Meticulous ancient notetakers have given archaeologists a glimpse of what life was like 3,000 years ago in the Assyrian Empire, which controlled much of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, an ancient script once common in the Middle East, were unearthed in summer 2009 in an ancient palace in present-day southeastern Turkey.

Palace scribes jotted down seemingly mundane state affairs on the tablets during the Late Iron Age—which lasted from roughly the end of the ninth century B.C. until the mid-seventh century B.C. Read the rest of this entry »

A man’s skeleton found atop a stone slab at Copán, which was the capital of an ancient Maya state, contains clues to a colonial expansion that occurred more than 1,000 years before Spanish explorers reached the Americas.

The bones come from K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’, or KYKM for short, the researchers report in an upcoming Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

KYKM was the first of 16 kings who ruled Copán and surrounding highlands of what is today northern Honduras for about 400 years, from 426 to 820, say archaeologist T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his colleagues. KYKM’s bone chemistry indicates that he grew up in the central Maya lowlands, which are several hundred kilometers northwest of Copán. Read the rest of this entry »

Hungary’s leaning towards Egyptian history was sparked by a dawning interest in all things antiquarian that came with the opening up of foreign travel, and reached full maturity in the wake of the decipherment of hieroglyphs and the unfolding of the science of Egyptology. During the last decades of the 19th century, displays of artefacts brought home by Fejérvàry and his fellow contemporary amateurs developed from collections of curiosities into aesthetically appreciated exhibitions of the culture that, they deduced, sprang from the “cradle of civilisation”.

In 1898 the first actual step in the long process of establishing Egyptology as an academic discipline in Hungary was pushed forward with the foundation of a chair of Ancient Oriental history, and when Egyptologist Ede Mahler was appointed to the University of Budapest as professor of Egyptian studies. However the first Hungarian archaeological mission to Egypt was not until 1907, when Hungarian amateur Fèlöp Back sponsored excavation work led by Polish Egyptologist Tadeusz Samolenski at Sharuna in Middle Egypt. Read the rest of this entry »

British archaeologists have proclaimed the second-largest city in Bulgaria, Plovdiv, to be the sixth oldest city in the world.

Plovdiv shares the sixth spot in the ranking, compiled by the British The Daily Telegraph, together with Faiyum in Egypt and Sidon in Lebanon.

The article points out that the earliest inhabitation in Plovdiv dates back to 4,000 BC. The city was originally a Tracian settlement before becoming a major Roman city. It later fell into Byzantine and Ottoman hands, before becoming part of Bulgaria.

“The city is a major cultural centre and boasts many ancient remains, including a Roman amphitheatre and aqueduct, and Ottoman baths,” the Daily Telegraph points out. Read the rest of this entry »

After 12 weeks of digging in the rain, the huge expanse of land at the corner of St Michael’s Hill and Tyndall Avenue, looks like a quagmire.

At first sight, the enormous expanse of red mud and claggy puddles doesn’t give the impression that it could tell you much about Bristol’s past, but archaeologist Andy King is clearly excited about what his team from the Bristol and Region Archaeological Service (BARAS) has learnt over the last three months.

“We’ve basically rewritten the history of Bristol with this dig,” he says, as he looks out across the site from beneath the peak of his hard hat. Read the rest of this entry »

For years conventional wisdom has held that the Old Indian Meetinghouse next to the cemetery on Route 28 was built in 1684, making it, by many accounts, the oldest Indian church in the country and the oldest church on Cape Cod.

The sign at the building and too many publications to count give 1684—not long after British colonists came to the area to convert the Native Americans to Christianity—as the date of original construction.

The story goes that in 1717 the building was moved, rolled on logs placed one in front of the other, from its original location on Briant’s Neck near Santuit Pond to its current site, near the eastern bank of the Mashpee River. Read the rest of this entry »

Archeologists are working at a unique site just outside of Hempstead. The Bernardo Plantation once served as a staging area for General Sam Houston.

Just 50 miles north of Houston there is a place where history is being uncovered.

Jim Bruseth with the Texas Historical Commission explained, “This is the beginning of the plantation system in Texas.”

A piece of Texas past being seen for the first time in 200 years, it’s called Bernardo, a plantation established in 1822 by Jared Groce, one of “the old three hundred” settlers of Stephen F. Austin’s colony. His property at the time was the largest plantation in Texas and would become the staging ground for General Sam Houston’s troops before the battle of San Jacinto. Read the rest of this entry »

Archaeological Department has unearthed a Hindu deity’s idol Kurukshetra, which statue is made of white sandstone and depicts Goddess Parvati and her two sons Ganesha and Karthikeya.

“A few centuries ago, a pilgrimage might have been situated here on the banks of holy river Saraswati. We were excavating this ancient pilgrimage’s pond and found this idol buried deep inside. This idol is made of sandstone and Uma Maheshwari’s (Goddess Parvati) depiction is engraved on the statue alongwith her two sons, Ganesh and Karthikeya,” said Rajendra Rana, Archaeological Departement, Sri Krishna Museum.

“This idol is 1×1 big and is made of white sandstone. This could be almost 1000-year-old statue belonging to 10th or the 11th century,” he added. Read the rest of this entry »

What is believed to be the world’s oldest block of butter has been discovered in the Antarctic.

The Kiwi butter was found frozen in the stable area adjacent to Robert Falcon Scott’s hut.

“I think the butter was absolutely a treasure find,” says Lizzie Meek, Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Until recently much of the hut was surrounded by snow and ice. A restoration team were working on the adjoining stables when they made the discovery, near a pile of empty butter boxes.

“Oh just tremendous! It looked like an old wrinkly bag and you look inside and saw the wonderful Silver Fern logo,” says Meek. Read the rest of this entry »

The Syrian National Excavation Expedition working at Tal al-Kasara archaeological site in Deir Ezzor Province (Northeastern Syria) discovered a 44-meter long mosaic painting.

The painting was found in the cool hall of a bathhouse at the site .It is the first of its kind that was discovered in the Middle Euphrates Region and it represents geometric shapes and fishes with opposite heads.

The site was discovered by the British expedition for the first time in 1849 and a survey was conducted during the French mandate. In 2006, the National Expedition started its excavations through which it discovered a city dating back to the Byzantine Era, said Head of the National Excavation Expedition Yarub al-Abdullah. Read the rest of this entry »