2,000-year-old 'celestial calendar' discovered in ancient Chinese tomb (www.livescience.com)
Archaeologists in China have unearthed a mysterious set of rectangular wooden pieces linked to an ancient astronomical calendar. The artifacts were discovered inside an exceptionally well-preserved 2,000-year-old tomb in the southwest of the country....
Early medieval Welsh cemetery found containing crouching bodies (www.theguardian.com)
Neanderthals lived in groups big enough to eat giant elephants (www.science.org)
Giant naked hill figure revealed as Hercules—and he aided medieval armies (www.newsweek.com)
Medieval belt buckle of 'dragon' eating frog discovered in Czech Republic may be from unknown pagan cult (www.livescience.com)
The puzzling depiction of a vicious predator — either a dragon or a snake — devouring a frog on an early medieval belt buckle from the Czech Republic may be a symbol from an unknown pagan cult, archaeologists say....
How technology helped archaeologists dig deeper (www.technologyreview.com)
1,500-year-old gold buckles depicting ruler 'majestically sitting on a throne' discovered in Kazakhstan (www.livescience.com)
Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have discovered two gold ornaments in a 1,500-year-old tomb that feature the earliest known depictions of the great khan, or “khagan,” of the Göktürks — a nomadic confederation of Turkic-speaking peoples who occupied the region for around three centuries, according to an archaeologist who...
Ancient Egyptian teenager died while giving birth to twins, mummy reveals (www.livescience.com)
What Lies Beneath the Vatican of the Zapotecs? | NYT (www.nytimes.com)
New England stone walls deserve a science of their own (phys.org)
The abandoned fieldstone walls of New England are every bit as iconic to the region as lobster pots, town greens, sap buckets and fall foliage. They seem to be everywhere—a latticework of dry, lichen-crusted stone ridges separating a patchwork of otherwise moist soils....
Dress code: How a Winnipeg codebreaker cracked one of the 'world's top unsolved messages' | CBC (www.cbc.ca)
The strange story of the grave of Copernicus (theconversation.com)
Nicholas Copernicus was the astronomer who, five centuries ago, explained that Earth revolves around the Sun, rather than vice versa. A true Renaissance man, he also practised as a mathematician, engineer, author, economic theorist and medical doctor....
How archaeologists reconstructed the burning of Jerusalem in 586 BCE (arstechnica.com)
Direct dating of human fossils and the ever-changing story of human evolution (www.sciencedirect.com)
Cave Drawings in France Prompt a Reevaluation of Paleolithic Art (news.artnet.com)
10 extraordinary treasures that archaeologists unearthed this year (www.livescience.com)
As long as humans have been minting coins and crafting beautiful jewelry and other stunning collectibles, an equal number of people have been right behind them searching for these precious finds. Here are 10 extraordinary discoveries made in 2023 that prove that the hunt for buried treasure never gets old.
Study of Mongolian Arc adds to mystery surrounding its purpose (phys.org)
Many prehistoric handprints show a finger missing. What if this was not accidental? (www.theguardian.com)
Men and women might have had their fingers deliberately chopped off during religious rituals in prehistoric times, according to a new interpretation of palaeolithic cave art....