Bronze Age parents 4,500 years ago bought toys for their kids, so long as, perhaps, they were on their best behavior. Clay artifacts found in Syria made a sound when shaken, and new research suggests they were baby rattles. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/world/?location=syria-4

In 1738, the governor of Spanish Florida established a militia outpost against British incursions; its soldiers had fled slavery and escaped south. Read the story of Fort Mose, the first free Black town in the future United States. archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2024/features/freedom-fort/

Armenia’s “dragon stones” can stand 18 feet high. They were decorated with animal imagery and erected at high altitudes. New radiocarbon dating at one site revealed they were placed there around 4200 B.C. But why? archaeology.org/news/2025/09/22/researchers-solve-mystery-of-armenias-dragon-stones/

Around 18,000 years ago, a member of a Paleolithic culture made a musical instrument from this shell. Only recently did archaeologists discover the modifications that made it playable. How it sounded: archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2021/artifacts/artifact-france-magdalenian-shell-instrument/

In A.D. 351–352, Jews rebelled against Roman rule in an uprising called the Gallus Revolt. A newly discovered coin hoard at the site of Huqoq in Israel was likely linked to the event. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/23/rare-coin-hoard-linked-with-jewish-revolt/

A high-ranking family in the Frankish Kingdom laid a boy to rest around A.D. 675, burying him with a scabbard with gold appliqué (pictured), silver spurs and bracelets, and a gold foil cross. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/digs-discoveries/good-night-sweet-prince/

Thousands of manmade depressions in a mile-long ribbon atop Peru's Monte Sierpe—what was the "Band of Holes"? Archaeologists began investigating the monument, which may provide clues to how the Inca wielded power. archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2016/features/an-overlooked-inca-wonder/

The Titanic had a sister ship, the HMHS Britannic, that also sank tragically. During WWI, it struck a mine and went down in the Aegean Sea. Now, underwater archaeologists have recovered artifacts from the wreck. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/22/artifacts-from-wreck-of-titanics-sister-ship-recovered/

When Dionysus hosts a drinking contest, everyone wins. The wine god and his entourage star in a Roman sarcophagus. “They’re guiding the deceased to the afterlife with ecstasy, wine, and happiness,” says one archaeologist. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/digs-discoveries/dead-drunk/

The remains of a Roman bridge reemerged from a riverbed during modern construction in Switzerland. In addition to the bridge's oak posts, archaeologists have also found the things ancient travelers dropped. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/19/2000-year-old-roman-bridge-posts-reemerge-from-riverbed/

In 1846, a snowstorm stranded the Donner Party in California's Sierra Nevada. Archaeologists returned to their campsite, discovering artifacts of life from that notorious winter. archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2012/letters-from/letter-from-california-a-new-look-at-the-donner-party/

In the Middle Ages, baskets were all-purpose containers, used for collecting crops or for transporting tools. At the Guédelon experimental archaeology site, the weaver touches every part of the community. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/features/how-to-build-a-medieval-castle/

New in ancient Egypt: a dig at the Wadi Al-Nasb site in the Sinai peninsula has uncovered a major ancient metalworking center for smelting and processing copper ore. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/18/dig-uncovers-major-egyptian-mining-site-on-sinai-peninsula/

New excavations 25 feet below ground level at Sardis, one of ancient Anatolia's great monumental cities, have revealed walls from a sprawling palace dating back to the eighth or ninth century B.C. archaeology.org/news/2025/08/21/2800-year-old-lydian-palace-unearthed-in-turkey/

A rare set of Native American wampum beads was discovered during excavations at the seventeenth-century site of Ferryland in Newfoundland, Canada, one of the earliest English colonial settlements in North America. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/18/rare-wampum-beads-found-at-canadas-colony-of-avalon/

In the fifteenth century, the MacDonald clan of Islay rose to power as rivals to the Scottish and British monarchs. Their ancestors' medieval stronghold at Finlaggan has now been found. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/18/forgotten-medieval-royal-castle-discovered-on-scottish-isle/

Black Mesa was the scene of dramatic events in 1694, when Pueblo warriors encamped on its summit withstood a months-long Spanish siege. Archaeology is shedding new light on the New World’s most successful native rebellion. archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2017/features/new-mexico-pueblo-revolt/

A groundbreaking new study has revealed the world's oldest evidence of mummification. Researchers analyzed 54 burials in southern China and Southeast Asia, and found the practice there dates back more than 12,000 years. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

Coins should have heads and inscriptions, went the old Roman thinking. “But here you have a whole man, and the letters amount to gibberish,” says one numismatist. It's a shilling of early Anglo-Saxon Britain. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/artifacts/anglo-saxon-coin/

A pile of stone blocks led to the discovery of a monumental Roman tomb, the first ever unearthed in Albania. Though the chamber had been looted, researchers retrieved objects such as knives and glass plates. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/10/first-ever-monumental-roman-tomb-unearthed-in-albania/

The water mill in Guédelon Castle's forest comes to life each spring, weather permitting. Its design follows a medieval mill found in fragments in 2008, but no one knew how such a thing would run in practice. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/features/how-to-build-a-medieval-castle/

For decades, shipwreck searchers scoured the depths of Lake Michigan for the wreck of the F.J. King, which sank in a storm in 1886. Now comes news that archaeologists have finally found the “ghost ship.” archaeology.org/news/2025/09/17/searchers-finally-locate-wreck-of-great-lakes-ghost-ship/

Researchers in Tajikistan have pieced together fragments from an ancient fresco that gives a rare look at a Sogdian fire ritual. The Sogdians played an instrumental role in commerce along the Silk Road. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/11/fresco-provides-rare-details-about-ancient-fire-ritual/

Archaeologists at the site of a new subway station in Rome have uncovered a small treasure of bronze medals under the ruins of the Palazzetto Venezia, commissioned by Pope Paul II in 1467. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/16/objects-linked-to-renaissance-pope-unearthed-during-subway-construction/

The recent excavation of an intact 2,700-year-old kurgan burial mound in Kazakhstan revealed the remains of a man wearing a golden torc around his neck and holding a gold and bronze dagger. archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2018/digs-discoveries/trenches-kazakhstan-teenage-burials/

Around 2900 B.C., it kept getting darker, which scared a Danish island's inhabitants. “They don’t know when—or if—the sun is going to come back," says one archaeologist. So they planted “sun stones.” Subscribe to read more! archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/features/here-comes-the-sun/

Scholars long assumed that when Roman rule over Britain collapsed around A.D. 400, the island's economy tanked. But new analysis at an ancient metal processing site in Yorkshire suggests: maybe not. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/15/britains-economy-remained-surprisingly-robust-after-roman-collapse/

Architectural elements from the Polish royal Villa Regia have been rescued from the bottom of the Vistula River. Built in Warsaw between 1637 and 1642, the palace was one of the most luxurious in Europe. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/16/sections-of-lost-polish-royal-palace-rescued-from-river-bottom/

An American doctor who saw the crisis of the 1820s Greek War of Independence had a bold idea: establish a utopian community in Corinthia. In 2016, archaeologists set to find his "Washingtonia"—here's how. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/letters-from/searching-for-washingtonia/

The Canopus Decree has helped scholars decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs and understand the ancient calendar, plus confirmed the existence of a sunken city. Archaeologists have now found a rare complete copy! archaeology.org/news/2025/09/12/new-complete-copy-of-canopus-decree-recovered/

Forty percent of New York City's water is provided by the Ashokan Reservoir. But its construction destroyed eight villages. One archaeologist has been documenting the ruins to understand these lost communities. archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2024/letters-from/ghost-towns-of-the-ashokan-reservoir/

A Roman soldier on the move would need to grab his shield, helmet, armor, gladius—and change purse. One unfortunate fellow seems to have dropped his bronze purse, and archaeologists in the Czech Republic picked it up. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/world/?location=czech-republic-2

Aristotle tutored the young Alexander at Mieza, and archaeologists are now exploring a gymnasium complex there. The coolest new find? Styluses for jotting notes during class with (perhaps) the great philosopher himself. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/04/new-investigation-of-aristotles-ancient-school/

At a necropolis in Perugia, Italy, workers found a mystifying funerary urn, decorated with a carved Medusa head, that has challenged traditional ideas about Etruscan burial customs. archaeology.org/news/2025/09/05/etruscan-urn-with-carved-medusa-head-puzzles-experts/

During Britain's age of feasting—the end of the Bronze Age—communal gatherings were enormous, according to new research. At the site of Potterne in Wiltshire, more than 15 million animal bone fragments were found! Archaeologists also now know what was on the menu. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

The Chankillo site in Peru has 13 monumental towers believed to be part of the oldest solar observatory in the Americas. Recent excavations there have turned up a unique ceramic ensemble of warriors in full combat. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

Beginning at least 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers in Nevada's Lahontan basin buried some of their dead in Spirit Cave, where the oldest known mummified remains in the world were found. Read more about the latest research with a digital subscription: archaeology.org/issues/septe...

Archaeologists have discovered roughly 150 tombs belonging to an unknown civilization, one of them measuring more than 450 feet in diameter. The tombs, located at a site in Kazakhstan, are unlike any others in the area and may date to the early Iron Age. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

Despite the fame of Pompeii, very little excavation has been done on the north slope of Vesuvius, referred to as the “dark side” of the volcano. There, new archaeological explorations of a magnificent villa have revealed it was built *after* the A.D. 79 eruption. archaeology.org/issues/septe...

Atop a pyramid at the site of San Isidro in El Salvador, archaeologists have unearthed five ceramic figurines dating to around 400 B.C. They have evocative facial expressions, and their heads have holes through which a string could be threaded—perhaps like puppets. archaeology.org/issues/septe...

It was the decisive clash in the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. Yet archaeology still has plenty to reveal about the 241 B.C. naval Battle of the Aegates. The latest find recovered from the seafloor is a beautiful bronze Roman helmet. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

Breakthroughs in Sumerian translation are helping researchers get to know the world's first named author, Enheduanna. The daughter of Sargon the Great, she wrote songs, poems, and hymns 4,000 years ago—but she was a powerful religious and political figure too. archaeology.org/issues/novem...

The world's first pandemic ravaged the Mediterranean and Middle East, killing 25 to 100 million people between A.D. 541 and 750. What caused it? Researchers have now uncovered genomic evidence pinpointing the bacterium, after sequencing DNA from ancient human teeth. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

How did the ancestors of the Navajo and Apache journey the 1,500-plus miles from the Canadian Subarctic to the American desert Southwest? What happened along the way? Archaeologists and Native elders are excavating and studying Utah's Promontory Caves for answers. archaeology.org/issues/septe...

We know from historians that Roman gladiators battled captured wild animals, but archaeological evidence had never been found for man versus bear fights. New analysis of a brown bear skull excavated at the site of Viminacium in Serbia changes the picture. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

Excavations in Senegal have uncovered a site that's providing new information about the nomadic communities who lived in West Africa—9,000 years ago. Archaeologists have unearthed the remnants of a quartz knapping workshop, a fireplace, and fragments of stone tools. archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

When Phoenician sailors established new settlements in the first millennium B.C., they brought the familiar scents of home with them. A new analysis of ceramic vessels from an island near Sicily revealed Phoenician-grown plant residues for perfumes and oils. archaeology.org/news/2025/08...

On the beaches and in the caves of a small Micronesian island, Peleliu, archaeologists have identified evidence of one of WWII’s most brutal battles. Among the finds: a helmet, sake bottles, and ammunition left behind by Japanese troops. archaeology.org/issues/july-...

The Danish-Swedish ship Gribshunden mysteriously sank in 1495. Now, researchers have recovered some of its 50 small caliber guns, recreating them with 3D modeling to better understand naval warfare. archaeology.org/news/2025/08/29/study-examines-ship-artillery-from-europes-age-of-exploration/

Excavators in Iraq unearthed something unusual at the site of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh: a 7th-century B.C. stone relief featuring the deities Ashur and Ishtar. They have never been found in artwork at Nineveh before. archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2025/world/?location=iraq-2