Archaeology

A new study suggests ancient humans provided altruistic care for community members, after finding evidence of Down syndrome in a Neanderthal child.

Critics of displaying mummified bodies argue it's dehumanising and disrupts the person's journey to the afterlife. Changing attitudes have led a Sydney museum to remove several mummified body parts from its display.

The use of ground penetrating radar to help solve crimes is well known, but recently it's played a major role in helping Australian South Sea Islander communities find the missing bodies of long-lost ancestors.

Fry is a long-term campaigner for the sculptures to be returned and supports the British Museum displaying exact replicas made by a team of archaeologists from 3D scans of the marbles.

Only around 170 swords have been uncovered in Europe and this could be the first of its kind found in the Rogaland region. 

What is a baby platypus called? Where is Planet Nine? Are you an uber geek? There's only one way to find out — take this quiz.

Marine archaeologists have mapped out a virtual tour of the whaling ship Cheviot after uncovering its wreckage at Wilsons Promontory in south-eastern Victoria.

Marine archaeologists are creating a 3D model of a whaling ship that sank off the Victorian coast more than 160 years ago after challenging and "eerie" dives on the wreck.

Just over a decade ago, an outback cattle station worker in the NT stumbled across a rare diprotodon fossil sticking out of the red soil. Now fondly known as Shirley, scientists have discovered how old the marsupial is.

Legend has it a jealous husband used a wave curse to sink Teonimenu into the ocean forever. Scientists have worked out what really happened.

The Neanderthal woman's skull was discovered in 2018 in a cave in the Zagros Mountains of northern Iraq.

As work begins to find an unknown amount of old graves at a private boys' school built over an old cemetery, students and staff will be "protected from confronting scenes", the principal says.

A Perth archaeologist and anthropologist has made an unexpected discovery — some of the known shipwrecks off the WA coast aren't where they're supposed to be.

A fossil jawbone found by a young girl and her father on a beach in England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating back to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. 

The tooth could provide further historical evidence of inter-community trading in Western Australia and was unearthed in Juukan Gorge, which made headlines in 2020 when its rock shelters were damaged by Rio Tinto blasts.

Residents of a town in South Australia's south-east are being enlisted in research into a shipwreck that killed 16 Dutch sailors in 1857 soon after offloading 400 gold miners from China.

Ancient pottery fragments have been discovered on a Great Barrier Reef island that could change our understanding of Aboriginal history. 

Our ancestors left Africa some 70,000 years ago, but it took them thousands of years to expand across all of Europe or Asia. A DNA study may shed light on where they ended up during this 'long pause'.

A technician looking for lost shipping containers off the New South Wales coast noticed an anomaly on his screen. It turned out to be the wreck of the SS Nemesis, which disappeared in a storm 120 years ago.

Five decades ago, when geologist Jim Bowler brushed sand away from the dome of an ancient human cranium, it changed the way we thought about Australia's past.

Scientists discover the oldest fossilised forest known on Earth, dating back 390 million years, according to a new study.

The paintings were found during excavation operations to restore part of the ruins called Leda's House.

Colombia's government says it will remove items of "incalculable value" from the San Jose galleon, which was laden with gold, silver and emeralds when it sank in 1708.

Scientists believe footprints that were accidentally found on a Moroccan beach were made by five modern humans 90,000 years ago. 

An American company believes it's found the wreckage of Earhart's plane, which went missing in the Pacific Ocean in 1937.