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Research notes, reading guides, book highlights, and methods for studying the ancient world, plus roundups of new papers and discoveries.
Small Museum Climate Control Myths That Waste Money
Small museums can protect collections without rigid climate settings. See what conservation guidance says about humidity, monitoring, HVAC and safer storage.
Uluburun Shipwreck: Copper, Tin, and Bronze Age Trade
The Uluburun shipwreck carried copper, tin, glass and resin around 1320 BCE. Its cargo reveals Bronze Age trade and unresolved questions.
Prehistoric Warfare: Raids, Mass Graves and Bronze Age Battles
Prehistoric warfare left evidence at Jebel Sahaba, Nataruk, Neolithic massacre sites and Tollense. What can archaeology prove about violence before states?
Voynich Manuscript: Women’s Health, Astrology, and Baths
The Voynich Manuscript's bathing women, zodiac diagrams and herbal drawings may reflect medieval medicine. What do the evidence and recent research actually establish?
Palmyra in 3D: How Archaeologists Reconstruct Its Lost Monuments
After ISIS destroyed major monuments at Palmyra, archaeologists used photographs, laser scans and 3D models to document the ruins. What can those reconstructions prove?
Did Romans Reach America Before Columbus?
Roman-style amphorae reported in Brazil raised claims of a Roman Atlantic crossing. Pottery chemistry can help identify a jar, but cannot prove when it…
Aristarchus of Samos: Heliocentrism Before Copernicus
Aristarchus proposed a Sun-centred cosmos in the third century BCE. His lost theory survives through Archimedes, not a papyrus in a mummy’s skull.
Viking DNA: What Ancient Genomes Really Reveal
What 442 Viking Age genomes reveal about migration, ancestry, Birka’s female burial, Iceland’s settlers and the limits of Viking DNA tests.
LiDAR Maps the Cities, Roads and Farmland of the Maya Lowlands
Airborne laser surveys reveal thousands of Maya houses, causeways and farms, and have raised estimates of the ancient lowlands’ population.
Homo Floresiensis: The Hobbit of Flores
The tiny Homo floresiensis lived on Flores for thousands of years. Fossils, stone tools and new studies reveal its origins, diet and uncertain disappearance.
Neolithic Malta: Astronomical Alignments in Stone
At Mnajdra, equinox and solstice sunlight enters ancient stone chambers. New research tests whether Malta’s other temples also faced the stars.
Silk Road Plants: How Ancient Flora Crossed Continents
Pepper at Berenike, apples in Central Asia and rice in Iran reveal how crops crossed trade networks and changed diets and farming over centuries.
