Ancient Civilizations

Constructed between 510 and 500 B.C., the base of a funerary kouros in Athens is decorated with the image of wrestlers fighting.

Wrestling Was Fixed, Even in Ancient Rome

New analysis of an ancient document reveals classical roots of fake wrestling

Floodwaters gushing through a dam on the Yellow River.

Humans Have Been Messing With China's Yellow River for 3,000 Years

When humans try to tame nature things rarely go according to plan

When Trees Are Cut Down, Angkor’s Temples Begin to Crumble

People usually think of trees' destructive impacts on Angkor, but they also protect those iconic temples

More Than 200 Hidden Paintings Were Discovered on the Walls of Angkor Wat

Researchers discovered the images by digitally enhancing photos of the temple's walls

These Cold War Satellite Images Revealed 10,000 Undiscovered Archaeological Sites

Images of the Middle East from the 1960s showed thousands of archaeological sites—some of which have already been destroyed

Noah's Ark by Edward Hicks, 1846.

Could Noah’s Ark Float? In Theory, Yes

Basic physics suggests that an ark carrying lots of animal cargo could float, but science doesn’t support other facets of the biblical tale

Panicum miliaceum, or broomcorn millet.

Ancient Wandering Shepherds Spread Crops Across Eurasia

The nomadic shepherds of central Asia joined east and west

Where Are All the Babies in Archaeological Sites?

To figure out whether ancient people cremated their babies, archaeologists set some piglets on fire

Conches Evolved To Be Smaller Because of Hungry Humans

Conches began maturing when they were smaller in order to breed before humans snatched them up

A vertebrae from the remains, with a close-up of a cancerous growth (indicated by white arrows).

This 3,000-Year-Old Human Skeleton Reveals the Earliest Known Example of Cancer

Skeletal scans of the remains, which were found in Sudan, shows the cancer had spread before the victim died

Neanderthal Hunters Probably Didn’t Herd Mammoths Off Cliffs

Not that it's impossible, in general; it just probably didn't happen at this one particular spot

The Mystery of This 500-Year Old Mummy Is Only Beginning To Be Solved

For more than a century, no one in Germany knew where this mummy came from

Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico.

Ancient Cities Developed in a Surprisingly Similar Way to Modern Ones

The same mathematical equations that describe patterns of modern urban sprawl are equally suited to explaining the development of ancient cities

Happisburgh, a stretch of southeastern British coast that's one of the country's fastest eroding spots.

The Oldest Human Footprints Ever Discovered Outside of Africa Have Already Been Washed Away

Casts and computer images are all that's of footprints made 900,000 years ago on the British coast

No One Knows Why Ancient Egyptians Built This 4,600-Year-Old Pyramid

The new pyramid joins the list of other mysterious step pyramids built before the Great Pyramid at Giza

Modern humans get back to their (partial) roots at the Neanderthal Museum in Germany.

Neanderthals Went Extinct 30,000 Years Ago, But Their DNA Is Still in the Human Genome

Some of the Neanderthal genes made important contributions while others made us more susceptible to disease

Researchers recreated what the 7,000 year-old man likely looked like.

Just Call This Hunter-Gatherer Ol' Blue-Eyes

DNA from an ancient human tooth found in a cave in Spain reveals one European hunter-gatherer's complexion

Rendering of map by artist John Swogger.

This Stone Age Mural Might Be the Oldest Map Ever

But before it can be crowned oldest map, archaeologists have to figure out whether it is a map at all

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Hunter-Gatherers Ruined Their Teeth by Eating Too Many Acorns

Wild nuts such as acorns, pine nuts and pistachios are highly cariogenic, or those "producing and promoting the development of tooth decay"

The World’s Third Oldest Bible, the Codex Washingtonianus, Is Making a Rare Museum Appearance

When the Codex was first published publicly in 1912, it caused a controversy because it contained an extra passage in the Gospel of Mark

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