Archaeology news

• 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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• 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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• Indigenous rangers join archaeologists in search of ancient underwater artefacts off WA coast

  20-07-2025 02:33 via abc.net.au
  
  For years researchers have been trying to crack archaeology's 'last frontier' - the ancient artefacts sitting on the ocean floor. Now they've brought in local Indigenous rangers to help.
  
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• DNA from skeleton in a pot reveals ancient Egyptian's ancestry

  02-07-2025 21:30 via abc.net.au
  
  Researchers have sequenced the genome of an ancient Egyptian who was buried in a pot nearly 5,000 years ago, about the time some of the oldest, and most famous, pyramids were built.
  
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• Art reflects First Nations' worldview in hopes of shared understanding

  21-06-2025 07:13 via abc.net.au
  
  Hundreds of traditional artworks, connecting generations of remote First Nations communities for almost a century, are now part of a public showcase in Sydney.
  
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• Hidden in a Blue Mountains cave are artefacts that change the story of a nation

  16-06-2025 22:16 via abc.net.au
  
  Deep in the Blue Mountains, archaeologists uncover artefacts that reveal secrets of the nation's Ice Age past. 
  
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• Contractor discovers underground Byzantine tomb complex in Syria

  09-06-2025 11:58 via abc.net.au
  
  A contractor was digging beneath the rubble of a destroyed house in the town of Maarat al-Numan in May when he made the startling find.
  
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• Age of Dead Sea Scrolls pinned down with the help of AI

  04-06-2025 20:00 via abc.net.au
  
  A new study has used AI to decipher the age of the Dead Sea Scrolls, potentially rewriting what we know about when some of the world's most precious biblical texts were created.
  
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• Prison cells unearthed below pool highlight Tasmania's convict past

  18-05-2025 00:31 via abc.net.au
  
  Tiny cells unearthed below an old swimming pool in the Tasmanian town of Oatlands shine a light on the "miserable existence" endured by inmates who were once imprisoned at a colonial-era jail that stood on the site.
  
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• Convict-era jail cells and gallows uncovered beneath former Tasmanian council pool

  18-05-2025 00:31 via abc.net.au
  
  Tiny cells unearthed below an old swimming pool in the Tasmanian town of Oatlands shine a light on the "miserable existence" endured by inmates who were once imprisoned at a colonial-era jail that stood on the site.
  
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• Home of colourful figure uncovered as part of Sydney Metro dig

  13-05-2025 03:58 via abc.net.au
  
  Metres below the ground excavators have uncovered a treasure trove from the 1800s linked to one of the city's most colourful identities.
  
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• Shipwreck lost for nearly 170 years finally found off SA coast

  07-05-2025 06:01 via abc.net.au
  
  In 1857, the Koning Willem de Tweede sank off SA's south-east coast, and researchers are now confident they have found it.
  
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• Sotheby's postpones sale of Buddha jewels after Indian legal threat

  06-05-2025 21:24 via abc.net.au
  
  Sotheby's has postponed its sale of jewels linked to the physical remains of the Buddha after a legal threat from India and moral questions about the sale of religious antiquities.
  
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