Archeology

A 26-ft deep excavation in Indonesia has revealed that humans and a hominin species that pre-dates humans used the same cave. The enticing possibility even exists that both species overlapped, sharing the space at the same time.

Once thought an exclusive human skill, the ability to make fire on demand has long been seen as a turning point in our evolutionary story. But new research suggests Neanderthals also mastered fire-making hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens.

Dinosaurs may be long extinct, but 2025 made it clear that they’re anything but settled science. New fossils, reanalyses of famous specimens and increasingly sophisticated tools have helped us learn more about how they lived, moved, fed and evolved.

For nearly a century, a strange band of 5,200 holes carved into a hillside has defied explanation. Stretching for nearly a mile along the edge of the Pisco Valley, Monte Serpe – "serpent mountain" – may have finally revealed its secrets to scientists.

Archeologists say they have solved the 6,000-year-old mystery of Armenia’s “dragon stones" – massive carved monoliths scattered across high-altitude slopes and pastures where no ancient settlements ever existed. It's a story of worship and water.

New evidence shows that Neanderthals, early Homo sapiens and even earlier hominins were using, processing and eating starches, grass seeds, nuts, fruits, sedges and tubers long before the supposed "Broad Spectrum Revolution" diet shift took place.

For a long time, archaeologists believed large buildings required large bosses. It was simple: only societies with strong hierarchies (kings and slaves) could organize massive construction projects. But a new discovery in the Maya region is rewriting that story.

One of the first events to signal the collapse of Napoleon's reign was his crushing defeat after an invasion of Russia in 1812. Researchers have long thought that the disease typhus played a role, but modern DNA analysis paints a different picture.

There is still great mystery surrounding the early beginnings of the Karnak temple. When did people first begin to settle in this area? How did the Nile river have an impact on this sacred location? New research is finally providing some answers.

Lead poisoning isn’t just an industrial-age problem. A new study reveals our ancestors, including Neanderthals, were exposed to lead for millions of years, shaping how their brains evolved and overturning what scientists thought about our toxic history.

Sequencing mammoth DNA has already helped scientists map out how these Ice Age giants evolved, migrated, and survived. But there's a hidden layer of history still waiting to be decoded – the microbes that lived inside them.

Large rock-face murals scattered across the desert represent one of the most ambitious – and perilous – creative feats of ancient humans, with researchers arguing the massive carvings acted as visual beacons, guiding people to crucial water sources.