A daily briefing of the archaeology and history of sites around the world.
The Temple mount is a hill that forms the eastern section of the Old City of Jerusalem, which (as its name suggests) is the original city of Jerusalem mentioned in countless ancient books and is now a .9km square neighborhood separated from modern Jerusalem by the old city walls.
Skellig Michael is the larger of two Skellig islands off the southwestern coast of Ireland. A Gaelic Christian Monastery was founded there sometime between the 6th and 8th centuries and remained in use until the 12th century.
Ur was an important Sumerian coastal city-state in ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians were the people who invented the first writing system that relied on symbols to create words, instead of the hieroglyphic, pictograms and pictures that had been used before. Mesopotamia was a historical region that spanned over much of the Middle East.
Today, making tunnels is easy. How many of us live near subways or drive through them. But someone had to do it first. OR (in today’s case) second.
Machaquila was once a city of monuments. Now it stands as a monument to looters and the encroaching world around it.
If any city could tell enough tales for thousand and thousand of thousand and one night, Baghdad is definitely one.
Yeah - that Delphi. The Oracle of Delphi isn't the only thing that was there. Great architecture and many stories and myths are also associated with the site.
Darband Cave is a lower Paleolithic cave located in northern Iran. It contains the easiest evidence for prehistoric humans in that time.
Located in West Java, Indonesia, Batujaya is at least 30 structural mounds across a five square kilometer area that dates back to at least the fifth and sixth centuries.
The remains of Amphipolis, an Ancient Greek city that was later a Roman city, is famous for many things including battles between the Spartans and Athenians and as a place for Alexander the Great spent a great deal of time.
Likely built during the Eastern Han dynasty, AD 25 to 220, the Tomb is a fascinating cross-shaped structure with a complicated history.
Part of the Maya civilization, Copán was a capital city of the major Classic Period kingdom. It was occupied for more than 2,000 years!
A fortified town from pre-Roman times, Nesactium's ruins are located in Croatia.
Before Hell Gap, there were more than a few gaps in our knowledge of the past.
A Maya site dating back to at least 250 AD, La Blanca probably served as a frontier post or trading center in support of a larger city.
Petroglyphs in Wisconsin? That's right. And they're fine examples of local animals of the time along with more abstract designs.
Thought to be the basis for the legend of Atlantis, Akrotiri was a real place that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption around 1627 BC.
Centered around one of the only unexcavated Hopewellian mounds on the East Coast, Indian Mound Cemetery is also home to several important politicians of the last few centuries.
Almost tossed in the trash, the Amarna Letters are actually clay tablets that paint a curious picture of Egyptian New Kingdom politics.
Found next to a river I the Pacific Northwest and embroiled in controversy for the next couple decades, Kennewick man answered some questions but generated more.
