News Desk

NASA’s Curiosity rover has snapped black and white images of a rock on the Martian surface that looks remarkably like a piece of coral.

After using lasers to map the Maya Lowlands, researchers have updated their estimates of the total Maya population during the Late Classic Period (A.D. 600 to 900). The new research was published online July 7 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Archaeologists have found ancient human stone tools dating to more than 1 million years ago on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The tools are 5 times older than the previous earliest evidence of humans on the island. The findings are presented in a paper published today in Nature.

Analysis of ocean sediments has surfaced geochemical clues in line with the possibility that an encounter with a disintegrating comet 12,800 years ago in the Northern Hemisphere triggered rapid cooling of Earth’s air and ocean. Christopher Moore of the University of South Carolina, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the journal PLOS One on August 6, 2025.

Université de Bordeaux-led research reports that spatial statistics can discriminate potential Paleolithic Artificial Memory Systems from butchery and art, aligning prehistoric marked objects with memory devices in Africa and Europe. The study was published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 

A study of a handful of 300,000-year-old teeth revealed an ancient human group had a mix of archaic and modern tooth features. The study is published in the September issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.

In Gabon’s sprawling forest, archaeologists dig for ancient clues that could unlock the secrets of how prehistoric humans lived and interacted in the changing landscape of central Africa.

Ancient teeth found in Thailand show that the practice of chewing on betel nuts emerged at least 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age. The discovery of 4,000-year-old dental plaque with trace compounds from betel nuts is detailed in a paper published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.

As her memory faded from Alzheimer’s disease in her late 50s, Tammy Maida began to lose track of her life. Car keys, eyeglasses and her purse disappeared multiple times a day.

For hungry Neanderthals, there was more on the menu than wild mammals, roasted pigeon, seafood and plants. Chemical signatures in the ancient bones point to a nutritious and somewhat inevitable side dish: handfuls of fresh maggots.

Researchers have discovered a 4,000-year-old handprint on a tomb offering from ancient Egypt, providing a rare glimpse into the life of its maker.

New evidence suggests Stone Age people really did move massive Stonehenge boulders more than 200 kilometers (arouind 125 miles) to the inner ring of Stonehenge, without the help of any glaciers. This research was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

A new analysis of ancient DNA from 15 people who lived in the Italian Alps around the same time as Ötzi the Iceman shows that Ötzi’s ancestry was decidedly different from his neighbors’. The study was published July 11 in the journal Nature Communications.

Excavations at the Roman fort of Magna near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland in north east England have uncovered some very large leather footwear. Their discovery, according to some news coverage, has “baffled” archaeologists.

Ötzi the Iceman may have come to an unfortunate end while crossing the Alps more than 5,000 years ago, but thanks to his well-preserved remains, he’s still helping us understand our past. A new digital reconstruction of the mummy’s ribcage is providing fresh insights into modern human evolution.

The ancient meteor impact that formed Arizona’s Barringer Crater sent shock waves through the Grand Canyon — likely triggering a landslide that dammed the Colorado River, a new study suggests. The study, published on July 15 in the journal Geology, has linked two major events that were thought to be completely unrelated.