news

A remarkable prehistoric hammer made from elephant bone, dating back nearly half a million years ago, has been uncovered in southern England and analysed by archaeologists from UCL and the Natural History Museum, London. It is the oldest elephant bone tool to ever be discovered in Europe and provides an extraordinary glimpse into the ingenuity of the early human ancestors who made it.

Research examining ancient sewer drain sediment suggests the Roman soldiers garrisoned at the fort of Vindolanda suffered with intestinal worms and diarrhoea - despite their toilets, baths and drinking water system. These chronic infections likely weakened soldiers, reducing fitness for duty. Helminths alone can cause nausea, cramping and diarrhoea.

A recently unearthed ancient monument in southeastern Mexico was built as a giant representation of the Mesoamerican universe, and was likely an important ceremonial site, finds new research by an international team involving a UCL archaeologist. The paper, published in Science Advances , describes the ancient complex of raised causeways, corridors carved into the earth and series of canals discovered at Aguada Fénix in 2020.

Archaeologists have revealed new insights into how the world's first farming villagers formed communities, moved across the land and responded to outsiders. Researchers analysed the chemical signatures in teeth from 71 people, spanning the entire Neolithic period from 11,600 to 7,500 years ago. The teeth were found at five archaeological sites in what is now modern Syria.

Around 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers in what is now Saudi Arabia created detailed, life-sized rock carvings of camels and other animals on cliffs. Here researchers, including Dr Ceri Shipton (UCL Archaeology), explore what this means for history and archaeology. About 12,000 years ago, high up on a cliff in the desert of northern Arabia, an artist - or perhaps artists - was hard at work.

Recently discovered, life-sized figures of camels carved prominently onto cliff faces in the northern region of the Arabian Peninsula were likely used to mark routes to water sources in the vast Nafud desert nearly 12,000 years ago, finds a new study involving UCL researchers. The paper, published in Nature Communications , found that these stone-age carvings indicate that humans settled in the region at a time when seasonal water sources were starting to return at the beginning of the Holocene following the dry conditions of the last ice age.

New research has found the earliest evidence of the use of blue dye in the archaeological record, dating back over 34,000 years. The study shows that prehistoric people at Dzudzuana Cave in Georgia were using stone pebbles to grind the leaves of Isatis tinctoria , also known as dyers woad, a plant known today for producing indigo dye.

Britain's industrial economy did not collapse when the Romans left and went on to enjoy a Viking-age industrial boom, a new study finds, undermining a stubborn 'Dark Ages' narrative. It has significant implications for our wider understanding of the end of Roman Britain Professor Martin Millett The Romans have long been credited with bringing industry to Britain involving large-scale lead and iron production.

A Neolithic cow tooth discovered at Stonehenge dating back to its construction offers new evidence of the stone circle's Welsh origins, finds a new study involving UCL researchers. The paper, published in The Journal of Archaeological Science, examined a cow's jawbone that was discovered in 1924 beside Stonehenge's south entrance.

A drought lasting 13 years and several others each lasting more than three years may have contributed to the collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation, finds a new paper led by a UCL researcher that looks at chemical fingerprints from a stalagmite in a Mexican cave. The study, published in Science Advances, analysed oxygen isotopes embedded within annual layers of the stalagmite to determine rainfall levels for individual wet and dry seasons between 871 and 1021 CE.

Researchers have mapped the spread of infectious diseases in humans across millennia, to reveal how human-animal interactions permanently transformed our health today. We've long suspected that the transition to farming and animal husbandry opened the door to a new era of disease - now DNA shows us that it happened at least 6,500 years ago Eske Willerslev A new study suggests that our ancestors' close cohabitation with domesticated animals and large-scale migrations played a key role in the spread of infectious diseases.

A groundbreaking study involving our Department of Archaeology has uncovered the first physical evidence of human-animal gladiatorial combat in the Roman period. The study conducted by an international team of archaeologists and osteologists centres on a skeleton discovered in a Roman-period cemetery outside York, UK.

Wealth inequality has been linked to human sustainability for over 10,000 years. That's according to a new study led by Professor Dan Lawrence from our Archaeology department.

In the study, researchers including Oxford archaeologists Shadreck Chirikure and Helena Hamerow considered the implications for wealth distribution of variation in house sizes and their storage capacities within settlements, and how land use and farming practices impacted this variation. They found that in regions with land-intensive farming systems, such as those with specialised animal traction for ploughing, high wealth inequality became persistent, with a small number of households controlling productive land.

The oldest collection of mass-produced prehistoric bone tools reveal that human ancestors were likely capable of more advanced abstract reasoning one million years earlier than thought, finds a new study involving researchers at UCL and CSIC- Spanish National Research Council. The paper, published in Nature, describes a collection of 27 now-fossilised bones that had been shaped into hand tools 1.5 million years ago by human ancestors.

Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell 'woody,' 'spicy' and 'sweet', finds a new study led by researchers from UCL and the University of Ljubljana, revealing new details about mumification practices. The research, published in Journal of the American Chemical Society , is the first time that the smells of mummified bodies have been systematically studied combining a mix of instrumental and sensory techniques, including an electronic 'nose' and trained, human 'sniffers.' Nine ancient Egyptian mummified bodies were studied.

Historical inhabitants of the region that is now Ukraine have had diverse European, Asian and Middle Eastern ancestry for thousands of years, finds a new study co-led by UCL researchers. The analysis of ancient DNA shows the genetic imprint of Ukraine's history as a crossroads of human migrations, connecting people from the vast Eurasian steppe with central Europe.

Waves of human migration across Europe during the first millennium AD have been revealed using a more precise method of analysing ancestry with ancient DNA, in research co-led by a UCL and Francis Crick Institute researcher. Researchers can bring together a picture of how people moved across the world by looking at changes in their DNA, but this becomes a lot harder when historical groups of people are genetically very similar.

Major 25-year study reveals a "dual pathway" for when people start carrying. Carrying a concealed firearm is now a common event in the life course for Americans Charles Lanfear Around a third (32%) of people who grew up in Chicago have carried a concealed firearm on the city streets at least once by the time they turn 40 years old, according to a major study of gun usage taking in a quarter of a century of data.

In a thrilling quest to uncover secrets from one of Scotland's most significant historical sites, archaeologists and volunteers have begun a remarkable dig at Culloden Battlefield, where the course of British, European and world history changed dramatically nearly 280 years ago. Experts armed with both traditional archaeology tools and cutting-edge technology are peeling back layers of earth to reveal untold stories of the final clash of the Jacobite Rising in 1746.