Take a close-up look at the latest claimed evidence that the Shroud of Turin was Jesus' burial cloth.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, traveled to Baghdad to announce that his company will create a virtual copy of the collections held at Iraq’s National Museum. The images will be available to the public for free early next year, and are promised to be more extensive than the digital project funded by the Italian [...]

Few people are traveling to Taxila, Pakistan, due to the threat of Taliban bombers and gunmen. Taxila was a center of Buddhist learning between the fifth century B.C. and the second century A.D., and has been a premier archaeological attraction. “This is the worst time for archaeology. Militancy has affected it very badly. There were [...]

Sediment cores taken from Indiana’s Appleman Lake reveal that megafauna declined 15,000 years ago, during a time of major environmental changes. “We can’t resolve the climate versus human debate but we have eliminated one of the main hypotheses for each camp,” said Jacquelyn Gill of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Three skeletons were revealed during excavation [...]

Fossils of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck's bill, have been discovered in the Sahara. The five crocs, three of them newly named species, were part of the bizarre world of crocs that inhabited the southern land mass known as Gondwana some 100 million years ago.

Researchers have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease. Using statistical analysis on skeletal remains of a well-preserved female specimen, researchers determined the "hobbit" to be a distinct species and not a genetically flawed version of modern humans.

A Union gunship, the USS Westfield, has been recovered as part of the preparations to deepen a shipping channel near Pelican Island, Texas. The ship exploded on New Year’s Day, 1863, while its crew prepared to scuttle it, killing 14. What remains will be conserved at Texas A&M University. The Archaeological Institute of America, ARCHAEOLOGY’s parent [...]

Have archaeologists uncovered the real curse of the mummies?

When sixteen mummies with surviving heart and blood tissue from the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo were given CT scans, nine of them were found to have hardening of the arteries. “We were struck by the similar appearance of vascular calcification in the mummies and our present-day patients,” said Dr. Michael Miyamoto of [...]

Hardening of the arteries has been detected in Egyptian mummies, some as old as 3,500 years, suggesting that the factors causing heart attack and stroke are not only modern ones; they afflicted ancient people, too.

They sleep under ancient Roman frescoes and walk on priceless mosaic floors, but they are far from living a privileged life. They are the dogs of Pompeii -- sick, starving, dirty and scruffy stray dogs who wander through the ruins ...

Thousands of Mesolithic flint tools and flakes have been unearthed in Leicestershire, England. Charcoal, burned animal bones, postholes, and arcs of stones that may show the positions of dwellings were also found. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team has recently excavated a mass grave outside a cemetery in Buenos Aires. At least 13,000 Argentinians “disappeared” between 1976 [...]

Reconstructing ancient fossils from hundreds of thousands of jumbled up pieces can prove challenging. A new study tested the reliability of expert identification versus computer analysis in reconstructing fossils. The investigation, based on fossil teeth from extinct vertebrates, found that the most specialized experts provided the most reliable identifications.

Two men fled the scene as sheriff’s deputies approached an ancient graveyard near Ohio’s Little Miami River. The men had been digging at the site. The skeletal remains of 12 Maoris were repatriated to New Zealand from the National Museum of Wales after a special ceremony. The bones have been in boxes at the museum since [...]

As world leaders prepare for next month's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, international researchers are investigating the impact of climate change on historic architectural structures. Bringing together 30 partners from 16 nations in Europe and North Africa, the ...

Two out of five Japanese subs sunk by the U.S. off the coast off the Hawaiian island of Oahu in 1946 were located earlier this year. “In their time, they were very revolutionary,” said military historian, retired Col. Robert D. Hackett. U.S. technicians studied the subs, which were sunk in order to keep the technology [...]

A cache of coins that was burned during the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. has gone on display for the first time in Jerusalem. “These really show us the impact of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century,” said Gabriela Bijovsky of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Veteran Don Chalmers has returned a [...]

A 4,500-year-old circular city has been found in Syria on the banks of the Euphrates, in an area due to be flooded by a dam project. Traces of the home of a wealthy Roman have been unearthed beneath Marlowe Theater in Canterbury, England. The house dates to the late second or third centuries. Here’s more information on [...]

California experienced centuries-long droughts in the past 20,000 years that coincided with the thawing of ice caps in the Arctic, according to analysis of stalagmites from a cave in the Sierra Nevada.

A mural at the Maya site of Calakmul, Mexico, depicts scenes from the lives of ordinary people, and reveals the words for “maize,” and “salt.” “This is the first time that we’ve seen anything like this,” said Simon Martin of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The murals had been protected with a layer of clay [...]

Archaeologists in Rome announced today the discovery of what they believe to be the remains of emperor Nero s dining room. Known as "coenatio rotunda", the circular room was found by French archaeologist Francoise Villedieu in the Domus Aurea ( Golden House ), ...

Most scholars have assumed that all prehistoric artists were male, but new evidence suggests women and even young girls produced at least some cave drawings.

Ida, the fossil discovery announced last May, was only a distant relative of humans.

British authorities say the fossilized skull of a giant sea monster has been found off England's southern coast.

The ancient Nazca people, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, literally fell with the trees they chopped down, new research has concluded.

The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located.

Flip through images of remains found in the western Sahara Desert, which researchers claim are the relics of the long-lost army of Cambyses.

Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army -- 50,000 strong -- of Persian King Cambyses II, ...

Mysterious brown spots in the Tomb of Tutankhamun will be fully investigated during a five-year project to restore the burial of the boy King, Egypt's antiquities department announced today. The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has partnered with the California-based ...

The discovery of a small prehistoric circle of stones near Stonehenge may confirm the theory that the mysterious monument in southwest England was part of a massive funeral complex built around a river, researchers said Tuesday.

The world's oldest and most complete skeleton of a potential human ancestor -- named "Ardi," short for Ardipithecus ramidus -- has been unveiled by an international team of 47 researchers.

Italy's famed Blue Grotto sea cave was once decorated by Roman statues of sea gods, surveys reveal.

It's an unprecedented find that could revolutionize ideas about medieval England's Germanic rulers: An amateur treasure-hunter searching a farmer's field with a metal detector unearthed a huge collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts.

Ash from an ancient supervolcano eruption would have made it difficult for human and animals to chew their food.

With the help of ground penetrating radar, archaeologists have uncovered luxuriously decorated rooms, a colonnaded garden and a finely carved marble head, among other artifacts -- all beneath Rome's Fiumicino airport.

The foot and sandal prints offer insight into just how ancient craftsmen built this elaborate mosaic.

Swiss researchers have succeeded in mummifying a body part using the salty recipe of the ancient Egyptians.

France decided on Friday to return to Egypt five relics stolen from Luxor's Valley of the Kings and sold to the Louvre, two days after Cairo severed ties with the Paris museum in protest.

Has the lost army of Cambyses II been found? The Persian army of 50,000 soldiers supposedly perished in a sandstorm in ancient Egypt 2500 years ago. Researchers have located a valley of bones they think may belong to the fabled army.

From today s Discovery News story on the Nazca people: We have important lessons to learn from this ancient civilisation, which exposed itself to floods after chopping down thousand year old trees in order to make way for agriculture. Best known ...