The circular Tholos at Epidaurus has one of the sanctuary’s most puzzling features: beneath its floor, concentric walls form narrow underground passages. Archaeologists can describe that structure in detail. Explaining exactly what happened inside it is harder.
The building stood...
A lost Hittite inscription has revealed new evidence about a king who ruled the ancient city of Karkemish before Assyria's conquest. A fresh examination of the inscription suggests that scholars had linked it to the wrong ruler for decades....
Pottery recovered from an ancient mound in southern Turkey has revealed possible connections to Athens, Sparta, and Ionia, researchers say. An analysis of ceramics from the settlement known today as Yumuktepe, in modern-day Mersin on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, found...
An ancient Amazonian civilization built enormous circles, squares, and other structures of geometry in Brazil's rainforest around the time the Greek mathematician Pythagoras lived. Archaeologists have now identified hundreds of previously unknown earthworks, revealing the scale of these ancient...
Scientists have linked a severe drought associated with Mycenaean Greece's collapse to climate changes originating in the Atlantic Ocean. New research suggests that shifts in ocean circulation and temperatures intensified dry conditions across the eastern Mediterranean around 3,200 years...
Ancient Greek military symbols, including decorated shields and helmets, have been identified on Roman funeral beds in Pompeii. A new study of carved bone fragments reveals how Roman families used military imagery inspired by ancient Greek traditions to decorate...
Hidden jokes on ancient Greek vases may have carried a serious message about the limits of art. A study argues that painters used visual tricks to make viewers question whether images could faithfully represent the world.
The study, by University...
A study of 208 bronze coins associated with Hellenistic Kibyra in present-day southwestern Turkey is revealing how money from Rhodes, Lycia, and neighboring cities circulated together for centuries. The collection, held by the Burdur Museum since 1971, also suggests...
An ancient basin in Greece that once supported early humans and large animals underwent dramatic environmental changes as ice ages came and went, according to new research. Scientists studying the Megalopolis Basin in southern Greece found that the landscape...
Ancient Greek burial hoards discovered in Romania have revealed rare silver coins bearing images of Gorgons, mythical creatures from Greek mythology. A new study examines two collections of coins dating to the fifth century BC, offering fresh evidence of...
The Sumerian language, spoken thousands of years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, reveals how one of the world's earliest civilizations communicated and developed its writing system. A detailed linguistic study shows how Sumerian functioned, how its grammar differed across regions,...
French and Iraqi archaeologists have uncovered more of a 3,800-year-old bridge in the ancient city of Larsa in southern Iraq, including a brick inscribed with the name of a Mesopotamian king. The structure crossed a major canal and offers...
An ancient Greek tombstone reused in a village house has revealed the first documented physician in Mysia Abbaeitis, a region of Roman Anatolia in present-day western Turkey. The stone names Alexandros and honors him as "the best physician of...
A collection of weapons from a nearly 2,000-year-old Vandal warrior burial has been anonymously delivered to a museum in eastern Poland. The artifacts, including a broken sword and two spurs, may have belonged to a high-ranking mounted warrior. However,...
Excavations at Alexandria Troas in present-day northwestern Turkey have revealed elaborate marble decoration inside an ancient odeon, including carved friezes, column bases, and stone thresholds leading to its stage building.
Findings from the 2024 excavation season show the structure was...
