Archaeology in the news

Adult excavated in an Iraqi Kurdistan cave died more than 70,000 years ago and bears ‘kill shot’ shoulder woundA smooth round hole in the shoulder blade of a Neanderthal who died more than 70,000 years ago may be the oldest evidence so far of a human ancestor being killed by a wooden spear.Archaeologists spotted the distinctive injury after excavating skeletal remains of the adult and other Neanderthals from under nearly 8 metres of rock and sediment in the Shanidar cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. Continue reading…

Researchers will head to remote Pacific atoll, but sceptics say satellite images unlikely to be of her aircraftA team of US researchers is approaching a remote Pacific atoll where they suspect the famed aviator Amelia Earhart crash-landed in 1937, in the latest attempt to crack one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century.The 17-person expedition was inspired by satellite images taken over several years showing a submerged object in the uninhabited island’s sandy lagoon – evidence dismissed by other longtime Earhart sleuths who say it is probably a fallen tree. Continue reading…

Exclusive: Finds suggest account in medieval folklore of a camp near Frenni Fawr hill was rooted in realityMagnus Maximus, the Roman emperor who ruled Britain in the fourth century, led his troops against the Picts and Scots, but a theory that he also established a military camp near Frenni Fawr hill in Wales has so far been based on folklore.Now fourth-century coins, among other finds at a newly identified Roman fort in Pembrokeshire, suggest the medieval tale was rooted in reality, to the excitement of archaeologists. Continue reading…

As archaeologists find treasure trove along new floodplain, conservationists say another Nova Kakhovka would be ecocideOn a warm September day, a group of underwater archaeologists and researchers were boiling water for tea on their campfire on the banks of the Dnipro River, tents pitched on the sandy shoreline. They were three weeks into an archaeological expedition of the waters around Khortytsia – a rocky island 12.5km long and 2.5km wide that lies just downstream of the city of Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine.High above the island, a Shahed drone whined on its way. A Ukrainian interceptor, and small-arms fire from the ground, tried, unsuccessfully, to bring it down. The archaeologists ignored it. This is life as normal, 28 miles (45km) from the combat zone in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Continue reading…

Study of remains taken from royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa’ab appears to confirm early Egyptologist’s theoryCourt officials and craftspeople serving early Egyptian kings may have been sacrificed when their ruler died, according to research that found fractures in several ancient skulls.The royal cemetery of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos features the tombs and enclosures of the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt, and dates as far back as 3,000BC. Continue reading…

Greek PM hopes handover of Tsar Samuel to Bulgaria will persuade Britain that time has come for ‘truth, reason, justice and morality’In a ceremony replete with the sort of fanfare usually reserved for great events, Greece and Bulgaria have formally exchanged “a treasury” of relics and bones, sealing a cultural deal negotiated over decades.The handover involved priceless religious objects removed from Greece at the height of the first world war, as well as remains thought to belong to Tsar Samuel, Bulgaria’s revered medieval warrior ruler. Continue reading…

Artwork created in Tahrir Square for Chinese president’s state visit to Egypt is painted over amid allegations it revived Afrocentric claims about pharaohs’ originsOn the eve of the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s state visit to Cairo last month, the city authorities were busy removing a 66-metre-long mural from the esteemed guest’s line of sight.Depicting the Pharaoh Tutankhamun and Queen Nefertiti, the painting was among 40 murals commissioned to beautify the city for Xi’s arrival and was painted by a group of young volunteers, Rasmet Basma, in Tahrir Square. Continue reading…

Community-funded archaeological excavations of ‘really important’ sixth-century monastery also rewrite story of LismoreTo the residents of the Scottish island of Lismore, population 190, history is never very far away. The tiny island near Oban in Argyll has no row of shops or even a pub – if islanders want to meet for a coffee, the only place to do so is in the lively Gaelic heritage centre that records the many centuries of community life on the island.This quiet place, documentary evidence records, was home to a monastic settlement in the sixth century AD, when missionaries from Ireland were first moving into northern Britain to spread Christianity. But apart from a few fragments of an early carved cross, there was almost nothing to see from this period of history. Continue reading…

Archeologists warn AI summaries can repeat false claims about 12,000-year-old rock art from Western Australia’s Kimberley region being painted by aliensWarning: This article contains historical records that use racist and offensive language, and descriptions of events that will be distressing to some readersTraditional owner Warren Barunga says he is angry that people are misusing his people’s sacred rock paintings.The ancient Gwion Gwion and Wandjina figures, found in the Kimberley in Western Australia, have long been used in false claims that they were created by aliens or vanished civilisations. Continue reading…

Low Catton, East Yorkshire: It was King Harold’s last taste of victory. How chilling it is to visit this unassuming spot and imagine the bloody scene back in 1066The field with freshly sprouted winter wheat sloping down to the River Derwent looks ordinary; however, today feels anything but. Just standing here, strange chills are swarming through my body and converging in my chest.It happened here. Continue reading…

Discovery of Gallo-Roman period structure hailed as ‘major breakthrough’ by French culture ministryAn ancient wall discovered beneath Paris has been described as a “major breakthrough” by France’s culture ministry, with the archaeological find possibly confirming the location of the city’s original settlement.A roughly 20-metre (65ft) stretch of wall dating from the Gallo-Roman period was discovered in Paris this summer beneath a building on the Île de la Cité, near Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of the French capital. Continue reading…

Exclusive: Restoration work at Bath Assembly Rooms unearths Roman ditches containing pottery, coins and fragments of a military helmetThe restoration of a Georgian building in Bath once frequented by Jane Austen has unexpectedly provided a tantalising glimpse into the life of the city’s Roman suburbanites.A network of Roman ditches containing pottery, coins, glassware and a fragment of a military helmet has been found beneath Bath Assembly Rooms in the north of the city. Continue reading…

The hoard, buried south of Cologne in the second century AD, is the biggest coin treasure ever found in Germany from the time of HadrianAn amateur archaeologist who discovered several Roman silver coins in a field in western Germany realised he had stumbled upon something much bigger when his metal detector kept beeping.Oliver Riedl called the authorities for help and a group of experts who began digging immediately discovered a total of 934 Roman silver denarii. It is the biggest coin treasure ever found in Germany from the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian, the local office in charge of archaeological monuments said on Tuesday. Continue reading…

Archaeologist who spent his career excavating and protecting the sites and artefacts of Jordan’s Dead Sea shoreHigh above the Dead Sea’s south-eastern shore, pilgrims once climbed to a cave they believed had sheltered Lot after he fled the destruction of Sodom. For centuries the site survived in Christian memory alone, visited by occasional pilgrims such as St Stephen the Sabaite, until the Greek archaeologist Konstantinos Politis, who has died aged 67 following a series of strokes, began excavating in 1988.He uncovered a Byzantine basilica built over the mouth of the cave, its floors still adorned with mosaics laid in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. The discovery, at Deir ’Ain ’Abata, gave physical form to one of the Bible’s most vivid stories and set the course for a career spent excavating and protecting the archaeology of Jordan’s Dead Sea shore. Continue reading…

Lynchat, Spey Valley: So many stories fill the iron age Raitts Cave, from wild legend to the more quotidian truth of its historyThe word “cave” is full of possibility. It speaks of darkness, secrets, treasures and escapees, all of which can be found in the stories of Raitts Cave, which lies in a field near the hamlet of Lynchat, Inverness-shire.Its Gaelic name is An Uaimh Mhor, “the great cave”, and one legend claims it was built by giants, the females hollowing out the earth and carrying the soil in their aprons to dump in the River Spey, while the males cut its massive stone slabs from the hills above. Because, in fact, it is not a natural cave, but a subterranean passage, shaped like a horseshoe and lined with stone. Continue reading…

Jill White responds to an editorial calling for fossils to be given legally protected national-treasure statusI write this while sitting on Charmouth beach in Dorset with my required reading of the Saturday Guardian, as I do regularly. Your editorial (The Guardian view on the export of fossils: they deserve national treasure status, 21 August) produced a hollow laugh as – this being the centre of fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coast – I am surrounded by armies of hammer-wielding tourists busy smashing the daylights out of any rock available around them. The vast majority have no idea which stone types are likely to bear fossils and don’t report any finds even if they are lucky. Others take carrier bags full of stones back to their cars.Thus, we have no idea what fossils are being lost to the record every single day here, and so I completely support the suggestion of giving them legal protection. Of course, amateur collecting has a valuable place in unearthing important fossil finds, but only if they are shared and documented. The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre valiantly tries to educate and inform visitors, but sadly these will inevitably be the minority. Continue reading…

Professor of anthropology whose approach to archaeology centred on crafts executed by women 40,000 years agoOlga Soffer, who has died aged 83, brought a revolutionary idea into the conversation about prehistoric ice age people: women mattered. Inspired when working on archaeological excavations in the former USSR, and by remains from a dig in Moravia, in the 1990s she presented a case for women as makers of textiles, baskets and nets, critical to survival in bleak northern conditions 30,000 years ago.Her achievement was the more remarkable for her career path. By then a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, she had obtained her three degrees over three decades, partly while also working as a cosmetics buyer and fashion promoter for a New York department store. Continue reading…

Sale of one of UK’s top collections overseas prompts call new rules to help keep items in countryOne of UK’s best fossil collections sold in ‘loss to the nation’An MP has called on ministers to change export controls so that significant fossils can be classed as national treasures after one of the UK’s best collections, unearthed on Dorset beaches, was sold overseas.Last week, a Guardian investigation revealed that an unparalleled collection of fossils from the UK’s Jurassic Coast, comprising hundreds of specimens including ichthyosaurs, had been sold to the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi for what one source described as an “eight-figure sum”. Continue reading…

Academic paper says often illicit trade exposes enthusiasts – and postal workers handling items – to serious risksA growing global trade in mummified human remains has been described by academics as “a real mummy’s curse” that poses a serious health risk to its enthusiasts and the postal services they use.Research into the secretive buying and selling of centuries-old human body parts including hands, feet and heads found alarming risks from dormant microorganisms and the toxic materials used to preserve the remains. Continue reading…

Discovery of 2,100-year-old vessel hailed as ‘one of the most important underwater archaeological discoveries of recent years’A 2,100-year-old Roman shipwreck carrying about 500 amphorae has been discovered 3 miles off the coast of Mazara del Vallo in Sicily.Italy’s Carabinieri cultural heritage protection squad investigated the wreck with the help of divers and underwater cameras after receiving a tip-off from fishers. The vessel was found at a depth of about 46 metres (151ft) and was carrying hundreds of amphorae – ancient two-handled ceramic jars with a narrow neck – thought to have been used mainly to transport wine. Continue reading…