Story Archive
Sphinx nose removed in 1378 CE, not by Napoleon's army
Sphinx nose removed in 1378 CE, not by Napoleon's army. Frederick Louis Norden drew the Sphinx already missing its nose in the 1730s, decades before Napoleon's army arrived in…
56 Aubrey Holes encode 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle
56 Aubrey Holes encode 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle. The 56 Aubrey Holes' spacing encodes three lunar cycles Pattern corresponds to the moon's 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle Suggests…
Stonehenge stones traced to Wales and Scotland
Stonehenge stones traced to Wales and Scotland. Stonehenge comprises Sarsen stones and Bluestones transported from Wales The Altar stone has been traced to northern Scotland,…
Uruk: world's first city, White Temple, and Gilgamesh
Uruk: world's first city, White Temple, and Gilgamesh. Uruk emerged more than 5,000 years ago and is widely regarded as the world's first true city, home to tens of thousands of…
Ancient Babylon's Ishtar Gate, Etemenanki, and Hanging Gardens mystery
Ancient Babylon's Ishtar Gate, Etemenanki, and Hanging Gardens mystery. Ancient Babylon reached its golden age under King Nebuchadnezzar II during the 6th century BC The Ishtar…
Great Ziggurat of Ur and Royal Cemetery discoveries
Great Ziggurat of Ur and Royal Cemetery discoveries. The Great Ziggurat of Ur was built from millions of mud bricks with a protective outer layer of baked bricks bonded with…
Nineveh (Mesopotamia): Assyrian palaces, Lamassu, and Library of Ashurbanipal
Nineveh (Mesopotamia): Assyrian palaces, Lamassu, and Library of Ashurbanipal. Nineveh (Mesopotamia) reached its greatest glory during the reign of King Sennacherib in the 7th…
Two-dam system with reservoir and spillway identified at Dahshur
Two-dam system with reservoir and spillway identified at Dahshur. Upstream dam functioned as a check dam to slow flood water and allow stone, sand, and sediment to settle…
New study reinterprets Wadi Dahshur features as ancient dam system
New study reinterprets Wadi Dahshur features as ancient dam system. Study published in the journal Heritage Science Wadi Dahshur runs southwest of the Red Pyramid, built by…
Valley Temple features blocks that wrap around corners using in-situ material removal
Valley Temple features blocks that wrap around corners using in-situ material removal. Single granite blocks were cut to wrap around corners rather than meeting at corners The…
Mortuary Temple of Menkaure appears to be later add-on by different builders
Mortuary Temple of Menkaure appears to be later add-on by different builders. The mortuary temple is made of megalithic limestone blocks of lower quality than the pyramid…
Flattened entrance area of Menkaure's Pyramid shows 12-18 inches of granite removed
Flattened entrance area of Menkaure's Pyramid shows 12-18 inches of granite removed. Blocks around the entrance have been flattened while surrounding blocks retain a pillowy…
Menkaure's Pyramid granite casing features unusual knobs and curved joints
Menkaure's Pyramid granite casing features unusual knobs and curved joints. Menkaure's Pyramid was being cased in hard rose granite from Aswan (7 on Mohs scale) The core of the…
Dahshur princesses may have been trained warriors, bone analysis suggests
Dahshur princesses may have been trained warriors, bone analysis suggests. Dahshur hosts pyramids dating to the Old and Middle Kingdoms, including those of Amenemhat II and…
DNA reveals 'shaman' at Upton Lovell barrow was a female Bronze Age metalworker
DNA reveals 'shaman' at Upton Lovell barrow was a female Bronze Age metalworker. Bones of a 3,800-year-old individual were found in 1801 by William Cunnington in a barrow mound in…
2,600-year-old Picene princely chariot burial found near Nuraghe Cirolo, Italy
2,600-year-old Picene princely chariot burial found near Nuraghe Cirolo, Italy. A funerary complex over 2,600 years old was found near the municipality of Nuraghe Cirolo in…
Name of Maya astronomer Sak K'an Wash deciphered from Xultun mural formula
Name of Maya astronomer Sak K'an Wash deciphered from Xultun mural formula. The San Bartolo-Xultun Regional Archaeological Project, led by David Stewart and Heather Hurst, has…
Changsha tomb reveals 2,000-year-old Xin Zhui as world's best-preserved mummy
Changsha tomb reveals 2,000-year-old Xin Zhui as world's best-preserved mummy. Tomb discovered in Changsha, China, dated to the 2nd century BC, over 2,000 years old Xin Zhui was a…
Roopkund Lake in Himalayas contains skeletons from two mass deaths 1,000 years apart
Roopkund Lake in Himalayas contains skeletons from two mass deaths 1,000 years apart. Roopkund Lake is located in the Himalayas and was discovered in 1942 by a local forest ranger…
Younger Dryas Boundary evidence supports fragmented comet airburst hypothesis
Younger Dryas Boundary evidence supports fragmented comet airburst hypothesis. The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis was proposed in 2007 by Firestone, West, Kennett, and the…
Three-tiered Mississippian cosmos with Thunderbirds and underwater panthers
Three-tiered Mississippian cosmos with Thunderbirds and underwater panthers. Mississippian cosmology divided the universe into three tiers: the sky above, the surface of the…
Milky Way as the path of souls across ancient American civilizations
Milky Way as the path of souls across ancient American civilizations. Native American communities across North America viewed the Milky Way as the road the dead follow to the…
Red Horn saga depicted in Mississippian art and Cro-Magnon Rock Shelter paintings
Red Horn saga depicted in Mississippian art and Cro-Magnon Rock Shelter paintings. Red Horn is a culture hero with magical powers remembered primarily by the Ho Chunk and their…
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site as Mississippian metropolis abandoned around 1150 CE
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site as Mississippian metropolis abandoned around 1150 CE. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site had a population of approximately 20,000 people, rising…
1982 study suggests emerald from 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa may have pre-Columbian American origin
1982 study suggests emerald from 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa may have pre-Columbian American origin. Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa took place July 16, 1212, the largest…
Mythology of Lerna: Hydra, Heracles, and entrance to the underworld
Mythology of Lerna: Hydra, Heracles, and entrance to the underworld. Lerna was a region on the eastern coast of the Peloponnese, south of Argos near the modern village of Milió…
Caskey's excavations reveal Lerna's seven habitation layers spanning 5,500 years
Caskey's excavations reveal Lerna's seven habitation layers spanning 5,500 years. Excavation began in 1952 under John Caskey Caskey's work produced the five-volume report 'Lerna:…
Destruction of House of Tiles c. 2200 BCE and deliberate burial mound
Destruction of House of Tiles c. 2200 BCE and deliberate burial mound. The House of the Tiles was burned down around 2,200 BCE In the following phase (Lerna 4), a deliberate…
The Vajra superweapon of Hindu texts and its depiction across ancient Asia
The Vajra superweapon of Hindu texts and its depiction across ancient Asia. Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram features caves resembling those of Elephanta, the giant Arjuna's…
Blue Hindu deities depicted across cultures may reflect methemoglobinemia condition
Blue Hindu deities depicted across cultures may reflect methemoglobinemia condition. Blue deities found not only in India but also in Egyptian and Aztec mythology; Egyptian Amun,…
Brihadisvara Temple's mysterious inaccessible upper doors suggest lost passages
Brihadisvara Temple's mysterious inaccessible upper doors suggest lost passages. The Brihadisvara Temple features a lingam standing nearly 4 m tall The temple's upper section…
India's ancient stepwells reveal sophisticated underground engineering across Gujarat
India's ancient stepwells reveal sophisticated underground engineering across Gujarat. Around 1500 stepwells exist in Gujarat, where a stepwell is called a "vav" Adalaj stepwell…
Barabar Caves' precision granite chambers echo for 62 seconds at infrasound frequency
Barabar Caves' precision granite chambers echo for 62 seconds at infrasound frequency. Four caves in Barabar Hills and three in Nagarjuni Hills (located 1.5 km northeast), all…
Pedestals of Biamu identified as source of lost pyramids legend
Pedestals of Biamu identified as source of lost pyramids legend. From Hawara, Herodotus would have seen two colossal seated statues about 10 miles (16 km) away on stone bases The…
Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara Labyrinth and Herodotus's twin pyramids of Lake Moeris
Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara Labyrinth and Herodotus's twin pyramids of Lake Moeris. Egypt has at least 138 pyramids constructed between approximately 2670 BC (pyramid of…
Two types of elongated skulls identified in British long barrows
Two types of elongated skulls identified in British long barrows. Maria Wheatley has studied elongated skulls of Britain for 10 years across multiple universities Two distinct…
Discussion references Gnostic texts and Dead Sea Scrolls
Discussion references Gnostic texts and Dead Sea Scrolls. Hosts reference the Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic gospels during discussion of ego. The Nag Hammadi library is mentioned…
2024 satellite survey of rock gardens revises Easter Island population downward
2024 satellite survey of rock gardens revises Easter Island population downward. Rapa Nui farmers used rock gardens, spreading broken volcanic rock to hold moisture and shelter…
Polynesian rats and drought, not statue carving, drove Easter Island deforestation
Polynesian rats and drought, not statue carving, drove Easter Island deforestation. Polynesian rats arrived with the original settlers and bred rapidly with no natural predators A…
2024 ancient DNA study shows Easter Island population grew steadily until European contact
2024 ancient DNA study shows Easter Island population grew steadily until European contact. In 2024, researchers sequenced the full genomes of 15 ancient Rapa Nui individuals The…
Diogenes of Oenoanda's great Epicurean inscription in Lycia
Diogenes of Oenoanda's great Epicurean inscription in Lycia. Diogenes of Oenoanda commissioned the great inscription to address the ignorance of his fellow citizens, who largely…
Shamanic altered states linked to rock art at Great Basin Canyon
Shamanic altered states linked to rock art at Great Basin Canyon. Rain shamans traveled over 400 miles to Great Basin Canyon in southernmost Nevada, believed to be the home of a…
Hiawatha Crater and Greenland ice core evidence for Younger Dryas impact
Hiawatha Crater and Greenland ice core evidence for Younger Dryas impact. 31-kilometer-diameter impact crater detected beneath Hiawatha Glacier in Greenland using ice-penetrating…
Thackeray syllogism links Younger Dryas onset to combined impact and volcanic activity
Thackeray syllogism links Younger Dryas onset to combined impact and volcanic activity. Syllogism proposes: platinum peak is close in time to onset of Younger Dryas cooling (OYD);…
DNA from 132 burials in French megalithic tomb reveals population replacement around 3000 BC
DNA from 132 burials in French megalithic tomb reveals population replacement around 3000 BC. DNA was analyzed from 132 people buried in a large megalithic tomb near Bury,…
Geometric glyphs and tiered stone boxes at Rumi Gate
Geometric glyphs and tiered stone boxes at Rumi Gate. Geometric drawings and sun-ray designs carved on the sides of square stone boxes at Rumi Gate One square box has three…
Evidence of human habitation: cave, walls, and megalithic blocks
Evidence of human habitation: cave, walls, and megalithic blocks. A wall structure was identified along the site, providing evidence of human habitation A cave or chinkana (Andean…
Multi-ton fitted stone lids removed from Rumi Gate megalithic boxes
Multi-ton fitted stone lids removed from Rumi Gate megalithic boxes. Round fitted lids sit atop square openings cut into bedrock at Rumi Gate Most lids have been removed, with…
Patio of the Altars and Murals of the Drinkers at Cholula
Patio of the Altars and Murals of the Drinkers at Cholula. The Patio of the Altars served as the principal entrance to the Great Pyramid and underwent at least six construction…
Great Pyramid of Cholula construction phases from 200 BCE onward
Great Pyramid of Cholula construction phases from 200 BCE onward. Inhabitants are proposed to have been speakers of the Oto-Manguean language family, which also contains Zapotec…
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