archaeology

A rare dye made from snails for the robes of the Roman elite almost 2,000 years ago has been unearthed at a cricket club....

It has long been thought that meat played an important role in the diet of hunter-gatherers before the Neolithic transition. However, due to the scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Paleolithic sites, little information exists about the dietary habits of pre-agricultural human groups. A new study challenges this notion...

The emergence in the Neolithic of patrilineal social systems, in which children are affiliated with their father’s lineage, may explain a spectacular decline in the genetic diversity of the Y chromosome observed worldwide between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago....

A trove of artifacts — including cannonballs and coins — were recently found among the ruins of a centuries-old fort on a Caribbean island....

The researchers turned to caves under Harrat Khaybar, a vast basalt plain pocked with volcanic craters in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The caves were made by lava as it flowed from nearby volcanoes, forming rocky tunnels as it cooled....

The murder of sacrificial victims by “incaprettamento” — tying their neck to their legs bent behind their back, so that they effectively strangled themselves — seems to have been a tradition across much of Neolithic Europe, with a new study identifying more than a dozen such murders over more than 2,000 years....

The discovery of a lynx buried with four dogs at an early-medieval settlement in Hungary is confounding archaeologists, as these wild cats are rarely found in archaeological digs....

Low tides on Ireland’s western coast have revealed the remains of defensive walls that are likely Bronze Age ramparts....