Archaeology
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Dec-2025 08:11 ET (10-Dec-2025 13:11 GMT/UTC)
8-Dec-2025
How did Bronze Age plague spread? A sheep might solve the mystery
University of ArkansasPeer-Reviewed Publication
A University of Arkansas archaeologist is part of a team that discovered the first example of ancient plague DNA in domesticated livestock.
- Journal
- Cell
- Funder
- Wenner-Gren Foundation, Max-Planck-Förderstiftung
8-Dec-2025
Severe drought linked to the decline of the hobbits 61,000 years ago
University of WollongongPeer-Reviewed Publication
An international team of scientists has found compelling evidence that a changing climate played a role in the extinction of the early human species Homo floresiensis, also known as ‘hobbits’. Their research reveals the hobbits abandoned Liang Bua – a cave they had occupied for around 140,000 years – during a drought that lasted for thousands of years.
- Journal
- Communications Earth & Environment
4-Dec-2025
Celebrated Rutland mosaic depicts ‘long-lost’ Troy story connecting Roman Britain to the ancient classical world
University of LeicesterPeer-Reviewed Publication
- Ancient Historian at University of Leicester reveals that the Rutland mosaic depicts an alternative telling of the Trojan War to Homer’s Iliad
- Suggests that Roman Britain was not as isolated from the classical world as assumed
- Craftspeople in 4th century Britain were using patterns passed down over 800 years from across the ancient Mediterranean
- Journal
- Britannia
- Funder
- Historic England
3-Dec-2025
Scores of dinosaurs walked and swam along a Bolivian shoreline
PLOSPeer-Reviewed Publication
A fossil site in Bolivia preserves thousands of traces of dinosaurs who walked, ran, and swam along an ancient coastline, according to a study published December 3, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Raúl Esperante of the Geoscience Research Institute, California, U.S., and colleagues.
- Journal
- PLOS One
2-Dec-2025
Historical geography helps researchers solve 2,700-year old eclipse mystery
Nagoya UniversityPeer-Reviewed Publication
An international team of researchers has used knowledge of historical geography to reexamine the earliest datable total solar eclipse record known to the scientific community, enabling accurate measurements of Earth's variable rotation speed from 709 BCE. The researchers calculated how the Sun would have appeared from Qufu, the ancient Chinese capital of the Lu Duchy, during the total solar eclipse. Using this information, they analyzed the ancient description of what has been considered the solar corona—the dim outer atmosphere of the Sun visible to the naked eye only during total eclipses—and found that its morphology supports recent solar cycle reconstructions for the 8th century BCE.
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
1-Dec-2025
Dress to impress: Nubian royal outfits showcased in London
SWPS University
A live presentation of re-created costumes of Nubian kings, royal mothers, and bishop based on wall paintings from the cathedral of Faras will take place on December 9 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
- Meeting
- Dress to impress. Reconstructions of Medieval Robes from Nubia