Archaeology

Cliff-rappelling scientists uncovered a crossbow bolt, part of a slingshot and 25 shoes in ancient vulture nesting sites

Camels in ancient Arabia may have led hunter-gatherers through deserts once thought uninhabitable

In his new book, Sam Kean reveals how re-creating ancient tools, techniques and traditions can unlock secrets about how our ancestors lived—and what they felt.

A team of archaeologists excavating the ancient Maya city of Caracol discovered the tomb of its first ruler, which contained pottery, jadeite jewelry and a rare death mask

Forty years after the first effort to extract mummy DNA, researchers have finally generated a full genome sequence from an ancient Egyptian, who lived when the earliest pyramids were built

Researchers and expert seafarers teamed up to re-create an ocean journey from more than 30,000 years ago

Claims that an asteroid or comet airburst destroyed the biblical Sodom captured the public’s imagination. Its retraction shows that scientific conclusions aren’t decided by majority rule in the public square

The Danish government deputized private detectorists to unearth artifacts buried in farm fields. Their finds are revealing the country’s past in extraordinary detail

The first physical evidence of Roman gladiators fighting animals has been found in skeletal remains from England

Discarded authors Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz, observers of the geological past, look into the future

Roughly 8,000-year-old remains unearthed from present-day Tunisia held a surprise: European hunter-gatherer ancestry

Mummies’ aromas may provide insight into historical social classes and periods, according to a team of trained mummy sniffers