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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...

The brain was discovered inside a skull found at Heslington near York A human brain, believed to be the oldest ever discovered, may have been preserved for over 2,000 years by mud, archaeologists have said. The organ was found inside a decapitated skull at an Iron Age dig site near York in 2008. Tests on the remains suggested they were from the 6th Century BC, making them about 2,600 years old. York Archaeological Trust said the skull had been buried in wet, clay-rich ground providing an oxygen-free burial. They said the burial location could have helped conserve the brain,...

A brain in near-perfect condition is found in a skull of a person who was decapitated over 2,600 years ago. THE GIST • One of the world's best preserved prehistoric human brains was recently found in a waterlogged U.K. pit. • The brain belonged to an Iron Age man who was hanged and then decapitated, with his head falling in the pit shortly thereafter. • Scientists believe that submersion in liquid, anoxic environments helps to preserve human brain tissue. • One of the pieces of a 2,600-year-old brain after removal from the skull. 
York Archaeological Trust A human skull dated...

An Iron Age man whose skull and brain was unearthed during excavations at the University of York was the victim of a gruesome ritual killing, according to new research. Scientists say that fractures and marks on the bones suggest the man, who was aged between 26 and 45, died most probably from hanging, after which he was carefully decapitated and his head was then buried on its own. Archaeologists discovered the remains in 2008 in one of a series of Iron Age pits on the site of the University’s £750 million campus expansion at Heslington East. Brain material was still...

The practice of the nailed heads ritual varied among Iberian communities in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, rather than representing a uniform symbolic expression. In some settlements, the display of external individuals served as a symbol of power and intimidation, while others may have prioritized the veneration of their own community members.This conclusion comes from a study led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which analyzed the mobility patterns of Iron Age human communities from the last millennium BCE. Researchers examined seven skulls with embedded nails, belonging to men from two archaeological sites: the ancient city of Ullastret...

According to a Live Science report, radiocarbon dating of ancient human skeletons recovered from the River Thames indicates that they date to between 4000 B.C. and A.D. 1800. Nichola Arthur of London's Natural History Museum said that most of the remains dated to the Bronze Age, between 2300 and 800 B.C., and the Iron Age, between 800 B.C. and A.D. 43. These bones were recovered in upstream zones of the river, she added. "We can now say with confidence that these don't appear to just be bones that have steadily accumulated in the river through time," she explained. "There really...

Asmall site on the rocky island of Tavolara off the coast of Sardinia may reveal a robust trading relationship between two Iron Age cultures. In the ninth century B.C., the Nuragic people of the main island of Sardinia exchanged ceramic and metal artifacts with the Villanovans, early Etruscans who inhabited central Italy. Although brooches and other Villanovan metal objects have been unearthed occasionally on Sardinia, evidence of exchange between the cultures has come primarily from Nuragic artifacts found in the tombs of high-status Villanovans in northern Etruria. As a result, scholars think that the Nuragic people and Villanovans mostly interacted...

Evidence from 2,000-year-old DNA reveals that women in Celtic society stayed in their ancestral communities after marriage, whereas men were mobile, and that the southern coast of Britain was a hotspot for cultural exchange.Marriage practices, particularly those that define where spouses live (and die) after marriage, are fundamental to human societies. These patterns shape perceptions of family, tribe and clan, influence community belonging and regulate land ownership. Anthropologists have long studied such practices globally, finding that patrilocality — in which a married woman moves to her male partner's community — is the most common. However, it remains unknown how deeply...

The Times of India reports that the dating of charcoal and pottery discovered with iron objects at the burial site of Sivagalai in southern India indicates that the Iron Age began in Tamil Nadu some 5,300 years ago. The testing, including accelerometer mass spectrometry and optically stimulated luminescence dating, was conducted by three different laboratories. It had been previously thought that iron was first worked in the Hittite Empire, in what is now Turkey, around 1380 B.C. “The recent radiocarbon dates indicate that when [the] Indus Valley experienced [the] Copper Age, south India was in [the] Iron Age,” said archaeologist...

A team of archaeologists uncovered a trove of weapons, armor, and other goods in Denmark, in advance of a motorway being built on the site.The deposit is a weapon sacrifice—literally, the weapons were the things sacrificed. Over 1,500 years ago, an Iron Age community deposited over 100 lances, spears, swords, knives, arrowheads, and more across two houses on the site. Taken together, the deposit is a compelling look into the social and military wheelings and dealings of the group that inhabited the region.Based on the way the items were deposited, the archaeological team concluded that the site was not a...

A recent study using drone mapping has revealed that Dmanisis Gora, a 3,000-year-old mountainside fortress in the Caucasus Mountains, is far bigger than previously thought. The discoveries also prompted a reassessment of settlement dynamics during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages...Their work, ongoing since 2018, has revealed that Dmanisis Gora is not only a major archaeological site in the South Caucasus but also a critical case study for understanding ancient urbanism and population dynamics...Initial excavations took place near a fortified promontory between two deep gorges. However, the fall visit — when thick summer foliage had receded — revealed remains...

Germanic warrior taking stimulants imagined by Stanislav (Stanisław) Kontny, especially for the Praehistorische Zeitschrift. Credit: Stanisław Kontny for Praehistorische Zeitschrift Recent discoveries suggest that small spoon-shaped objects attached to the belts of ancient Northern European warriors might have been used to measure doses of stimulants before battle. These findings, uncovered through the combined efforts of archaeologists and biologists, propose a widespread use of natural stimulants among the Germanic peoples during the Roman period, challenging the notion that these groups primarily consumed alcohol. The use of such substances could have been crucial not only in warfare but also in medicinal and...

Stunning stone etching of two horned individuals at prayer found at mouth of rare circa-11th century citadel in Israel’s north; could predate famous Geshur site, Tel Bethsaida Dating to around the time of King David 3,000 years ago, what may be the earliest fortified settlement in the Golan Heights was recently discovered during salvage excavations ahead of the construction of a new neighborhood. Incredible rock etchings of two figures holding their arms aloft — possibly at prayer with what could be a moon — were uncovered inside the unique fort, which was dated to circa 11th-9th century BCE. The striking...

The archaeologists consider that the fort was built by the kingdom of Geshur, the ally of King David, in order to control the region. The excavation was undertaken prior to the construction of a new neighborhood in Hispin, and funded by the Ministry of Housing and Construction and the Golan Regional Council, with the participation of many residents of Hispin and Nov, and youth from the pre-military academies at Natur, Kfar Hanasi, Elrom, Metzar and Qaztrin. According to Barak Tzin and Enno Bron, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The complex we exposed was built at a...