The Vascones, an iron age tribe from whose language modern Basque is thought to descend, previously viewed as largely illiterate

Perfume, tonic – even love potion – silphium was prized by the ancient Romans, but in its success lay the seeds of its own downfall

The long read: Archaeological discoveries are shattering scholars’ long-held beliefs about how the earliest humans organised their societies – and hint at possibilities for our own

Remains of man found in Latvia had DNA fragments and proteins of bacterium that causes plague

‘Quite spectacular’ discovery shows three-year-old child was carefully laid to rest nearly 80,000 years ago

Tomas Karlsson thought he saw 'metal garbage' while out updating a map. Turns out it was ancient treasure dating back 2,500 years. 

Ishi-no-Hoden is one of Japan's most mysterious and bewildering monuments, a gigantic stone structure in the shape of an old tube TV almost 6 meters (20 ft) high and 500 tons (560 US tons) in weight that seems to float over a pond in the city of Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture.

The buried city of Aten was built in the golden age of Ancient Egypt, and would have been used by powerful pharaohs such as Tutankhamun.

Archaeologists have managed to get near-perfect notes out of a musical instrument that's more than 17,000 years old. It's a conch shell that was found in a hunter-gatherer cave in southern France. The artefact is the oldest known wind instrument of its type. To date, only bone flutes can claim a deeper heritage.

The wagon—and the wagon wheel—could not have been put together in stages. Either it works, or it doesn’t. And it enabled humans to spread rapidly into huge parts of the world.

Of all the volcanic eruptions to shake our planet in the last 2 million years, the Toba super-eruption in Sumatra, Indonesia, was one of the most colossal. But it may not have been the global catastrophe we once thought it was.

Previous studies suggest volcanic winter caused a population bottleneck 74,000 years ago.

The Wari empire, an ancient Peruvian civilization that predated the Inca, made advances in agriculture, art, architecture, and warfare. They also drank a ton of beer.

During an excavation of an ancient temple to Vishnu in the city of Singuali, Madhya Pradesh, Indian archaeologists found something quite strange. By Sequoyah Kennedy.

When José Capriles arrived in 2008 at the Cueva del Chileno rock shelter, nestled on the western slopes of Bolivia’s Andes, he didn’t know what he would find within. Sweeping aside layers of fresh and ancient llama dung, he found the remains of an ancient burial site: stone markers suggesting a body had once been interred there and a small leather bag cinched with a string. Inside was a collection of ancient drug paraphernalia—bone spatulas to crush the seeds of plants with psychoactive...

Beth Moon slept under ancient baobabs and waited out the clouds to photograph Earth’s arboreal beauty at night. By Catherine Zuckerman.

How should we read Thucydides? By Johanna Hanink.

The absence of the tiniest creature can shape the world in the biggest way. By Robert Krulwich.

Shiny and sharp, obsidian is enjoying a bit of a pop culture moment. It plays a central role in HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones, now wrapping its final season. Called dragonglass on the show, obsidian is one of only two substances that can cut down White Walkers, malevolent otherworldly warriors. In the real world, the volcanic glass reveals the human story in a way no other material can.

Today, the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan is relatively remote, known mostly for its magnificent medieval ruins. But over a millennium ago, it was one of the richest cities on the infamous trade route known as the Silk Road. Back in the 600s CE, that route was called simply "the road to Samarkand." By David Aragorn.