Bronze Age

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Bones Reveal a Brutal Bronze Age Anomaly
Bones Reveal a Brutal
Bronze Age Anomaly
new study
Dec 16, 2024 9:57 AM CST

Bones Reveal a Brutal Bronze Age Anomaly

Study suggests entire community in what is now Britain were murdered and cannibalized 4K years ago

(Newser) - The ancient bones were found decades ago in a cave in what is now Somerset, England, but scientists have only now pieced together the "exceptionally violent" story behind them, reports the BBC . In their study published in the journal Antiquity , researchers say at least 37 men, women, and children...

Stone Age Grave Used for Centuries Held Mostly Males
Stone Age Mass Grave
Gives Up Some of Its Secrets
new study
Sep 11, 2024 4:05 PM CDT

Stone Age Mass Grave Gives Up Some of Its Secrets

It contained mostly male remains

(Newser) - A Stone Age mass grave has given up some of its secrets thanks to DNA. A team of French archaeologists and paleo-geneticists analyzed the genomes of 37 of the 75 individuals that had been exhumed from the burial site at Aven de la Boucle in the Languedoc region. Radiocarbon dating...

Rare Jar Smashed by Boy, 4, Is Back on Display With New Sign

'Please don't touch,' museum advises visitors

(Newser) - A rare Bronze Age jar accidentally smashed by a curious 4-year-old visiting a museum in Israel was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together. Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the Hecht Museum in Haifa when their youngest...

Curious 4-Year-Old Shatters Museum's Ancient Jar

Bronze Age artifact does not survive an inquisitive boy at Israel's Hecht Museum

(Newser) - The clay jar at Israel's Hecht Museum had withstood the tests of more than three millennia, but it proved no match for a curious 4-year-old boy. The BBC reports that the child was "curious about what was inside" the 3,500-year-old jar that sat unprotected at the museum'...

Metal Detector Uncovers a Bronze Age Treasure Trove

Jewelry collection comes from Swiss area with few known settlements from that time

(Newser) - A Swiss man who set out to explore a freshly plowed field with his metal detector stumbled upon what some are speculating are treasures once contained in an ancient jewelry box. From the carrot field in Güttingen, 50 miles northeast of Zurich, Franz Zahn first pulled a bronze disc...

Rock Slab Found in 1900 Now Hailed as 'Treasure Map'

Researchers believe the Saint-Bélec slab points to Bronze Age burial sites in France

(Newser) - There's no bright red "X" marking the spot where treasure can be found. Still, archaeologists believe they've found a "treasure map" in the form of a 4,000-year-old rock slab whose engraved markings match natural features in France's westernmost Brittany region. The large stone, known...

Research Into Early Human Violence Offers 'Stark Warning'

Study, finding peak violence in Copper Age, suggests climate change plays a role

(Newser) - There are two prevailing theories about the early history of interpersonal violence: One claims violence erupted as humans transitioned from hunter-gathering to settled communities; the other claims violence was rampant in early communities before the transition to farming led to cooperation and greater peace, per Scientific American . Yet "a...

Scientists Uncover 3K-Year-Old Drug Trip
Scientists Uncover
3K-Year-Old Drug Trip
NEW STUDY
Apr 7, 2023 2:00 PM CDT

Scientists Uncover 3K-Year-Old Drug Trip

Human hair containing hallucinogens offers first direct evidence of prehistoric drug use in Europe

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered what's being touted as the first direct evidence of drug use in ancient Europe. The Bronze-Age inhabitants of what is now the Spanish island of Menorca ingested hallucinogens derived from plants, according to analysis of 3,000-year-old human hairs found in a cave that served as...

Ancient Recipe for Bronze Is Finally Cracked
Ancient Recipe for Bronze
Is Finally Cracked
NEW STUDY
Aug 11, 2022 12:52 PM CDT

Ancient Recipe for Bronze Is Finally Cracked

Researchers say two alloys were key to early China's massive output

(Newser) - Researchers believe they've found the key to a thriving metal industry in ancient China in a 2,300-year-old recipe for bronze. Some 1.5 tons of bronze discovered in the tomb of a general from the Shang dynasty (1600BC to 1046BC) in 1976 helped show the "massive scale"...

It 'Looked So New,' He Couldn't Believe It Was Ancient Treasure

Bronze Age trove likely left as offering in Swedish forest

(Newser) - A treasure trove of jewelry and other goods likely belonging to one or more high-status women was once intentionally left in a forest in what is now western Sweden. It only took 2,500 years to find it. Cartographer Thomas Karlsson was surveying the forest near the town of Alingsas...

Amateur Treasure Hunter Hits It Big in Scotland

'I've just discovered a big part of Scottish history'

(Newser) - A man and his metal detector have uncovered a 3,000-year-old hoard of Bronze Age goods, including a complete sword and horse harness, its leather and wood still preserved. "[I] felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular and I've just discovered a big part...

Hidden in Plain View, an Ancient Sword

5K-year-old blade was initially labeled as medieval sword on display at monastery

(Newser) - A PhD student had a hunch that a monastery's sword, labeled as medieval, was actually much, much older. After two years of study, "it all came full circle," Italian archaeologist Vittoria Dall'Armellina, who's now completed her schooling at Venice's Ca' Foscari University, tells CNN...

Discovery of Bronze Hand Sparks a Mystery
Ancient Bronze Hand Leaves
Archaeologists Perplexed
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 30, 2018 10:10 AM CDT

Ancient Bronze Hand Leaves Archaeologists Perplexed

And leads to a criminal investigation

(Newser) - The hand is a bit smaller than that of an adult and made from roughly a pound of bronze. What it was used for has perplexed archaeologists since it was found in Switzerland last October. At an estimated 3,500 years old, National Geographic calls it "Europe's earliest...

Bronze Age Battle May Rewrite History of War in Europe

Thousands fought in Germany's Tollense Valley

(Newser) - Ten thousand human bones excavated from Germany's Tollense Valley over the last six years tell the story of a Bronze Age battle that's surprising archaeologists. The bones of more than 100 men, along with remains of five horses and various weapons, comprise the first evidence of trained warriors...

Plague Found in 5K-Year-Old Human Skeleton

That's 3K years earlier than scientists knew the disease even existed

(Newser) - The plague is apparently a lot older than we thought. Scientists says the disease was responsible for a massive migration of people across Europe and Asia during the Bronze Age—approximately 3,000 years earlier than it was believed to have existed, according to a study published Thursday in Cell ...

Bronze Age Priestess Found in 1921 Traveled Far

The teen, found in Denmark, likely came from southern Germany

(Newser) - The remains of a Bronze Age cultic priestess found in Egtved, Denmark, in 1921 belong to a teenager who'd likely traveled all the way from southern Germany—a great distance for the year 1370BC, researchers report in a press release . They now know this is because her oak coffin...

Skeleton and His Dagger Yield a Tale 4.2K Years Old

Tests suggest he was likely a warrior who died in battle

(Newser) - He lay on his side, clutching a bronze dagger, undiscovered in a shallow field in the UK for four millennia til a metal detector hit upon his dagger. Then it took another quarter-century for tests to be funded and performed, but they're now telling the story of Racton Man...

Why Skulls of Kids Encircled Ancient Villages

Bronze Age villages placed skulls to ward off flooding, researchers say

(Newser) - Visitors to some ancient villages in Switzerland and Germany weren't greeted by a nice garden or an archway. They encountered skulls—children's skulls, researchers say. According to a new study , certain lakeshore villages placed children's skulls and bones outside of town in an effort to ward off...

Charred Remains May Rewrite Ancient History

Bronze Age find includes fur, possibly from extinct bear

(Newser) - A rare 4,000-year-old find may rewrite Bronze Age history and prove that ancient peoples were hipper than we thought, the Guardian reports. Archaeologists have dug up a box on a British moor that includes a small person's charred remains and many burial items—including 34 tin studs and...

3.2K-Year-Old Mystery Undone by Pollen
 3.2K-Year-Old Mystery 
 Undone by Pollen  
in case you missed it
Oct 26, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

3.2K-Year-Old Mystery Undone by Pollen

Drought led to crisis in Bronze Age society: researchers

(Newser) - In the Late Bronze Age, a thriving society near present-day Tel Aviv and far beyond suddenly fell apart, and researchers have long been stumped as to the precise cause—until now. The explanation for the crisis lies in fossilized pollen, which remains stable for millennia and points the finger of...

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