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According to a Phys.org report, a team of researchers led by Sophia Adams of the British Museum and Jamie Armstrong of Durham University have examined more than 950 objects recovered from two separate hoards discovered by a metal detectorist near the site of a known Iron Age power center in northern England. The artifacts have been dated to between the late first century B.C. and the early first century A.D., and appear to represent about 300 whole objects that had been deliberately dismantled, damaged, and placed in ditches. The researchers suggest that most of the artifacts were parts of at...

Archaeologists have analyzed a mass grave in southeastern Europe that held the remains of women and children who were violently murdered 2,800 years ago...The grave was unearthed at the archaeological site of Gomolava, located near the modern town of Hrtkovci in northern Serbia. Originally founded as a settlement on the Sava River in the sixth millennium B.C., both settled and mobile cultural groups used Gomolava repeatedly over the centuries. By the ninth century B.C., semisedentary groups in the Carpathian Basin were consolidating around sites like Gomolava, creating tension over land use and ownership...Archaeologists discovered postholes around the burial pit that...

...a coffin crashed down from a cliff near the Baltic Sea near the village of Bagicz, Poland, in 1899... Made from the hollowed trunk of an oak tree and exceptionally preserved, it protected the bones of a young woman from the ancient Wielbark culture who was thought at the time to have likely been a member of the social elite. She was buried with a bronze fibula, a necklace of glass and amber beads, a brooch, and bronze bar bracelets; was laying on a cowhide; and had a wooden stool at her feet....almost forgotten until the 1980s, when archaeologists rediscovered...

A collection of more than 800 Iron Age artefacts found in a North Yorkshire field will go on public display for the first time.The Melsonby Hoard is believed to be one of the UK's largest finds from the period, and, following a fundraising campaign, was acquired by the Yorkshire Museum.The collection, which features chariot wheels, cauldrons and spears, will displayed in an exhibition at the museum in York from May onwards.The items were first uncovered in Melsonby, North Yorkshire, by metal detectorist Peter Heads and excavated with the help of Durham University.The discovery was reported to the authorities in December...

According to a statement released by the University of Vienna, a team of scientists from the University of Vienna, the University of Tartu, Cambridge University, and University College London have reconstructed the genomes of human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) from samples taken from human remains recovered from archaeological sites in Europe. Today, HHV-6B infects about 90 percent of children by age two, causing roseola infantum, also known as "sixth disease, " an illness characterized by a rash and a fever. In addition to causing illness, these viruses are capable of integrating into human chromosomes and remaining dormant. Such inherited...

According to a Live Science report, a 2,200-year-old gold coin was discovered by a metal detectorist in eastern Germany. Known as "rainbow cups" for their curved shape and the folklore that treasure can be found where a rainbow touches the ground, such coins were minted by the Celts, who did not inhabit this region. Only two other Celtic coins have been found in the German state of Saxony, and are thought to have been obtained through trade between the Celts and Germanic-speaking people. Saxony state archaeologist Regina Smolnik said that this rainbow cup is in excellent condition, and was therefore...

Archaeologists from Bournemouth University have uncovered the remains of a teenage girl buried face down in a pit in Dorset, southern England—an extraordinary discovery that may point to one of Britain’s earliest recorded cases of human sacrifice. The burial, dated to around 2,000 years ago, sheds new light on the ritual practices of the Iron Age Durotriges tribe, who inhabited the region long before the Roman conquest.The skeleton, discovered during ongoing excavations at an Iron Age settlement, was found without grave goods and in a position that deviates sharply from normal burial customs of the time. Researchers believe her hands...

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...

A new study published in the journal Science suggests that humans might have played a significant part in the sudden deforestation of rainforests from Central Africa. This work contradicts the prevailing view that the expansion of farming practices was the root cause as well as the increased incidence of long, severe dry spells.Germain Bayon, a geochemist at the French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea in Plouzané, and his colleagues examined the weathering of sediment samples that were drawn from the mouth of the Congo River. Deforestation intensifies weathering; therefore the clay samples would provide a continuous record of...

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

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...

Scholars have long debated the origins of the House of Piast, Poland's first royal dynasty, who ruled the nation from the tenth through the fourteenth century. Some believe they were Slavic nobles, others Moravian exiles, and still others say they were Viking warriors. The Conversation reports on new DNA analysis that has revealed shocking new information concerning the Piasts' genetic background that might potentially rewrite history. Researchers led by molecular biologist Marek Figlerowicz of Poznań University of Technology extracted DNA from 33 individuals, 30 men and three women, belonging to the Piast dynasty. Most of the deceased, who lived between...

Chemical analysis of the contents of a small ceramic vessel found in a 2,700-year-old burial at the site of Kani Koter revealed it contained a type of eye makeup known as kohl, according to the Greek Reporter. Kohl was widely used across ancient Egypt and the Middle East, but this example from the Iron Age cemetery in northwestern Iran is unlike any other that has previously been found. The black eyeliner was made from a combination of local manganese oxides and graphite, an ingredient that had never been identified before in ancient kohl formulas. The researchers noted that graphite would...

Recent archaeological research at the El Cerrón site in Illescas, Toledo, is reshaping traditional views of ancient Carpetania, a central Iberian region long considered culturally marginal. A study led by Universidad Autónoma de Madrid researcher Pablo Sánchez de Oro, published in the journal Antiquity, introduces firm evidence to propose that Carpetania's local elite were actively involved in Mediterranean trade and cultural networks throughout the Late Iron Age (4th–1st centuries BCE).At the center of this find is a stunning terracotta relief discovered in Structure 2, which has been interpreted by archaeologists as a sanctuary. The artifact depicts a procession that includes...

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...

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...

Archaeologists excavating the site of a future golf course were surprised to find evidence of a prehistoric village — including a rare chariot wheel dating back millennia. The excavation took place near Inverness, Scotland, at the site of the future Old Petty Championship Golf Course at Cabot Highlands. Experts working for Avon Archaeology Highland also found a Bronze Age cremation urn estimated to be 3,500 years old, along with flint tools and quern stones, which were used to grind grains. Remnants of at least 25 Neolithic-era wooden buildings were also uncovered at the site, according to the BBC. Archaeologists told...

Poland has agreed to return to Greece 76 Greek Jewish artifacts to be displayed in the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens, the Greek Culture Ministry has announced. The ministry had filed a formal request for the repatriation of the historical artifacts before Lina Mendoni, the Greek Minister of Culture who, while attending the Informal Council of EU Culture Ministers, met with her Polish counterpart Hanna Wroblewska in Warsaw to finalize the deal. The artifacts, currently housed at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland were discovered in Lower Silesia and hold deep historical and emotional significance for Greece’s Jewish...

The Miami Herald reports that two Polish metal detectorists combing a beach after a storm found a rare 2,500-year-old weapon embedded in a block of clay that had recently fallen from a cliffside. Although its exact location remains undisclosed, the 10-inch long, intricately designed dagger was found in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Officials from the Museum of the History of the Kamień Land determined that it dated back to the Hallstatt period of the early Iron Age. "A true work of art!" said museum director Grzegorz Kurka. "I have not seen such a dagger in my experience with findings in Polish...

The Melsonby Hoard is one of the largest and most significant Iron Age finds ever uncovered in the UK.The hoard contains over 800 objects from the Iron Age, dating back around 2,000 years. Early analysis suggests the items were buried in the first century AD, around the time of the Roman conquest of southern Britain.The discovery was made in December 2021 by metal detectorist Peter Heads, who quickly reported it. In 2022, a team from ‪@DurhamUniversity‬ with support from the ‪@britishmuseum‬ and over £120,000 in grant funding from Historic England, excavated the site. Now, the ‪@YorkMuseumsTrust‬ is launching a fundraising...