Archaeology
Learn more about ancient civilizations and human remains, such as buildings, art or trash.
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What Is the Mohorovicic Discontinuity and Can Humans Ever Reach It?
How Many Oceans Are There?
How Much of the Ocean Has Been Explored? Shockingly Little!
How Deep Is the Ocean?
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Here are six surprises that were uncovered around the globe when the heat rose and the water receded.
Does searching through the mud of a riverbank for treasures of old sound like a fun way to spend a day? If so, you may just be a true mudlarker at heart.
The curves of the giant snake line up with the sun during equinoxes and solstices.
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In the search for Cleopatra's tomb, a team of archaeologists was surprised by two mummies with gold foil-covered tongues. What was the reason for this strange burial custom?
Archaeologists have long debated whether Neanderthals buried their dead. Newly interpreted evidence indicates they did.
Since its discovery, the Nebra Sky Disc has been known as the oldest artifact in the world depicting cosmic phenomena. But is the 3,600-year-old disc actually 1,000 years younger than previously thought or is it a fake altogether?
By Mark Mancini
This is not an easy question to answer, thanks to the mists of time. But historians have put forth several possibilities. An ancient tablet claims one king ruled for 28,000 years!
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The pigment ultramarine was as expensive as gold in medieval Europe; so how did it end up in the teeth of a nun buried at a monastery in rural Germany?
What makes these spongy, waterlogged areas of decaying plant matter so perfect at preservation? In a word: science.
By Mark Mancini
But that doesn't mean they worshipped them.
By Dave Roos
Some of the cremated remains buried at Stonehenge came from a spot in Wales that's more than 100 miles away. How did that happen?
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And it turns out their strange discovery has a straightforward explanation: copper.
Archaeologists discovered what they believe to be ruins of the Roman city of Neapolis — underwater near Tunisia.
Although the trenched enclosures were probably used to conduct rituals, they can tell us how the ancient indigenous people of the Amazon managed their forests.
Most mammals have a penis bone called a baculum, but humans don't. A new study sheds light on the history of the baculum, and why ours is missing.
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A stone slab unearthed in northern Italy has revealed its first big discovery: the name of an Etruscan goddess in a lost language.
The perfectly preserved remains of a 3,000-year-old settlement called Must Farm provide a window into the lives of the Bronze Age Britons.
Wadi Sura's enigmatic cave art gives a glimpse into a society where lines between human and animal were very, very blurry. New research has solved some of the mystery.
Archaeologists dig up and study the material remains of human civilizations. Bioarchaeologists do the same thing, except they focus on the remains of, well, us. What's the big deal about old bones and teeth?
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A sculpted mammoth shows visitors to the La Brea Tar Pits what these ancient animals might have looked like, but the pits themselves have looked the same for thousands of years. How did they form, and what discoveries lie beneath the sticky surface?
While archaeological digs are still hands-on projects, some computer programs can help piece together a more complete picture of the site and even what its inhabitants might have looked like. What else can the software tell us?
In "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," Dr. Jones battles the Nazis for the Holy Grail. Did the Nazis really have an interest in archaeology? And if so, what fueled it?
In "The Raiders of the Lost Ark," Indiana Jones competes with grave-robbing Nazis for the lost Ark of the Covenant. But what defined Dr. Jones as legit and the Nazis as grave robbers?
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Each country and each region within each country has its own laws regarding the right to cultural property. So, how do you know which artifacts belong to the government and which are "finders keepers"?
It's not so much about time as it is about money. What dictates how long an archeological team is permitted to dig at a particular site?