Researchers have for the first time discovered evidence of microplastic contamination in archaeological soil samples.

The team discovered tiny microplastic particles in deposits located more than 7 meters deep, in samples dating back to the first or early second century and excavated in the late 1980s.

Preserving archaeology in situ has been the preferred approach to managing historical sites for a generation. However, the research team say the findings could prompt a rethink, with the tiny particles potentially compromising the preserved remains.

One thousand years ago, the first settlers of Rapa Nui — also known as Easter Island — feasted on a fusion cuisine of plants native to Polynesia but also ones indigenous to South America, around 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) away, a new study finds.

Researchers discovered the food remnants by identifying starch grains clinging to obsidian blades at the archaeological site of Anakena, the earliest known settlement on Rapa Nui, which was occupied from about A.D. 1000 to 1300, according to the study, published Wednesday (March 20) in the journal PLOS One. The finding suggests that the early Polynesians had regular contact with the people of South America as far back as a millennium ago.

This site is a million times cooler than stupid Stonehenge. Full report is open access: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/400b29d5-2e22-4321-878c-cb122d291660

The African island nation played a central—but little-known—role in the rise of the global sugar trade based on enslaved labor. To uncover this past, a team launched the country’s first archaeological research.

Archaeologists in France have excavated a Neolithic site containing 63 burials and hundreds of structures and artifacts from a human occupation spanning roughly 4,000 years.

The site in Clermont-Ferrand, a city in the Auvergne region of central France, was discovered during construction work in the 1980s. However, it wasn't until a highway-widening project that started in 2019 that archaeologists began excavations there, according to a translated statement from France's National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).

Radiocarbon dating revealed that humans visited the area before 6000 B.C., during the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age. But the vast majority of the radiocarbon dating showed that the site was used throughout much of the Neolithic period, also known as the New Stone Age. During this time, people began creating settlements and relying on agriculture; some of the site's ceramics, hearths and dug pits date to between 4750 and 4500 B.C.

Researchers have discovered 10 shipwrecks, including one estimated to be more than 5,000 years old, off the coast of Greece, along with scattered ancient artifacts from around the globe.

Using Homer's "Iliad" as a guide, an underwater archaeological team made the discoveries during a four-year survey off the coast of Kasos, a small island in the Aegean Sea, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced Wednesday.

Derived from the Latin words "manus," meaning "hand," and "portare," meaning "to carry," a manuport is an un-altered object that has been transported by a "person" away from its place of origin.

Not that your shell isn't super cool, but manuports are most interesting in the context of archaeology. When attributed to hominins living millions of years ago, they provide a window into the lives of our ancient ancestors.

Archaeologists have discovered more than 100 ornaments for use in piercings in ~11,000-year-old adult burials in Türkiye, providing the earliest conclusive evidence for body perforation and suggesting that piercing may have been a coming-of-age ritual.

Earring-like objects have been found at Neolithic sites in South-west Asia before, but there was no clear evidence for their use in piercings.

"We knew that there were earring-like artifacts in the Neolithic, they have been found at many sites," says co-author of the research, Dr. Emma Baysal from Ankara University. "But we were lacking in situ finds confirming their use on the human body before the late Neolithic."

The upper half of a giant statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II has been discovered near the ancient city of Hermopolis (modern-day el-Ashmunein), about 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Cairo.

The large stone piece is about 12.5 feet (3.8 meters) tall and depicts Ramesses II (reign circa 1279 to 1213 B.C.) wearing a double crown and a headdress topped with a royal cobra, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in an Arabic language statement. The back of the statue has hieroglyphs that state the various titles of the king. These titles help to glorify Ramesses II, according to the statement.

The lower part of the statue was found in 1930 by German archaeologist Günther Roeder. The original statue, when the lower and upper parts were together, would have stood about 23 feet (7 m) tall, the statement said.

A 3,300-year-old clay tablet from central Turkey describes a catastrophic foreign invasion of the Hittite Empire, a mysterious Bronze Age state. The invasion took place during a Hittite civil war, apparently in an effort to aid one of the warring factions, according to a translation of the tablet's cuneiform text.

The palm-size tablet was found in May 2023 by Kimiyoshi Matsumura, an archaeologist at the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology, amid the Hittite ruins at Büklükale, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of the Turkish capital Ankara.

Archaeologists think Büklükale was a major Hittite city. The new discovery suggests it was also a royal residence, perhaps on a par with the royal residence in the Hittite capital Hattuša (also spelled Hattusha), about 70 miles (112 km) to the northeast.

Plague pits containing the remains of at least 1,000 victims have been unearthed in southern Germany. The pits could together form the largest mass grave ever discovered in Europe, archaeologists say.

The excavations, which were carried out ahead of construction work in the city of Nuremberg, revealed eight pits each crammed with hundreds of skeletons belonging to adults, children and babies that date to between the late 15th and early 17th centuries. Archaeologists also found pottery shards and silver coins in two of the three pits they have finished excavating. Radiocarbon dating revealed the pottery coincides with plague outbreaks that occurred between 1622 and 1634, while the coins date to around 1619, according to a statement released by the archaeological excavation company In Terra Veritas.

"A discovery like that has never happened before and quite honestly, no one had thought this to be possible," Melanie Langbein, of Nuremberg's department for heritage conservation, said in the statement. "The site is of enormous importance to the city of Nuremberg."

When Japanese scientists wanted to learn more about how ground stone tools dating back to the Early Upper Paleolithic might have been used, they decided to build their own replicas of adzes, axes, and chisels and used those tools to perform tasks that might have been typical for that era. The resulting fractures and wear enabled them to develop new criteria for identifying the likely functions of ancient tools, according to a recent paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. If these kinds of traces were indeed found on genuine Stone Age tools, it would be evidence that humans had been working with wood and honing techniques significantly earlier than previously believed.

We're delighted to announce that Time Team will be digging at Sutton Hoo in June 2024, working in partnership with the National Trust!

Sutton Hoo entered history with the discovery of a huge ship burial in 1939, thought to be the final resting place of the 7th century King Raedwald. The excavation by Basil Brown and Edith Pretty was recently immortalised in the film, 'The Dig'.

Following geophysical surveys in 2021/2022, Time Team has now been granted unprecedented access to excavate in the Garden Field.