Tag: archaeology

Fossils of Giant Marine Reptiles Found High in the Swiss Alps

Fossils from some of the largest creatures ever to swim Earth’s oceans—whale-sized marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs—have been found in a counterintuitive place: atop three mountains in the Swiss Alps up to 8,990 feet above sea level. Scientists on Thursday described rib and vertebrae fossils from two ichthyosaur individuals: one about 69 feet long and the…


All-Private Astronaut Team Returns Safely From Landmark Space Station Visit

The first all-private astronaut team ever flown aboard the International Space Station (ISS) safely splashed down in the Atlantic off Florida’s coast on Monday, concluding a two-week science mission hailed as a landmark in commercialized human spaceflight. The SpaceX crew capsule carrying the four-man team, led by a retired NASA astronaut who is now vice…


Earliest Evidence of Maya Calendar Found Inside Guatemalan Pyramid

WASHINGTON—A glyph representing a day called “7 Deer” on mural fragments dating from the third century BC found inside the ruins of a pyramid in Guatemala marks the earliest-known use of the Maya calendar, one of this ancient culture’s renowned achievements. The fragments were found at the San Bartolo archeological site in the jungles of…


Researchers Identify Two Century Old Shipwreck as Captain Cook’s Endeavour

Archaeologists are confident that based on the evidence currently available, a shipwreck that has languished underwater for over two centuries is Captain James Cook’s Endeavour. “I am satisfied that this is the final resting place of one of the most important and contentious vessels in Australia’s maritime history,” Kevin Sumption, the director of the Australian…


Ancient Helmets, Temple Ruins Found at Dig in Southern Italy

ROME—Archaeologists in southern Italy have discovered ancient warrior helmets and the ruins of a painted brick wall at a site that might have been a forerunner of a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, officials said Tuesday. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the remains dug up at the popular tourist site of Velia were…


Archaeologist Extracts Extravagant Swedish Shipwreck From 1600s With 64 Cannons From Baltic Sea

For more than three centuries, a nearly intact shipwreck lay preserved in time on the seafloor of Stockholm harbor. When she was pulled from the ocean one spring morning in 1961, news of her recovery broke around the world. This wasn’t just any shipwreck, though. The 220-foot former flagship, the Vasa, built for King Gustav…


Marine Archaeologists Pull Up Treasure From 2 Ancient Shipwrecks Containing Hundreds of 1,800-Year-Old Silver Coins

A broken iron anchor, hundreds of years old, attests to a storm that foundered one of two ancient shipwrecks—from the mid-3rd and 14th centuries—which were discovered in the same location off the coast of Caesarea, Israel. Their antiquated cargos yielded nothing short of treasure preserved by the low-oxygen environment under the sea. While conducting an underwater…


Foraging Badger Unearths Trove of Over 200 Roman Coins Dating Back to the 3rd Century in Cave in Spain

A strange string of events led archaeologists to uncover an ancient treasure trove, dating to the late Roman period, in a river valley cave in northern Spain. And it all started with a badger. After heavy snows hit the Iberian Peninsula amidst Storm Filomena in the winter of 2021, one Grado resident, Roberto Garcia, accompanied…


1,800-Year-Old Iron Mask of Roman Soldier Unearthed in Ancient City Points to Imperial Garrison in Turkey

Turkish archaeologists have unearthed evidence of an imperial Roman garrison in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis, near modern-day Eskipazar in the northern Turkish province of Karabük, producing a fragment of an iron mask believed to have been worn by cavalry in the Roman army some 1,800 years ago. Excavation of the ancient city of Hadrianopolis,…


Officials Recover 1,900-Year-Old Roman Coins, Bronze Jug From Trunk of Suspicious Vehicle in Jerusalem

What began as a routine pullover of a suspicious vehicle by police in Jerusalem turned into an archaeological discovery harking back over 1,900 years ago—inside the trunk of the vehicle, Lev HaBira detectives found a box containing ancient “battle spoils” captured from Roman soldiers by Jewish rebels during the Second Jewish Revolt. Inspectors from the…