A study of human remains from two cemeteries in Bulgaria, all buried with distinctively ‘Gothic’ jewellery, brooches, and belt buckles, suggests that the ancient Goths were ethnically diverse and not a single homogeneous community.
How did the builders of Stonehenge manage to work with sarsen – a notoriously hard material – to create the Neolithic monument’s towering trilithons? Carly Hilts spoke to Phil Harding of Wessex Archaeology about his recent research exploring whether flint-knapping techniques might hold the key.
A new exhibition explores ancient Egypt from the perspective of its craftspeople, showcasing their creations and illuminating their experiences. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
What have archaeological experiments revealed about how stone axes were sourced, made, and used thousands of years ago? James Dilley highlights some of the key findings.
An assemblage of bone tools found in Tanzania is revolutionising our understanding of early human technologies.
New Neolithic society discovered in Morocco Investigations at Oued Beht, northern Morocco, have uncovered evidence of the oldest and largest Neolithic society yet found in Africa outside the Nile Valley. Large quantities of stone tools have been recovered from the…
Research at a site in northern Morocco is uncovering evidence for the oldest and largest Neolithic society that has yet been found in Africa outside the Nile valley. Evidence of prehistoric activity at Oued Beht was first noted in the…
Scythian leather made of human skin A recent study, published in PLOS ONE (), has analysed 47 samples of leather from burials at 14 Scythian sites in southern Ukraine, dating from the 4th-5th century BC. The researchers used palaeoproteomics (the…
REVIEW BY CHRIS JONES This important book is the product of 11 seasons of careful fieldwork by members of the Northumberland Archaeological Group. The book is structured around the five main areas of the project, beginning with the geoarchaeological survey…
The remains of a rare Neolithic cairn have recently been excavated at Holm in East Mainland, Orkney, showing that, despite 19th-century plundering, many of its main features survived, including a number of burials. In Orkney, most chambered tombs survive as…
Ever since the redoubtable Madeleine Colani explored the wonderful karst country of Hoa Binh Province, west of Hanoi in northern Vietnam, a century ago, the hunter-gatherers of Southeast Asia have received rather a poor press. With a background in the…
New research is changing our understanding of the climate of Early Pleistocene Europe and what it meant for our early relatives. Hominin fossils and stone tools indicate that archaic humans had reached Europe by around 1.4 million years ago. Surviving…
REVIEW BY EMILY C KRACHT Lucayan Legacies evaluates the lives of the early Indigenous peoples in the Bahama archipelago and celebrates their legacy, identity, and descendants today. The book presents one of the most comprehensive discussions of Bahamian archaeology to…
Excavations at Manor Farm in Frindsbury, Kent – in advance of the construction of a Maritime Academy – have revealed more than 800 stone artefacts found within sediments thought to relate to a Middle Pleistocene tributary of the River Medway.…
This unusual stone tool was recently discovered in a back garden in Hastings, East Sussex. It is a Neolithic polished flint chisel, or possibly axehead, that appears to have been reworked into a cutting or scraping tool. The flint is…
A round-up of some of the latest discoveries from across the globe.
Among the stone tools recovered from the site were 14 complete and fragmentary stemmed projectile points, dated to around 16,000 years ago.
Traces of gold residue have been identified on five stone grave goods from a Bronze Age burial in Wiltshire.
The latest season of excavations at Românești has provided evidence that the site was geared towards producing particular types of stone tools.
The study suggests that the site may represent an early colonisation attempt by modern humans.
The researchers discovered that there were at least four phases of alternating Neanderthal and modern human occupation in the rock shelter.
The find has been dubbed the ‘biggest mammoth discovery for a generation’
The wealth produced by Egyptian peasants was spent on warfare, monuments, and luxury. Egyptian artisans were despised as manual labourers. So Egyptian civilisation looked essentially the same in 30 BC as it had done in 3000 BC.
A study of stone tools from the Roman site of Volubilis in central Morocco has revealed that the material used to make them was specifically selected to improve the function of each object.
A vast number of flint artefacts – including scrapers, arrowheads, and axe fragments – were recovered from all five settlements.
The latest stories in archaeology from around the world, including the discovery of the oldest monumental landscape, new evidence of early human behaviour in South Africa, and the analysis of the Shigir Idol.
In this dizzying digital era, it can be startling to remember that our love affair with technology began millions of years ago with someone banging two stones together. But it is increasingly apparent that desiring tools with which to shape our world is not just a human trait. As Tomos Proffitt and Alastair Key told Current World Archaeology's Matthew Symonds, we were not – and are not – alone.
A team of researchers has identified 140,000-year-old fossilised remains found in Israel as belonging to a previously unknown type of ancient hominin, which may have been an early precursor of Neanderthals that co-existed alongside other prehistoric groups, including Homo sapiens.…
The Les Pradelles hyena bone is ‘potentially the earliest known example of this type of mark-making’, and suggests Neanderthals possessed the cognitive abilities for numeracy.
After this first discovery, further finds were unearthed from the warrens, including large pieces of pottery that have been identified as part of an Early Bronze Age vase urn, usually associated with cremation burials
Wonderwerk Cave was first excavated in the 1940s. Its archaeological stratigraphy comprises evidence of human activity spanning from the Early Stone Age in South Africa to the present day.
Evidence of Late Mesolithic and Bronze activity has been discovered on a Welsh island.
The discovery includes a trench containing three hearths and hundreds of pottery fragments, as well as stone tools and a storage pit – all evidence of salt production.
Recent research on an intriguing assemblage of artefacts excavated from a Classic Maya sweat bath in Guatemala is revealing new details about ritual activity at the unusual structure. This sweat bath at Xultun, named Los Sapos (‘the toads’), was explored…
Archaeologists excavating a 15,000-year-old campsite at Les Varines, Jersey, have recovered ten fragments of stone decorated with hundreds of interweaving lines. Recently published analysis of these ‘plaquettes’ suggests that they may represent the earliest artworks yet identified in the British Isles. Carly Hilts reports.
Neanderthals have long been stereotyped as our less-capable cousins, but advances in archaeological research have given fascinating new insights into the lives of our closest hominin relatives and the world they inhabited, as Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes explains.