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Architectural remains from a Roman theatre buried beneath the Italian countryside are providing new clues as to the importance of a town abandoned by civilisation 1,500 years ago.

An ancient marine lizard in remarkable condition has been uncovered by a Lund University-led research team in Jordan. Its fish-like tail fin tells an evolutionary story about the species previously unknown to scientists. One of history's most fearsome predators, the mosasaur Prognathodon , lived during the Cretaceous Period some 70 million years ago.

A team of scientists and archaeologists, including UCL's Professor David Wengrow and Dr Alice Stevenson, have been able to set a robust timeline for the first eight dynastic rulers of ancient Egypt. The study, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, shows that Egypt formed far more rapidly than was previously thought and also updates the techniques first developed by Flinders Petrie over 100 years ago,.

For the first time, a team of scientists and archaeologists has been able to set a robust timeline for the first eight dynastic rulers of Egypt. Until now there have been no verifiable chronological records for this period or the process leading up to the formation of the Egyptian state. The chronology of Early Egypt between 4500 and 2800 BC has been reset by building mathematical models that combine new radiocarbon dates with established archaeological evidence.

Declassified spy photography has uncovered a lost Roman Eastern frontier, dating from the second century AD. Research by archaeologists at the Universities of Glasgow and Exeter has identified a long wall that ran 60 kilometers from the Danube to the Black Sea over what is modern Romania. It is considered the most easterly example of a man-made frontier barrier system in the Roman Empire.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue. European hunter-gatherers owned pigs as early as 4600BC European hunter-gatherers acquired domesticated pigs from nearby farmers as early as 4600BC, according to new evidence.

The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn't by the Vikings, according to new research. New archaeological evidence places human colonisation in the 4 th to 6 th centuries AD, at least 300-500 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The research, directed by Dr Mike J Church from Durham University and Símun V Arge from the National Museum of the Faroe Islands as part of the multidisciplinary project "Heart of the Atlantic", is published in the Quaternary Science Reviews.

Researchers have shown that ancient Egyptian iron beads held at the UCL Petrie Museum were hammered from pieces of meteorites, rather than iron ore. The objects, which trace their origins to outer space, also predate the emergence of iron smelting by two millennia. Carefully hammered into thin sheets before being rolled into tubes, the nine beads - which are over 5000 years-old - were originally strung into a necklace together with other exotic minerals such as gold and gemstones, revealing the high value of this exotic material in ancient times.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue. The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn't by the Vikings, according to new research.

A new study suggests that mothers who breastfeed run a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's, with longer periods of breastfeeding further reducing the risk. In the future, we expect Alzheimer's to spread most in low and middle-income countries, so it is vital that we develop low-cost, large-scale strategies to protect people against it.

A 30-million-year-old fossil has revealed how remoras - also called sharksuckers - evolved the sucker that enables them to stick to other fish and 'hitch a ride'. Previous evidence, such as the segmented structure of the sucker and how it develops in a similar way to fins in normal fish, led scientists to believe that it must be a modified dorsal fin - the fin located on the back of normal fish.

British archaeology experts have discovered what they believe to be the world's oldest 'calendar', created by hunter-gatherer societies and dating back to around 8,000 BC. The Mesolithic monument was originally excavated in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by the National Trust for Scotland in 2004. Now analysis by a team led by the University of Birmingham, published today (July 15, 2013) in the journal Internet Archaeology, sheds remarkable new light on the luni-solar device, which pre-dates the first formal time-measuring devices known to Man, found in the Near East, by nearly 5,000 years.

Members of the Metlakatla community are collaborating with scientists in ongoing genetic studies of Native peoples in British Columbia. (Those pictured asked that their names be withheld. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Researchers report that they have found a direct genetic link between the remains of Native Americans who lived thousands of years ago and their living descendants.

The oldest genome so far from a prehistoric creature has been sequenced by an international team, led by scientists from the Natural History Museum of Denmark (University of Copenhagen). The team, which included Dr Jakob Vinther of the University of Bristol, sequenced and analysed short pieces of DNA molecules preserved in bone-remnants from a horse frozen for the last 700,000 years in the permafrost of Yukon, Canada.

New research has revealed a letter written in 1310 by Robert Bruce to King Edward II, presenting historians with fresh information about a pivotal time in the Wars of Scottish Independence. The letter was sent less than four years before Robert Bruce won a famous victory at the Battle of Bannockburn against the English king which paved the way for Scottish independence.

A new method of sourcing the origins of artefacts in high definition is set to improve our understanding of the past. Dr Ellery Frahm at the University of Sheffield developed the new technology to better study Mesopotamian obsidian tools unearthed in Syria, where cultural heritage is threatened by the ongoing conflict.

Mathematicians, historians and geographers have worked together to crack codes used by MI9 to conceal information going in and out of prisoner of war camps across Europe during the Second World War. They give a fascinating insight into how the Allies were trying to engineer escapes from the camps, but also show the PoWs were passing on vital military intelligence to their commanders back in London.

Berkeley Lab's sound-restoration experts have done it again. They've helped to digitally recover a 128-year-old recording of Alexander Graham Bell's voice, enabling people to hear the famed inventor speak for the first time. The recording ends with Bell saying "in witness whereof, hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell." The project involved a collaboration between Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, the Library of Congress, and Berkeley Lab.

The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum's underground storeroom by an undergraduate at the University of Bristol proves that a non-native 'big cat' prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century. The animal's skeleton and mounted skin was rediscovered by Max Blake - now a PhD student at Aberystwyth University - while studying for his undergraduate degree in zoology at Bristol.

Museum find proves exotic 'big cat' prowled British countryside a century ago The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum's underground storeroom proves that a non-native 'big cat' prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century. The animal's skeleton and mounted skin was analysed by a multi-disciplinary team of Durham University scientists and fellow researchers at Bristol, Southampton and Aberystwyth universities and found to be a Canadian lynx - a carnivorous predator more than twice the size of a domestic cat.