Archaeology

The latest digs, ideas, and discoveries about our past, from ancient cities to our prehistoric ancestors.

Latest in Archaeology

two bodies from pompeii preserved in white plaster
Science

DNA reveals new stories about Pompeii’s victims

By Laura Baisas

Civil War Urns
Science

Remains of 28 Civil War soldiers identified in funeral home storage

By Andrew Paul

Two perfectly articulated skeletons of the sheep-size dinosaur Psittacosaurus, found in China's Yixian Formation. New research suggests they died in burrow collapses, not via volcanism, as previously thought.
Science

Dinosaurs discovered in ‘Chinese Pompeii’ actually died in extremely boring ways

By Mack DeGeurin

a metal cylinder with various markings on it and what those markings look like on a clay tablet
Science

6,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts linked to the dawn of writing

By Laura Baisas

View of the bow of the RMS Titanic photographed in June 2004 by the ROV Hercules during an expedition returning to the shipwreck of the Titanic.
Science

A hunk of coal from the Titanic could fetch $780 at auction

By Andrew Paul

Side by side of mummy entering CT scanner with two images of a mummy's skull scan
Science

3D scans reveal secrets of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy’s coffin

By Andrew Paul

a 900 year old skeleton
Science

Tooth powder unlocks clues to an 800-year-old mystery of man thrown into well

By Laura Baisas

Nine Iranian swords analyzed in this study.
Science

Iron Age swords revealed as ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ black market forgeries

By Andrew Paul

Group of Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) on haulout, Vaygach island, Barents sea
Science

Walrus DNA suggests meetings between Vikings and Indigenous Inuit

By Andrew Paul

This oil painting by the Belgian marine artist François Etienne Musin (1820–1888) refers to HMS ‘Erebus’s’ Arctic venture under the command of Sir John Franklin in 1845. For Franklin’s last journey she had been fitted with a steam engine and a screw propeller and was accompanied by HMS ‘Terror’. In 1848 both vessels were abandoned in the ice.
Science

Crew of ill-fated Franklin Expedition cannibalized their commander, archeologists prove

By Andrew Paul

A mummy from an Early Bronze Age cemetery of Xiaohe (1980–1450 BC) in Xinjiang, China and very old cheese.
Science

World’s oldest cheese found in necklaces on mummies in China

By Lauren Leffer

A possible painting of the dicynodont made by the San in the early 1800s.
Science

The perplexing puzzle of a ‘Horned Serpent’ cave painting

By Tom Hawking

Skeletal remains of child buried in vampire grave
Science

Medieval child ‘vampire burial’ exhumed near Polish cathedral

By Andrew Paul

a long bronze sword
Science

Egyptologists find ancient sword possibly wielded against the mysterious ‘Sea Peoples’

By Laura Baisas

neanderthal teeth in a cave
Science

Neanderthals’ social isolation may have sped up their extinction

By Laura Baisas

Lasius emarginatus
Science

This immigrant ant is taking New York City by storm

By Popular Science Team

Titanic bow wreckage underwater
Science

The famous railing from ‘Titanic’ has broken off from Titanic

By Andrew Paul

Various artifacts recovered from Temple of Buto
Science

Egyptologists uncover 2,500 year-old observatory full of precise tools

By Andrew Paul

X-ray of skull pointing to region with evidence of cocaine use
Science

Mummified brains show cocaine arrived in Europe far earlier than we thought

By Andrew Paul

Mastodon skull in Iowa creek bed
Science

Huge mastodon skull found in a rural Iowa creek

By Andrew Paul