Imagine turning a piece of ancient wood toward the light and finding the faint remains of someone’s handwriting. What did that person need to say? And how could we place their message on a calendar almost two thousand years later? Ancient inscriptions bring those questions together. Their words can preserve a royal decree, a business […]

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A terrace project in Rebild uncovered about 18.5 kilograms of Viking-Age silver. The objects show how wealth moved, was measured and was hidden in tenth-century Denmark. A new terrace was supposed to change a garden. Instead, a few minutes of digging opened a small window onto the Viking Age. In Rebild, northern Denmark, a homeowner […]

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The name that keeps pulling archaeologists back to the eastern frontier What if a city that appears in the records of ancient Egypt has been sitting in plain sight, hidden beneath later roads, barracks and stonework? That is the possibility raised by a new discovery at Tell Abu Seifi in northern Sinai. Archaeologists have found […]

The post Did Archaeologists Find Egypt’s Lost City of Mesen? A Ramesses II Inscription Offers a New Clue appeared first on Curiosmos.

Dig into an old settlement in the Amazon and the ground itself can reveal that people lived there. Beneath the vegetation, patches of dark soil contain charcoal, broken pottery and the remains of everyday meals. The houses may have disappeared. The soil they helped create can still support crops. Known as terra preta, or Amazonian […]

The post Terra Preta: The Ancient Amazonian Soil That Stayed Fertile for Centuries appeared first on Curiosmos.

Imagine finding a Roman coin hundreds of miles from the place where it was made. Who carried it there? A soldier, a merchant, or someone whose journey has left no other trace? One coin leaves those questions open. Put thousands of recorded finds on a map, however, and a different story begins to emerge: the […]

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What would a melon served in medieval China have looked like? Two seeds recovered from an ancient port are helping researchers approach that question through the fruit’s DNA. A new PNAS study, published September 4, places the seeds within an East Asian cultivated melon lineage. Their genetic traits suggest fruit suited to fresh eating or […]

The post Two Ancient Melon Seeds Offer a Glimpse of Fruit on Song Dynasty Tables appeared first on Curiosmos.