Classifying ancient pottery has always depended on the trained judgment of an archaeologist. Identifying the subtle differences between piece types takes years of experience, and two experts will not always agree. Now, a team including researchers at Nagoya University in Japan has developed a deep learning model that can classify pottery by shape with high accuracy, using three-dimensional scan data rather than photographs or drawings.

A team of archaeologists has used an advanced dating technique to establish the first precise construction timeline for houses built out of coral in French Polynesia. The findings reveal previously hidden patterns of architectural development and cultural life in Pacific societies. 

The bond between humans and dogs is one of nature’s most enduring partnerships, but exactly when it began has long been a mystery. Now, a new study has turned back the clock.

A team of astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have for the first time used galactic archaeology, the study of detailed chemical fingerprints in deep space, to trace the history of a galaxy outside the Milky Way. The study, published today in the journal Nature Astronomy, demonstrates a new way to reconstruct the evolution of distant galaxies, and opens up a new field of astronomy, called “extragalactic archaeology.” 

New research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) reveals that King Harold’s legendary 200‑mile march to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 never happened. Instead, the journey was made largely by sea. The findings overturn one of the most iconic stories in English history – altering how the Norman Conquest is understood in classrooms, museums, and public memory. The news comes as the Bayeux Tapestry prepares to travel from France to the UK for display at the British Museum later this year.

The new study finds that the famous Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile is only 4,200-8,200 years old, not 14,500 years old as posited by researchers who worked on the site from the 1970s through the 1990s.

Techniques developed to study the distant past—from dating ancient artifacts to reconstructing climate records in ice cores—are now being repurposed to better understand the lives of modern sea turtles. Using radiocarbon methods from archaeology, researchers show that sea turtle shell plates are biological time capsules that record signs of major environmental disturbances in the ocean.