Archaeology news

• 'A remarkable achievement': Neanderthals may have practised dentistry

  13-05-2026 20:00 via abc.net.au
  
  Archaeologists have found a hole in a 59,000-year-old tooth, which they say was drilled to treat a painful cavity. The find suggests Neanderthals could perform complex medical procedures. 
  
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• Why the 'dig of the century' is happening underneath Notre Dame

  02-06-2026 09:12 via abc.net.au
  
  More than a year after France's famed Notre Dame reopened, an archaeological exploration going thousands of years into the history of Paris has begun just metres below the cathedral's ground floor.
  
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• 'Incredible' colonial-era boat used for trade in Sydney Harbour uncovered

  14-05-2026 22:33 via abc.net.au
  
  Maritime archaeologists are working to restore the oldest colonial-era boat ever found in Australia, discovered during the construction of the Barangaroo metro station in 2018.
  
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• Archaeologists restoring oldest colonial-era boat ever found in Australia

  14-05-2026 22:33 via abc.net.au
  
  Maritime archaeologists are working to restore the oldest colonial-era boat ever found in Australia, discovered during the construction of the Barangaroo metro station in 2018.
  
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• Archaeologists restore colonial-era boat found in Barangaroo

  14-05-2026 22:33 via abc.net.au
  
  Maritime archaeologists working to restore the oldest colonial-era boat ever found in Australia.
  
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• Oldest evidence of dentistry found in 59,000-year-old Neanderthal tooth

  13-05-2026 20:00 via abc.net.au
  
  Archaeologists have found a hole in a 59,000-year-old tooth, which they say was drilled to treat a painful cavity. The find suggests Neanderthals could perform complex medical procedures. 
  
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• Lighthouse keeper's wife's remains saved from being swallowed by sea

  27-02-2026 20:38 via abc.net.au
  
  The bones of a Queensland lighthouse keeper's wife were almost lost as a result of rising sea levels nearly 150 years after her death.
  
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• 'Priceless' Egyptian artefacts stolen from museum north of Brisbane

  14-02-2026 01:25 via abc.net.au
  
  An ancient burial mask, cat figurine and jewellery are among the "priceless" Egyptian artefacts stolen from the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology yesterday. 
  
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• Hand stencils discovered in Indonesia are world's oldest-known rock art

  21-01-2026 17:00 via abc.net.au
  
  Faint ochre outlines of hands thought to be at least 67,800 years old are the oldest rock art yet discovered. Archaeologists say the discovery of the Indonesian cave art backs up estimates of when humans first reached Australia.
  
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• Massive stone statues 'walked' across Easter Island, researchers say

  01-01-2026 19:36 via abc.net.au
  
  A study using 11,600 aerial drone photos to map a mountainous quarry in 3D reveals more about how the island's famed stone sentinels were created and moved to their final resting places.
  
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• Landmark Easter Island map 'unlocks the mystery' of giant Moai heads

  01-01-2026 19:36 via abc.net.au
  
  A study using 11,600 aerial drone photos to map a mountainous quarry in 3D reveals more about how the island's famed stone sentinels were created and moved to their final resting places.
  
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• Neanderthals may have been fire starters 400,000 years ago

  10-12-2025 19:00 via abc.net.au
  
  Archaeologists have uncovered the earliest-known evidence of deliberately lit campfires at a site in the UK dated to be 400,000 years old. 
  
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• What France's famous cave replicas can teach Australia about rebuilding lost heritage

  15-11-2025 21:01 via abc.net.au
  
  Five years after Rio Tinto destroyed a 47,000-year-old sacred rock shelter to expand an iron ore mine, an ambitious rebuild is underway drawing inspiration all the way from France.
  
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• Several ancient Roman-era statues stolen from Syria's national museum

  11-11-2025 15:24 via abc.net.au
  
  Officials say at least six marble statues were stolen from the museum in Damascus.
  
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• What's in this ancient Roman shipwreck may help us understand the Universe

  07-11-2025 22:30 via abc.net.au
  
  Some 2,000 years ago, a Roman ship sank off the coast of Sardinia. Now its cargo is being used to search for elusive phenomena like dark matter.
  
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• This ship sank 2,000 years ago. What's in it may help solve a cosmic mystery

  07-11-2025 22:30 via abc.net.au
  
  Some 2,000 years ago, a Roman ship sank off the coast of Sardinia. Now its cargo is being used to search for elusive phenomena like dark matter.
  
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• Timber sample helps identify shipwreck unearthed during Cyclone Alfred

  05-11-2025 02:15 via abc.net.au
  
  The identity of a shipwreck that was exposed in northern New South Wales by Cyclone Alfred has been narrowed down to just 13 vessels.
  
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• Timber sample helps identify shipwreck unearthed by Cyclone Alfred

  05-11-2025 02:15 via abc.net.au
  
  The identity of a shipwreck that was exposed in northern New South Wales by Cyclone Alfred has been narrowed down to just 13 vessels.
  
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• 'Scientists will never catch up to us': Ancient knowledge helps drive modern science

  30-10-2025 23:41 via abc.net.au
  
  From dinosaur footprints to volcanic eruptions, First Nations knowledge is helping to drive modern science.
  
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• How a song cycle led scientists to hidden dinosaur tracks

  30-10-2025 23:41 via abc.net.au
  
  From dinosaur footprints to volcanic eruptions, First Nations knowledge is helping to drive modern science.
  
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• Ancient wetland older than Egypt's pyramids exposed on beach

  25-10-2025 23:54 via abc.net.au
  
  Harsh winter weather has exposed almost 100 preserved trees from an ancient wetland on an Esperance beach, but there are fears over protecting the site on a popular four-wheel drive stretch.
  
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• Archaeologists discover 1.5-million-year-old hand fossils in Kenya

  15-10-2025 19:00 via abc.net.au
  
  The first set of ancient hand fossils from an ape-like cousin of humans discovered in Kenya suggest a number of species were capable of making tools 1.5 million years ago. 
  
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• Mystery artists carved life-sized camels into rocks 12,000 years ago

  30-09-2025 22:00 via abc.net.au
  Three newly discovered sites filled with art and stone tools have pushed back the date of when humans returned to Arabia after the last ice age.
  
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• Vietnam mummy predates Egyptian examples by nearly 10,000 years

  15-09-2025 22:00 via abc.net.au
  
  Archaeologists claim they've found the oldest-known deliberately mummified remains in burial sites across China and South-East Asia, with some individuals dating back 14,000 years.
  
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• Archaeologists find evidence of homicide dating to ice age

  12-09-2025 21:49 via abc.net.au
  
  It was on a sweltering morning in 2018 in a cave in northern Vietnam when Chris Stimpson and his team uncovered what may be the oldest cold case murder in South-East Asia. 
  
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• Victorian company loses court bid to keep pre-Columbian artefact

  03-09-2025 05:38 via abc.net.au
  
  Victorian company Palmanova loses its High Court battle over the possession of a pre-Columbian basalt artefact, bought from an American gallery in 2020.
  
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• Ancient texts reveal the remarkable 4,000-year 'global history' of books

  10-08-2025 22:00 via abc.net.au
  
  A 4,000-year-old tax receipt is among the treasures on display at the State Library of Victoria's annual World of the Book exhibition, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025.
  
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• Million-year-old tools found in Sulawesi made by mystery human

  06-08-2025 21:30 via abc.net.au
  
  Archaeologists discovered stone tools at least a million years old on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, but exactly who made them and how they got there is unknown.
  
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• Ancient Buddha jewels return to India after legal threat

  01-08-2025 02:11 via abc.net.au
  
  The nearly 350-piece collection has been purchased by an Indian businessman in what is being described as a "public-private partnership" with the Indian government. 
  
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• Their old people sang of a place lost beneath the waves. Now it's found

  20-07-2025 02:33 via abc.net.au
  
  For years, researchers have been trying to find ancient artefacts sitting on the ocean floor. Now they have brought in Indigenous rangers to help.  
  
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