news 2023

Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings have yielded important insights into a mysterious anomaly in Earth's magnetic field 3,000 years ago, according to a new study involving UCL researchers. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) , describes how changes in the Earth's magnetic field imprinted on iron oxide grains within ancient clay bricks, and how scientists were able to reconstruct these changes from the names of the kings inscribed on the bricks.

Humans have wiped out around 1,400 bird species - twice as many as previously thought - with major implications for the ongoing biodiversity crisis, a new study involving UCL researchers has found. Many of the world's islands were previously untouched paradises, but the arrival of people to places like Hawaii, Tonga and the Azores led to far-reaching impacts including deforestation, overhunting and the introduction of invasive species.

A possibly pre-Christian temple from the time of the East Anglian Kings, some 1,400 years ago, has been found at Rendlesham, near Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, by a team of archaeologists led by UCL researchers. The discovery was made over the summer by Suffolk County Council's Rendlesham Revealed community archaeology project.

Study reveals our European ancestors ate seaweed and freshwater plants Published: 17 October 2023 Researchers say they have found "definitive" archaeological evidence that seaweeds and other local freshwater plants were eaten in the Mesolithic, through the Neolithic transition to farming and into the Early Middle Ages.

Archaeologists have discovered a major Palaeolithic cave art site, arguably the most important found on the Eastern Iberian Coast in Europe. Over a hundred ancient paintings and engravings, thought to be at least 24,000 years old, have been found in a 500 metre-long cave in 'Cova Dones' or 'Cueva Dones' - a site located in Millares near Valencia in Spain.

Researchers discover complete Neolithic cursus on the Isle of Arran A leading team of researchers have discovered what is believed to be a complete Neolithic cursus set within a rich prehistoric landscape on the Isle of Arran, Scotland. A leading team of researchers have discovered what is believed to be a complete Neolithic cursus set within a rich prehistoric landscape on the Isle of Arran, Scotland.

University of Oxford researchers have contributed to the first successful extraction of ancient DNA from a 2,900 year-old clay brick. The analysis, published today in Nature Scientific Reports , provides a fascinating insight into the diversity of plant species cultivated at that time and place, and could open the way to similar studies on clay material from different sites and time periods.

While 21  century water companies struggle to maintain clean, fresh supplies, new research today from an international team led by Oxford geoarchaeologist Dr Güel Sürmelihindi , reveals that, some 2,000 years ago, Roman water engineers were keeping up a regular programme of managing and maintaining the ancient water systems.

Researchers at the UCL Institute of Archaeology have discovered some of the largest early prehistoric stone tools in Britain. The excavations, which took place in Kent and were commissioned in advance of development of the Maritime Academy School in Frindsbury, revealed prehistoric artefacts in deep Ice Age sediments preserved on a hillside above the Medway Valley.

An international team of researchers who discovered a vast network of stone walls along the River Nile in Egypt and Sudan say these massive 'river groynes' reveal an exceptionally long-lived form of hydraulic engineering in the Nile Valley, and shed light on connections between ancient Nubia and Egypt.

The Hardouyn Hours, a jewelled fifteenth-century prayer book in Trinity College Library belonged to Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII, new research has found. The most exciting Cromwell discovery in a generation - if not more. Tracy Borman Hever Castle curator, Alison Palmer, recognised the bejewelled, silver gilt binding of Trinity's Book of Hours from the famous portrait of Thomas Cromwell painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1532-3, which hangs in the Frick Collection in New York.

Study of 2,500-year-old latrines from the biblical Kingdom of Judah shows the ancient faeces within contain Giardia - a parasite that can cause dysentery. Toilets with cesspits from this time are relatively rare and were usually made only for the elite Piers Mitchell A new analysis of ancient faeces taken from two Jerusalem latrines dating back to the biblical Kingdom of Judah has uncovered traces of a single-celled microorganism Giardia duodenalis - a common cause of debilitating diarrhoea in humans.

A study by an international team of researchers, led by the University of Southampton, has given an intriguing glimpse of the hunting habits and diets of Neanderthals and other humans living in western Europe. The scientists examined chemical properties locked inside tooth enamel to piece together how pre-historic people lived off the land around the Almonda Cave system, near Torres Novas in central Portugal almost 100 thousand years ago.

New research involving Cambridge University has found evidence - locked into an ancient stalagmite from a cave in the Himalayas - of a series of severe and lengthy droughts which may have upturned the Bronze Age Indus Civilization.

Traces of ancient empires that stretched across Africa remain in the DNA of people living on the continent, reveals a new genetics study led by UCL researchers. Published in Science Advances , the collaboration between UCL geneticists working alongside anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and linguists in Africa and beyond found evidence for when different peoples intermixed across the continent.

Centuries after the first golden coffins were taken to Europe, ancient Egyptian mummies still vividly capture people's imaginations. Perhaps we're awed by the grandeur of their rituals and tradition. But new discoveries keep challenging scientists' perception of these ancient rites. As a biomedical Egyptologist, I study mummies to learn about life in ancient populations.

Analysis of a skeleton from the York Barbican Collection at the University of Sheffield has revealed a new and unique perspective on the life of a medieval anchoress The new study suggests the skeleton could belong to that of Lady Isabel German, who lived a life of solitude in York in the 15th Century New radiocarbon dating and isotopic analysis of the bones has provided a new insight into the life of Lady German The collection and investigation

Ice Age drawings and markings found in caves show that prehistoric hunter-gathers used a form of early writing to communicate essential survival information at least 14,000 years earlier than previously thought, finds a study involving a UCL researcher. Archaeologists already knew that the markings - sequences of lines, dots and other shapes - conveyed information but did not know their meaning.