An 11th-century astrolabe, a complex instrument for precisely mapping the heavens, recently turned up in an Italian museum.
Author: Franz Lidz
What to Do With a Bug Named Hitler?
Anophthalmus hitleri is a small, amber-colored beetle native to a few damp caves in Slovenia. It has one glaring problem.
A 12,000-Year-Old Bird Call, Made of Bird Bones
A collection of small flutes carved from waterfowl bones may have been used as hunting aids, a new study suggests.
Cannibalism, or ‘Clickbait’?
A recent study offered the “oldest decisive evidence” that our ancient hominid ancestors ate one another. But the field has a long history of overstating such claims, other scientists note.
Paid to Fight, Even in Ancient Greece
DNA from a 2,500-year-old battlefield in Sicily reveals that mercenary soldiers were common, if not the Homeric ideal.
A Pompeii Man’s DNA Rises From the Ancient Ashes of Vesuvius
Genetic material recovered from a 1st-century Pompeii man reveals a spinal disorder and ancestral links to Anatolia.
As Earth Warms, Old Mayhem and Secrets Emerge From the Ice
Climate change is revealing long-frozen artifacts and animals to archaeologists. But the window for study is slender and shrinking.
Was Stonehenge a ‘Secondhand’ Monument?
The Neolithic site appears to have begun as a monument in Wales that was dismantled and carried 175 miles east as part of a larger migration, a new study suggests.