The remains of a Gallo-Roman site overlooking the French city of Alès have been identified by archaeologists, the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) announced on Tuesday.

Excavations conducted between February and June this year revealed the remains of dwellings, hydraulic systems, a domus with an intricate mosaic, and a necropolis across the 40,365-square-foot site.

There were at least four ancient dwellings that were partially excavated from the limestone rock. Experts found that the interior walls of these structures were coated in a layer of clay to contain any potential water leakage during times of heavy rainfall. Underground conduits made from roof tiles and infill blocks further helped with drainage.

Though remnants of the wall paintings are still visible in some sections of the walls, they have heavily deteriorated over time. On the floor, rock slabs would have once sat on a basier base of stone fragments and limestone dust.

Another 8,073-square-foot structure initially contained compacted earth floors, which were subsequently replaced with concrete and adorned with tesserae to create a massive mosaic floor.

Housed inside a room measuring nearly 15 by 12 feet, the well-preserved mosaic features at its center interlaced geometric patterns made from black, white, and red tesserae. Experts believe the red was made using the mineral pigment cinnabar, which was reserved for the elite. Another rare detail includes yellow-painted tesserae. The tesserae and ornamentation are not consistent throughout, however, which could indicate that there were other rooms nearby.

A drainage system, made by cutting and fitting together the ends of amphorae, channeled excess rainwater from the roof to the outside of the building along its east side.

Researchers are still trying to determine if this was the private residence of a wealthy urban family.

A late Roman necropolis, dating to the 5th and 6th centuries CE, was also discovered with ten burials along with the south side of the site. The dead were laid to rest with their heads facing west. Though some were covered with stones, most did not contain funerary offerings. Radiocarbon dating is still being conducted on two burials northwest of the necropolis.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the land was used for agricultural terraces (faïsses) and again reused in the 19th century.

Continuous activity between the 2nd and 6th centuries CE, along with the number of technical advancements found at the site, indicate a high level of skill. The mosaic is also one of the most notable finds in the area in decades.

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of Imet, a once-prominent city in Egypt’s Nile Delta, buried for centuries beneath a mound in the Sharqia governorate. The discovery, led by a British team from the University of Manchester, was announced this week by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

What they found wasn’t a buried temple or a single statue, but the bones of a functioning city: multi-story homes, storage areas, and animal enclosures. These remains provide an unusually intact glimpse of life from the early to mid-4th century BCE.

Imet wasn’t a backwater. It stood at the crossroads of Delta trade routes and was once the capital of the 19th province of Lower Egypt. At its heart was a temple devoted to the goddess Wadjet, patron of Lower Egypt, which likely drew pilgrims and travelers from across the Delta.

Much of the excavation focused on the site’s eastern edge, where satellite scans had suggested dense urban buildup. Below the surface, thick foundation walls hinted at tall, tower-like dwellings typical of late pharaonic urban planning. Their survival is remarkable, especially in a region where mudbrick rarely endures.

A fragment of green faience—a funerary ushabti from the 26th Dynasty—turned up near a stele showing Horus trampling crocodiles. Alongside Horus is Bes, the dwarf god associated with both doorways and childbirth.

Also found at the site were a limestone platform, the remains of two large mudbrick columns, and signs of a ceremonial road linking two shrines—one to Wadjet, the other built during the Late Period. Experts said the processional path seemed to have fallen out of use sometime in the mid-Ptolemaic era.

The temple had staying power. Ramses II rebuilt it, and Amasis II later restored it. That continuity likely shaped the dense sprawl of housing and infrastructure surrounding it.

Archaeologists have discovered a group of 75 ancient tombs in eastern China, some of them 2,000-years-old from the Han Dynasty.

Between April and December 2024, research teams from the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, in cooperation with the Qianshan City Cultural Relics Protection Center and Qianshan City Museum, excavated a total of 75 tombs and 4 kiln sites within the project site, according to a news release published on June 6.

The finding has been dubbed the “Hupu Tomb Group” and it is located in Qili Village, Meicheng Town, Qianshan City, Anqing City, Anhui Province, in eastern China.

The news release noted the Hupu tombs “are mainly from the Warring States Period and the Han Dynasty, with a small number from the Six Dynasties and the Song Dynasty.” Decay has affected most of the burial objects and human bones in the tombs, “leaving only traces of coffins, grooves in sleepers and some burial objects.” And while most of the tombs were “seriously disturbed” by robbers, archaeologists were still able to unearth more than 300 relics, including bronze, iron, lacquer wood, jade, and pottery.

While most of the tomb owners were civilians, and a few may be low-ranking nobles of the scholar level, the news release noted the large size of some of the tombs, and the “exquisite burial objects”, possibly due to the owners being wealthy landlords.

The excavation also unearthed coffins with door leaves, lacquered wooden flat pots, and flat round box-shaped pottery irons, rare items compared to past excavations in this area, “and have added new physical materials for the study of the long-term funeral customs and cultural evolution, social changes and development in southwestern Anhui.”

The four kilns officially from the Sothern Song Dynasty are also the first ones from that time period formally excavated in the city of Anqing. “They are also of great value in studying the evolution of kiln technology in the region, the history of Anqing city building, and the official system of the Southern Song Dynasty,” the news release said.

A report about the excavation noted seven out of 37 tombs from the Warring States Period had “relatively well-preserved coffins” with many burial objects, with heads chambers and side chambers built with square wood. The burial objects included utensils, jade, lacquered wood, pottery, and a variety of pots, jars and washbasins made of copper.

The results of the excavation joins “hundreds of tombs” from the Warring States and Han dynasties that have been excavated in Qianshan over the years.

The news of the discovery was first reported by the Miami Herald.

The official opening of Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) that was slated for July 3 has yet again been delayed. Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouly said in a press conference on Saturday that the museum won’t fully open until the final quarter of this year, citing “current regional developments.”

While Madbouly did not specify what developmemts he was referring to, conflict erupted between Israel and Iran last week after Israel launched airstrikes on Friday. Iran quickly followed with retailiatory strikes.

“In light of the current regional developments, it has been decided to postpone the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum,” the GEM explained in a statement on social media. A new date will be determined “following coordination with all relevant authorities to ensure the organization of an event that reflects Egypt’s prominent cultural and tourism status on the international stage.”

Though Egypt is not directly involved in the conflict, the institution said it decided to postpone the official inauguration out of a “national responsibility” in what will hopefully be a more auspicious time.

“This decision also stems from Egypt’s national responsibility and its commitment to presenting a truly exceptional global event in an atmosphere worthy of the grandeur of Egyptian civilization and its unique heritage, and in a way that ensures broad international participation aligned with the significance of the occasion,” the statement continued.

Since the museum plans were first announced in 1992, there have been a number of reasons for previous delays, including most recently political unrest in nearby Gaza and Sudan, the Covid-19 pandemic, and internal economic struggles.

The GEM, however, has already partially opened, with 12 main galleries on view since late October 2024. It is considered a large part of Egypt’s future in terms of both economic generation and cultural tourism, which involves a major redevelopment of the Giza plateau. Perhaps even more significantly, the museum marks a kind of reclamation of Egyptian history within its own boarders.

Archaeologists unearthed a massive ancient Roman villa, along the right bank of the Yonne river, just under two miles away from Autessiodurum or present-day Auxerre, France, according to the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).

The team was excavating an area of approximately four acres at Sainte-Nitasse, which is part of the larger Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.

Though experts have been aware of the site since the 19th century, there were no active excavations until a gravel pit was dug in 1966, when the ruins were discovered.

There, they found a more than 7,500-square-foot rectangular building, complete with ten rooms, one of which featured an apse. The walls were made of rubble, funerary stele fragments, and columns. Inside, the team found hypocausts or underfloor heating and spaces where they believe there were once mosaics. Furniture dated between the 1st and 4th centuries CE.

Since then, archaeologists have been working on uncovering the same 43,000-square-foot building, which they now believe is likely a wing of a much larger settlement that would have belonged to wealthy, affluent people.

Thus far, they have identified a perimeter wall around the west, north, and east sides of the structure around a square 4,800-square-foot garden, which is enclosed by basin at the north side and a fountain along the south. Off of the garden are a number of reception and working rooms, including a possible kitchen. True to Roman living, there are also thermal baths in the eastern wing of the massive building.

Within the large settlement, there appears to be both a residential sector known as pars urbana and an an agricultural sector known as pars rustica, which traditionally support the owner and a manager to oversee the dwelling.

Autessiodurum started as a settlement at the beginning of the first century CE, before it grew to become a capital city in the 4th century CE. Researchers are currently trying to determine the number of phases the city underwent between that time frame. They subsequently plan to study the remains to better understand daily life within the settlement.

The site is slated to open to the public on June 15, with archaeologist-led tours, in honor of European Archaeology Days.

Facebook Marketplace is typically used as a hub for thrifters to discover hidden gems that are now up for resale. But in Syria, some Facebook Marketplace users may find some unexpected items alongside old furniture and knickknacks: artifacts that may have been looted.

Thieves are reportedly robbing graves that are more than 2,000 years old in Palmyra, among other cities, and listing the funerary gold and artifacts they take on Facebook.

Located in the Fertile Crescent, where some of the first known civilizations began, Palmyra was an ancient city along the Silk Road—a trading route at the crossroads of Europe and Asia—dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The city, known for its Roman ruins, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It contains countless invaluable artifacts such as statues and mosaics. In 2015, Palmyra was heavily damaged by militants who blew up some of these ancient sites while they were under Islamic State control.

Looting and trafficking there have reportedly surged following the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad by rebels in December. The looting, along with widespread poverty affecting 90 percent of Syria’s population, puts the country’s cultural heritage in danger of being lost and destroyed by those looking for a quick buck.

“When the [Assad] regime fell, we saw a huge spike on the ground. It was a complete breakdown of any constraints that might have existed in the regime periods that controlled looting,” Amr al-Azm, a professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio and co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project, told the Guardian.

ATHAR, which follows trafficked Middle Eastern antiquities in the black market online, noted that nearly one third of its total 1,500 Syrian cases took place in December. The project includes a database of more than 26,000 screenshots, videos, and images of looted antiquities since 2012.

While its not unusual for trafficked goods to end up for sale online, the emergence of Facebook Marketplace as a hub for these kinds of sales is relatively new. Despite Facebook banning the sale of historical artifacts on its platform in 2020, the policy is not enforced strictly enough to deter looters from risking these transactions among sizable groups ranging from 100,000 to 900,000 people.

Experts have also noticed an increased speed in sales of trafficked goods. “This is the fastest we’ve ever seen artefacts being sold. Before for example, a mosaic being sold out of Raqqa took a year. Now, mosaics are being sold in two weeks,” Katie Paul, a co-director of the ATHAR project and the director of Tech Transparency Project, explained to the Guardian.

The Syrian government has tried to stop thieves by threatening jail sentences of up to 15 years and finder’s fees for those who turn in the artifacts. But with limited resources available to protect archaeological heritage, the government’s efforts have been more focused on trying to rebuild following the recent political fracture.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, once the sacred preserve of specialists armed with magnifying glasses and guesswork, have finally been subjected to machine learning.

In a new article in the journal PLOS One published Wednesday, researchers from the University of Groningen combined AI and carbon dating to find that many of the scrolls are older than scholars previously estimated. Some, it seems, could date to the time of the biblical authors themselves, not centuries after.

The conventional timelines, based largely on handwriting analysis and compromised carbon tests, now look suspiciously optimistic. Early dating efforts, we now learn, were skewed by the application of castor oil—a 1950s attempt to make the manuscripts readable that had the unintended effect of scrambling radiocarbon results.

Mladen Popović, the lead researcher and a professor at Groningen, and his team cleaned the samples before dating them again. They then trained an AI model, playfully named Enoch after the biblical figure who reputedly walked with God and learned a few tricks along the way, to analyze ink patterns across the scrolls. When tested, Enoch produced dates that matched corrected carbon readings 85 percent of the time, often with greater precision.

The findings are not minor. A fragment from the Book of Daniel, long thought to be a later copy, now appears to be contemporary with the supposed author himself. Meanwhile, writing styles previously believed to belong to distinct eras—Hasmonean and Herodian scripts—were, it turns out, being used simultaneously for far longer than expected. History, as usual, refuses to be tidy.

Notably, the AI method does not require the destructive sampling that traditional radiocarbon dating demands, an advantage when dealing with the more than 1,000 undated scrolls that remain.

Still, some scholars have cautioned restraint. Radiocarbon, after all, dates parchment, not ink, and the AI model, like any machine, is limited by the quality of the data fed into it. But even cautious experts admit that the findings could force a reassessment of where and when these scrolls were produced. As Professor Joan Taylor of King’s College London pointed out to the Guardian, the data suggests many of the scrolls predate Qumran’s occupation—a polite way of saying they were unlikely to have been written there.

In short, the world’s oldest theological archive may finally be coming into focus—not through intuition, but through algorithms.

The Culture Ministry of Peru has cut roughly half of the protected area surrounding the Nazca Lines, a move that archaeologists warn could subject the UNESCO World Heritage Site to exploitation from the mining industry.

Created roughly 2,000 years ago, the Nazca Lines are a group of monumental depressions, or geoglyphs, made across some 600 square miles of desert floor outside Lima, the Peruvian capital. Aerial surveys of the Nazca plains since the early 19th century have identified markings that resemble hummingbirds, orcas, monkeys and most recently, a cat—all of which may could become casualties of the battle over Peru’s mineral resources, environmentalists and even former representatives of Peru’s Culture Ministry warn.

The Nazca Archaeological Reserve has been reduced from approximately 2,162 square miles to 1,235 square miles. Sidney Novoa, the technology director at the nonprofit Amazon Conservation, stated that the area now excluded from the environmental protections was overlapped with roughly 300 concessions—defined here as an area designated by the government for the purpose of extracting minerals from public lands—owned by informal miners in the process of legitimizing their operations. The move comes amid a global surge in the price of precious metals, which in gold-wealthy Peru, has resulted in violent, territorial disputes between official mining entities, informal gold miners, and gangs.

The reduction of the protected area “exposes [the reserve] to a very serious risks and cumulative damage”, Mariano Castro, a former environment minister, told the Guardian. “The ministry of culture is not considering the expansion of hundreds of extractive mining activities that will cumulatively impact the existing sensitive archaeological zones in Nazca.”

In 1994, UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, designated the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa, a World Heritage Site “that bears witness to the culture and magical-religious tradition and beliefs.” The site is a huge tourist draw for Peru, and thanks to advancing technology, archaeologists have rapidly added to the world’s inventory of geoglyphs.

In 2019, a team of Japanese researchers from Yamagata University found over 140 geoglyphs at Nazca, including images of lamas, a two-headed snake, birds, and alpacas. A year later, the ministry announced the discovery of a cat etching dating back to 200 B.C.E.–100 B.C.E., making it the oldest known geoglyph in Nazca. In 2022, 168 newly-identified geoglyphs were added by the same team, with four additional finds revealed through a combination of field surveying and artificial intelligence in 2023.

Speaking to national radio on Saturday, Fabricio Valencia, Peru’s culture minister, described the reduction of protections as “an update” that “responds to the need to more accurately reflect the relationship between the geoglyphs and the physical features recorded in the area, ensuring their protection and preservation.”

A 30-year-old Chinese tourist damaged two ancient clay warriors from China’s terra-cotta army, local officials said on Saturday, according to Agence France Presse.

According to the statement, the tourist was visiting the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Xi’an, a city in western China that was the capital during several ancient dynasties, when he “climbed over the guardrail and the protective net and jumped” more than 15 feet into Pit No. 3 on Friday.

The man then “pushed and pulled” the clay warriors, leading to “varying degrees” of damage, before he was restrained by security, according to the statement.

Video footage was captured just moments after the incident, with the suspect lying on the ground among the collapsed warriors. Authorities said they believe the man suffers from mental illness, though the case is still under investigation.

Following the event, the display reportedly reopened on Saturday.

This is hardly the first controversy surrounding the famous statues. In 2023 a man accepted a plea deal after stealing a thumb from one of the terra-cotta warriors, many of which were on display at the Franklin Museum in Philadelphia at the time of the theft in 2017.

The Terracotta Army was created to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife around 209 BCE. It is the only known collection of military sculptures produced en masse in the world. As the country’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang unified China with an army of more than 500,000 men.

Researchers believe it took 700,000 laborers some 30 to 40 years to construct the Terracotta Army and mausoleum. Since local farmers first discovered the sculptures in 1974, archaeologists have found roughly 8,000 of them, all constructed using exact measurements per their military rank, with generals being taller than soldiers, standing an average height of 5 feet 8 inches. The mausoleum has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987.

In 2022, with excavations still ongoing, 20 warriors were newly found near the Chinese emperor’s secret tomb and added to the count.

The remains of an ancient Mayan complex spread across three cities were uncovered in northern Guatemala. Experts have identified sanctuaries, a pyramid, and a unique canal system that suggest that these communities were more interconnected than was previously thought.

The complex was discovered across three sites Los Abuelos, Petnal, and Cambrayal by a joint Guatemalan and Slovak team as part of the Uaxactún Regional Archaeological Project (PARU).

One city, dubbed Los Abuelos (the Grandparents) after a pair of sculptures found at the site, dates back to the Middle Preclassic period (800–500 BCE). At six square miles, the roughly 3,000-year-old site is thought to be “one of the most ancient and important ceremonial centers” in the area.

“The site presents remarkable architectural planning”, the Guatemalan culture ministry said in a statement on Thursday, “sculpted with unique iconography from the region.”

Two sculptures depicting an ancestral couple date back to between 500 and 300 BCE. These objects, along with sanctuaries that were also newly discovered, “could be linked to ancient ritual practices of ancestor worship,” the culture minister said.

Additionally, at Petnal, just east of Los Abuelos, experts uncovered a 108-foot-tall pyramid containing two rooms at its peak. The rooms were adorned with murals from the Preclassic period.

A canal system was also found inside a palace at Cambrayal, approximately three miles from Los Abuelos.

A video released by officials shows efforts at the sites and recovered artifacts in greater detail.

The complex is located in the jungle, not far from the Mexican border, roughly 13 miles outside of Uaxactun, one of the country’s most notable archaeological sites in northern Petén.

Together, these sites indicate connections among “a previously unknown urban triangle” that can help them to better understand pre-Hispanic Petén’s sociopolitical and religious landscape.

Developments in nearby Tikal, including the most recent discovery of an altar, speak to the vastness of the Maya civilization.

Advancements in LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a form of laser technology, have helped researchers locate sites such as these amid dense forests.