History & Culture

Roman floors discovered in Novae. Credit: Krzysztof Narloch (University of Warsaw)

Polish archaeologists uncover ‘lavish home of Roman legion commander’

Polish archaeologists have uncovered what may be the lavish residence of a Roman legion commander at the ancient fortress of Novae in Bulgaria.

  • Machu Picchu. EPA/Paula Bayarte 04.06.2023

    Archaeologists uncover 2.5km of hidden roads near Machu Picchu

    More than 2.5 kilometres of previously unknown Inca roads, along with terraces, platforms and circular structures, have been uncovered beneath dense tropical forest near Machu Picchu by a Polish-Peruvian team of archaeologists.

  • Stone cippus on the hill (1997). Credit: Eleni Procopiou/Department of Antiquities of Cyprus

    Polish researchers uncover clues to lost Roman temple in Cyprus

    Polish researchers working in Cyprus have identified the remains of a monumental structure that may have been a rare Roman-era temple built outside an urban centre. The building, tentatively dated to the late 1st century CE, may have stood on a prominent hill near ancient Kourion, at a junction of routes connecting the region’s cities. Its location and monumental architecture raise the possibility that it was a rural sanctuary, although its exact function remains unknown.

  • Tauchira Gate in Ptolemais in 2006, view from the west. Credit: Miron Bogacki. Source: European Journal of Archaeology

    Ancient marks crack the code of a 2,000-year-old building site

    More than 620 mysterious marks carved into the limestone blocks of an ancient Libyan gate have revealed how stonemasons organised their work more than 2,000 years ago.

  • Exploration of metal ore outcrops on the slopes of the Huarmey Valley. © M. Giersz, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (via Archeowieści.pl)

    Ancient metal waste reveals 2,000-year-old trade route across the Andes

    A tiny piece of metallurgical waste found in the hand of a young man buried in pre-Inca Peru suggests that metals used to make tools were transported hundreds of kilometres from present-day Bolivia.

  • Burial of a woman buried with a sickle and padlock from the 17th-century cemetery in Pień, Source: Pień Project/TSE Evolution

    ‘Vampire’ grave mystery deepens as 17th-century woman ‘may have been an outsider’

    A 17th-century woman buried with a sickle around her neck and a padlock on her toe may have come from outside the local community, while a mysterious copper object placed in her mouth suggests locals took further measures to protect themselves from her after death, new research shows.

  • Reconstruction of a mammoth and a hunter, Natural History Museum, Munster, Germany, credit: Adobe Stock
    World

    Ice Age hunters may have targeted female mammoths, ancient DNA reveals

    Ice Age hunters may have preferred hunting female woolly mammoths, according to an analysis of ancient DNA from more than 500 mammoth bones.

  • Paweł Dąbrowski. Credit: Tomasz Walów

    Teeth reveal what Wrocław residents ate 200 years ago

    The teeth of Wrocław residents who lived more than 200 years ago have revealed what was on their plates, from wheat, rye and barley to peas, beans, pork and Baltic herring.

  • Source: the University of Warsaw press release
    Technology

    Polish researchers test safer way to remove old conservation layers from historic paintings

    Polish scientists have developed a nanocomposite gel that has been used to safely remove old conservation materials from a historic painting by renowned artist Włodzimierz Tetmajer.

  • Adobe Stock
    Life

    Europe's primeval landscape wasn't endless forest after all, surprising study finds

    Europe's primeval landscape was not an endless expanse of dense forest as long believed, but a patchwork of woodland, meadows and grasslands maintained by large grazing animals, according to a new study.

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