A 3200-year-old trepanned skull was discovered in eastern Turkey’s Van province A 3,200-year-old skull was recently uncovered in Turkey’s eastern Van province. This find was made even more intriguing by the skull’s clearly man-made triangle-shaped hole, indicating that the deceased owner had undergone an ancient medical procedure now called preparation. Trepanation, a procedure that involves …

Roman-Era Odeon Uncovered in Crete Tucked into a mountain-ringed cove in southwest Crete are the ruins of Lissos, an ancient town whose archaeological remains are accessible only by sea or a long hike. Because of its isolation, Lissos had not been investigated by archaeologists for several decades. New work at Lissos, though, has uncovered an …

A trove of Ancient Bronzes Unearthed in Italy An “exceptional” trove of bronze statues preserved for thousands of years by mud and boiling water has been discovered in a network of baths built by the Etruscans in Tuscany. The 24 partly submerged statues, which date back 2,300 years and have been hailed as the most …

Giant 1,100 Pound bone belonging to sauropod found in France The femur of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French palaeontologists at an excavation site in southwest France where, since 2010, remains of some of the largest animals ever to live on land have been excavated. The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur …

Polish archaeologists co-discover ‘unique’ Roman military tower A Polish-Maroconian team of archaeologists have discovered a Roman military observation tower in Volubilis, Morocco. ‘This is important for research on the system of Roman fortifications built on the outskirts of the empire’, says Maciej Czapski, an archaeologist from the University of Warsaw. Similar military observation towers had …

Scientists Investigate Fibers in 6,000-Year-Old Finnish Burial The exceptional excavation of a Stone Age burial site was carried out in Majoonsuo, situated in the municipality of Outokumpu in Eastern Finland. The excavation produced microscopically small fragments of bird feathers, canine and small mammalian hairs, and plant fibres. The findings gained through soil analysis are unique, …

Rare medieval script discovered on stone carved by Scotland’s ‘Painted People’ Archaeologists and volunteers have discovered a stone bearing a mysterious inscription and carved birds that the Picts of Scotland crafted more than a millennium ago. The cross slab, found in a small cemetery last month, dates to between A.D. 500 and 700, and sheds …

Thor’s Hammer Amulet Found in Sweden A 1,000-year-old amulet of Thor’s Hammer discovered in Sweden shows the lasting popularity of the ancient Norse deity, who has now won a new audience with Chris Hemsworth’s portrayal of the Viking god of war in Marvel movies. Thor had always been a popular figure, perhaps because he was …

Sensational find in Ephesus: more than 1,400-year-old district discovered During this year’s excavations at Ephesus in Turkey, archaeologists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (AW) discovered an incredibly well-preserved early Byzantine business and dining space that had apparently been destroyed suddenly in AD 614/615. The discovery, according to the head of the excavation Sabine Ladstätter, …