Unpredictable Rainfall May Have Helped Destabilized Ancient Maya Societies
Unpredictable Rainfall May Have Helped Destabilized Ancient Maya Societies Reduced predictability of seasonal rainfall might have played a significant role in the disintegration of Classic Maya societies about 1,100 years ago. The decline in seasonal predictability potentially destabilized Classic Maya societies in a new study recently published in Communications Earth & Environment. University of New …
Intact Ball Game Carving Discovered at Chichen Itza
Intact Ball Game Carving Discovered at Chichen Itza *** Presents two ball players in the center; It has a diameter of 32.5 centimeters, 9.5 centimeters thick, and 40 kilograms in weight. *** It must have been attached to an arch that served as access to the Casa Colorada architectural complex In the Archaeological Zone of …
Hidden Ptolemy text, printed beneath a Latin manuscript, deciphered after 200 years
Hidden Ptolemy text, printed beneath a Latin manuscript, deciphered after 200 years Researchers have deciphered an ancient manuscript that they think Claudius Ptolemy, an Egyptian mathematician and astronomer of Greek descent, penned during the first century A.D. Written in Greek on parchment, the text was originally discovered in 1819 by Angelo Mai, a Roman Catholic …
Tomb of Amun Temple Steward Discovered in Saqqara
Tomb of Amun Temple Steward Discovered in Saqqara An archaeological mission from the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (RMO) and the Egyptian Museum in Turin (Museo Egizio) uncovered the remains of Panehsy’s tomb, the steward of Amun Temple in the early Ramesside period, along with a collection of smaller chapels in the Saqqara Necropolis. …
1,000-year-old brick tomb discovered in China is decorated with lions, sea anemones and ‘guardian spirits’
1,000-year-old brick tomb discovered in China is decorated with lions, sea anemones and ‘guardian spirits’ A stunning brick tomb thought to be more than 800 years old has been discovered in northern China by workers renovating stormwater drains. The tomb contained three bodies — two adults and one child — as well as several pottery …
Centuries-old skeleton with mᴀssive, crippling bone growth unearthed in Portugal
Centuries-old skeleton with mᴀssive, crippling bone growth unearthed in Portugal A rare and gruesome bone growth protruding from a 14th to 19th-century woman’s thigh bone mushroomed after she suffered severe trauma, anthropologists in Portugal have found. The 3-inch (8 centimeters) lump sprouted precisely where a muscle joins the inner thigh bone and the public bone …
Scientists Trace an Ore Source for the Benin Bronzes
Scientists Trace an Ore Source for the Benin Bronzes The Benin Bronzes — some roughly 3,000 stunning bronze artworks sculpted by African metalsmiths between the 16th and 19th centuries — were crafted from metal mined from Germany’s Rhineland region, a new study finds. Researchers had long suspected that the masterfully crafted sculptures — created by …
Ancient Wooden Tags Offer Clues to Egypt’s Climate
Ancient Wooden Tags Offer Clues to Egypt’s Climate Swiss scientists are reconstructing the climate of the ancient world using small wooden artefacts hung on mummified remains. Throughout history, the earth’s climate has undergone natural fluctuations. Although insignificant compared with the current crisis, these fluctuations would nevertheless have been enough to make and unmake empires. According …
The Last Moments of 500-Year-Old Child Mummies
The Last Moments of 500-Year-Old Child Mummies Three Incan children who were sacrificed 500 years ago were regularly given drugs and alcohol in their final months to make them more compliant in the ritual that ultimately killed them, new research suggests. Archaeologists analyzed hair samples from the frozen mummies of the three children, who were …
What did Homo sapiens eat 170,000 years ago? Roasted, supersized land snails
What did Homo sapiens eat 170,000 years ago? Roasted, supersized land snails Slow-motion large land snails made for easy catching and good eating as early as 170,000 years ago. Until now, the oldest evidence of Homo sapiens eating land snails dated to roughly 49,000 years ago in Africa and 36,000 years ago in Europe. But tens of …