Thursday, October 8, 2026

Roman Forum Found Beneath Barcelona Hotel Rewrites Barcino

Roman Forum Found Beneath Barcelona Hotel Rewrites Barcino What started as a routine elevator shaft installation in a Barcelona hotel basement has turned into one of the most significant Roman archaeology discoveries in Spain in decades. Excavations beneath the Gran Hotel Barcino in the city's Gothic Quarter have uncovered a monumental stone pavement dating to…

Black Gold: Sumerian Bitumen Recipes Worked Like Asphalt, 4,000 Years Ago

Black Gold: Sumerian Bitumen Recipes Worked Like Asphalt, 4,000 Years Ago Sumerian craftspeople in Mesopotamia didn’t simply scoop up natural bitumen and slap it on boats or bricks. A new materials study suggests they followed repeatable “recipes” that controlled strength, flexibility, and waterproofing in ways that look surprisingly familiar to modern asphalt engineering. The research focuses…

Renaissance Gallows Unearthed in France With 32 Executed Victims

Renaissance Gallows Unearthed in France With 32 Executed Victims Archaeologists working in Grenoble, France, have made a chilling discovery that sheds light on the brutal religious persecution of the 16th century. The remains of a rare Renaissance-era gallows, along with at least 32 individuals who were executed and denied proper burial, have emerged from beneath the…

Why Ghosts Haunt England at Christmas but Steer Clear of America

Why Ghosts Haunt England at Christmas but Steer Clear of America A few years ago, the Downton Abbey Christmas special featured a ouija board which communicated a message from a dead character. American reviewers were extremely puzzled by this incursion of the supernatural, while British reviewers found it unexceptional. ancient-origins 25 December, 2025 - 10:00 Section News History…

Study Reviews Seal Tooth Pendant from Kent’s Cavern

LONDON, ENGLAND—A new study of an artifact unearthed 160 years ago in southwestern England has determined that it came from an adult male grey seal, and not a badger, wolf, or beaver, as had been previously suggested. According to a statement released by London’s Natural History Museum, the researchers, led by Simon A. Parfitt of…

Milk Beverage Residues Detected on Neolithic Pottery in Poland
Ancient Engineering

Milk Beverage Residues Detected on Neolithic Pottery in Poland

TORUŃ, POLAND—Residues of milk beverages with reduced lactose have been found on 5,500-year-old pottery fragments unearthed at the Neolithic site of Sławęcinek, which is located in north-central Poland, according to a Science in Poland report. Among the more than 6,000 pieces of pottery made by members of the Funnelbeaker culture that were recovered, the researchers…

Byzantine Fortified Monastery Identified in Spain

ALICANTE, SPAIN—According to the Greek Reporter, a fortified monastic settlement dated to the sixth century a.d. has been found in southeastern Spain at the site of El Monastil by a team of researchers led by Antonio M. Poveda Navarro of the Urbs Regia Foundation. The site, known as Elo or Elum in Latin, was situated…