Archaeology news

• Grass 'skeletons' hint at 25,000-year-old Indigenous fire ritual in cave

  22-07-2026 06:09 via abc.net.au
  
  Evidence of ancient burnt grasses unearthed in a Victorian cave on GunaiKurnai country suggest old ancestors used the cave for fire rituals during the Ice Age. 
  
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• Audio News for August 23rd through the 29th, 2026

  31-08-2026 17:03 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Hidden Inka roads reveal new side of Machu Picchu(details)(details)6,500-year-old ritual center tracked solar and lunar events(details)11,000-year-old statue shows human mastering a leopard(details)Ancient DNA confirms cacao reached Mississippian people(details)(details)
  
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• The murky lagoon harbouring a centuries-old maritime mystery

  29-08-2026 00:02 via abc.net.au
  
  The elusive Deadwater wreck is Western Australia's longest-running maritime mystery, encompassing colonial eyewitness accounts, artefacts tenuously linked to the wreck, and vivid folklore involving treasure, matricide and piracy.
  
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• Pirates, treasure and murder: The centuries old WA shipwreck mystery

  29-08-2026 00:02 via abc.net.au
  
  The elusive Deadwater wreck is Western Australia's longest-running maritime mystery, encompassing colonial eyewitness accounts, artefacts tenuously linked to the wreck, and vivid folklore involving treasure, matricide and piracy.
  
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• Audio News for August 16th through the 22nd, 2026

  24-08-2026 19:08 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Bone analysis indicates that Ireland’s “Kerry Cow” was actually a bear(details)First evidence of Neanderthal presence in Arabian desert(details)(details)4,000-year-old Austronesian painting recalls one of history’s greatest migrations(details)Mysterious grave good reveals pre-Inca metal processing networks(details)
  
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• Audio News for August 9th through the 15th, 2026

  17-08-2026 12:23 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Newly discovered papal letter indicates support for Norman Conquest(details)Translation of Linear A links Minoan and Greek gods(details)(details)Pre-Hispanic Colombians collaboratively built water management systems(details)(details)Newly excavated Anatolian Church may be the site for the First Council of Nicaea(details)
  
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• Audio News for August 2nd through the 8th, 2026

  10-08-2026 10:26 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:New excavations reveal how Moche potters lived and worked at Cerro Mayal(details)Sugar may have fueled human brain evolution, not just meat(details)Ancient DNA suggests Ice Age people hunted more female mammoths than males(details)Scattered bones may point to violence at a Roman villa in Britain(details)(details)
  
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• Audio News for July 26th through August 1st, 2026

  03-08-2026 21:12 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Ancient Amazon civilization reshapes understanding of rainforest history(details)(details)Byzantine shipwreck yields remarkable gold treasure(details)Ghost DNA study uncovers unknown human ancestors(details)(details)Newly identified Assyrian kings reshape ancient royal history(details)(details)
  
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• WA's most famous shipwreck carried 400-year-old trade secrets

  31-07-2026 02:02 via abc.net.au
  
  An analysis of cargo from one of Australia's best-known shipwrecks uncovers complex global trade routes from nearly 400 years ago.
  
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• Shipwreck cargo reveals 400-year-old global trade secrets

  31-07-2026 02:02 via abc.net.au
  
  An analysis of cargo from one of Australia's best-known shipwrecks uncovers complex global trade routes from nearly 400 years ago.
  
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• Infamous shipwreck cargo reveals 400-year-old global trade secrets

  31-07-2026 02:02 via abc.net.au
  
  An analysis of cargo from one of Australia's best-known shipwrecks uncovers complex global trade routes from nearly 400 years ago.
  
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• The man solving the '100-million-year-old cold case' death of a plesiosaur

  12-07-2026 00:57 via abc.net.au
  
  Travis Enright is four months into investigating what he calls "a 100-million-year-old cold case" involving a 10-metre-long aquatic plesiosaur called Maria.
  
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• The man solving the '100-million-year-old cold case' death of a dinosaur

  12-07-2026 00:57 via abc.net.au
  
  Travis Enright is four months into investigating what he calls "a 100-million-year-old cold case" involving a 10-metre-long aquatic dinosaur called Moria.
  
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• The 100-million-year-old cold case and the aquatic dinosaur called Moria

  12-07-2026 00:57 via abc.net.au
  
  Travis Enright is four months into investigating what he calls "a 100-million-year-old cold case" involving a 10-metre-long aquatic dinosaur called Moria.
  
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• Audio News for June 21st through the 27th, 2026

  27-06-2026 06:50 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Possible all-female prehistoric burial deep in a South African cave system(details)(details)New study shows Neanderthals were genetically diverse prior to extinction(details)(details)First identification of ancient human DNA on cave walls(details)(details)Researchers find incredible Maya city with pyramid and stelae(details)
  
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• Fossilised teeth plug 30-million-year marsupial evolution gap

  24-06-2026 02:58 via abc.net.au
  
  A few teeth found in an outback fossil deposit have helped fill in a 30-million-year blind spot in Australia's evolutionary history.
  
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• Audio News for June 14th through the 20th, 2026

  22-06-2026 11:11 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Ancient solar monument predates Stonehenge alignment(details)Hunter-gatherer burials reveal earliest known plague outbreak(details)(details)Archaeologists uncover evidence of large-scale fishing in the Canary Islands(details)(details)Second Alamo cannonball sheds light on famous 1836 battle(details)
  
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• Audio News for June 7th through the 13th, 2026

  15-06-2026 18:34 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Small clay figurine from Guatemala may contain the oldest written numbers in Mesoamerica(details)(details)New study argues for gradual, regionally-based development of “modern” humans(details)(details)Iron Age burial in northern Scotland reveals unusual manipulation of the dead(details)(details)22,000-year-old jewelry from Spanish cave outlines Ice Age social networks(details)(details)
  
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• Outbreak of this Victorian-era disease labelled a 'health disaster and tragedy'

  14-06-2026 23:52 via abc.net.au
  
  Forty-two babies in Australia died from congenital syphilis between 2011 and 2025, with the outbreak driving health workers into communities to raise awareness of the old-world disease.
  
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• Australians are dying from a disease that was almost eliminated years ago

  14-06-2026 23:52 via abc.net.au
  
  Forty-two babies in Australia died from congenital syphilis between 2011 and 2025, with the outbreak driving health workers into communities to raise awareness of the old-world disease.
  
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• The sword that links feared pirates to Britain's greatest naval hero

  12-06-2026 23:00 via abc.net.au
  
  The history of a wavy-bladed sword, bought at a Brisbane gun show around the end of the 1980s, begins with Moro raiders resisting Spanish colonists in the Philippines, but may also include Admiral Lord Nelson.
  
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• udio News for May 31st through June 6th, 2026

  08-06-2026 10:29 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Humans helped transport Stonehenge’s massive Altar Stone hundreds of kilometers(details)(details)South Africa cave extends timeline of human fire use by hundreds of thousands of years(details)(details)Researchers find three shipwrecks in Bahamas linked to Golden Age of Piracy(details)Mass burial shows Copper Age children experienced high rates of respiratory illness(details)(details)
  
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• The club I wanted to join was waiting in Pompeii

  06-06-2026 00:00 via abc.net.au
  
  A newly uncovered fresco in Pompeii tells the story of women, wine and Roman hedonism. Buried beneath the spectacle lies a lesson about restraint and why some discoveries should be left to the future.
  
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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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• Audio News for May 24th through the 30th, 2026

  01-06-2026 09:03 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Forensic archaeologists seek to unmask Namibia’s colonial-led genocide(details)Ancient beds in South African cave show a glimpse of stone-age life(details)(details)DNA study in Peru unveils pre-Inca migration and marriage trends(details)(details)New DNA studies in Britain explore reality of historical impacts from Vikings and others(details)
  
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• Audio News for May 17th through the 23rd, 2026

  25-05-2026 09:07 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Archaeologists investigate the Great Pyramid’s resilient engineering(details)(details)Prehistoric megastructure found in small Romanian settlement(details)Ancient Mesoamericans used ritual transformations to connect to divine beings(details)(details)Archaeologists use medical kit to identify doctor among Pompeii’s victims(details)
  
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• Audio News for May 10th through the 16th, 2026

  18-05-2026 13:42 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Study argues horse domestication and riding began earlier than believed(details)(details)Neanderthal tooth shows possible dental treatment 59,000 years ago(details)(details)Researchers challenge study that questioned Monte Verde antiquity(details)Restoration project reveals size of Amphipolis tomb(details)
  
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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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