Humans

Moai on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter IslandAll Canada Photos / Alamy Stock Photo
A newly identified drought on the Pacific island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, could have spurred islanders to invest fewer resources in building their legendary stone monuments. But some archaeologists dispute this interpretation.
The island of Rapa Nui has become central to a cautionary tale of disaster caused by unsustainable use of resources. The standard narrative is that the arrival of the first Polynesians on the tiny island in the 1200s led to rapid deforestation, in part to support the… More

A ship’s ram found near Sicily that had been used in the Punic warsPeter Horree/Alamy
Ancient Greek and Roman warships were equipped with bronze rams to smash and sink enemy vessels – and a team of archaeologists has just recreated one. They plan to test the weapon on replica warships to assess how effective the rams were during naval battles.
“This research can help us understand the evolution of major warships, from the fleets of Alexander the Great’s successors to the vessels that secured Rome’s naval dominance,” says Stephen DeCasien at Dalian University of Technology in China,… More

Illustration of a Denisovan male from ancient TaiwanCheng-Han Sun
A fossil found by fishers in Taiwan has been identified as a jawbone from the mysterious Denisovan group of ancient humans.
Denisovans were first described in 2010 from a fossil fingerbone found in Denisova cave in the Altai mountains, Russia. Although few fossils have been found, traces of their DNA still exist in some modern humans, indicating they were widespread in East Asia.

The newly identified fossil mandible was recovered from the Penghu Channel by commercial fishers while… More

The site of a newly discovered ancient Egyptian settlement at Kom el-NugusS. Dhennin
Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Egyptian settlement beneath Hellenistic ruins in the north-western Nile delta that may be as many as 3500 years old. The find provides new evidence of Egyptian expansion during the New Kingdom, a thriving period that lasted from 1550 to 1069 BC.
“These periods are well-known for being very rich,” says Sylvain Dhennin at the University of Lyon, France, a member of the team that made the discovery. Some of the most powerful and notable pharaohs, including Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses… More

A close-up shot of the cuneiform script on an ancient column (below)The Trustees of the British Museum
The Mesopotamian RiddleJoshua Hammer (Simon & Schuster)
What does it take to decipher an extinct writing system? If Joshua Hammer’s new book The Mesopotamian Riddle: An archaeologist, a soldier, a clergyman, and the race to decipher the world’s oldest writing is anything to go by, the main requirements are some ethically dubious archaeological digs and a lot of rampaging testosterone.
The book is Hammer’s account of the deciphering of cuneiform, the oldest known writing system. Cuneiform was invented in around 3400 BC in Mesopotamia. It was used for… More

Afyonkarahisar, the capital of the central Anatolia region of TurkeyDaphnusia images/Shutterstock
This is an extract from Our Human Story, our newsletter about the revolution in archaeology. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every month.
Every so often, I’m reminded of a truly startling fact. It is possible to travel from the UK, where I live, east through Europe into Ukraine and western Russia (maybe don’t do this bit), cross the Caspian Sea, then carry on east all the way to India – and always speak to people whose language belongs to the same family.
That’s… More

Mudlarking, once a trade of the Victorian poor, has evolved into a modern-day hobby that captivates everyday Londoners and history enthusiasts. What began as a desperate means of survival, scouring the Thames foreshore for anything of value, has become a way to connect with the city’s deep and layered past.
In London Museum’s new exhibition, Secrets of the Thames, over 350 artefacts recovered from the river’s muddy banks, many on public display for the first time, are brought together to tell a remarkable story. Visitors are invited to step into the world of the mudlarks: amateur archaeologists, urban explorers and passionate storytellers who uncover fragments of daily life spanning centuries.
“What mudlarks do is really important to preserve history as soon as it’s found,” says Alessio Chicconi, a palaeontologist who has unearthed thousands of artefacts since taking up mudlarking during lockdown.
The Thames is uniquely suited to mudlarking. The river’s tidal nature, rising and falling twice daily, constantly stirs and reshapes the foreshore, periodically revealing and concealing layers of history. Its anaerobic mud slows the decay of organic materials like leather and wood, creating rare opportunities for preservation. The result is a time capsule stretching from prehistoric flint tools to 17th-century shoes.Advertisement
Beyond the tangible finds, what draws many mudlarks back to the river is a deep sense of connection to Britons of the past. “It’s quite incredible when we find these objects, to think that I am the first person to touch it in 4000 years,” says Chicconi. Each item, no matter how ordinary it might seem, holds the story of a life once lived and offers a glimpse into everyday moments. It invites an appreciation for the supposedly mundane: a clay pipe, a pin, a shard of pottery. And in the quiet ritual of searching the foreshore, Secrets of the Thames reveals not just the artefacts left behind, but the timeless human desire to be remembered. As Chicconi puts it, “History will find a way to bring up your name.”  
London Museum’s Secrets of the Thames exhibition is open until 1 Mar 2026.

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A mammoth skeleton at the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart, GermanyDANIEL NAUPOLD/dpa/Alamy
Archaeologists excavating 400,000-year-old rock in western Ukraine have uncovered fragments of what could be the oldest human-made ivory objects ever found. These artefacts would have been too soft to use as cutting tools, but they could have been used as teaching aids, the researchers suggest.
“If the interpretations are correct, they add to an apparently increasing appreciation of the intelligence of pre-modern humans,” says Gary Haynes at the University of Nevada. More