archaeology

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Scientists Stumped by Crocodile Eggs in Dino Nests

The 152M-year-old eggs are the oldest ever found

(Newser) - Crocodiles and their ancestors have been roaming the Earth for 200 million years, rubbing shoulders (do crocodiles even have shoulders?) with the dinosaurs, the BBC reports. Now researchers—in a study published this week in PLOS One —say they've discovered the world's oldest known crocodile eggs. The...

'Impressive Find' Made in Mud of Cairo Slum

Newly discovered statue may depict Ramses II

(Newser) - Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a massive statue in a Cairo slum that may be of pharaoh Ramses II, one of the country's most famous ancient rulers, reports the AP. The colossus, whose head was pulled from mud and groundwater by a bulldozer, is around 26 feet high and...

A Hurricane Damaged His Floor, Revealed Bit of History

Remains of some of America's first colonists possibly found in St. Augustine

(Newser) - Florida's St. Augustine was founded decades before Jamestown and Plymouth, and now the remains of some of those very first American colonists have likely been found. Credit Hurricane Matthew , reports First Coast News : After the hurricane descended on the city in October, David White decided to redo the resulting...

How the Burning Brigade Escaped a Nazi Death Camp
Tunnel Under Nazi Death Camp
Turns Legend Into Reality
in case you missed it

Tunnel Under Nazi Death Camp Turns Legend Into Reality

How a dozen members of the 'Burning Brigade' escaped the Nazis

(Newser) - At least 80,000 people—most of them Jews—were killed at a camp named Ponar in what is now Lithuania as the Nazis transitioned to the Final Solution. The actual number is likely much higher. To find yourself at Ponar was a death sentence. But a legend, based on...

Archaeologists Trying to Find Legendary King's Body

'It's like 'Game of Thrones' and 'Outlander' all rolled into one—except this story is real'

(Newser) - Almost exactly 580 years ago, King James I of Scotland was murdered by a group of conspirators in a sewer tunnel beneath a monastery as he attempted to escape, recounts the BBC . Stabbed dozens of times, he is said to have died in a pool of his own blood. His...

Huge-Jawed Worm Species Terrorized Fish 400M Years Ago

The new species was discovered in storage at a Canadian museum

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a giant worm—no, not this guy —that terrorized fish, octopuses, and squids with its comparatively massive jaws 400 million years ago. UPI reports the fossil was dug up at Canada's Kwataboahegan Formation back in the mid-1990s and had been in storage at the Royal...

Dead Sea Scrolls Cave Discovered, but Someone Got There First

Looters got there 70 years before researchers

(Newser) - Israeli researchers have discovered what they believe is the first new Dead Sea Scrolls cave uncovered in more than 60 years—but looters got there long before them. The site at the Qumran cliffs, an Israeli-controlled site in the West Bank, has yielded artifacts including pieces of pottery, broken scroll...

Maya Weathered One Collapse; the Second Proved Fatal

Hundreds of years apart, the collapses were eerily similar: study

(Newser) - The Maya civilization suffered "waves" of war and political instability before its collapse in the 2nd century. The civilization later recovered, but history would repeat itself just a few hundred years later, delivering a final blow, researchers explain in a PNAS study offering a clear chronology of the civilization'...

Man Follows Hunch, Says He Has Uncovered Lost City

13th-century Trellech was once Wales' largest city

(Newser) - Stuart Wilson says people thought he was crazy when he gambled $39,000—his life savings—on a 4.6-acre field in Wales. Having heard a farmer's story about moles digging up bits of pottery on the land, the amateur archaeologist tells the Guardian he had a hunch that...

The 7 Biggest Archaeology Finds of 2016

From an ancient Greek city to a Viking shrine

(Newser) - We’ve learned quite a bit about the past in the past 12 months. Heritage Daily rounds up the top archaeological discoveries of 2016, from an ancient Greek city to a shrine dedicated to a Viking king:

Where This Mound Stands Was a City Larger Than Paris

Exploring what remains of Cahokia in modern-day Illinois

(Newser) - What drove the rapid decline of the largest city of North America some seven centuries ago? Annalee Newitz takes an up-close look for Ars Technica after traveling to the outskirts of East St. Louis, Ill., this past summer to help archaeologists dig up what evidence they can of Cahokia, which...

Major Dino Discovery Made in Amber Meant for Jewelry

Scientists have found a feathery dinosaur tail

(Newser) - Researchers were perusing an amber market in Myanmar when they stumbled across a truly extraordinary specimen, National Geographic reports. Trapped inside a golden piece of amber—already partially shaped to be sold as jewelry—was a fully feathered section of a dinosaur's tail. According to the Los Angeles Times...

650-Year-Old Temple Found Under Mexican Supermarket

It's believed to have been built to worship the god of wind

(Newser) - Working at the site of a demolished supermarket in Mexico City, archaeologists only had to dig 10 feet down to find a temple built more than 650 years ago, researchers said Wednesday. The circular platform, about 36 feet in diameter and 4 feet tall, now sits in the shadow of...

We May Finally Know Exactly Where the 1st Pilgrims Lived

And it only took 396 years

(Newser) - We likely now know the exact location of the first Pilgrim settlement in the New World—thanks, in part, to a cow named Constance. The Boston Globe reports it's long been known that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, but it was never clear exactly where they built...

Inside the Pyramid Is a Pyramid. Inside That Is Something More

Inside the Kukulkan pyramid are 2 smaller, older ones

(Newser) - On the surface, the Kukulkan temple that sits among the ruins of Chichen Itza looks nothing like a Russian nesting doll, but it's essentially the pyramid equivalent, scientists say. They'd known for decades that the 100-foot-tall structure in Mexico's Yucatan state sits on top of a smaller,...

The Only Intact Stone Copy of Ten Commandments Could Be Yours

But you'll have to fork over at least $322K

(Newser) - Not content with your Bible? For $322,000, you could perhaps own a marble slab bearing the only complete stone inscription of the Ten Commandments. Heritage Auctions is now auctioning the 2-foot-long, 200-pound slab engraved in a Samaritan script, though the commandments aren't exactly as you know them today....

In Remote Chile, Skeleton of Gauguin's Dad Found

Remains at Chilean fort believed to be his

(Newser) - Artist Paul Gauguin was a little more than a year old when his parents left Paris bound for Peru. But during a stop at a Chilean fort near Antarctica on Oct. 30, 1849, Gauguin's father, Clovis, died suddenly of a heart aneurysm. His family saw him buried, but the...

Bathroom Break Leads to Major Prehistoric Discovery

The find changes a lot of what we know about early Australians

(Newser) - "A man getting out of the car to go to the toilet led to the discovery of one of the most important sites in Australian pre-history," archaeologist Giles Hamm tells ABC News . Hamm was surveying a section of Australia's Flinders Ranges when his partner, aboriginal elder Clifford...

This Medieval Well May Be Both Blessed and Cursed

Archaeologists think they've found St. Anne's Well near Liverpool

(Newser) - In medieval times, pilgrims flocked to England in quest of St. Anne's Well, which was said to cure ailments and wash away sins. Archaeologists now say they've rediscovered that large sandstone well on a private farm near Liverpool using only a 1983 photo and a description, reports the...

'Burial Slab' of Jesus Discovered in Jerusalem

Burial chamber has been concealed by marble cladding since at least 1555 AD

(Newser) - Renovations at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem have uncovered what many believe to be the stone bench on which the body of Jesus Christ was laid after his death. USA Today reports that work began in June to renovate or restore certain areas of the church, including...

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