BEST OF 2021: A hundred and twenty years ago, divers discovered a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera in Greece. What they found changed our understanding of human history. The mysterious Antikythera Mechanism has captured the imagination of archaeologists, mathematicians, and scientists ever since. Now, using the latest 3D x-ray and modelling technology, experts are unravelling the secrets of what this machine may have been capable of. Video by Harriet Constable

Egyptian scientists have unwrapped a 3,500-year-old royal mummy without peeling away a single layer of embalming linen.

The Justinianic Plague spread through west Eurasia between the 6th and 8th centuries CE, signifying the first known outbreak of bubonic plague in this part of the world. According to a new analysis of ancient texts and genetic data, its impact was much more severe than some recent studies have suggested.

Uncovered from a Byzantine-era winery, the gold and purple amethyst ring may have been worn to prevent the ill effects of drinking too much alcohol.

You can't see them from the surface, but they're definitely there. Scientists have revealed the discovery of hundreds of ancient ceremonial sites, many of which belonged to the Maya civilization, hiding in plain sight just underneath the landscape of

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

Israeli archaeologists have found a rare ancient toilet in Jerusalem dating back more than 2,700 years, when private bathrooms were a luxury in the holy city, authorities said Tuesday.

Two new ones just turned up in a tomb on a remote Scottish island. 

DNA evidence has finally ended the debate about where the ancient Etruscans – an ancient civilization whose remains are found in Italy – came from.

Known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, it was looted from Iraq and made its way through several hands before Hobby Lobby purchased it for the Museum of the Bible in 2014.

New research suggests that fire from the sky in the form of a small asteroid annihilated a city near the Dead Sea 3,600 years ago.

Tools and bones in Moroccan cave could be some of earliest evidence of the hallmark human behaviour

Poverty Point in northern Louisiana is one of the first US civilizations on record, inhabited by a community of Native Americans as early as 1700 BCE. In a new study, researchers have shown these inhabitants to be highly skilled engineers, rather tha

The first ancient human DNA from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi — and the wider Wallacea islands group — sheds light on the early human history of the region.

Bullets, wedding rings pinpoint World War II execution grounds

Archaeologists have finally figured out how Arthur's Stone, the famous Neolithic monument that inspired the 'stone table' in The Chronicles of Narnia, came to be.

DNA suggests body buried in feminine attire with swords had Klinefelter syndrome, researchers say

New research may shed more light on the ancient civilization's 'collapse.'

Old Babylonian tablet likely used for surveying uses Pythagorean triples at least 1,000 years before Pythagoras

Archaeologists in Morocco have announced the discovery of North Africa's oldest Stone Age hand-axe manufacturing site, dating back 1.3 million years, an international team reported Wednesday.