History

Ancient Maya population may have topped 16 million at peak, new lidar study reveals

A sweeping new research study has shifted our image of the Maya civilization of the ancient past, and it appears that its population during the Late Classic period (CE 600–900) might have reached as high as 16 million people, roughly 45% higher than previous estimates...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/maya-population-may-have-topped-16-million/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #LiDAR #MayaCivilization

#history

5,700-year-old cannibalism linked to Neolithic violence uncovered at El Mirador cave in Spain

A new study led by IPHES-CERCA and published in Scientific Reports provides evidence of 5,700-year-old human cannibalism in El Mirador cave, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. The research shows that the event occurred in the context of a violent clash between Late Neolithic herder communities...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/5700-year-old-cannibalism-at-el-mirador-cave/

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#archaeology #cannibalism #neolithic #history

Ceremonial club heads and over 200 structures found in lost Chachapoyas city, Peru

Archaeologists have unearthed more than 200 pre-Hispanic structures and two ceremonial club heads in the Amazonas region, Peru—shedding new light on the Chachapoyas civilization, also referred to as the “Warriors of the Clouds.”

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/ceremonial-heads-and-structures-in-lost-chachapoyas-city/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #Chachapoyas #prehispanic #history

300,000-year-old teeth in China suggest interbreeding between early humans and Homo erectus

A recent study of ancient teeth unearthed at South China’s Hualongdong site is revolutionizing scientists’ understanding of human evolution in Asia. The 300,000-year-old dental remains from an enigmatic group of hominins reveal an unprecedented mix of primitive and modern characteristics...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/interbreeding-between-early-humans-and-h-erectus/

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#archaeology #anthropology #homosapiens #homoerectus #history

4,000-year-old teeth reveal earliest evidence of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia

A recent study uncovered the oldest direct biochemical evidence of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia, dating back 4,000 years. Researchers used advanced chemical analysis on ancient dental plaque to detect traces of the psychoactive plant, gaining new insight into the cultural practices of early Thai societies.

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/earliest-evidence-of-betel-nut-chewing/

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#archaeology #archeology #bronzeage #history

Japanese WWII destroyer Teruzuki wreck found off Guadalcanal after 83 years

In a remarkable deep-sea discovery, an international research team has located the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki, sunk in 1942 during one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. The wreck, over 2,600 feet (800 meters) beneath the surface in the waters of the Solomon Islands...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/japanese-wwii-destroyer-teruzuki-wreck-found/

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#archaeology #shipwreck #worldwar2 #worldwarii #history

Reconstructions reveal faces of Neolithic sisters buried 6,000 years ago

More than 6,000 years ago, in the Krumlov Forest of South Moravia in the Czech Republic, two sisters endured a hard life in an ancient mining settlement. Now, thanks to advanced forensic methods and archaeological research, their incredibly lifelike faces have been uncovered in new 3D reconstructions...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/reconstructions-reveal-faces-of-neolithic-sisters/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #neolithic #history

"The record goes back centuries, and in every case, the pattern is the same. As recently as 2010, Barack Obama was “unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage,” considering it a bridge too far. Only when it became politically safe did he side with the LGBTQ activists who had been fighting for their rights all along. Before that, it was leftists who led the charge to end apartheid in South Africa through a boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, similar to the one they propose against Israel today, while everyone from Ronald Reagan to the editors of the National Review opposed them and defended the apartheid. Likewise, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s was considered far too radical by the American mainstream, with 61 percent of Gallup poll respondents saying they disapproved of the Freedom Riders. Today, despite Republican attempts to rewrite history, we know the protesters were in the right. So were the supporters of women’s suffrage, who were condemned for breaking windows and chaining themselves to things using language strikingly similar to what’s currently used to condemn Black Lives Matter or Palestine Action.

It’s the same with the protests against invading Vietnam: condemned at the time, now valorized in hindsight. Even earlier, the abolition of slavery was the territory of wild-eyed radicals like John Brown, who warned America that “the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood”—and of Karl Marx, who wrote that “Labor in the white skin can never free itself as long as labor in the black skin is branded.” The Civil War that followed bore that prophecy out. Even the most obvious propositions in the world, like ending child labor in factories, had to be dragged into the mainstream by socialists and trade unionists."

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-left-is-always-right-too-early

#Left #Socialism #Progressivism #Liberalism #History

3D analysis reveals Shroud of Turin image likely came from sculpture, not Jesus’ body

A new 3D digital analysis offers compelling evidence that the Turin Shroud—long believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus—was likely not created by contact with a real person’s body, but was actually crafted as a form of medieval religious art...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/shroud-of-turin-image-came-from-sculpture/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #christianity #ShroudOfTurin

#history

5,000-year-old Salzmünde ritual pits unearthed in Germany reveal mysterious Neolithic ceremonies

In a spectacular discovery along the route of Germany’s SuedOstLink high-voltage power transmission project, archaeologists have uncovered twelve ritual pits dating back 5,000 years, near Gerstewitz in Saxony-Anhalt. These finds, associated with the enigmatic Salzmünde Culture...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/salzmunde-ritual-pits-unearthed-in-germany/

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#archaeology #anthropology #neolithic #history

When the U.S. almost nuked Alaska — on purpose.

From @popsci@universeodon.com: "Project Chariot intended to detonate six bombs to build a harbor."

https://flip.it/1gxPSr

#Alaska #Nuclear #History #Science

2,500-year-old Siberian mummy’s tattoos reveal Iron Age artistry and ancient techniques

A new study has unveiled incredibly detailed tattoos on a 2,500-year-old mummy unearthed in Siberia’s Altai Mountains, yielding unusual insights into the artistry, technology, and cultural significance of tattooing by Iron Age nomads...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/siberian-mummys-tattoos-reveal-iron-age-artistry/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #ancienttattoo #tattoo #pazyryk #ironage #history

Bronze Age burial of young woman unearthed in Iran reveals Greater Khorasan’s wealth and trade links

Archaeologists have unearthed the richest tomb to date at the Tepe Chalow site in eastern Iran, yielding new understanding of an enigmatic ancient cultural network now referred to as the Greater Khorasan Civilization (GKC)...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/bronze-age-burial-of-woman-iran-greater-khorasan/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #AncientIran #greaterkhorasan #anthropology #bronzeage #history

The White House will vet Smithsonian Museums to fit Trump’s historical vision.

@WSJ reports: "Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association, said the White House’s effort was an affront to the historians and curators trained to ensure historical accuracy."

Gift link: https://flip.it/jI-PE_

#Smithsonian #Trump #History #Museum #USPolitics #News

"Palestine is the moral question of our time because the abuse of the Palestinians is the most glaring, in-your-face symptom of the imperial disease. You can see the effects of so many of the empire’s abusive dynamics in how this thing is playing out, from racism to colonialism to militarism to war profiteering to mass media propaganda to empire-building to government corruption to suppression of free speech to ecocide to the heartless, mindless, soul-eating nature of the capitalist system under which we all live.

But there’s more to it than that. The primary reason to place Palestine front and center as the moral issue of our time is because if we can’t sort out the morality of an active genocide backed by our own western governments, we’re not going to be able to sort out anything else. Stopping the Gaza holocaust and bringing justice to the Palestinians is the very first step toward a healthy civilization."

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stopping-the-gaza-holocaust-is-the

#Palestine #Israel #Gaza #Genocide #HumanRights #Colonialism #LandTheft

#history

The first FTP server I ever connected to (ftp.funet.fi) is still going strong. The README is a fun read, especially the history part. Here are some of the early entries:

1988

First of December Finland gets it's first internet link of 56Kbit/s via the NORDUnet co-operation and major part of the traffic was from FTP

1989

Funet saw the need for a FTP-server that would allow better access to the internet content (web was still a dream) from Finland. Decision to set up NIC.FUNET.FI was made and Request for Proposals sent out

1990

First NIC.FUNET.FI, a SUN 4/330, with dual 40Mhz SPARC processors, 128MB RAM and 6GB of usable disk space which made it then among the largest FTP servers in the Internet.

Our international internet connectivity for whole Funet was 64Kbit/s so mea develops an ftpd with speed limits

More hardware details are available in /pub/files/Historical/staff-docs/historical/First-NIC-Hardware.txt

1991

Linus Torvalds offered a small OS for public distribution which our volunteer Ari Lemmke decided to call Linux and the name stuck... International connection was upgraded to 128Kbit/s

...

https://ftp.funet.fi/README

#funet #history #computinghistory

Three prehistoric domus de janas, or “fairy houses,” unearthed in Sardinia, Italy

Researchers have unearthed three previously unknown domus de janas, or “fairy houses,” in the Sant’Andrea Priu archaeological site in Bonorva, Sardinia. These rock-cut tombs, officially designated as Tombs XVIII, XIX, and XX, bring the total number of known hypogea at the site to twenty...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/07/three-prehistoric-fairy-houses-unearthed-in-sardinia/

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#archaeology #neolithic #domusdejanas #history

Ancient finger grooves in glittering Australian cave reveal sacred rituals of First Nations ancestors

Researchers have just uncovered ancient finger marks — traces of sacred gestures from millennia past — deep within a limestone cave called New Guinea II (also known as Waribruk to the GunaiKurnai people) in GunaiKurnai Country in southeastern Australia...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/07/ancient-finger-grooves-in-glittering-australian-cave/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #aboriginalaustralia #Gunaikurnai

#history

"On the morning of Thursday, July 31, Israeli military forces, accompanied by bulldozers, arrived at the site of one of the two propagation units of the Palestinian National Seed Bank in the West Bank city of Hebron. The bank, established in 2010, is dedicated to collecting, multiplying and preserving local plant seeds, with an emphasis on heirloom varieties of crops and plants of economic importance.

Seeds stored in the bank's units, in which research is also conducted, are grown seasonally, in cycles, with an aim of keeping them viable for future generations. Each year, the Palestinian bank provides free seeds to hundreds of agricultural workers, in an effort to encourage the preservation of the genetic diversity of some 80 traditional varieties.

The main propagation unit, south of Hebron, included four dunams (about an acre) of cultivated land – this time of year, the plots were overflowing with tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, gourds and other summer crops – as well as a 50-square-meter metal structure that included a control room and space for storing equipment.

But at 9 A.M. on that recent Thursday, according to Palestinian reports, Israeli Defense Forces soldiers arrived at the site, forcibly removed a Palestinian agricultural engineer from the premises and then used bulldozers to demolish the structure along with its contents: irrigation and monitoring systems, tools for cleaning and drying seeds and important documents relating to the agricultural research conducted there."

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-08-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/this-was-one-of-the-last-bridges-between-jews-and-arabs-israel-demolished-it-too/00000198-8d7b-d40a-a9d9-9fff6f590000

#Israel #Palestine #WestBank #Hebron #IDF #LandTheft #Colonialism

#history

900-year-old Viking-era carved head unearthed in Orkney

An unexpected discovery during a summer excavation on the Orkney island of Rousay has fascinated archaeologists—a carved sandstone head, possibly more than 900 years old, was unearthed at the site of Skaill Farm, surprising the excavation team with its quality of craftsmanship and mysterious origins...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/07/900-year-old-viking-era-carved-head-orkney/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #ancientsculpture #vikings #medieval #history

Neanderthals ate maggots and fermented meat, not just fresh meat, challenging hypercarnivore theory

For generations, scientists believed Neanderthals were high-order carnivores, subsisting on large game. Their fossilized bones indicated they had high levels of nitrogen-15, a chemical marker of diets rich in meat, even greater than those of lions and wolves. But a recent study brings something surprising...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/07/neanderthals-ate-maggots-and-fermented-meat/

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#archaeology #neanderthals #history

5,500-year-old flint workshop uncovered near Kiryat Gat

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a 5,500-year-old flint-making workshop near Kiryat Gat in a salvage excavation in Naḥal Qomem, also known as Gat-Govrin or Zeita. The excavation was conducted before the construction of a new residential neighborhood, Carmei Gat...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/07/5500-year-old-flint-workshop-uncovered-near-kiryat-gat/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #bronzeage #history

250-year-old shipwreck in Orkney identified as Earl of Chatham, a former Royal Navy and whaling vessel

A collaborative work carried out by archaeologists and the community of Sanday, Orkney, has finally identified a strange wreck uncovered in February 2024 as the Earl of Chatham—a former Royal Navy frigate with its former name HMS Hind...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/07/250-year-old-shipwreck-in-orkney-earl-of-chatham/

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #shipwreck #royalnavy #maritimearchaeology #history