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2,500-year-old tomb of a 'warrior prince' with chariot and helmet discovered on Italy's Adriatic coastArchaeologists have excavated a royal burial ground of the Piceni, a mysterious pre-Roman civilization in Italy that is not well-known historically.
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The Stargazer: A 5,000-year-old marble statuette of a Stone Age woman looking skywardAstonishing Artifacts Only a handful of these small, sleek, marble figurines carved by enigmatic Stone Age people are known to exist.
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Diminutive species 'the Hobbit' did not hunt or control fire, deepening the mystery of its ancestry, dwarf elephant bones revealThe extinct human species Homo floresiensis was a scavenger, not a hunter, an analysis of fossil animal bones reveals.
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Elite families ruled nomadic Scythian society 2,500 years ago, DNA analysis revealsNomads of the Eurasian steppe were ruled by elite dynastic families, including women, a large-scale genetic analysis reveals.
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Ancient-DNA analysis solves 500-year-old mystery of what killed 2 Medici brothersAn ancient-DNA analysis of the bones of two members of the Renaissance Medici family has confirmed they had malaria when they died.
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Sleep and Death cista handle: A 2,400-year-old sculpture depicting gods carrying away Zeus' son during the Trojan WarAstonishing Artifacts A small, bronze sculpture depicting a death scene in the Trojan War once graced an Etruscan box.
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'A weird result from an already weird hominin': Archaeologists discover all Homo naledi skeletons found in South African cave are femaleA cutting-edge analysis of the teeth from Homo naledi skeletons in a South African cave system found no males within the group. Experts are unsure what to make of the finding.
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Hanging lamp in the form of a sandaled right foot: A 1,600-year-old bronze lamp with multilayered Christian symbolismAstonishing Artifacts This rare, foot-shaped oil lamp had multiple layers of meaning in early Christianity, including symbolizing enlightenment and Christian pilgrimage.
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'It's a huge deal': Archaeologists discover second cannonball from the Battle of the Alamo, and it was likely fired by TexansArchaeologists have discovered a second cannonball from the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, and now they have one from each side.
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5,000-year-old burial of man with battered skull found in kiln in Germany — and he may have been a human sacrificeAn injured man from the Corded Ware culture was buried in a pit previously used as a kiln, and he may have been sacrificed.
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Lavish Roman villa discovered outside Rome's walls may have been frequented by Hadrian and Marcus AureliusThe villa, which came to light because it was illegally excavated, was found in an area frequented two millennia ago by the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.
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Mask of Mictlantecuhtli: A 500-year-old mask of the Aztec god of the underworld, who tore apart the dead as they entered his realmAstonishing Artifacts This skull-shaped mask was made to be used in a ritual involving the Aztec god of death.
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'Political motivations' of Inca emperor led to the sacrifice of 3 children on a snow-capped volcano over 500 years ago, study suggestsAn analysis of corn, cassava and coca plants discovered with sacrificed Inca children reveals they died during the reign of one of the last Inca emperors.
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Complete skin of an adult horse found with 10th-century woman and newborn in rare Siberian burialArchaeologists found a rare medieval burial of a woman, newborn child and horse in southern Russia.
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2,000 years ago in Scotland, people removed a corpse's brain and fashioned the arm bones into toolsA new analysis of 2,000-year-old skeletons found in northern Scotland has revealed an unusual funeral ritual involving the manipulation of dead bodies.
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Ditch full of 7,000-year-old headless human skeletons discovered in Slovakia, baffling archaeologistsArchaeologists are unsure why people in Stone Age Slovakia removed corpses' heads before burying them in a neighborhood ditch.
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Roman bath clog: The world's oldest shower shoes were found at a fort along Hadrian's WallAstonishing Artifacts The Romans were the first to wear clog-style footwear to the baths to protect their feet from the hot floor and to better navigate slippery surfaces.
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Italian teenagers discover 1,800-year-old Roman luxury house underneath their high school gymAfter being notified by mischievous high school students, archaeologists uncovered a large and luxurious second-century Roman house near the Colosseum.
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Archaeologists study the International Space Station and Everest to figure out 'how humans adapt in this impossible place where we have no business going'Interview Archaeologists are turning their attention and research skills to far-flung places on the Earth and beyond, discovering new information about how humans survive in extreme environments.
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17,000-year-old stripes of red in a Welsh cave are the oldest rock art in the UK, study findsOver a century after a red-lined cave wall was discovered, scientists have determined that it represents the U.K.'s oldest rock art.
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Gessel gold hoard: A 3,300-year-old stash of gleaming treasures that's one of the largest Bronze Age hoards from EuropeAstonishing Artifacts The Gessel gold hoard is among the largest treasures ever discovered in prehistoric Europe but has only three pieces of jewelry in it.
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Skeletal remains of Queen Elisenda, one of the most powerful rulers in medieval Europe, unearthed in Barcelona — along with several others who bore unexplained stab woundsIn honor of the 700th-anniversary founding of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria Pedralbes in Barcelona, scientists opened eight 14th-century graves and studied the 25 people found inside, including a queen.
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1,200-year-old gold hoard discovered in Saudi Arabia may have been buried by a medieval pilgrimArchaeologists have unearthed a 1,200-year-old hoard of gold, silver and gemstones that was buried along a medieval pilgrimage route in Saudi Arabia.
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Toxic plant on Ming dynasty-era surgical tools may be world’s oldest chemical evidence of topical anestheticAn analysis of residue on centuries-old surgical tools reveals the use of a toxic anesthetic in Ming dynasty-era Chinese medicine.
