Humans

The now-extinct Tocharian language on a scrap of parchmentSakkmesterke/Alamy
ProtoLaura Spinney (HarperCollins (UK) Bloomsbury Publishing (US, 13 May))
A new book by Laura Spinney is rather tantalisingly called Proto, begging the question: proto-what? Prototype, the earliest version of a technology? Protoplasm, the stuff of our cells? Or even protoplanet, a small hunk of space rock with a big future ahead?
The answer, in fact, sits above and across those words: Proto-Indo-European. This is the great original language from which English, among many other tongues, both alive and dead, derives. As Spinney puts it: “Almost every second person on… More

A piece of the Antikythera mechanismLOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images
The Antikythera mechanism, a mysterious ancient Greek device that is often called the world’s first computer, may not have functioned at all, according to a simulation of its workings. But researchers say we can’t be sure of this since the machine is so badly damaged.
Since the mechanism was discovered in 1901, in a shipwreck thought to date to around 60 BC, researchers have struggled to work out exactly why it was built. X-ray scans and digital reconstructions show that it was originally a 30-centimetre box containing interlinked systems… More

Stone tools with purple dye residue found at Tel Shiqmona in IsraelMaria Bukin/Shalvi et al., 2025, PLoS One, CC-BY 4.0
For centuries, a coastal settlement in modern-day Israel was home to the industrial-scale production from marine snails of a purple dye that was one of the ancient world’s most precious commodities.
Known as Tyrian purple, it was especially sought after to colour woollen textiles and was highly prized by the wealthy and powerful in Iron Age Mediterranean societies. But until now the direct evidence of any sites of large-scale production has been sparse.
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From 1100 BC to about 900 BC, Tel Shiqmona was a small Phoenician fishing village where purple dye was produced on a small scale. Then, as the Kingdom of Israel began to expand, the site was transformed “from a fishing village to a fortified purple dye production centre”, says Golan Shalvi at the University of Chicago.
During archaeological work at the site, Shalvi and his colleagues found the remains of dye-stained vats used to process the substance, each of which could have held up to 350 litres of liquid. Altogether 176 artefacts related to purple dye production were recovered, including 135 purple-stained items.
The dye is harvested from sea snails in the Muricidae family, which secrete mucus to defend themselves and kill prey. “The secretion is initially a slightly greenish fluid, which oxidises upon exposure to air and gradually turns purple,” says Shalvi. “However, in order to transform it into an actual dye — one that chemically bonds with textiles — it must be processed into a solution through a complex series of chemical steps.”
The researchers claim Tel Shiqmona is the only site in the world where there is clear evidence for large-scale manufacture of purple dye in a specialised facility for so long.
However, there are no historical records that tie the site to the dye and little is known about the actual process that was used to manufacture it, says Shalvi.

After the Kingdom of Israel fell around 720 BC, the scale of dye production wound down until the Assyrians took over the site and ramped the process up yet again. Around 600 BC, when the Babylonians conquered the region, dye production at Tel Shiqmona was abandoned.
“It was an industrial site throughout most of the Iron Age, without monumental architecture or any particular beauty or elegance,” says Shalvi. “I imagine it as a very smelly place — especially to a modern nose — since the production process emitted a terrible odour. I picture wool fleeces dyed in various shades drying outside and inside the buildings, which may have given the site a purplish-reddish-blue hue.”
Purple dye has fascinated people all over the world, he says, and it has been the subject of extensive research. “Its association with elite classes and religious rituals gave it immense cultural, symbolic and economic significance far beyond its function as a mere colour.”

Topics:archaeology More

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