the tombs of Anyang indicate that the Shang had at least indirect contact with people who were familiar with these things. Who were these people? Where did they live? When did they arrive? Following the discovery of the Tarim Mummies, we now know that the population of the earliest attested cultures of what is present-day Xinjiang were of northwestern or western derivation. According to the craniometric...

For centuries, Bactria - a region shared by modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan - was part of the Hellenistic world. Conquered by Alexander the Great, Bactria became the heart of a powerful Greek kingdom. And even after the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was overrun by nomads, its cities continued to thrive. This video explores their fates.The Lost Greek Cities of Central Asia | September 3, 2021 | toldinstone

Archaeologists discover largest Kushan City Sites By By our correspondent 11/16/2007 PESHAWAR: A team of archaeologists led by Vice Chancellor of the Hazara University Prof Dr Ihsan Ali has discovered the remains of one of the largest Kushan city sites in Chittar Kot, Mansehra, the NWFP. The site Chittar Kot is located on a high spur overlooking the Biran River, offering one of the most spectacular views of the river and the surrounding area, a press release stated. The site is located at 34" 22.356' N and 73" 08.214' E at an elevation of 945 meters from mean sea level...

Mystery tribe comes to light in Shaanxi 03-25-2008 10:46 There is something amazing, standing at a museum observing exhibits hundreds and even thousands of years old. But how does one top the mystery of a lost civilization? Archaeologists believe they may have discovered evidence of a lost tribe, never before known in Chinese history. Archaeologists believe they may have discovered evidence of a lost tribe, never before known in Chinese history. The findings come from an excavation in northwest China's Shaanxi province. The site of what's believed to have been a major settlement is in Qishan county, Baoji city. There...

Underground ancient city found in Afghanistan Updated on 7/19/2002 12:02:39 PM Kabul (PPI): An underground ancient city, dating back to about 1,700 years ago, has recently been found in Lowgar Province in east of Afghanistan. The city belongs to the age of Kushan empire. Covering an area of 30 square kilometers, it is buried under a great heap of earth and stones. Lots of ruins of buildings can be found in the city which is located in the mountain areas of the province. The towers, walls and irrigation system of the city show its grandeur in the ancient time, said...

Ancient Buddhist sculptures have been found in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during an excavation work, a media report said Saturday. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa archaeology and museum director Abdul Samad said the sculptures and heads, dating back to second to fifth century BC, had been discovered during excavation at Bhamala Buddhist Complex in Haripur district, Dawn online reported. He said during excavation, precious coins of Kushana period were also found around the stupa. The official said the Bhamala archaeological site had been declared national and world heritage site located near Khanpur dam, located on the Haro river. "The ruins are situated near...

THE mound lies just beyond the oasis town of Sheberghan in northern Afghanistan, on the plain that slips south to the Hindu Kush and north to the banks of the Amu Darya, or Oxus. This was once Bactria, where the Hellenic world briefly touched and intertwined with the worlds of the Indus and the Siberian steppe. Greeks prospered here for a century or so after the death of Alexander the Great, in 323BC, and then were driven off. The mound is anonymous now, barely noticeable from the road. It stands three metres (ten feet) high, 100 metres in diameter, lopped...

Under the rule of the Kushans, northwest India and adjoining regions participated both in seagoing trade and in commerce along the Silk Road to China. The name Kushan derives from the Chinese term Guishang, used in historical writings to describe one branch of the Yuezhi—a loose confederation of Indo-European people who had been living in northwestern China until they were driven west by another group, the Xiongnu, in 176–160 B.C. The Yuezhi reached Bactria (northwest Afghanistan and Tajikistan) around 135 B.C. Kujula Kadphises united the disparate tribes in the first century B.C. Gradually wresting control of the area from the...

~~~snip~~~ hey did a DNA test on the Cherchen man (the 3800 year old 6'6 tall dark blonde mummy and the oldest mummy found), and the beauty of Loulan (the red hair mummy), and both of these mummies contained East Asian Mongoloid DNA. Even the Chinese scientist were astonished. The Mongoloid component of the Tocharians are not from Han Chinese or pre Han Chinese, but most likely from Altaic types of Mongoloids such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Mongolians. This obviously indicates that the Tocharians were already mixed for quite a few generations, since they looked mostly Caucasian. Very interesting....

Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago at campsites in the high plains of Kazakhstan show that nomadic sheepherders played a surprisingly important role in the early spread of domesticated crops throughout a mountainous east-west corridor along the historic Silk Road... "Ancient wheat and broomcorn millet, recovered in nomadic campsites in Kazakhstan, show that prehistoric herders in Central Eurasia had incorporated both regional crops into their economy and rituals nearly 5,000 years ago, pushing back the chronology of interaction along the territory of the 'Silk Road' more than 2,000 years," Frachetti said... ...several strains of...

2,700 years ago, Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. Researchers from the University of Heildelberg have made a spectacular discovery in the palace of King Assurbanipal. During excavations, they came across the first large-format depictions of two important Assyrian deities. German archaeologists have made a spectacular discovery in Iraq. During excavations in the ancient metropolis of Nineveh, a team from Heidelberg University came across large parts of a monumental relief. It shows King Assurbanipal (668 to 627 BC), the last ruler of the Assyrian Empire, accompanied by two important deities and other figures. The relief was found in...

The Greek alphabet might be centuries older than once thought, according to a statement released by the University of Leiden. Scholars theorize that the script emerged around the eighth century b.c., after the ancient Greeks adapted the older Phoenician alphabet -- which was composed of only consonants and no vowels -- to fit their own needs. This period in Greek history was the purported time of the poet Homer, who composed the Iliad and the Odyssey. However, University of Leiden classicist Willemijn Waal has recently suggested the Greek written language appears on pottery earlier than that, and likely dates back...

British authorities recently revealed a one-of-a-kind Iron Age coin hoard, according to a statement released by Chelmsford City Life. Known as the Great Baddow Hoard, it was discovered by metal detectorists in Great Baddow, Essex, in 2020, and is soon set to go on display for the first time at the Museum of Chelmsford. The treasure contains 933 gold coins dating to between 60 and 20 b.c., making it the largest Iron Age gold coin hoard ever found in Britain. The coins date to a time when British tribes were striking their own currency using regional dies instead of importing...

A manuscript once considered an unofficial copy of the Magna Carta is now believed to be a genuine version and ''one of the world's most valuable documents'', according to UK academics. Harvard Law School paid $27.50 (then about £7) for it in 1946 and for years it has remained tucked away in its library, its true identity unknown. But two medieval history professors have concluded it is an extraordinarily rare and lost original Magna Carta from 1300, in the reign of King Edward I, that could be worth millions. ''This is a fantastic discovery," said Prof David Carpenter from King's...

An ordinary spring day quickly became extraordinary after a nature-loving metal detectorist unearthed a cache of ancient treasure. Marius Mangeac confirmed the discovery to Fox News Digital. He said he found the hoard in a field near Letca Veche, a small village in southern Romania.. Mangeac said that he found the coins “on a beautiful Saturday that didn’t foreshadow anything of what was to come.” “I took my detector and went out alone, as I often do, for exercise and to relax in the fields and forests,”.. “I didn’t think this day would surprise me and bring me face to...

Before the Black Death of 1348 the language of power in England was Anglo-Norman French. The plague changed everything. 00:00 A catastrophic plague 00:57 The eve of destruction 08:16 The end of the world 10:59 The aftermath 16:18 Turning back the clocks 20:53 Revolution in the air 24:11 English is back How the Black Death Saved the English Language | 27:24 LetThemTalkTV | 611K subscribers | 10,809 views | May 8, 2025