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Megan Gannon
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7 Entertaining Examples of Ancient Graffiti
"I visited and I did not like anything except the sarcophagus!"...
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This May Be the Oldest Tattoo Kit in the World
It was unearthed more than 30 years ago, but archaeologists have only just realized what it is....
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11 Inventions That Came Before the Wheel
In the scope of human history, the wheel is actually a rather young creation....
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Archaeologists Are Recreating Recipes from 17th-Century Ships
They want to learn what happens to salted beef and beer at sea—and more about the grub's nutritional value....
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10 Fascinating Facts About the La Brea Tar Pits
There’s a gooey time capsule in the heart of Los Angeles, left over from an era when saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, camels, and giant sloths prowled southern California....
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Rainy Season in the Andes Reveals the Oldest Known Copper Death Mask
Its discovery complicates the long-standing idea that metalworking began on the continent in Peru....
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Archaeologists Find 30,000-Year-Old Jewelry in Indonesia
They were found in a cave on the island of Sulawesi....
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The Discovery of Portugal’s Oldest Skull Adds to Puzzle of Human Evolution
It's about 400,000 years old....
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Antibiotics, Pain Meds, and a Vegetarian Diet Found in Neanderthal Teeth
Dental plaque traps bits of food, bacteria, and pathogens. That might be bad news for you, but it’s good news for archaeologists....
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Unusual 100,000-Year-Old Human Skulls Found in China
The finds bolster the idea that the precursors to modern humans were a diverse bunch who routinely interbred with one another....
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Surprising Viking Boat Burial Found in Scotland
Such ships have previously been unearthed across Scandinavia, but recently, archaeologists report the first discovery of a rich Viking boat burial on the UK mainland....
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Is This America’s Oldest Condom?
“In terms of its dimensions, it’s clearly the right shape and everything,” Sara Rivers-Cofield told mental_floss....
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9 Archaeological Sites of Biblical Importance
Archaeology might raise more questions about the bible than it answers, but that doesn’t stop millions of religious tourists from flocking to the Holy Land every year to walk in the footsteps of figures like Jesus and Moses....
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Scientists Reveal the Secrets of the Capuchin Catacomb Mummies
The crypt has long been a religious site and morbid tourist attraction. But only recently has it also become a place for serious science....
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15 Hirsute Alternatives to Bigfoot
Get your yowies, agogwes, yetis, and mogollons right here....
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6 Downsides of Human Evolution
5. A lot of us have mental illness....
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Archaeologists Find 49,000-Year-Old Artifacts in Australia’s Interior
The cave where the artifacts were found might be the oldest archaeological site in Australia’s dry southern interior....
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Archaeologists Find Man Buried With Shroud of Cannabis Leaves
People have been decorating their bodies with pot leaves way before you bought that "I <3 420" T-shirt at the mall....
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Humans Feasted on Horses and Sloths in Argentina 14,000 Years Ago
The bones might help scientists reconstruct the bigger picture of how the first humans migrated through South America....
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Archaeologists Find Skeleton at Antikythera Mechanism Shipwreck
Human remains are a rare find for sunken ships. Discovering a skeleton in one of the most famous shipwrecks in the world is even rarer....
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The Blue in Your Blue Jeans Is at Least 6000 Years Old
Ancient Peruvians were the first in the world to dye fabric blue, beating the Egyptians to it by 1600 years....
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Has the HMS Terror Shipwreck Been Found in Arctic Canada?
Parks Canada is still confirming the discovery, but all signs point to the wreck being the HMS Terror....
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Study: The First Americans Didn't Arrive by the Bering Land Bridge
For much of the 20th century, scientists believed that the first settlers of the Americas could only have arrived one way....
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Have Scientists Found Evidence of the Great Flood of China?
It was one of the most cataclysmic floods on Earth in the past 10,000 years....
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Ancient DNA Sequenced from ‘Sky Cave’ Burials in Nepal
“The big question we had was, ‘Who were these people?’ We didn't really have any idea where they came from."...
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15 Facts About the Maya Civilization
Across Mesoamerica today, you can find sprawling ancient cities with towering pyramids, ballcourts, saunas, monumental sculptures, and enigmatic hieroglyphs—all thanks to the Maya. Here are 15 things you might not know about this ancient civilization....
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Paleontologists Try to Diagnose a Dinosaur Skin Disease
Little craters on dinosaur bones aren’t necessarily battle scars from a death match....
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Lead Ink Found in Ancient Scrolls Charred by Vesuvius Eruption
To the frustration of historians, the only library to survive from antiquity is largely unreadable. This new study may help to change that....
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Scientists Recreate How Neanderthals May Have Butchered Birds for Jewelry
Neanderthals may have accessorized with raptor feathers and talons—and, according to new research, they went through great pains to do so....
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Archaeologists Discover 7-lb. Calcified Uterus in British Cemetery
"I've never seen anything quite like that before, nor have my colleagues, and we were very excited."...
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