The most interesting archaeological discoveries of 2024 Part 2
Last year, excavations in the ancient Roman city revealed 'thermopolium', essentially a Roman snack. In August this year, archaeologists at Pompeii announced the discovery of several fully equipped rooms…
The most interesting archaeological discoveries of 2024 Part 1
Last year, excavations in the ancient Roman city revealed 'thermopolium', essentially a Roman snack. In August this year, archaeologists at Pompeii announced the discovery of several fully equipped rooms…
Manchester’s 4000-year-old Egyptian mummy mystery is solved by ancient DNA findings
Using ‘next generation’ DNA sequencing scientists have found that the famous ‘Two Brothers’ mummies of the Manchester Museum have different fathers so are, in fact, half-brothers. The Two Brothers are the Museum’s oldest mummies and amongst the best-known …
Pictured: 1,000-year-old mummy with full head of hair
Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed a 1,000-year-old mummy with its long hair still intact. The remains were found alongside ceramic vessels, textiles and other objects in the Huaca Pucllana site in the middle of Lima’s affluent Miraflores district, …
Calls for British Museum to return treasures to China after hundreds of artefacts stolen
Chinese state media has called for the return of its artefacts from the British Museum “free of charge” in the wake of the theft scandal . It comes after revelations that more than 1,500 priceless objects have gone missing from the Bloomsbury institution …
Stone Age ‘should be renamed’ after ancient wooden structure discovered
The Stone Age may have to be renamed following the discovery that early humans were building wooden structures nearly half a million years ago, archaeologists have said. Two planks of worked wood dating back at least 476,000 years, which possibly formed …
Ancient Sumerians invented water flumes thousands of years earlier than previously thought
Ancient Sumerians invented a “civilisation-saving” water channel 4,000 years ago, a British Museum dig has revealed. Archaeologists working at the ruined city of Girsu in Iraq have discovered the true function of a mysterious structure created by the …
The ‘Sutton Hoo king’s lost temple’ was discovered in Suffolk
A lost 1,400-year-old temple, said to have been built by the English king buried at Sutton Hoo , may have been discovered in Suffolk. The Venerable Bede, a monk and historian, wrote that King Redwald, who died in AD 625, built a temple housing altars …
Could you strike gold? See if your area might be hiding buried treasure
One autumn day in 1992, a man called Eric Lawes was poking about in a Suffolk field with his metal detector, a retirement gift from the Eastern Electricity Board. He wasn’t on the trail of hidden treasure: he was looking for a lump hammer dropped by farmer …
Ancient Bricks’ Iron Oxide: A Strange History of the Earth’s Electromagnetic Field
The Earth’s magnetic field surged mysteriously in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from 1050 to 550 BC, new research shows. Several factors combine to create this invisible magnetic field around our planet, including the molten rock at its core. This flow …